The Office of Student Financial Aid (OSFA) has partnered with the Division of Recreation & Wellbeing (Rec Well) on a pilot effort to offer fee waivers for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. This pilot with Rec Well is a part of OSFA’s broader No Fees project and will offer fee waivers to over 6,000 undergraduate students to participate in group fitness classes as well as intramural sports at no cost. The population spans across prominent financial aid programs such as FASTrack & BANNER, Badger Promise, and Bucky’s Tuition Promise. All eligible students have been made aware of this benefit and the process for them to participate is simple – just register for the class or sport, and the fee will be automatically waived!
This pilot represents a massive step to ensure greater access to important components of the Wisconsin Experience for all students, regardless of financial background. Rec Well has been a huge advocate for this work through this pilot effort, which quickly expanded from an initial target population of incoming students within specific aid programs to the full population of 6,000 that is included today. The work to bring this pilot to fruition started last fall with an analysis to understand whether students across our prominent financial aid programs were participating at lower rates in Rec Well fee-based programs than their peers. From this analysis, group fitness classes and intramural sports were identified as the biggest opportunities to address potential financial barriers for participation. These also happen to be two of the programs with the highest participation across Rec Well, representing a vital contributor for many students’ community and sense of belonging here at UW–Madison. Looking ahead, the intent is to evaluate the effectiveness of this pilot at the end of the academic year and hopefully continue to work with Rec Well to not only maintain the current effort, but also expand the offering to additional fee-based programs in the future.
OSFA hopes that this partnership with Rec Well continues to provide another example for how Divisions/Schools/Colleges across campus can consider fee waivers to increase access to fee-based programs and services (that are not a part of a student’s cost of attendance) on our campus. If you would like to learn more about the No Fees project or propose a potential partnership for OSFA to engage with, contact Lo Klink or Justin Mumford.
The Office of Student Financial Aid (OSFA) has partnered with the Division of Recreation & Wellbeing (Rec Well) on a pilot effort to offer fee waivers for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. This pilot with Rec Well is a part of OSFA’s broader No Fees project and will offer fee waivers to over 6,000 undergraduate students to participate in group fitness classes as well as intramural sports at no cost. The population spans across prominent financial aid programs such as FASTrack & BANNER, Badger Promise, and Bucky’s Tuition Promise. All eligible students have been made aware of this benefit and the process for them to participate is simple – just register for the class or sport, and the fee will be automatically waived!
This pilot represents a massive step to ensure greater access to important components of the Wisconsin Experience for all students, regardless of financial background. Rec Well has been a huge advocate for this work through this pilot effort, which quickly expanded from an initial target population of incoming students within specific aid programs to the full population of 6,000 that is included today. The work to bring this pilot to fruition started last fall with an analysis to understand whether students across our prominent financial aid programs were participating at lower rates in Rec Well fee-based programs than their peers. From this analysis, group fitness classes and intramural sports were identified as the biggest opportunities to address potential financial barriers for participation. These also happen to be two of the programs with the highest participation across Rec Well, representing a vital contributor for many students’ community and sense of belonging here at UW–Madison. Looking ahead, the intent is to evaluate the effectiveness of this pilot at the end of the academic year and hopefully continue to work with Rec Well to not only maintain the current effort, but also expand the offering to additional fee-based programs in the future.
OSFA hopes that this partnership with Rec Well continues to provide another example for how Divisions/Schools/Colleges across campus can consider fee waivers to increase access to fee-based programs and services (that are not a part of a student’s cost of attendance) on our campus. If you would like to learn more about the No Fees project or propose a potential partnership for OSFA to engage with, contact Lo Klink or Justin Mumford.