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System Procedures Guideline 7.6.2 Satisfactory Academic Progress ExceptionPurpose: Policy 1A.1, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Organization and Administration, defines a system guideline as giving explicit direction, instructions or guidance on internal forms, processes and other administrative or managerial matters, consistent with Board policy and System procedure. Each college and university should establish local procedures consistent with this guideline. This guideline sets forth basic requirements to be used by the colleges and universities for determining if an exception to established academic and financial policies regarding back-dating a registration cancellation for some or all registered courses will be granted to students whose appeal for reinstatement of financial aid eligibility is denied. Background: Federal and State regulations require that students who are receiving financial aid meet certain eligibility criteria. One of these criteria is referred to as Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) Standards. All colleges and universities must monitor all students, graduate and undergraduate, for SAP Standards beginning with their first term of attendance. Notice of probation or suspension of financial aid eligibility will occur for students who fail to meet and maintain these standards. Students who have been suspended have the right to appeal based on extenuating circumstances as defined by the colleges’ and universities’ financial aid SAP policy. Students who choose to appeal their suspension status must complete and return an appeal form with appropriate documentation by the college’s or university’s published appeal deadline date for the academic term indicated on the appeal form for which the student is requesting funds. The registration and financial obligation date is the fifth day of each academic term or through one day after the first class session, whichever is later. Courses dropped after the obligation date are recorded in accordance with college or university policy (e.g., with a “W” grade) and the related financial liability for tuition/fees remains with the student; if a student officially withdraws from all enrolled courses, the schedule for refund/credit percentages apply. Guideline requirements: The Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) Standards policy includes appeal deadlines each term that are established to provide sufficient time for the student to gather the required documentation for his/her appeal; however, this deadline occurs later than the term’s registration and financial obligation date. It is recognized that the timeline between the notice of suspension of financial aid eligibility and the obligation date for the next academic term may cause difficulties for the student to make an informed decision regarding enrollment. Therefore, exceptions to the college’s or university’s established academic and financial policies may be granted to students whose appeal for reinstatement of financial aid eligibility is denied. Where applicable, exceptions may be granted only where the appeal deadline is within the first 30 days of the term. Subject to the appeal deadline restriction above, a student who submits a properly completed appeal form (including appropriate documentation) which is received by financial aid administrators on or before the college’s or university’s published appeal deadline date for the term may be granted a special provision to address the difficulties inherent in the process. If the student’s appeal for reinstatement of financial aid eligibility is subsequently denied, the student will be notified via college or university e-mail or other means of this decision. The student will then be given five (5) business days after the notification date (e-mail timestamp) of such denial to elect to drop all or a portion of his/her enrolled academic credits without penalty or obligation. The dropped credits will be treated as a cancelled registration the same as if the drop was recorded prior to the term’s registration and financial obligation date, and the tuition/fee charges related to the course or courses will be removed from the student’s financial liability to the college or university. A student who elects to drop all or a portion of his/her enrolled academic credits within the five (5) business days after the notification of denial for reinstatement must notify the college’s or university’s designated office in writing of this decision, and must update his/her official registration records to reflect the dropped course(s) within this timeline. All or a portion of a student’s enrolled academic credits dropped later than five (5) business days after the notification of denial will be subject to normal college or university academic and financial policies. As a point of clarification, this provision is available only to students who are subject to the tight timelines that occur between certain academic terms. Therefore, students who
are granted this provision. Students who
are not granted this provision.
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