University Business - September 2011 - (Page 24)

financial aid the financial aid office of any changes to its academic progress policies and procedures to ensure it does not impact the financial aid office’s ability to determine if a student is meeting SAP requirements. RetuRn of title iV funds R2T4 applies to students who begin and then cease attendance in all classes prior to the scheduled end of the period. These students are entitled to the amount of Title IV funds they earned as of their withdrawal date. Students who earn less student aid than they received must return unearned funds to Title IV programs. Determining when students cease attendance requires coordination and communication with academic affairs, the registrar, and the billing office. Institutions must track and report this information back to the financial aid office to determine how much aid was earned. This means training instructors and ensuring departments notify that office when a student stops attending. Financial aid office staff must also understand the institution’s attendance and enrollment policies so they can determine how much aid a student earned and how much must be returned to the federal government. New R2T4 regulations that became effective on July 1 are more stringent than previous regulations for courses in a program that doesn’t span the entire length of the payment period or period of enrollment. Now students are considered to have withdrawn if they don’t attend all days (for a credit-hour program) or complete all clock hours they were scheduled to attend. Students in nonterm or nonstandard-term programs are considered withdrawn if their next class does not begin within a certain length of time and they do not provide written notification of their intention to attend later in the term. The new regulations also revamp which schools are required to take attendance. This illustrates why administrators across campus must be aware of student aid compliance requirements. Offices should collaborate with financial aid staff 24 | September 2011 to ensure attendance (and other) policies are in line with federal regulations. VeRification Verification is required to confirm information applicants provide on the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) is accurate. The Department of Education selects some FAFSA applicants for verification, and others are selected by schools. Verification can be complex and time-consuming; family structures and situations don’t always match the options Student financial information verification requires sufficient uninterrupted time to review paperwork. provided on the form, and families often need personal assistance in properly filling out the form. This limits financial aid offices’ ability to automate the system, making it labor-intensive. These offices must be provided sufficient resources to effectively verify students’ financial information. This means giving aid office staff sufficient, uninterrupted time—separate from time scheduled to assist students on the phone and other appointments—to review verification paperwork requirements. The Department of Education has made some significant changes to the verification regulations, which become effective for the 2012-2013 award year to implement a more targeted approach to the process. Officials have said the changes will reduce the administrative burden of verification for financial aid offices, but many have challenged this assertion and maintain that the changes will increase verification workloads—especially at schools that enroll a high number of Pelleligible students. Institutions may want to play it safe and plan to increase resources for verification to ensure compliance with the new requirements. administRatiVe capability To participate in the Federal Student Aid (FSA) programs, an institution must demonstrate it is administratively capable of providing the education it promises and managing the FSA programs and funds. This means adequate resources need to be allocated to ensure compliance with the many regulations for the entire institution, from campus safety to athletics. A lack of administrative capability can make it difficult for a campus to comply with the many complex student aid regulations. Having financial aid funds on campus for students also means numerous departments must fulfill federal priorities. The financial aid office is responsible for these funds, and it must coordinate information from across the campus to meet reporting and disclosure requirements. So financial aid professionals need to be involved in planning for new academic programs, campus locations, online degrees, course withdrawal policy revisions, mini sessions or parts of term, study abroad programs, or transfer articulation agreements. This helps ensure sufficient time and resources to maintain adequate administrative capability. Institutions are also required to separate functions to avoid possible conflicts of interest and create sufficient checks and balances. No matter how small the school is, the same person can’t approve a student for aid and hand him or her a check. The school must have sufficient administrative capability to separate certain functions. collaboRation and communication A lack of communication and collaboration greatly increases the chances of struggling to maintain student aid eligibility. That simple concept can be a challenge in ensuring campus offices understand evolving student aid regulations and how their policies impact student aid eligibility. Institutions with these systems that make Title IV compliance a campuswide responsibility will have an easier time meeting the challenging requirements. universitybusiness.com http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - September 2011

University Business - September 2011
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Ad Index
Behind the News
Viewpoint
Financial Aid
Money Matters
Internet Technology
Shared Governance
Acknowledging Achievement
Looking Back
Spotlight on Procurement
EduComm 2011
End Note

University Business - September 2011