May 04, 2013 08:11 AM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

The Illinois Student Assistance Commission has asked 9,500 students out of 140,000 to return part of the initially promised Monetary Award Program (MAP) grant in fiscal 2013 after discovering that it had indulged in a $2 million over-commitment of the grant program.

As a result, the last 9,500 students from the 140, 000 will lose about $210, 10 percent of the average MAP grant of $2,100, which would have been otherwise used to pay their current tuition and other bills.

The commission contacted the affected colleges and universities about its shortfall through an e-mail, April 25.

Commission spokesman John Samuels said that the money will be given by the concerned colleges and universities from the 9,500 students' accounts as this was considered to be administratively easier to recover than asking all 140,000 students to take fewer grant amounts.

Among the affected institutions in the state, the University of Illinois' 966 students will lose a total of $356,000 and the officials haven't yet come up with alternative plans to reclaim the deficit as the university has already issued $72 million in need-based financial aid to students this academic year.

They are not sure whether they can invest some more money in other financial grants.

The most affected institution would be Northern Illinois University, which would lose more than $100,000. Seven other institutions will suffer losses of at least $50,000 each.

Usually, the commission has to declare funds before Illinois General Assembly announces its budget for MAP for the fiscal year.

 "It's a process that has lots of moving parts," Samuels said. "This time, we missed by about $2 million out of $371 million (in grants), about half of one percent."

Sue Morris, a member of the State Community College said that the legislature should pass legislation in such a way that the affected institutions can repay the remaining amount of the grant but they should also be allocated a special makeup grant in fiscal 2014 MAP funds.

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