The Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (VPCFO) continuous improvement team recently finished a project focusing on fee remissions. The project was submitted with the problem statement:
Fee remissions are awarded and processed many ways. Several issues result, including manual processing wherein people enter fee remissions directly into the PeopleSoft client, lack of departmental oversight into fee remission entry, lack of clarity in terms of responsibility, and no policy governing fee remissions.

The project resulted in:

• An online request form for all things fee remissions: request access to the Student Information System (SIS), complete training, request new Third Party Contracts (TPCs), request updates to existing TPCs or submit awards for processing.
  • The request form is available at: https://one.iu.edu/task/iu/fee-remission-request-form
• A standard operational procedure outlining responsibilities and processing standards.

What does this mean to me?

• Existing Users —Read the Fee Remission Standard Operating Procedures.
• New/Change TPC Setup —If you need to request a new TPC or make changes to your existing TPC setup, use the online form to submit the request.
• Update item type account/object code— If you need to update the account and/or object code used on a fee remission item type, use the online form to submit the request.
• Batch Loads—If you need to add at least 50 students to a TPC, submit the batch file using the online form.
• New Users—The Office of the Bursar offers online TPC training. The training is required for new users and available to anyone who wants a refresher. Use the online form to access training materials and submit a request for access to the system.
• Additionally, we have added a new feature to the request page. In SIS on the ‘IU Department TPC Request Page’, the ‘Related Content’ link at the top of the screen will allow users to view the TPC setup. Click the ‘Related Content’ link and then select ‘TPC Setup’. The TPC Create page will now display at the bottom of the screen allowing users to easily see the TPC long description to determine what a TPC pays (or special setup notes).

An excerpt from the Comprehensive Guide to Payments to Students document:

Fee Remission Definition: A fee remission is any award to a student, regardless of funding source, which provides funding restricted to pay only certain educational expenses assessed by IU. Fee remissions are applied to approved charges with specific payment rules.

All fee remissions for undergraduate and graduate students, regardless of types of remissions, must be processed through the SIS to comply with federal financial aid regulations (regardless of whether the student is receiving federal financial aid).

The Financial Aid Office is responsible for ensuring that fee remissions paid through the SIS mechanism called “Third Party Contracts” (TPCs) and the amounts paid are accurately reflected as part of an applicant’s total aid. The awarding department may be asked to indicate the amount they expect the TPC to pay, as an estimate, when the student is attached to the TPC so that amount can serve as a placeholder, around which other aid can be awarded.

See page 7 in the Comprehensive Guide to Payments to Students document for details on the characteristics and examples of fee remissions.