Bridging Islands

Over the past years, I have always had an issue with my scholarship disbursement being late and having to face consequences with the institution I'm enrolled in. During this semester, for example, my enrollment was cancelled and this led to my termination as a student assistant at the university. So I was no longer considered an official student of the university for the semester and without a job. OH! And since you have your bus pass issued or renewed once your tuition or part of your tuition is paid, I was also without a bus pass. Since my termination came later than my dis-enrollment, I had to bus to work everyday, and I ended up paying $2.50 both ways--to work and back home--and this was expensive. Sheeze! Talk about a domino effect!

Anyway, after reading a few chapters from The Finance of Higher Education: Theory, Research, Policy & Policy, edited by Michael Paulsen and John Smart (2001), on policies and the evolution of financing higher education, I realize that the problem lies among the policies and bureaucratic processes involved in the aid program within the Ministry of Education (MOE) in my home island. First, the application is reviewed by the department then with the board of MOE. There are probably many policies involved in order to determine the award amount, who is awarded, and when the aid is awarded. Only if I knew the exact process in which scholarships and grants are awarded to students, so I can understand why I'm always penalized or at least understand enough to provide a clear explanation to the Cashier's Office so that they can give me a grace period or something and wait for the scholarship to be awarded. Fortunately, being persistent and really wanting a graduate education, I was able to work it out this semester. First, I had to prove my late disbursement of scholarship by providing documentation from scholarship board of the MOE to the university, then repeat the same process with the Student Employment office. I think I need to figure out a way in which the university can acknowledge the scholarship offices with the MOE as third-party sponsors with UH. Hm! Let's see if that's possible! What are the policies to this process, I wonder? Maybe I can bridge the Palau National Scholarship Board and other MOE offices with the UH Manoa system! I wish! Let's just try!