Academic Affairs clinched the final details for its first ever FAFSA week during its Tuesday meeting.
The committee is gearing up to increase awareness of the event to be held next week — from April 19 to 23 — to help as many students with filling out their financial aid forms for the coming semester as possible.
Academic Affairs intern Zach Ivins said it was exciting to see students are already signing up to attend the kick-off sessions next Monday.
The committee has worked out all the details of the event and is now focusing on doing everything in its power to get the word out about the FAFSA week.
Members of Academic Affairs hope to turn students’ heads to the opportunity to receive help with the financial aid process with chalking and flyers.
Academic Affairs has decided to kick off the week by hosting two hour-long sessions in the Ogg Hall computer lab, from 5-6 p.m. and 6-7 p.m., to help students fill out their financial aid forms from start to finish.
“Staff from the Financial Aid office will be there to help walk people through each step of the FAFSA process,” Ivins said.
The remainder of the week, there will be staffed walk-in sessions from 5-6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday in the Student Activity Center, which will be a lot more laid back than the Monday sessions, according to Ivins.
The purpose of these sessions is to allow students to come at any time during the hour to ask more guided questions or to just get help with starting the FAFSA forms.
Although the Academic Affairs committee will be busy hosting the FAFSA week, its members still look forward to having their regular Tuesday meeting in the SAC.
The committee is working to make strides to implement a new Shared Governance committee within ASM in support of lowering the price of textbooks and course materials for students.
This Textbook Affordability Committee would supplement the successful Book Swap that ASM has been hosting to help deflect textbook costs.
The proposal for the creation of the new committee passed through student government last week, but in order to fully form the committee, the proposal must pass through both the Academic Staff Executive Committee as well as the Faculty Senate.
Academic Affairs Chair Jonah Zinn said the committee still needs to gather more faculty signatures on the petition to demonstrate interest when the proposal is taken to vote at a Faculty Senate meeting.
Although members of Academic Affairs have scheduled time to meet with faculty to gather signatures, they will still need more faculty support.
Hoping to get on the agenda of the University of Wisconsin Academic Staff Executive Committee at its meeting next Thursday, Academic Affairs will be meeting today to structure a plan of action to include in the presentation of their ideas to the Academic Staff, as well as the Faculty Senate in the future.
Members of Academic Affairs hope to have a presentation to the Faculty Senate by the end of the year.
