WILL SEBERGER/Arizona Daily Wildcat Graduate and Professional Student Council President Amanda Brobbel responds to e-mails about graduate student finances in her office yesterday afternoon.

UA asking for $475 back after accidently giving too much aid

Some graduate assistants will have to come up with an extra $475 in tuition before finals even though they thought they were all paid up.

About 160 graduate assistants who received too much aid money from the UA Graduate College now owe the excess back, but they say they only learned of the situation last week.

Graduate assistants who are taking six units, the least amount of credits possible, are entitled to a 49.1 percent remission, which reduces their tuition by $799. Assistants taking seven or more units receive 60 percent or $1,274, said Dorian Voorhees, assistant dean of the Graduate College.

But when the Graduate College disbursed the remissions to graduate assistants in the fall, they awarded everyone the 60 percent remission, because it was the only way to do it with the computer system they operate on, Voorhees said.

Of the 3,000 graduate assistants on campus, approximately 160 are taking six units and received more money than they should have

The Graduate College is now asking for the extra $475 back.

But some said they should have been notified earlier that they would owe money and said they only found out last week either in an e-mail from the college or by checking their balance on Student Link before they tried to register for classes.

Amanda Brobbel, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Council, said the overpayment was not made clear enough and many think it is unfair.

"I'm pretty sure it will be a hardship for anyone that was overpaid. It was not made clear enough to students," said Brobbel, a graduate student studying literature.

The money they were given at the beginning of the semester was automatically used to pay whatever balance the student had on their bursar's account, Voorhees said.

Though students did not pay the extra $475 out of their pockets at the beginning of the semester, they would have had to pay it anyway if the remissions were correct in the beginning, Voorhees said.

"They were just alleviated from having to pay that out (at the beginning of the semester), but they would have to pay it out of pocket eventually," Voorhees said.

Voorhees said the policy could be a little clearer, but there is a responsibility on the part of the students.

"I would think that a student would know exactly what they need to pay for six or seven units," Voorhees said.

Voorhees said there is no way to know which students are taking six units until now, even though official enrollment statistics were compiled in September.

"We never know exactly how many units the graduate assistant is going to register for," Voorhees said.

The difference is due by December 10.

Judy Goosherst, senior office specialist for the Graduate College said graduate assistants should know how much they should have been paid and thinks the department is giving them ample time to pay the balance.

"It is their responsibility to know how much their tuition is; we are giving them four paychecks," Goosherst said.

All graduate assistants attend the UA as in-state students, none pay for out-of-state tuition, whether they are from Arizona or not.

All graduate assistants, associates and research assistants receive a remission from the Graduate College for their in-state tuition fees.

Thomas Kinney, internal vice president of the GPSC, said the charge is unfair and thinks students should have more time to repay the money they were given.

"I don't think it's fair. To be more fair, (students) could pay it back with next semester's financial aid," Kinney said.

Kinney said communication between the students and the college could have been handled better so this would not be such a confusing issue.

"There has been a problem with the communication between graduate students and financial aid," Kinney said. "I felt that it wasn't handled with the best communication."

Goosherst said the computer system the Graduate College uses does not make it possible to send out different amounts and the only way to rectify the problem is this way.

"When you take it isolated, it looks like an easy thing to fix, but there are a lot of factors to deal with," Voorhees said.

Goosherst sent an e-mail on behalf of the college last week, explaining the new charges.

The students affected have flags on their accounts that will protect them from paying late fees and will allow them to register for classes in the spring semester, Voorhees said.

Kinney said he thinks first year graduate assistants were probably affected more by the issue because they are new and not as familiar with the way the department works.

"A lot of people I've talked to were not aware fees could be reinstated. It certainly upset people," Kinney said.