Liberty tops state in federal aid for its students

Liberty University students received approximately $445 million in federal financial aid money last fiscal year, according to U.S. Department of Education data, making LU the top recipient in Virginia.

The rapid growth of Liberty’s online program has fueled the increased reliance on federal aid dollars, said Robert Ritz, LU’s executive director of financial aid. 

Last year, Liberty enrolled about 52,000 online students, plus another 12,000 through its residential programs.

“It has ballooned,” said Ritz of Liberty’s financial aid volume. “In some categories, I’ve seen us rank no. 3 nationally, or in the top ten. It’s because of our size and the growth.”

In the span of a year, Liberty’s experienced about a 56 percent spike in federal student aid, from $284 million in 2008-2009 to $445 million in 2009-2010, according to Department of Education data compiled by The News & Advance.  (LU calculates the total aid at $432 million and $277 million, still a 56 percent increase.)

The $445 million included $385.9 million in student loans. The rest came in the form of grants and other student aid like work-study.

Contributing to the rise were the faltering economy, the federal stimulus program and the government’s expansion of the Pell grant program, Ritz said. Last year, Liberty received upwards of $55 million in Pell money, ranking 28^th in the nation and no. 1 in Virginia. The Pell program serves the country’s neediest students.

In some financial aid programs, Liberty was a top ten recipient nationwide.

For example, LU was the eighth highest recipient of Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) money last year, topping more than 4,000 other colleges and universities.

One of two major federal loan programs, FFEL allowed students to borrow government-backed money from banks and other lenders. Liberty was the lone Evangelical Christian school on a top-ten list dominated by for-profit institutions. Other top recipients were the University of Phoenix and Kaplan University.

For Ritz — a financial aid veteran who got his start at a small Bible college — Liberty’s use of federal financial aid does not run counter to the university’s conservative values. Liberty does not receive the federal money directly, Ritz said, but through students, who use it to pay for tuition, room and board and other expenses.

“These funds are authorized by Congress and Congress is elected by voters. . . I’ve always been in the position where I believe I’m a steward of those federal funds. I’m a steward of tax-payer money.”

Still, a small number of Liberty students choose to opt out of federal financial aid programs due to their conservative values, Ritz said.

“We have students every year that don’t want to use federal funds,” Ritz said. “We honor that.”

When calculating its financial aid statistics, Liberty does not differentiate between residential and online students. Both groups are eligible for the same federal programs, Ritz said.

This year, the federal government restructured its student loan program by cutting the FFEL and requiring all schools to use direct lending.  The change came into effect under the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 and eliminated the role of private lenders.

The shift to direct lending — a logistical behemoth for Liberty and thousands of other schools that relied on FFEL — had little effect on the average student. 

“It’s not inherently different except that now it’s through the government instead of the lenders,” Ritz said.

This spring, Liberty is knee-deep in the processing of thousands of financial aid packages for incoming students. Ritz expects financial aid to increase by 15 to 20 percent for the upcoming school year.

To keep up, Liberty’s financial aid office has expanded from 51 to 138 employees over the past four years. By comparison, Lynchburg College employs four people in its financial aid office, while Randolph College and Sweet Briar employ three and two, respectively.

With six positions vacant and more needed to keep up with the work load, Ritz expects the Liberty financial aid office to reach 154 employees by July.

The office operates like a well-oiled machine, with practices that take cues from the corporate world.

The school operates a 50-person call center that fields financial aid questions from students around the clock. Liberty collects statistics on each call to monitor its customer service. If students are on hold too long, for example, Ritz knows it’s time to hire more phone operators.

When it comes to processing financial aid data, Ritz receives hourly reports that monitor that productivity and accuracy of his employees. The reports allow Ritz to spot red flags before they turn into bigger problems.

 “That’s something Liberty does that’s very unique. We watch our data like hawks. Because that means whether or not students are getting the service they need.”

The rapid growth of Liberty’s online program has placed Liberty in a league of its own among Lynchburg-area schools.

Lynchburg College, Sweet Briar and Randolph have experienced modest increases in federal financial aid, primarily due to the economy.

 “My biggest concern is while I think the economy is shifting, we still have a large majority of our workforce who have been displaced,” Michelle Davis, financial aid director at Lynchburg College, said. “I think we have a recovery period that may take some time.”