This year in 2023-2024 the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships rolled out a new online portal to replace our old process for Undergraduate Resource Reporting (UGRR). These undergraduate student awards, stipends, and scholarships originate from resources all over campus, and are tremendously beneficial to our students as they participate in research and other projects to prepare for their future.

Previously, campus departments had to email a signed form to our office for manual processing. Our new online portal offers exciting enhancements that benefit everyone by providing: improved tracking, communication, and of course speed of awards to our students! 

We began in May 2023 with announcements to all business partners around campus regarding the development of the online portal and the need for departments to set up their electronic user access. In August 2023, we started rolling out the live access with user setup, and in September 2023, fully launched the portal with users being able to submit disbursement requests. 

To this date we have successfully received and processed 2,707 unique student awards totaling $4,025,245 for the 2023-2024 school year through the new portal.  Financial Aid Information Systems team who worked tirelessly along with our Fiscal Operations Unit to develop the new online UGRR portal. Now campus departments are ensured greater accuracy with selecting the correct student, selecting only account strings that are pre-assigned to their specific award, they have an automated approving mechanism for their control point, and have total visibility for the status of their submission, receiving confirmation once the award has been processed. No more wondering about the status of students’ awards, and no more emailing back and forth because of confusing mistakes on the paper forms. With 267 campus users and over 900 unique award types now set up in the portal, we are well on our way to a streamlined method for delivering these well-deserved undergraduate resources to our students - assisting them in becoming the next generation of leaders.