Meet the Staff: Financial Aid Edition, Ursula Backus

Today we are going to meet another lovely member of the Financial Aid Team. Ursula Backus is the Assistant Coordinator of Financial Aid and the Financial Aid Office’s Interpreting Liason. Now I don’t know about you but I think that sounds like a very nice title however, I really have no idea what it means. So I asked Mrs. Backus if she could break that down for us a little. Of course, she was extremely willing to comply with this request.

Backus listed her first responsibility as, “Calculating a Student’s Satisfactory Academic Progress.” If you don’t know what Satisfactory academic Progress is I actually wrote a whole article on that very topic. For those of you who just need a quick refresher and don’t need all the details, Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) are standards which track your progress throughout your college career and help determine whether are not you continue to qualify for financial aid. As I discovered in the previous article there are quite a lot of factors that go into calculating this standing and it is required by federal law to have these standards in place! For any personal questions about your Satisfactory Academic Progress, Backus can find a solution for you.

Her next responsibility is “Processing and taking to committee appeals for Financial Aid suspensions.” This is another topic we have covered in depth before. If you are placed on Financial Aid Suspension you can write an appeal letter to explain your situation and hopefully be granted Financial Aid again. Backus is in charge of making sure these letters get to the right people and that they are reviewed carefully. If you need someone to review your letter or simply have questions about what to include in your letter Backus would be a great contact for you.

Backus is also in charge of community outreach including attending high school and GCSC events. So if you are loving your time here at Gulf Coast State College and want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to enjoy this experience, Ursula Backus may be a great connection for you to help promote Gulf Coast State College.

Backus also supervises the Financial Aid front office creates online forms for the Financial Aid office. As someone who has created their fair share of online forms, this is not always an easy task. If you enjoy being able to complete your Financial Aid work from the comfort of your couch while watching Netflix, it might be time for you to send Mrs. Backus a thank you letter for all of her hard work!

Since Financial Aid can be difficult to navigate at times I asked Mrs. Backus if she would give us a few tips for dealing with Financial Aid. She said,

This has been another wonderful encounter with a member of the Financial Aid Team. If you missed our introduction to the other teammates you can learn more about the Coordinator of the Financial Aid Office, Loraine Chance here, or the Director of Financial Aid, Kris Hatcher here.

If you would like to contact Ursula Backus her email is ubackus@gulfcoast.edu. And as always if you have any Financial Aid questions please contact the Financial Aid Office at fa@gulfcoast.edu.

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