The Monthly Memo

WISSIS SURVEYS ARE DUE

Don’t forget to submit your completed WISSIS surveys. Most surveys are already completed and submitted. If you are still working on yours, please get it turned in as quickly as possible. The deadline was 2 weeks ago. Thanks for your attention to this.

REFUNDS

As you can see later in the newsletter, our commit levels are higher now than they were last year at this time. We depend on timely remittance of refunds to help determine our actual numbers. PLEASE GET REFUNDS RETURNED TO HEAB AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

NOTIFICATION LIST PROCESSING

Processing for December will be as follows:

Notification lists will be run on Dec 2, 9, 16 and 29.

Voucher processing will occur as normal except for the last two weeks of December.

The notification list and vouchers will not be processed for the week of December 22nd.

On Monday, December 29th, the notification list and the only voucher for that week will be processed.

We will resume normal processing on Tuesday, January 6th, 2004.

UPCOMING DEADLINES AND EVENTS:

December 2nd the running of weekly notification lists resumes and the first spring voucher will be processed.

The next training session will be held:

Thursday, January 15, 2004. The program begins at 10:00 a.m. and ends no later than 3:00 p.m. It is held at the HEAB offices at 131 W. Wilson St, Suite 902, Madison, WI. We have room for up to 6 people at each session.

If you want to register for a session or need more information, please call Nancy Wilkison at (608) 267-2206 or email her at nancy.wilkison@heab.state.wi.us.

UPDATES

	CURRENT	THIS TIME LAST YEAR
WHEG-UW COMMITTED SPENT	135.92% 52.31%	128.71% 49.13%
WHEG-WTC COMMITTED SPENT	167.79% 54.65%	169.99% 54.09%
TIP GRANT COMMITTED SPENT	130.43% 47.05%	126.56% 42.10%
TUITION GRANT COMMITTED SPENT	111.20% 49.53%	115.57% 47.38%

NEW HEAB BOARD MEMBERS

Mr. Khalaf Khalaf
Independent Colleges and Universities - Student Representative
Marquette University
Mr. Khalaf was appointed by Governor Doyle to serve a term which ends on May 1, 2006.

Mr. Luke A. Naegele
University of Wisconsin System - Student Representative
UW - La Crosse
Mr. Naegele was appointed by Governor Doyle to serve a term which ends on May 1, 2005.

HIGH SCHOOL GUIDANCE COUNSELOR WORKSHOPS SUCCESSFUL

This year’s series of high school guidance counselor workshops is completed and successful. Thanks to WASFAA, HEAB, and DPI staff for all their work. Also, thanks to the attendees.

EFT

Several people have asked when HEAB will be converting to Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). Unfortunately, that is not going to be happening in the near future. Following are the reasons.

EFT would actually be a more expensive process, and HEAB does not have the funds to support EFT at this time.

Not all schools are capable of accepting EFT. We’re not able to run the entire voucher process and then separate out the actual check writing requests from EFT. We would have to do a paper voucher and then the voucher for EFT, so our costs for CPU time would double. A separate check writing request has to be submitted to DOA for the EFT process. Along with incurring additional CPU time we’d also be incurring additional cost from DOA for financial services billing.

HEAB would be required to make programming changes to accommodate the ACH (automated clearing house) file layout supplied to us by DOA. Lee Hellickson, our sole programmer, would have to abandon other immediate projects to make these changes.

The EFT process takes longer to complete than the check process. Once the tape reaches DOA there is a three-day processing time for the fund to be deposited into the bank. Currently we are able to request the checks one day and have them the next.

Finally, DOA at the present time is not able to receive EFT, which would make refunds difficult to process. It doesn’t sound like this will change for quite some time.

Despite all of this, we will continue to monitor the costs and watch for opportunities to make EFT a reality - but not for some time.

WEBSITE INFORMATION

Please check our website for the most current program information, information about upcoming trainings, and other important notices. HEAB’s website showed almost 75,662 hits for October with an average of 2,440 hits per day. HEAB staff has begun work on our current website to include a section specifically for students and parents.

Questions or concerns? We appreciate your feedback. Please contact me:

By phone:	(608) 264-6181
By Email:	connie.hutchison@heab.state.wi.us
By SnailMail:	HEAB P.O. Box 7885 Madison, WI 53707-7885