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UA student financial aid is safe in Y2K

Scott Andrew Taras Arizona Daily Wildcat John Nametz, UA director of financial aid, fields questions concerning the Y2K readiness of financial aid records yesterday afternoon in the Administration building. Nametz wants to assure students that all financial aid records will be safe from the Y2K bug.

UA students have little reason to worry about their financial aid with the dawn of the new millennium, officials said yesterday.

"We've done everything we can to ensure Y2K compliance," said Mike Torregrossa, information systems coordinator at the University of Arizona's Center for Computing and Information Technology.

The UA's Office of Student Financial Aid became Y2K compliant last October with the installation of a new software program, FAMPLUS. Preparations for the new software began as early as 1995.

"It's certified as Y2K compliant," said John Nametz, director of financial aid. "We've done more worrying and planning about this than anything else. I don't think we're going to have any problems."

Nametz said the financial aid office asked all lenders to transfer funds to the university on Dec. 30 to ensure students' aid will be available in the event that the Y2K bug does affect computer systems.

Although no problems are expected, it would only take a few days to fix any malfunction with the computer systems, Torregrossa said.

"If there is any kind of glitch in the financial aid office system, it would be minimal and it would be running for the spring 2000 semester," he said, adding that all information is backed-up on another system.

While Nametz said students should not worry about their financial aid, Torregrossa advised students to save any correspondence from the financial aid office, such as award letters.

"I think everyone should be concerned," he said. "Anyone who depends on a computer system should be concerned."

The UA is ahead of most other schools in Y2K preparations, according to a recent survey by the U.S. Department of Education.

The survey found that of the responding institutions, only 30 percent "have completed the renovation of their mission-critical systems." Another 40 percent "do not expect to have their mission-critical systems fully compliant until October or later."

The UA was included in the 30 percent that are ready for Y2K.

U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley, in a letter to 5,800 academic institutions, warned that many universities who are moving too slowly "will have little time to adjust if schedules slip or problems are discovered."

"If contingency plans need to be invoked due to school data exchange failures, significant delays in student aid delivery could occur," Riley wrote.

Riley advised universities to test their systems for Y2K compliance. The UA has already passed that test, Nametz said.

"We were through most of the problems by early summer," Nametz said.