Dear Faculty and Instructional Staff,

Recent changes in the federal regulations governing the disbursement of federal financial aid require the campus to gather attendance information on a small number of students.  Specifically, beginning with the Spring 2012 final grade collection, instructors will be required to indicate the last known date of attendance when final grades of F or U are assigned (F and U grades comprise roughly 1% of all grades campus wide in a given semester). In some cases, instructors will need to indicate that a student never attended class. Detailed instructions for Banner grade entry will be provided in the next few days by the Office of the Registrar.  

We recognize this new procedure will involve a bit more work on your part during the grade entry process and we very much appreciate your assistance.  We are all working to ensure that our campus is compliant with federal regulations for two financial aid programs that greatly assist our students.  See details below:

Federal regulations associated with two important financial aid programs necessitate the collection of last date of attendance information for some students:

Unofficial Withdrawal Requirement (34 CFR 668.22 (j) (2)): Federal Title IV funds are awarded to a student under the assumption that the student will attend school for the entire period for which the assistance is awarded. When a student withdraws, the student may no longer be eligible for the full amount of Title IV funds that was originally received.  If a student who began attendance and has not officially withdrawn fails to earn a passing grade in at least one course offered over an entire semester, the institution must assume, for Title IV purposes, that the student has unofficially withdrawn.

Federal Pell Grant Attendance Requirement: Federal regulations require that a procedure be in place to know whether a student has begun attendance in all classes for purposes of the Federal Pell Grant Program.  A student is considered to have begun attendance in all of his or her classes if the student attends at least one day of class for each course in which the student's enrollment status was determined for Federal Pell Grant eligibility.

 

     
   
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