by Christopher Sanchez
Daily Lobo
UNM student Nathan Engquist said he could sum up last year's financial aid disbursement in one word.
"Chaotic," he said.
But this year Engquist, along with many other students who are receiving financial aid, won't have to wait in line very long.
Leo Moya, UNM bursar, said unlike the past two semesters, students are now only allowed to pick up their checks on a day assigned to them by their Social Security numbers.
"We've had it this way before," Moya said. "It was actually a little too slow."
He estimates at least 8,000 students will be receiving a disbursement check this semester and expects 1,500 to 1,800 students on a daily basis throughout the week.
He said they tried to be more flexible in the past year by allowing students to pick up their checks any day of the week, but it didn't work.
"We tried distributing the financial aid checks a little differently last year," he said. "It was a long night."
Last fall, students were able to pick up their financial aid at any time during the week, even though they were scheduled a specific date by using their Social Security number, he said.
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To avoid the same blunder during the spring semester, they didn't allow students to pick up their checks on an unscheduled date unless it was after 4 p.m.
It turned out to be another failure.
"We were supposed to close our office by 6 p.m., but we landed up staying open until 7:30 p.m.," he said.
Kathleen Sena, UNM registrar, said this semester the department received orders from central administration to distribute checks strictly by Social Security numbers.
"It was more of a fluke last year," Sena said. "This year's disbursement is going great - absolutely wonderful."
Student Joe Sanchez said the lines to pick up financial aid checks were not long this semester, but said he was not happy about the long wait to in order to apply for financial aid.
"This year the lines to apply for financial aid have been pretty bad," he said.
Moya said last year's disbursement lines were also because of a lack of staff members.
"Last year we were understaffed," he said. "A lot of the applicants didn't pass the mandatory background check."
Financial Aid disbursement schedule for Fall 2005
Monday, August 22: 466-00-0000 through 525-65-9999
Tuesday, August 23: 525-66-0000 through 584-99-9999
Wednesday, August 24: 585-00-0000 through 585-75-9999
Thursday, August 25: 585-76-0000 through 999-99-9999
Friday, August 26: 000-00-0001 through 465-99-9999
