OSU Financial Aid director elevated to new role

COLUMBUS - Tally Hart, who has directed The Ohio State University's Office of Student Financial Aid for ten years, has accepted a new leadership position as the university's senior advisor for economic access. The newly created position is crucial to Ohio State's initiative to become the national leader in enabling financial access to higher education.

In her new role, Hart will use her extensive knowledge of financial aid and access issues in higher education to develop programs to ensure economic diversity and access at Ohio State. She will further the university's efforts to educate students and their parents about all the financial resources available for low-income students who want to go to college.

Students should begin thinking about college as early as 4th grade, according to Hart. “We know that if a family is from a very low-income background - and they know nothing about the support available for their child to go to college - they might not push their child to take the right curriculum of math and science, which is the key to going on to college.”

“I will work with students and their parents to remove financial questions, so they can focus on academic issues instead of seeing that dollar sign as a stoplight,” said Hart.

In addition, Hart will work to develop programs to encourage college juniors who are economically needy to think about graduate and professional school.

“Access is a key priority at Ohio State,” said Martha Garland, vice-provost and dean of the Office of Enrollment Services and Undergraduate Education. “We're happy to create this position to leverage Tally's unique knowledge of the many issues involved in financial access.”

Ohio State's new Land Grant Opportunity Scholarship program is the latest example of the university's commitment to providing opportunities for low-income high school students to obtain their college degree. The program, in its second year, provides full scholarships, worth up to $17,000 per year, to at least one student from each of Ohio's 88 counties.

During her tenure as director of Student Financial Aid at Ohio State, Hart was responsible for changing the way student financial aid is distributed, which dramatically shortened the wait time for students receiving financial aid. Before the university became one of the first in the nation to switch to direct lending, it was not uncommon to have students wait eight weeks after the start of classes to receive their checks, and then have them wait in long lines to receive their aid.

She is the co-founder and coordinator of College Goal Sunday, a multi-state effort to improve access to higher education for needy students. Prior to the federal March 1 deadline each year, financial aid experts from universities provide a free service to help families fill out the eight-page Free Application for Federal Financial Aid (FAFSA) - the single largest source of college scholarships, grants and loans in the country.

As a national expert on financial aid issues, she has also provided testimony to Congress on financial issues involving higher education.

Before coming to Ohio State, Hart served as vice president for student assistance services for the College Board and managed various financial aid operations for Indiana University, Purdue University and the University of California.

Hart will begin her new duties on August 1. She will be replaced by Julia Benz, currently the director for the Office of Student Financial Aid at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Benz currently is a member of College Board and several other national student financial aid associations and has played a key role in five different software conversions in her 24 years of experience in both public and private universities.