Quick Collaboration to Implement Refund Deadline Flexibility

With the quick change and decision to pause in-person instruction for two weeks in September, other decisions also needed to be made quickly. One such decision was the increased flexibility of the deadline to withdraw from the university and receive a 100% tuition refund. This flexibility pushed the deadline to midnight on September 18th for students affected by COVID. After September 18th the refund requests had to be reviewed, as usual, by the academic deans’ offices.  As mentioned, this deadline flexibility was only granted to students who sought to withdraw due to COVID-related issues. It is important to note that this was not an extension of a deadline, but rather a flexibility in the deadline awarded to a specific population. The Office of the Registrar and the Office of Student Financial Aid, as well as other campus partners, worked together to implement this decision, develop a process by which this would occur, and communicate the change in a timely manner. The Process
  1. The Office of the Registrar (RO) ceased to process Fall 2020/1212 withdrawal requests immediately.
  2. The RO ran a daily process that placed an RFH, or refund hold, on the record of any student who had initiated a withdrawal. This hold prevented a refund from being issued prematurely.
  3. The Office of Student Financial Aid (OSFA) ran a daily query of the students with pending withdrawals and collected data in a strategic and collaborative way to catalog where students were in the withdrawal process. The data included information on whether or not a student was a financial aid recipient and if there were any potential negative financial impacts that the student should be made aware of prior to the withdrawal being processed.   
  4. OSFA also took the time to ask students who were financial aid recipients and would see negative impacts if they wished to proceed with the withdrawal or cancel the withdrawal. If a student did want to cancel their withdrawal, OSFA informed the RO to proceed with processing the withdrawal.    
  5. The RO regularly reviewed the collaborative spreadsheet and took the appropriate action processing the withdrawal – waited for further information, processed the withdrawal with a 100% refund override and Instructional Disruption withdrawal reason, or denied the withdrawal if cancellation was requested – based on approvals from OSFA. 
  6. The RO and OSFA then released the RFH for students whose withdrawals had been processed and the student account was accurately reflected.
  7. The school/college determined what, if any, actions they wished to take to follow-up with the students who opted not to withdraw.
Collaboration has proven to be crucial in these ever-changing times. This process development and implementation was a prime example of campus partners coming together quickly to provide helpful changes to students during this stressful time.