How does the University handle financial collections and loan repayment?

Submitted by Maggie O'Neil, Didi Nguyen, and Linda Olson

Sometimes the perception can be:

But, this is not remotely accurate. Yes, it’s true that in the Student Account Assistance (SAA) office, we are responsible for collecting dollars at the University of Minnesota. It’s not an easy task, but we would like to be understood as one part of a kinder, gentler U of M not only by students, but by parents, staff and the outside world. We begin by listening, really listening to the people we serve and, depending on the type of debt students have, SAA staff will help them understand their choices:

If they are concerned with student loans:

The SAA office is the main point of contact for all students who have student loans (Federal Perkins, University Trusts, Nursing, Health Professions, Primary Care, Minnesota Medical Foundation, and Social Work Grants to name a few). We work closely with students throughout the entire student loan process, from the point of disbursement to final repayment of their loans. Our knowledge of financial aid, student loans, and the University of Minnesota’s regulations have helped our students get back on track and navigate through  the many complex rules and entitlements that they may not have known about when initially signing their promissory notes. 

Our primary job is to keep borrowers current with their payments and work with students who have defaulted on their loans by helping them understand their rights, responsibilities and how to use the entitlements that are available to them. We also become their resource for Private and Direct Loans information. Although we do not service Direct Loans, we can guide students on how to find out who, what, where and when they owe during the repayment process.

We follow federal guidelines on due diligence for our collection process, and stay current on changes to regulations and temperaments. Decisions are made each and every day to see if the borrower meets the litmus test for certain entitlements. We strive to have our “A” game on at all times in order to be able to ask questions, assess student needs, and then come up with individualized solutions. No two days are alike and everyone’s crisis becomes our emergency.  

If they are concerned about tuition and fees:

The SAA office also serves as the pivot for past due accounts. We assist students in a variety of ways pertaining to  the balances they owe. If requested, we can define the charge(s) and help students resolve charge issues by either rectifying charge discrepancies or arranging for payment of the account balance. If it is determined that the balance cannot be satisfied in full, we are more than happy to work with students and establish a payment plan that help them pay over time with more manageable amounts. Unfortunately, this sometimes means it is our responsibility to help keep students from increasing their debt, particularly if it  has already become unmanageable for them, by holding to U of M policy and not allowing them to do what they wish to do.

Serving as responsible stewards for the University of Minnesota, it is our goal to procure what is owed and carry out that service to students in a respectful and engaging way by maintaining the integrity of not only the Student Account Assistance office, but the University of Minnesota as a whole.

ASR: After the Upgrade

After two-plus years of intense organizational focus on the Upgrade, it’s time for ASR to collect our thoughts about what’s next. There are lots of ideas, but our task will be looking in four primary directions and deciding how that information could impact ASR moving forward. John Vollum will be leading that effort for ASR; his past experience with organizational and collaborative efforts are a valuable resource while these topics are explored.

Looking Back - Where have we come from? What have we been good at and what have we accomplished?

John’s role: Help ASR learn from the Upgrade and apply it to future projects, large and small.

Looking Forward - Where are we going as an organization? What are the challenges and needs we’ll be addressing as a leading higher education department?

John’s role: Work with ASR managers to align work and staff ASR to meet those challenges.

Looking Out - How is higher education changing? What are the needed knowledge, skills and abilities.

John’s role: Looking across ASR to ensure that we are organizationally prepared for changes in higher education. One example would be helping OSF find and prepare for their next leader.

Looking In - Who are we? What makes us tick? What are the issues we need to address to be an organization that offers opportunity and challenge that engages and develops our staff?

John’s role: Assist ASR to actively work together on issues identified in our engagement survey.

Do you want to share an interesting aspect of the work you do? Or are you curious about the work happening in another ASR unit? Submit your ideas here.

What does it mean when 'the auditors are here'?

Every year the external auditors from Deloitte Financial Consultants review the University of Minnesota’s federal and state financial aid programs for compliance. This is also known as the A-133 audit. The auditors take a random sample of records and run them through the regulations to confirm the Office of Student Finance programs are working correctly.

The process starts by verifying students who qualify for admission, reviewing enrollment, tapping into ISIR (Institutional Student Information Record) data, and ensuring students receive the appropriate federal and state financial aid for which they are eligible (including those who withdraw). Any records that fail and for which the University does not have an acceptable explanation may result in a 'finding'. Findings have a major impact and may jeopardize future availability of financial aid for the institution as well as mar the University’s reputation.

The auditors start their preliminary work on campus for two weeks in May, continue working through records during the summer months and return to campus at the end of September/early October to complete their testing. In conjunction with the A-133 audit, the auditors are also reviewing data for the entire University from a financial statement aspect. The Office of Student Finance plays role in that portion of audit, especially in the areas of tuition & fee revenue and loan receivables.  A variety of OSF staff are involved with auditor data requests throughout the process.

Now you know: Payment plan options for students

Turning on the payment plan option for students is not as simple as it seems on the surface. There no switch that gets flipped on or off each term, and, like much in life, there are many processes and decisions that need to happen before making these options available to students.

So, how does it work?

Before anything else, the Board of Regents need to set and approve tuition rates. If all goes as planned, the Regents approve tuition rates during their June meeting. However, this presumes that the Minnesota State Legislature has already determined the University's state allocation. The Regents can’t set tuition rates before this allocation is determined, because tuition rate increases (or freezes) are tied directly to legislative decisions.

After the rates are set it takes three to four weeks for Student Finance - Information Technology to set up tuition and fees in PeopleSoft and another week to test whether or not it's working correctly. Behind the scenes, the Office of Student Finance (OSF) implements multiple payment plans for students with the hope that eventually the best single-plan option can be selected. You can imagine the impact to students if this information is incorrect or not properly working. Once the PeopleSoft tuition and fees are verified, OSF can begin to run tuition calculations for students who have enrolled for the upcoming term. After the tuition calculations have run, the delivered version of PeopleSoft's payment plan can be 'turned on' allowing students to select and enroll in the payment plan​.

However, OSF wants to avoid unnecessarily assessing students the $20 enrollment fee if their financial aid would cover ​all of ​their tuition and fees. For that reason, it's important that the payment plan not be available for students until after​ the first major​ financial aid disbursement date. This is especially true this term, because this is the first time students aren’t automatically enrolled in the payment plan option and need to proactively enroll themselves.

So, when will students be able to enroll in the payment plan? Aid is disbursed to students approximately 10 days before the start of the semester, so the payment plan will become available in the very short window between disbursement and the start of the semester.

Now you know!

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