NIU students who were forced to return part of their Monetary Assistance Program grants last semester may be receiving a refund in the near future.

Barbara Henley, vice president for Student Affairs, said NIU will be receiving $104,752 from the Illinois Student Assistance Commission to be distributed to students who had to return 12 percent of their MAP grant last spring.

Bob Clement, ISAC director of public information, said there is a total of $3 million which will be distributed to various state universities.

Clement said the extra money came from university audits which forced schools to refund money to the ISAC and from students who were granted MAP awards and then either changed schools or dropped out.

“We don’t know how to anticipate those kind of funds,” he said. “We never know how much money we will be getting back.”

“We’ve contacted the schools and have given them three options as to how they can distribute the money to the students,” Clement said.

Universities can return either a flat percentage or a flat dollar amount of the 12 percent award reduction to each student who received a MAP award.

The third option allows a university to rank students in order of the neediest students to the least needy students, in terms of monetary need. It then distributes the money to the students who have the most need first.

“No matter which option a university chooses, it must remain consistent with that option and not float between them,” Clement said.

Henley said NIU chose the third option so the neediest students at NIU will receive a refund.

Jerry Augsburger, NIU financial aid director, said last year there were over 3,600 students who received MAP awards.

The amount of each original MAP grant varied at NIU from $1,194 a semester to $150 a semester, Augsburger said.

“The people who received the full $1,194 had to return more than the people who only received $150. So, the neediest students are the ones who received the full amount,” Henley said.

Henley said approximately 1,600 students will receive a refund of approximately $65.

Augsburger said NIU is starting the internal steps which need to be taken in order to figure out how to distribute the money.

He said the Bursar’s office will be ultimately responsible for the mailing of the refund checks.

“It would have been nice if the ISAC had made the reduction correct last spring so we wouldn’t have to be going through all this right now,” he said.

“But with these tight budget times, everything involved in budget planning is difficult,” he said.