Information on the Federal Program: Federal Direct Student Loan Program (AL Number 84.268) – U.S. Department of Education
Criteria or specific requirement: 34 CFR 685.304(b)(1) - A school must ensure that exit counseling is conducted with each Direct Subsidized Loan or Direct Unsubsidized Loan borrower and graduate or professional student Direct PLUS Loan borrower shortly before the student borrower ceases at least half-time study at the school.
Condition: Out of a population of 118 graduated students, we sampled 16. Out of this sample, the University was unable to provide evidence of exit counseling notifications being sent to 15 students.
Cause: The University did not have a control in place to ensure exit counseling notifications were sent to graduating students timely.
Effect: The University is not in compliance with Title 34, Section 685.304 with respect to the referenced graduated students.
Recommendation: We recommend that the University establish controls to ensure that exit counseling notifications are sent prior to the date of graduation.
Views of responsible officials and planned corrective actions: The University concurs with the finding. The University is currently utilizing the Banner Optimization to develop a message alert within the Student Portal (Wired) when a Graduation Fee is charged. This will be fully functional in fiscal year 2025.
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