Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education
Financial Aid & Financial Literacy Information Center
The Commissioner of Higher Education has designated the Office of Student Financial Services to provide campuses with the tools needed to effectively administer programs related to financial aid, financial literacy, default prevention and debt management. This section provides the resources and information to accomplish these initiatives as well as information regarding related system wide policy goals.
CACG Program Recipients Announced
The Montana University System, Office of Student Financial Services (SFS) recently announced sub-grant awards for the College Access Challenge Grant Program for academic year 2012-2013. The eight sub-grants awarded to schools across Montana were selected through a competitive process. Successful applicants will work to strengthen Montana’s financial literacy programs in an effort to reduce student debt and enhance and connect existing efforts using a coordinated and collaborative approach. Their programs will advance best practices, target high-risk students, focus on low-income and other underrepresented groups as well as address the general student population’s need for financial literacy education.
The Montana College Access Challenge Grant - Financial Literacy Program is funded through the federal College Access Challenge Grant Program. (CACG) The CACG is a federally funded formula grant program designed to foster partnerships among federal, state, and local government entities and philanthropic organizations through matching challenge grants that are aimed at increasing the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in post-secondary education. The Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education (OCHE) received funding of $1.5 million for academic year 2012-2013 and sent out Request for Proposals to fund a number of sub-grants to Montana campuses for development and enhancement of coordinated campus-based financial literacy programs and to enable a more inter-connected approach to financial literacy throughout the Montana University System and the State by using the CACG funds.
The College Access Challenge Grant sub-grant recipients include the following schools: