2008 Woodie Awards
Access Delta e-mails at the E-Services Lab
Zach Fuller
Issue date: 9/9/05 Section: News
One year and four months after its inception, Delta's E-Services Lab continues to provide students access to financial aid applications, student e-mail and online enrollment. The brainchild of Ena Hull, Delta's director of Financial Aid, the E-Lab was first available to students in March of 2004 and since then has become a necessity for many Delta students, especially those who lack internet access.
Monica Watts, a second semester liberal arts major, says she uses the lab often. "I don't have a computer at home so I come here and take care of my school," she said.
One of the primary advantages of the E-Lab is that the financial aid process is greatly accelerated when done online, as compared to the older mail-in method. A student who fills out his or her FAFSA online may get the money in as little as three days.
"If you go on paper it's closer to two weeks," said Steve Arena, Delta's assistant director of Financial Aid and Veterans Services.
But the online FAFSA is just part of a current transition to move more of the college's processes from the realm of paper and filing cabinets to that of computers.
"We're moving everything online because that's the direction the federal government is moving in," said Arena. "They're pushing more and more for students to do everything online."
"It's been a wonderful success," said Hull, who collaborated with Catherine Mooney to make the E-Services Lab a reality. "It's already paid for itself in the first year," said Hull, who also looks forward to the arrival of Delta's Gateway building, slated to break ground in 2007. "We will have a huge E-services lab in the new building."
Until then, the main lab in Goleman 128 and the secondary one in Goleman 115 will have to do, with occasional backup from the Cunningham 220 computer lab.
This year, Cunningham 220 was open for financial aid, e-mail, and applying for courses during the first week of school to facilitate access for the large numbers of students who were trying to get their next semester lined up.