Dept. of Education runs study without U.

More than 100 colleges and universities throughout the United States will soon receive government exemptions and opportunities to improve the delivery of their student financial aid. But the University is not among them, according to information released by the Department of Education. Associate Vice President of Finance Frank Claus said the University investigated the program last July and decided not to apply. The Department of Education is allowing higher education institutions to exempt students from regulations including loan counseling, required authorizations, multiple or delayed disbursement and mandatory loan proration for graduating students. Schools that applied were selected based on their student financial aid track record, according to Department of Education spokesperson Jane Glickman. "This isn't a typical grant application," Glickman said. "It's an opportunity to experiment in?financial aid and how we give [schools] money and how they deal with the students." When the University looked into the program, officials learned that many of the schools participating in the program were "consortia" schools -- those acting jointly to address the same problems. The University is currently reviewing other opportunities within the program, Claus said. "It is our intention to seek regulatory relief in areas where Penn is known not to have meaningful deviations from policy," Claus said. "Eliminating the required procedure could improve our processes or reduce inconvenience to students." Since the project is open and ongoing, the University can still apply for future programs within it, Glickman said. She added that the Department of Education will be very flexible with this initiative, since its main goal is to "cut red tape." "We're hoping it will benefit their schools and students while cutting down on the paperwork and burdens," Glickman said. Assistant Vice President for Policy Planning David Morse noted that if the University did apply, its request would probably be accepted. "We do have a pretty good track record in terms of an extremely low default rate on student loans," he said. According to Morse, many of the schools on the Department of Education's list are in a direct lending program, in which the federal government provides funds directly to the colleges and universities. "We have a favorable set of relations with the state agency in Pennsylvania that guarantees loans so it's not in our interest to do that," Morse added. And Vice President for Finance Stephen Golding said the University is different from many other institutions in its operation of student aid. The regulations from which the selected schools are exempt may not apply to the University since it manages much of its own financial profile, he explained.