A further look into financial aid: Sports

Students who receive financial aid are aware of what stipulations they must meet in order to obtain their financial aid award. What is expected of a student starts with filling out forms used to assess the student's financial need, which would dictate the amount of the award they receive along with their class load. Then (depending on the institution) a student has to verify their attendance of their scheduled classes in order to receive their award. But what does the institution of higher learning have to do in order to be eligible for federal student aid?

In order for an institution of higher education to receive federal student aid it must comply with a specific set of rules and regulations that are outlined by the Federal government. Among the rules and regulations are how loans and federal moneys are to be dispersed to students, rules pertaining to both student and school eligibility of these funds.

Also it is stated in aforementioned rules and regulations that certain information is to be disseminated to the school's students and potential students, this includes safety/criminal statistics and information regarding athletics.

The Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) is an act that requires "coeducation institutions of higher education" to disclose information regarding that institution's athletic program to "students, prospective students, and the public". This information would allow for each student to see how much money is allocated to each team and how many people that money actually goes to. Also it would allow students to see who is getting paid, and for what.

The Federal Student Aid Handbook (FSA HB) APR2011 states that:

"The school's EADA report must include information on—

• the number of male and female full-time undergraduate students that attended the school (undergraduate students are those who are consistently designated as such by the school),

• the total amount and ratio of athletically related student aid awarded to male athletes compared to female athletes,

• the expenses incurred by the school for men's and women's sports,

• total annual revenues for men's or women's sports,

• the annual school salary of non-volunteer head coaches and assistant coaches for men's and women's teams,

• for each varsity team in intercollegiate competition, the number and gender of participants and coaches, operating expenses, etc."

While CCRI did complete its annual EADA survey on October 20, 2011, it did not however make the information readily available to its students. It is stated in the FSA HB that the survey is to be completed within 15 days of it being made available to "students, prospective students, and the public". If you were to navigate through the CCRI website you would find that there is a form similar to an EADA report posted on the website, but it is from 2005.

Unfortunately the Unfiltered Lens was unable to receive any information from the administration of CCRI regarding where the EADA report is made readily available to be viewed by "students, prospective students, and the public".

However if you were to look in chapter eight of volume two of the FSA HB APR2011 on page 2–135 (single page number) you would find a website where the survey is to be submitted, which can be used to navigate to the website's homepage, where with some logical navigating one may search for the athletics information of a desired institution of higher education by entering that institutions information into a search engine, but is that readily available to us?

For additional information regarding the FSA HB, the EADA, or any rules and regulations having to do with what you or an institution of higher education must do in order to ensure that you can receive your financial aid award go to http://ifap.ed.gov/ifap/byAwardYear.jsp?type=fsahandbook&awardyear=2010-2011.

To view the most recent reports, as posted by CCRI on their website, visit http://ccri.edu/athl/.