NMU Named 'Model of Efficiency'

Northern is one of nine colleges and universities nationwide named by University Business magazine in its “Models of Efficiency” national recognition program. Sponsored by Higher One, a company that assists in college business office operations, the Models of Efficiency program recognizes innovative approaches for streamlining higher education operations through technology and/or business process improvements. A particular efficiency highlighted at NMU was a collaboration to improve the Foundation Scholarship application and selection process.

“Universities everywhere today need to generate more productivity with fewer staff, and Northern Michigan’s automated scholarship application system does an excellent job of achieving that goal,” said Tim Goral, editor in chief of University Business. “We applaud Northern Michigan not only for their improvements in efficiency, but also for creating a scholarship system that is more student-focused.”

At NMU, the Foundation Scholarship application and selection process was inefficient and labor-intensive. Students reviewed eligibility requirements on the web, and then submitted paper applications for each scholarship to which they wanted to apply. Financial Aid collected, tracked and sorted the applications, then distributed them to committees for review and selection, after which they were returned to Financial Aid for verification against scholarship criteria.

Two staff members spent nearly four weeks recording, handling, sorting and distributing 5,378 applications, checking multiple Ellucian Banner screens to verify data, making copies and routing to screening committees. Two critical sets of data – student biographical and academic information and specific scholarship criteria – existed separately in Banner; the challenge was to bring them together.
          
Brian Larson (AdIT) and Robyn Stille (NMU Foundation) collaborated to create a web application that matched a student’s profile to scholarship selection criteria. Students see three levels: scholarships that exactly match their attributes, close matches and those that do not match (in the event there was some extraneous circumstance not provided for within the system, such as plans to change their major). The system includes directions for scholarships with unique circumstances and FAQs. Students can track the status of their apps (submitted, under review, awarded, etc.). “Brian designed a very user-friendly system for presenting a set of complicated data and students love it,” said Felecia Flack (AdIT), who was part of the initial project planning committee.

The new system reduced data entry, paper, timing and labor costs, increased data accuracy and provides more information to selection committees. Processing time by Financial Aid was reduced by 88 percent, from two staffers working full time for four weeks to one staff member working five days. There has been a 36 percent increase in the number of applications submitted and a 19 percent increase in the number of students submitting one or more applications.