Managing Awards

SOP Title: Managing Awards

Document #:

{}

Revision #:

1.0

Effective Date:

MM/DD/YYYY

Author:

{NAME}

Reviewer:

{NAME}

Approver:

{NAME}

1 Purpose

These procedures will guide {INSERT TEAM NAME} through list process(es)

2 Scope

The {INSERT CLIENT TEAM NAME} will be impacted by this procedure.

3 Roles and Responsibility

{INSERT ROLE or DEPT NAME} with a {define role} will be responsible for list action

{INSERT ROLE or DEPT NAME} will be responsible for list action share.

4 Definitions

TERM

Definition

Term

Definition

5 Procedure

5.1 Accepting Awards via Student Portal

This procedure is for testing purposes only and does not apply to daily operations as this is a student function.

Actors

  • Student

  • Regent Award

  • Student Portal

Pre-conditions

Student has an award(s) in ‘Offered’ status.

Basic Flow

  1. Student is awarded one or more awards in ‘Offered’ status.

  2. Regent Award sends the student an award notification communication (per the Runbook scheduled time).

  3. Student logs into Student Portal to view and accept awards.

  4. Student can view accepted awards on the home page, with a ‘more’ link to the My Awards page.

  5. Student clicks on the ‘more’ link.

  6. If it is the first time the student is accessing the ‘My Awards’ page and the student has a Direct Subsidized or Direct Unsubsidized Loan, the student is presented with the Statement of Understanding notification.

  7. Student clicks the link on the notification box and is taken to the Statement of Understanding page and must ‘Acknowledge’ to continue to view and accept loans in an ‘Offered’ status.

  8. Student clicks the ‘Acknowledge’ button.

  9. Regent Award populates the Statement of Understanding, ‘Office Use Only’ document in a ‘Satisfied’ status under the document requirements for the student.

  10. On the My Awards page, the student reviews the Cost of Attendance and accepts the ‘Offered’ amounts. Note: If a Direct Subsidized Loan is offered, it must be accepted for the full eligible amount before the student can accept any part of an ‘Offered’ Direct Unsubsidized Loan. This does not apply to graduate students since they are not eligible for Direct Subsidized Loans.

  11. Regent Award automatically repackages the student for the loan amount(s) indicated via the Student Portal.

Post-conditions

  • Student’s ‘Offered’ awards are now reflected in an ‘Accepted’ status in both the Student Portal and Regent Award.

Alternative Flows

  • Student logs into Student Portal to either ‘Accept’ or ‘Decline’ an award(s).

    • If an award is being blocked for packaging due to document or task restrictions, the following message will display on the My Awards page, along with the fund(s) being blocked: “The following awards could not be updated as submitted at this time. Please check back later for updates to the awards which you accepted or declined and contact your financial aid office for more information.

  • Student logs into Student Portal and declines awards; which are then reflected in a ‘Declined’ status.

    • Regent Award repackages student and academic plan reflects updated awards based on order of funds in packaging philosophy.

 

5.2 Accepting Awards via Modified Award Wizard (MAW) in Regent Award

Actors

  • User with appropriate permissions

  • Regent Award

Pre-conditions

  • Student has an award(s) in ‘Offered’ status.

Basic Flow

  1. Student is awarded one or more awards in ‘Offered’ status.

  2. The User navigates to the Awards tab.

    1. Selects the applicable loan period awards by using the ‘Analyze Loan Period’ dropdown.

      1. Note: The ‘Analyze Loan Period’ dropdown displays every loan period and academic year for student.

    2. Scrolls down to the Compare Awards section

    3. Expands the ‘Awards’ section by clicking on the arrow.

  3. Clicks on the pencil icon next to the award amount to access the Modify Award Wizard (MAW).
    Note, when editing Loans for undergraduates, always edit the Subsidized loan first, before editing the Unsubsidized loan.

  4. On Step 1 of the wizard, the User utilizes the ‘Status’ dropdown to change the ‘Offered’ award to an ‘Accepted’ status, updates the accepted amount, enters a comment in the ‘Notes’ field, and clicks Continue.

  5. On Step 2, the User reviews the amounts allocated for the payment periods and clicks Continue.

  6. On Step 3, the User reviews the disbursement amounts and the disbursement status for each payment period.

    1. The ‘Adjusted Release Date’ may be updated, if needed.

    2. If the award amount is being increased, the User can add a new disbursement row and amount or adjust the existing disbursement row and amount.

      1. Note: Paid disbursement amounts should not be increased. To increase an amount in a term or PP that has a paid disbursement, add a new disbursement in Scheduled status.

    3. If the award amount is being decreased, the User can adjust the existing disbursement amount.

  7. On Step 4, the User will review the Academic Plan Preview to ensure the award has been updated correctly and the overall award package is as expected.

  8. Clicks ‘Finish’

  9. Clicks refresh in Awards Screen to view added awards

Post-conditions

  • Student’s ‘Offered’ awards are now reflected in an ‘Accepted’ status in both the Student Portal and in Regent Award.

Alternative Flows

  • The User utilizes the MAW to change the ‘Offered’ award to a ‘Declined’ status.

  • The User utilizes the MAW to change the ‘Offered’ award to a ‘Cancelled’ status.

5.3 Increasing or Decreasing Awards via Modify Award Wizard (MAW) in Regent Award

Actors

  • User with appropriate permissions

  • Regent Award

Pre-conditions

  • Student requests more or less than the original award which requires manual award adjustment, or

  • User receives one of the following tasks:

    • Review Declined or Reduced Manual Award

    • Review Overaward with Unpaid Disbursements

    • Review Eligibility Change

    • Review Late Disbursement

    • Review Loans Originated after Withdrawal

    • Review Student Document(s) task in the Review Course & NT Remaining Period of Study Task Queue

Basic Flow

  1. The User reviews the student’s awards to determine if any awards require manual updates and the applicable amount.

    1. If no manual updates to awards are required, add notes to the task and update the task to a ‘Closed’ status (do not continue with additional steps).

    2. If manual updates to awards are required, proceed with steps below.

  2. The User navigates to Awards tab:

    1. Selects the applicable loan period awards by using the ‘Analyze Loan Period’ dropdown

      1. Note: The ‘Analyze Loan Period’ dropdown displays all academic years and loan periods for student.

    2. Scrolls down to the ‘Compare Awards’ section

    3. Expands the ‘Awards’ section by clicking on the arrow

    4. Clicks on the pencil icon next to the award amount to access the MAW

  3. On Step 1 of the wizard, the User:

    1. Updates the ‘Status’ dropdown to change to a new status, if applicable (e.g. change to Offered, Accepted, Declined)

    2. Updates the New Offer amount

      1. Note: If the offered amount is greater than the calculated eligibility, the Override Eligibility Rules indicator box must be checked.

      2. Any changes to the New Offer amount will change the award to Manual status.

    3. Updates the Accepted amount (only applies to awards in an Accepted status)

    4. Enters a comment in the ‘Notes’ field and clicks Continue.

  4. On Step 2, the User updates the payment period amount(s) for the payment periods to which the award amounts are allocated and clicks continue.

  5. On Step 3, the User updates the disbursement amounts and the disbursement status for each payment period.

    1. If the payment period amount is being increased for a paid disbursement, the User must add a new disbursement row and amount.

    2. If the award amount is being decreased, or the disbursement is still Scheduled, the User can adjust the existing disbursement row and amount.

  6. On Step 4, the User reviews the Academic Plan preview and ensures the award has been updated correctly and the overall award package is as expected.

  7. Clicks refresh in Awards Screen to view updated award amounts.

  8. Adds notes to the task and updates the task to a ‘Completed’ status.

Post-conditions

  • If no manual updates are required, notes are included for the task and the status has been updated to ‘Closed’.

  • If manual updates are required, notes are included for the task and the status has been updated to ‘Completed’.

  • If manual updates are required, the manual award(s) are updated with the determined amount and other awards are automatically updated in the Academic Plan based on the Packaging Philosophy order.

5.4 Using Packaging Philosophy Override to Update to 100% of COA

Actors

  • User with appropriate permissions

  • Regent Award

Pre-conditions

  • Student is eligible for a Direct Subsidized and Direct Unsubsidized Loan

  • Direct Subsidized and Direct Unsubsidized Loans are configured with a ‘Package To’ = % of Amount of Direct Costs and a ‘Package To Amount’ = 100%

  • Direct Subsidized and Direct Unsubsidized Loans funds are configured with an award period = Academic Year

  • Institution is configured with a default Packaging Philosophy to package to Direct Costs, and an Alternative Packaging Philosophy to package to Maximum Eligibility (i.e., full COA)

Basic Flow

  1. Regent Award packages student

    1. Student is initially packaged to 100% of Direct Costs

  2. The User navigates to the Academic Plan tab and clicks on Modify Academic Plan (MAP)

    1. Updates the Packaging Philosophy Override fields to ‘Alternative Packaging Philosophy’

    2. Completes the MAP process

Post-conditions

  • After updating the Packaging Philosophy Override field, student is packaged to 100% of COA

  • An Activity Log Entry is created with the Packaging Philosophy Override as described above

  • After repackaging, student remains packaged to 100% of COA

Subsidized Usage Limit Applies (SULA) - No longer applicable

The limitation on Subsidized Loans has been discontinued.

5.6 Monitoring SULA

Actors

  • User with appropriate permissions

  • Runbook

Pre-conditions

  • Student is subject to SULA (with an accepted Subsidized loan)

Basic Flow

  1. SULA Identification report is run daily, and results sent to [client e-mail].

  2. The User reviews all students on the list who will require a ‘Review SULA’ document (as applicable) and manually add the document in Regent Award in a ‘Received’ status.

  3. The User further defines the following criteria:

    1. If student has already been reviewed and will not need to be reviewed again in the future, update 'Review SULA' document to ‘Waived’ status, script will not display student in the future.

    2. If student is not in last AY of program and 'Review SULA' document is in ‘Satisfied’ status, script will not display student in the future.

    3. If student is not in last AY of program and 'Review SULA' document is not in ‘Satisfied’ or ‘Waived’ status, script will display student in the future.

    4. If student is in last AY of program and subsidized loan is set to ‘manual’ and 'Review SULA' document is not in ‘Satisfied’ or ‘Waived’ status, script will display student in the future.

    5. If student is in last AY of program and subsidized loan is set to ‘manual’ and 'Review SULA' document is in ‘Satisfied’ status, do script will not display student in the future.

    6. If student is in last AY of program and subsidized loan is not set to ‘manual’, script will display student in the future (regardless of ‘Satisfied’ or ‘Needed’ document status for the 'Review SULA' document; only ‘Waived’ will still not show).

  4. The script for the SULA query is ran and results sent to [client e-mail].

  5. The User reviews each student with a ‘Review SULA’ document in a ‘Received’ status for Subsidized Loan eligibility:

    1. The User manually adjusts Subsidized loans as needed through the MAW (see section 5.3 Modify Award Wizard above).

    2. The User updates the ‘Review SULA’ document status:

      1. If student will not need to be reviewed again in the future, the FA Processor will update the 'Review SULA' document to ‘Waived’ status, and student will no longer show on query results.

      2. Update document to ‘Satisfied’ status.

Post-conditions

  • Student is packaged to maximum Subsidized Loan eligibility.

 

 

Change Log

Date

Description of Change

Editor

Date

Description of Change

Editor

May 24, 2024

Reviewed preexisting page for 2024-2025 regulatory changes. No new changes, but moved SULA into an expansion box for legacy reference.

Jennifer Black