UW–Madison Collaborative Team Delivers Combined Tuition and Housing Bill

For the first time in UW–Madison history, Spring ’20 students who live in University Housing residence halls received one bill for both tuition and housing charges and are able to make one payment.  There have been multiple attempts in past years to combine the two bills for the convenience of students and their parents, as is the practice among most of our peer institutions, but this time was a winner. This project has streamlined the payment process for students and their parents. Prior to this semester, students received separate bills for tuition and housing.  Parents had to maintain two separate logon accounts, and students and parents both had access two separate e-payment sites to make payments.  If a student were to receive financial aid, the aid would apply to their tuition and if there was excess aid the student would be issued a refund.  University Housing would rely on students applying the excess aid towards the resident hall charges.  Students will now receive one bill which includes both their tuition and fees as well as their resident hall charges.  As a result, they now only have one account to log onto to process a payment.  When financial aid is applied to a student’s account it will automatically apply towards their tuition and fees and resident hall charges prior to a refund being issued to the student. Students are also able to take advantage of a single payment plan which will allow the student’s balance to be divided into three payments. In addition to combining the accounts into one account for the student, the bill also underwent a face lift.  Not only are tuition and housing charges now listed on one bill, but anticipated financial aid is also detailed and the total amount due from the student is reduced by the anticipated financial aid amount. Not only is this an improvement for our students, it is also an improvement for both University Housing and the Office of Student Financial Aid.  The Office of Financial Aid will be able to pull residence hall information directly from the student account, which streamlines the process for returning federal funds.  Financial aid will automatically apply towards resident hall charges which allows University Housing to receive their revenue earlier.  They will also benefit from making use of additional payment methods used in the Bursar’s Office including international funds transfer, internal and external third-party contracts.  For student’s that are unable to make payments, the resident hall charges will also be include in the internal and external collections efforts provided by the Bursar’s Office. The team, comprised of representatives from the Bursar’s Office, University Housing, the Office of Student Financial Aid, and DoIT, worked together for over a year, first, to determine optimal timing for delivery of the combined bills.  In consideration of the SIS 9.2 upgrade and planned implementation of Housing’s new StarRez student housing software solution last summer, the team determined Spring ’20 as the target.  Then work began on designing, building, and testing a new statement with the e-payment vendor, exporting housing charges from StarRez and loading them into SIS, and sharing and merging Bursar and Housing business processes. Tamara Dagnon, from the Project Management Office, lead the team as the Project Manager.  The core project team also included from the Bursar’s Office; Ginger Perkins, Laura Rader, and Tip Vandall, from the Office of Student Financial Aid; Kristen McRoberts, from University Housing; Amelia Roemer, Anastasia Kramper, Brian Ward, Cheryl Sewell, David Swiderski, Laura Morris, Sara Arnsdorf, Susan Juncer, and Troy Suski, and from DoIT – Enterprise Business Systems; Dave Marty, Jason Chapman and Ozzyie Chen.  During implementation, the team was also supported by Sneha Reddy and Mark Sanchez, both from DoIT ERP Administration. Project sponsor Dan Langer, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Business Services and Controller, reflecting on the year-long effort, said, “The collaborative and collegial experience which I was able to observe through the conference calls and emails is a true testament to why it is so appreciated to be affiliated with UW–Madison.”  Co-sponsor, Jeff Novak, Director, University Housing, also applauded the achievement; “I can’t begin to find the right words for everyone’s outstanding efforts in getting us here.”