Illinois' Comptroller says universities will soon receive stopgap MAP grant money.
Leslie Munger says the Illinois Student Assistance Commission sent $164 million dollars in grant vouchers to her office.
Munger says her office turned around the payments immediately, but she also calls on lawmakers to approve a long-term solution.
“It is critical that they now finish the job and pass a comprehensive balanced budget that allows us to keep our promises not only to students,” Munger said in a news release.
Students attending colleges on the semester system will receive about half the money they were expecting. Meanwhile, those on the quarter system will get just one-third.
Lynne Baker is with the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. She says the decision was made to distribute the money as quickly as possible, despite the difference between the quarter and semester schools.
“If we had implemented a completely different approach, such as pro-rating MAP claims, that would have extended the time for processing any payments to all schools by well over a month,” Baker said.
There are several “quartered” schools in the state, according to the ISAC:
- Augustana College
- Robert Morris University
- Knox College
- National Louis University
- North Central College
- Northwestern University
- University of Chicago
- East-West University
- DePaul University
- Rush University Medical Center
- Kendall College
- Illinois Institute of Art
- Northwestern College
- Midstate College
