Pictured Above: The financial aid office’s operating budget consists of $353,351 allocated to six different areas.
Darnell Henderson | The Crow’s Nest
By Catherine Hicks and Sophie Ojdanic
As the fifth part in the Poynter College Media Project series, Green and Gold, The Crow’s Nest explores the financial aid operating budget.
There are five salary employees at the USF St. Petersburg Financial Aid office; the associate director, the financial aid team manager and three financial aid advisors. Between these five employees, the university pays a total of $242,167.
The associate director’s yearly salary is $70,013. The financial aid team manager’s is $49,000 and the aid advisors’ salaries range from $39,528 to $43,085.
In addition to salaries, $94,184 accounts for employee benefits, including health, vision and dental insurance.
The other costs associated with the financial aid office include travel expenses, contractual services, materials and supplies for the office and other miscellaneous operating expenses.
According to Laura Zuppo, USF St. Petersburg’s Interim Regional Assistant Vice Chancellor, in an effort to limit both spending and travel this year, the university did not allocate funding for travel expenses.
“There’s no travel this year, we can’t really go anywhere,” Zuppo said., “But it might include a membership to professional associations because of all the required training’s financial aid staff have to participate in.”
The highest of these additional expenditures is miscellaneous operating expenses at $6,750.
These miscellaneous expenses include things such as printing official flyers and handouts, dues and licences for professional associations, mail and postage expenses, printer monthly rental program and other minor expenses, according to Zuppo.
Contractual services, which covers a new appointment scheduling software for staff working remotely, requires a $4,500 allocation this year.
Materials, supplies and equipment for the financial aid office includes computers, paper, printer ink and other related supplies. The allocation for these expenses is $3,750.
The total operating budget for the financial aid office is $343,925.
