Policies & Procedures

Today is: Saturday - February 11, 2012

 

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WWU Policies and Procedures

Fiscal Services Policies and Procedures

 

Refund Exceptions

Washington state law allows for exceptions to the above refund policy for medical and military reasons. Students who qualify for a refund based on one of these exceptions must contact the Student Accounts office at 360-650-2865 or in person in Old Main 360.

Family Education Rights to Privacy Act (FERPA)

Student Records Policy - Notification of Rights

Western’s Student Records Policy and the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) afford students the following rights with respect to their educational records:

1. The right to review and copy their educational records. Requests by a student for access to an educational record should be made to the head of the unit holding the record.
2. Students have the right to challenge the content of, release of, or denial of access to, their educational records.
3. Only directory information (name, local telephone number, dates of attendance, degrees and awards received) may be released to third parties, unless written permission is given by the student. Students may request that directory information remain confidential also. FERPA allows certain exceptions to this which are detailed in the full Student Records Policy.
4. Students have the right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning alleged failures by WWU to comply with the requirements of FERPA. The name and address of the office that administers FERPA is:

Family Policy Compliance Office
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue SW
Washington DC 20202-4605

For a complete copy of Western’s Student Records policy, see WAC 516-26 or Appendix E of the WWU General Catalog.

Registrar's Office FERPA Tutorial

Refund Policy

WWU Refund Policy

Students who withdraw before the sixth (6) day of the quarter receive a full refund of tuition and fees. The $250 Enrollment fee is non-refundable.

Students who withdraw on or after the sixth (6) day of the quarter, but within the first thirty (30) calendar days following the first day of instruction, will receive a refund of one-half (1/2) of tuition only. No refund is given for Building, Health Services, Technology or additional course fees on or after the sixth (6) day of instruction.

Students who withdraw after the 30th day are given no refund.

The refund deadlines for each quarter are published by the Registrar's Office (reference Timetable of Classes).

School Withdrawal

If you withdraw from all of your classes within 60% of the beginning of any given quarter, your eligibility for federal student aid and Washington State Need Grant programs must be recalculated in accordance with treatment of Title IV aid requirements. Your withdrawal date will be the earlier of the date you began the withdrawal process, the date related to the circumstance leading to your withdrawal, your actual withdrawal date, or the date that you began an official leave of absence signed by a University representative. This date will be used to determine whether you owe a repayment of aid or are due a post-withdrawal aid disbursement for the quarter. If you are planning to withdraw from all of your classes and have made arrangements to receive financial aid, please provide official notification to Financial Aid and the Registrar’s Office of your intent to withdraw as soon as possible (even prior to totally withdrawing). Your notification will allow either of these two departments to initiate steps to bring closure to financial aid issues you may have for the quarter and help you resolve any aid eligibility concerns for future quarters.

 

Treatment of Federal Aid after Withdrawal

The law specifies how Western Washington University must determine the amount of Federal Student Aid (FSA) assistance that you earn if you withdraw from school. The FSA programs that are covered by this law are: Federal Pell Grants, Stafford Loans, PLUS Loans, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOGs), Federal Perkins Loans and in some cases, and Washington State Need Grants.

When you withdraw during the quarter the amount of FSA program assistance that you have earned up to that point is determined by a specific formula. If you received (or Western or your parent received on your behalf) less assistance than the amount that you earned, you may be able to receive those additional funds. If you received more assistance than you earned, the excess funds must be returned by Western and/or you.

The amount of assistance that you have earned is determined on a pro-rata basis. For example, if you completed 30 percent of your payment period or period of enrollment, you earn 30 percent of the assistance you were originally scheduled to receive. Once you have completed more than 60 percent of the payment period or period of enrollment, you earn all the assistance that you were scheduled to receive.

If you did not receive all of the funds that you earned, you may be due a post-withdrawal disbursement. If the post-withdrawal disbursement includes loan funds, you have fourteen days to decline the additional loan funds so that you don’t incur additional debt. Western will automatically use all or a portion of your post-withdrawal disbursement (including loan funds if you accept them) for tuition, fees, and room and board charges. For all other school charges, Western needs your permission to use the post-withdrawal disbursement. If you do not give your permission, you will be offered the funds. However, it may be in your best interest to allow Western to keep the funds to reduce your debt.

There are some FSA funds that you were scheduled to receive that you cannot earn once you withdraw because of other eligibility requirements. For example, if you are a first-time first-year undergraduate student and you have not completed the first 30 days of your program before you withdraw, you will not earn any FFEL or Direct loan funds that you would have received had you remained enrolled past the 30th day.

If you receive (or Western or your parent receives on your behalf) excess FSA program funds that must be returned, Western must return a portion of the excess equal to the lesser of:

1. Your institutional charges multiplied by the unearned percentage of your funds; or
2. The entire amount of excess funds.

Western must return this amount even if it didn’t keep this amount of your FSA program funds.

If Western is not required to return all of the excess funds, you must return the remaining amount. Any loan funds that you must return, you (or your parent for a PLUS Loan) repay in accordance with the terms of the promissory note. That is, you make scheduled payments to the holder of the loan over a period of time.

Any amount of unearned grant funds that you must return is called an overpayment. The amount of a grant overpayment that you must repay is half of the unearned amount. You must make arrangements with Western or the Department of Education to return the unearned grant funds.

The requirements for FSA program funds when you withdraw are separate from any refund policy that Western has. Therefore, you may still owe funds to Western to cover unpaid institutional charges. Western may also charge you for any FSA program funds that Western was required to return. If you don’t already know about Western's Refund Policy you can pickup a copy in Student Accounts, Old Main 360.

The Registrar or Student Accounts can also provide you with the requirements and procedures for officially withdrawing from school.

If you have questions about your FSA program funds, you can call the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243). The Center accepts calls from 8 a.m. , to midnight (EST), seven days a week. TTY users may call 1-800-730-8913. Information is also available on the U.S. Department of Education’s Financial Aid for Students Home Page.

WWU Email Policy

University assigned student email accounts shall be one of the official means of communication of the University with all students. Students are responsible for all information sent to them via the University assigned email account. Students who choose to forward messages from the University email account are still responsible for all the information (including attachments) that was sent to the University account.

The University expects that such communications will be received and read in a timely fashion. Official email communications are intended only to meet the academic and administrative needs of the campus community.

Official University email accounts are created for all enrolled students. A student must activate his/her account in order to access University correspondence.

For more information regarding your WWU email account please contact the Academic Technology & User Services (ATUS) Department.