Fresno City College students are facing more strict regulations for financial aid eligibility. In addition, student loan interest rates, expected to climb, are staying at a low rate and a new repayment plan option will become available this academic school year.

The Interest Rate Reduction Act of 2007 caused student loan interest rates to incrementally drop for the past four years. This bill expired July 1, 2013, potentially causing interest rates to nearly double at 6.8 percent.

After President Obama signed the Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act of 2013 on Aug. 9 of this year, the climb in student loan rates ceased.

But there is further action to be done because college education is still at a very high cost “so I’m going to be looking forward to engaging this same coalition to see if we can continue to take additional steps to reform our higher education system,” he said in a transcript from the White House.

Undergraduates who take out any Direct loans between July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014 receive them at an interest of 3.86 percent. Further information can be found on the Federal Student Aid website.

Also, the new Income-Based Repayment Plan (IBR) is available for student borrowers who took out loans by the end 2012. This plan caps student monthly payments at 10 percent of their income compared to the standard of 15 percent in previous years, according to the White House.

This year many incoming students rely on grants to pay for college expenses.

“I rely on it for books, school supplies, clothes, and other necessities,” said Juan Quintanar, a first-year student in criminology.

“If I lose those grants, I won’t be able to buy school materials and textbooks because they’re really expensive,” Nansing Leng said, a first-year student in biology.

But such benefits become obsolete without compliance to the Satisfactory Academic Progress policy that remains enacted this year.

The SAP policy has three major requirements. Students must complete 67 percent of the classes attempted per semester, graduate before a maximum time frame of 150 percent relative to program units, and have a cumulative GPA of 2.0.

Leng says “I will keep up with my studies, that way I don’t fall behind and lose grants I’m dependent on.”

The SAP policy is examined and applied every semester after grades have been submitted, according to Financial Aid Director, Kira Tippins.

What happens to students who fail to meet SAP requirements? Tippins said that students are given a warning during the first semester of disqualification. Then, if a student fails again consecutively, this results in the loss of funding.

Andrew S.R. Vasnaik, a part-time student in the Disabled Students Program & Services, stopped receiving grants about three to four years ago because of breaching the maximum time frame.

“I would like to get it for books and school supplies but it just stopped,” Vasnaik said.

He’s been in school for more than 10 years. And although he only takes one class per semester, his accumulated units over time disqualified him to receive grant funding.

Vasnaik now only relies on his Social Security income, the Board of Governor’s fee waiver, and disability checks to sustain his lifestyle and education.

Students can make an appeal to regain eligibility. Tippins said that students under mitigating circumstances determined by the U.S. Dept. of Education are able to regain eligibility. Necessary documents can vary from transcripts, death certificates, and hospital documents.

Javier Aello, a fourth-year returning student was also denied grant funding because he reached his maximum time frame. But unlike Vasnaik, he was able to make an appeal and obtain financial aid extension until last year.

“I’m learning the complexities of the bureaucracy of school and so I’ve been consolidating those requirements,” he said.

Students who file a successful appeal are held to higher academic standards. According to Tippins, these students must have a 2.5 GPA and have a 75 percent completion rate “because [they] have to cummulatively make up for that lost time to be able to complete [their] objective,” she said.

The deadlines for appeals are always posted online, three weeks before the end of each semester.

The Financial Aid office hands out bookmarks that contain SAP policy requirements which are also detailed online on WebAdvisor.

Students are advised to take responsibility for monitoring their eligibility.

“We want students to know that this is the most important piece when it comes to keeping your financial aid eligibility,” Tippins said.