The Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance told TOPS-eligible universities Thursday afternoon it would suspend all TOPS payments “immediately until further notice” because of looming budget cuts to higher education.
“The Louisiana TOPS scholarship fund is now so depleted that fewer high school students will receive awards, and current recipients are in jeopardy of losing their existing scholarships,” said Gov. John Bel Edwards in his televised State of the State address Thursday night.
Though LOSFA’s announcement sparked widespread concern among students at Louisiana’s flagship university yesterday, it wasn’t the first time they were told the in-state scholarship had been stripped away from them.
A communication snafu between the University and LOSFA concerning the new plus/minus grading system resulted in a number of students being mistakenly informed their TOPS scholarships had been revoked, confirmed state and University officials.
TOPS does not recognize the University’s new plus/minus grading scale, instituted in Fall 2015, when calculating whether or not a student’s cumulative Grade Point Average qualifies him or her for the scholarship.
“Some students had received notification from LSU that their TOPS award was on suspension because of grades,” said Deborah Paul, LOSFA scholarships and grants director. “But when the student checked our system, it showed that they were actually still eligible.”
Since its inception in 1998, the TOPS program has only calculated GPAs in whole numbers, Paul said. For example, if a University student earns either a C+, 2.30 GPA or a C-, 1.70 GPA, the University is required to report a C average and 2.0 GPA to LOSFA.
To maintain TOPS throughout college, students must earn a 2.30 GPA by the end of their first academic year and a 2.50 by the end of all other academic years.
Aimee Thibodeaux, the University’s assistant director of Financial Aid and Scholarships, said the University no longer advises students on their TOPS eligibility, as factors such as plus/minus grading and transfer work could result in two different GPAs for the school and the state.
“There could definitely be some points of confusion and of course the plus/minus adds another element into that,” Thibodeaux said. “I think that there were other departments on campus [besides Financial Aid and Scholarships] who may have been speaking to students regarding that GPA, and we have worked with them to assure that that doesn’t happen.”
When the University decided to adopt the plus/minus system, Thibodeaux said it moved to have the state acknowledge the new standards, but its efforts were thwarted by a 2002 LOSFA rule mandating TOPS only accept grades in whole letter equivalents.
“Unfortunately, we were kind of halted at that point,” Thibodeaux said. “It would be great in all cases if we could have similar GPAs and similar rules.”
English professor Kevin Cope was on the front lines of the battle to institute plus/minus in his capacity as Faculty Senate president. He remains frustrated by the incongruity of the two GPA standards.
“I think that it is bewildering why TOPS and its sophisticated administration cannot seem to deal with this difference in grading systems because … it should seem that if you convert the grades into numerical values, you could easily go from one to another,” Cope said. “This is just an example of both an unresponsive state bureaucracy and a very sad phenomenon that … when LSU attempts to better itself, the state seems to get in the way.”
Apart from bureaucratic confusion, Thibodeaux said the policy discrepancy only means good things for many in the campus community. After all, if students earn a minus grade, TOPS will round it up.
“I do believe it is a win-win,” she said. “It has positive impacts on the students.”