More than 7,500 students on the downtown Denver campus and an additional 2,400 in health sciences look to Patrick McTee for the means to complete their education. McTee, director of financial aid at UCD, oversees the acquisition and disbursement of about $120 million in student grants, loans, scholarships and work study awards each year. Of that, about $68 million goes to downtown Denver campus students.

McTee, who earned his bachelor and MBA degree from the University of Nebraska, notes the Office of Financial Aid juggles many tasks and faces myriad challenges, including the new Student Information System (SIS) implementation, “That’s going to take significant time and effort by our staff to get rolling,” he says.

In addition, the ongoing process of consolidation offers its own challenges, “In some ways we are merged, and in some ways we are not,” he explains. “Our computer systems are separate and our student populations are very different.”

McTee’s main objective, however, is to ensure each student at UCD understands and takes advantage of financial aid opportunities and is able to keep up with changes in state and federal legislation. “We continue to get money for students and we are trying to find more,” he stresses. “We need to continue to let them know we’re here and enable more students to come to UCD.”

Before joining UCDHCS last December, McTee worked three years for student loan provider Nelnet in Denver, helping to create its college planning resources for high school students and their families. Prior to that, he was financial aid director for seven years at the University of Missouri—Kansas City (UMKC). “UMKC is very similar to UCD in that it’s an urban institution with a separate health sciences campus with medicine, dental, nursing and pharmacy schools,” he explains.

In his spare time, McTee enjoys travel, skiing, hiking and back road 4X4 expeditions.