Staff training
There are two different processes to award students’ funds – ScholarshipUniverse and Student Award Authorization (SAA).
- WSU ScholarshipUniverse is used for endowed and annual scholarship funds that are being awarded for the coming academic year.
- The SAA process is used for grant or designated funds that being awarded for the current academic year.
In addition to these processes, reports are available to WSU staff who have "Finance" access to use to reconcile award accounts.
If you have questions on which would be the based way to award scholarship funds please contact us at scholarshipmanagement@wayne.edu.
ScholarshipUniverse
Sign up for ScholarshipUniverse training in Academica
WSU ScholarshipUniverse is used for endowed and annual scholarship funds that are being awarded for the coming academic year. After the student application window has closed, it's time for awarding.
| Review | Award | Approve |
|---|---|---|
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ScholarshipUniverse review process
The review process is based on whether a scholarship application was required. Those awards that do not require an application are referred to as direct awards. You will use the application review method for those that required an application.
Application review method
| Create committee assignments | Create a pool and notify reviewers | Reviewers review and score applicants | Manager monitors pool progress | Manager moves pool to awarding |
This review process is used to create a pool of applicants and assign them to a committee to review and score the applicants. The scores are aggregated for each applicant to be used in combination with other criteria to rank applicants in the awarding process. The applications will be ready for review after the application deadline.
ScholarshipUniverse Review Process Overview
ScholarshipUniverse application review
As a Reviewer, you have been allocated applications to read and score by your Review Manger. Your Department Scholarship Review Manager has set-up a review deadline and allocated applications for review. Depending on the settings you will either be using the recommendation method to rate applicants on a 5-point scale (thumbs up/thumbs down) or score the application according to a defined rubric or score card.
You will receive and email notification with a link directly to reviews to ScholarshipUniverse. Within that email, you will also see the review deadline, the number of reviews you have been allocated, the reviewing round and any additional instructions from your Review Manager.
Login with your WSU AccessID credentials. In the left menu click Review, then click the tile to Review Applications and see the list of candidates you have been asked to review.
ScholarshipUniverse Reviewer Guide
ScholarshipUniverse awarding options
After the application deadline and after all applications have been reviewed and scored you can begin awarding. You will use SmarkRank and column manager to use a combination of available information to rank students for awarding.
ScholarshipUniverse Awarding Options
ScholarshipUniverse award approval process
After students have been selected, the awards and award amounts will need to be approved. The approver should not be the same person who made the award selection.
ScholarshipUniverse Approving Process
ScholarshipUniverse access
Access can be requested by the Department Business Manager or other person authorized by the Dean/Director to grant access to student personal information for the purposes of awarding WSU scholarships.
As we prepare for the upcoming 2024-25 scholarship award cycle, we have renewed the ScholarshipUniverse access for the staff you requested for the 2023-24 year who are still listed within your unit. If you have changes, please use form linked below to remove or add access as needed. If there are no changes, there is no need to fill out a new form.
2025-26 ScholarshipUniverse Access Request Form - use for changes or to add new users
| Role | ScholarshipUniverse role description |
|---|---|
| Review Manager | This role manages scholarship committees and review pools and has access to the dashboard to monitor application volume, awarding and budgeting. |
| Reviewer | This role is given to committee members in order to review and score applications. |
| Candidate Manager | This role manages the candidates preparing for review or run auto-match for the direct awards. |
| Award Manager | This role manages adding the award amounts for each student. |
| Award Approver | This role manages approvals of awards before being queued for notification. |
| Thank You Coordinator | This role manages the review of thank you letters received from students. |
| Thank You Editor | Reserved for Donor Relations staff. |
Student Award Authorization (SAA) process
The Student Award Authorization (SAA) is a workflow process for a university department, school or college to communicate student scholarship awards to the Financial Aid Office. The SAA process is used for grant or designated funds that being awarded for the current academic year.
| Workflow role | Processing role |
|---|---|
| Requestor | Enters the student ID, award amounts, term, enrollment requirement, account index number and comments to begin the process. |
| Expense approver | Authorizes or rejects payments to the students listed on the SAA form. |
| Account approver | Authorizes or rejects the expense to the account and acknowledges compliance with account provisions. |
| Financial aid office (OSFA) | Will identify the detail/fund code and apply the award to the student aid package. OSFA will work with WSU Fiscal Operations if the account needs a detail/fund code. |
SAA access
Users may have more than one role; however, one user cannot be the Expense Approver AND the Account Approver on the same SAA. It may be helpful to assign more than one Expense and Account approver as a backup if one is unavailable.
| Workflow role | Role description |
|---|---|
| Requestor | Any WSU employee can be a requestor. The requestor enters the information initiating the SAA process workflow. The requestor uses the account index, student ID and other required values. |
| Expense approver | The expense approver is the first person who is approving the request before it is sent to the account approver. The expense approver authorizes payments to the students listed on the SAA form. |
| Account approver | Usually, the Business Manager or Dean is the account approver. The account approver authorizes the expense to the account and acknowledges compliance with account provisions. |
The department business manager will need to complete the Business Affairs Officers (BAO) - Access Request Form, indicate the SAA role and submit it to security@lists.wayne.edu.
Business Affairs Officers (BAO) - Access Request Form
Entering and approving an SAA
Begin OSFA Student Award Authorization Approve an SAA
The above links can be found in Academica, under Employee Resources - Administrative Systems.
- When selecting your account index, refer to your list of accounts. If you get to the payment restrictions field and the selection says *NEW* but you know you have used this award before, refer to your list of accounts and then update your code. If you continue to process the SAA with *NEW* criteria, your SAA may be rejected.
- The award year coincides with the academic year. For example: 2425 includes Fall 2024, winter 2025 and spring-summer 2025. 2425 also includes Summer Med 2024, Fall Med 2024, Winter Med 2025 and Spring Med 2025.
- Payment restrictions - The workflow has a built-in query that will locate any existing detail codes associated with the “payment type” and account Index. Review your account provisions if you are unsure of the restrictions. If the restriction is preceded by (*NEW*) then a new financial aid detail code will need to be created.
- Minimum enrollment requirements will determine if an award can be disbursed to a student enrolled less than full-time. If the student does not meet the minimum requirements the SAA will be processed but the award will never pay toward the student account.
- PID - The student ID is the 9-digit Banner ID. Add additional students by clicking the + sign. You cannot leave a blank student row. Click the “X” to remove the row.
- Terms indicates where the funds should be applied. Awards that are evenly split between the fall and winter semester ensure funds are applied to the applicable charges. If a student is not enrolled for the semester, the funds cannot be paid.
- Expense approver access ID is required.
- Expense Approver will receive an email alert notification that an SAA is awaiting their approval. The email will include a link to the workflow. The expense approver can reject or approve the form. The Account Approver Access ID will be required. If the first approver rejects an award, the second approver still has the final say and can override the rejection.
- Account approver will receive an email alert notification that an SAA is awaiting their approval. The email will include a link to the workflow. The account approver can reject or approve the form.
The award information is sent to OSFA after the Expense Approver and Account Approver have both reviewed and submitted the form. The form will be reviewed and will be applied to the student award package. This is not an automated process. Please allow 2-3 weeks during busy periods. New accounts will take longer as they will need to be processed for a new detail/fund code.
Cognos reports in the Scholarship Administrator Management (SAMS) portal
The Business Intelligence Portal provides a single point of access to aggregated information and allows users to navigate to COGNOS reports.
- In Academica, under Employee Resources - Administrative Systems - click the Business Intelligence Reporting Portal link.
- After have logged into Cognos, click the Financial Aid Portal link and then select the SAMS Portal.
Scholarship Funding Availability - The purpose of this report is to identify fund balances, unpaid awards, projected income and funds available to award by School, College or Department (S/C/D.)
- Projected income is based on conservative earnings each semester. Once the true earnings are added at the end of a quarter, the figures for current available balance and future semesters will update.
- These figures take into account all funds that have been awarded in Banner – either from SAA or ScholarshipUniverse regardless of whether they have disbursed to the student account.
- It is appropriate to award funds based on the Projected Amount for the future semester. For example, awarding based on the Projected Amount for winter 2025 for the 2024-25 academic year.
Reconcile Unpaid Awards - The purpose of this report is to identify and reconcile unpaid awards by School, College or Department (S/C/D.)
What's the Status of my SAA? - Use this report to view a copy of submitted SAAs that have not yet been added to the student aid package.
Additional SAA reports - In the SAMS portal click the link to Additional SAA reports.
- SAA001 - Workflow: SAA Sum Query by Org - The purpose of this report is to see the sum of award amounts submitted on SAAs grouped by organization. This does not include any amounts rejected by the Account or Expense Approver.
- SAA002 - Workflow: Running SAA Approvals and Who Directed To - This report will display the user(s) and/or role a workflow is currently directed to or the user who is currently performing the workflow activity.
- SAA003 - Workflow: SAA Copy - Use this report to view a copy of a submitted SAA.
- SAA004 - Workflow: Financial Aid Fund Codes & Details - This report returns a list of account indexes by organization code. If you do not know your org code, you can leave the fields blank and click the “Finish” button at the bottom.
- SAA007 - Workflow: What is the Status of my SAA? - Use this report to view a copy of submitted SAAs.
- SAA008 – What is the Status of Incomplete SAAs? - Use this report to view a copy of submitted SAAs that have not yet been added to the student aid package.
Scholarship Administrator Management (SAMS) portal access
The SAMS portal can be used to run reports to estimate scholarship availability, reconcile paid awards and find the status of an SAA. Access to run the reports to determine the fund balances and projections of future amounts is restricted to staff with Banner Finance Access.
For access to these reports within the Scholarship Access Management System (SAMS), the department business manager will need to complete the Business Affairs Officers (BAO) specifically for Cognos ‘Finance’ access on the Access Request Form and submit it to security@lists.wayne.edu. Note: 'Financial aid' access is not needed to view any of these reports, only 'Finance' access is required.