[Oasfaa] Additional Spring 2009 OTAG Awards

[Joyner, Shiela]

As announced at the OASFAA conference last week, we are extending the
FAFSA receipt cutoff for Spring 2009 OTAG awards from 6/20/08 to
7/15/08.  The EFC cutoff remains 1700. 
Pre-populated Award Claim Forms, based on this new awarding criteria,
have been created for all institutions and placed on O-SAFE for
downloading.  Reports will remain on O-SAFE for 5 days before being
automatically deleted.  Attention ECU, NSU, SEOSU & OSU:  Text files
have been placed on the FTP server.  While participation in this
additional awarding process is at each institution's discretion,
pre-populated reports have been provided for all institutions.
As of today approximately $400,000 is available for these additional
awards.  OTAG will process Award Claim Forms on a first come, first
served basis.  O-SAFE and the FTP server both enter a time and date
stamp when a report is successfully uploaded, and we will process Award
Claim Forms in the order in which they are received until the funds have
been expended.
IMPORTANT:  Folks, we are very serious and sincere in requesting that
ALL institutions ensure that these final OTAG Award Claim Forms include
only students whose eligibility has been thoroughly verified before the
claim is submitted to OTAG for payment.
*	We understand there may be a sense of urgency to get your
institution's claim form "in line" to ensure your students can benefit
from these final awards.  However, we require everyone's cooperation in
thoughtfully and carefully claiming OTAG funds only for students who can
actually receive the funds (i.e. packaging issues resolved, Title IV
compliance achieved, attendance, enrollment status (FT or PT), and
satisfactory progress checked -- ALL eligibility criteria met). 
*	It is NOT appropriate to request funds for a student who "might"
be eligible with the expectation that funds could be returned to OTAG
for cancellation in the event the student is found to be ineligible.
Doing so could prevent eligible students at other institutions from
receiving awards and also put us at risk of failing to meet our
LEAP/SLEAP matching requirements.
We thank you for your understanding and your cooperation.  Please
contact our office if you have questions concerning this final Spring
2009 OTAG awarding process. 

Shiela Joyner
Director, Oklahoma Tuition Aid Grant Program
Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education
PO Box 108850
Oklahoma City, OK 73101-8850
Internet:  sjoyner at otag.org
Voice:  405.225.9378 or Toll Free 877.662.6231

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