Spotlight

OASFAA Recognizes Exceptional Contributions

Brenda Cromb, Manager, Financial Aid Administration, has been recognized and commended by the Ontario Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (OASFAA) for her exceptional service as the Procedures Committee Chair over the past two years. As her term ends shortly, Brenda has exemplified the values of U of T and has been a strong advocate for our students. Congratulations, Brenda, on this well-deserved acknowledgment!

We caught up with Brenda to find out more about her experience serving as the OASFAA Procedures Committee Chair.

In my role as Procedures Chair, a lot of the results we have seen for this term were smaller things which will make the OSAP process easier. For example, we made a suggestion to help avoid duplicate Continuation of Interest-Free Status applications; this sounds minor but it will create a lot less work for staff and therefore improve service to students. We also were able to advocate for other changes to OSAP policy to make reviews a bit easier for us to grant to students.

Our biggest project that the committee put forward was a proposed overhaul to the OSAP History of Canadian Residency form. This is currently under review with the Ministry of Colleges and Universities, and we are hoping they will implement some of our suggestions for the 2024-25 academic year. I also sat on a working group to advocate for the Ministry to more prominently advertise the OSAP Academic Progress rules – this public web page is supposed to launch this fall.

I originally volunteered as member of the committee through OSFAA (Ontario Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators) and wound up getting recruited into chairing when the previous chair left due to a job change.

OASFAA has significant influence with the student aid teams at the Ministry of Colleges and Universities in the delivery of the OSAP program. Serving as a member of the executive gives me an opportunity to be part of those conversations directly, to advocate for policies that will best benefit our students at U of T. It is also a great learning opportunity as I have had the opportunity to work with financial aid officers from across the province, and to exchange knowledge and best practices.

Yes, I am continuing as chair of the OASFAA Procedures Committee for another term, and I am also part of the OASFAA Systems Committee, which works with the Ministry of Colleges and Universities on technical changes to the OSAP application.

I have been in VPSEM since 2014, and I have been in my current role Manager, Financial Aid Administration (official title) since December 2022.