Students expecting to receive scholarship money for the fall quarter from the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship received a surprise instead earlier this month — a warning from Student Financial Services (SFS) that a hold would be placed on their accounts.

Until respective states disburse the funds for students’ 2007-2008 Byrd Scholarships, the bills for Stanford students expecting the award will continue to show the anticipated amount as an outstanding debt. The SFS automated hold system, therefore, sent warning emails to all students on campus still waiting to receive the award, explaining that the student accounts were past due and “will go on a delinquency hold in 10 days.”

The Byrd Scholarship, which awards annual $1,500 scholarships to approximately 27,000 students nationwide, is overseen by the United States Office of Education, which delegates the disbursement of the awards through state aid commissions. Students receive the awards from the state in which they attended high school.

While some states have managed to distribute the awards already, others are lagging behind. In California, where the bulk of Byrd recipients on campus originate, the lateness in passing the state budget this summer has exacerbated the delay in awarding the scholarships.

According to Karen Cooper, director of Financial Aid, the Byrd Scholarship Program has a long history of tardiness when it comes to sending students their funds.

“Byrd is notorious for getting checks here late,” she said. “There are seniors who will tell you that those checks never come in before December.”

Cooper said there are currently hundreds of Byrd scholarship recipients on campus and that they are all waiting for their states to deliver the funds. In the meantime, the holds that have been placed on some students’ accounts will not have any effect on their school business until the beginning of the winter quarter, by which time, Cooper said, the awards should have arrived. And in the unprecedented event that the scholarships should not arrive by winter quarter this year, she stated that the Financial Aid Office would be understanding with all students affected.

“If that’s the situation, I’m sure we would work with Student Financial Services to make sure the hold doesn’t affect those students who have money coming in from Byrd,” Cooper said.

According to TJ Janeway, Director of SFS, if the holds are left in place into next quarter, they could block students from registering for classes, receiving transcripts, applying for housing and even prevent seniors from graduating.

But she also stressed that having the holds in place this early in the quarter does not impact students too severely.

“A hold going on today doesn’t really affect you much this term,” Janeway said.

She also mentioned that SFS is in the process of looking for ways to exempt students awaiting disbursement of outside awards from the usual delinquency hold processes.

“We are constantly looking for ways to better this system,” Janeway said. “I would love to hear suggestions about how we might. Our goal is not to put holds on students’ accounts.”

The Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship, named after Senator Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.), is one of the most common national outside scholarships awarded to students on campus, and it is the only one of its size that has yet to disburse many of its awards.