1. All tuition and fees assessed by the College, except for the Miscellaneous Student Fees described previously, shall be refunded under the following condition:
   
   
   1. The College will refund or cancel obligations that relate specifically to the cancellation of a course by the College.
      
   2. All refunds to students, except charge transactions such as VISA or Mastercard, are to be made by check.  Refund checks will be mailed to the Region for distribution to the student.  The charge transactions should be refunded by issuing a credit to the student's VISA or Mastercard account.
      
   3. The effective date for calculating the amount of fees to be refunded is the date the written notification for the official withdrawal is received.  This procedure is performed in the Registrar's office.   The refund amount is automatically calculated in the SIS system based on a drop code entered by the registrar.
      
   4. Tuition and fees to be refunded for withdrawal from courses will automatically apply toward assessment of additional courses in the same semester.
      
   5. Students or parents, who feel that individual circumstances warrant an exception to the standard refund policy, may appeal to the Vice President/ Chancellor.

2. The Student Information System processes student refunds based on the percentages noted below. Refunds are calculated on business days regardless of holidays. Technology fees, consumable fees, and tuition are refunded at the same rate noted below. Regardless of the day of the week that a course first meets, the refund period would begin on Monday of the first week of classes that a particular course meets.

3. Term Length	Refund Schedule	Refund
   16 Week	1st - 10th Day 11 days or more	100% 0%
   12-15 Week	1st - 8th Day 9 days or more	100% 0%
   10-11 Week	1st - 6th Day 7 days or more	100% 0%
   8-9 Week	1st - 4th Day 6 days or more	100% 0%
   4-7 Week	1st - 2nd Day 4 days or more	100% 0%
   Less than 4 weeks	1st Day	100%

General Procedure

For an automatic refund to occur, a student account must have a credit balance in  the account.  On an exception basis, the Region will manually post a refund transaction to an account to generate a check regardless of the student account balance. 

A refund schedule is established at Central Office, and distributed to all appropriate personnel.   The routine schedule generally is that a refund cycle is run Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  There are exceptions to the routine schedule; therefore, it is necessary to refer to the schedule for planned exceptions.  In those instances when refunds do not run as scheduled, you will be notified. 

The business office is responsible for the custody and distribution of refund checks.  The Region must ensure that a check is rightfully due a student before releasing a check.  This includes analyzing the student account balance, and if any financial aid is involved, advising the Financial Aid Department so that they may analyze the financial aid awarded for propriety.  After all analyses have been completed and it has been determined that the check is due the student, then the business office may distribute the check to the student.  If the check is not due the student, the business office must void the check and initiate the process to reverse the transaction by following the steps described in the SIS B/R Users Manual. 

The Region does have the authority to issue student refund checks using the revolving fund when there is a need to issue the check in a more expedient manner.  However, this process is to be used on an exception basis only.

  When a vendor, student, or employee's check is alleged to have been negotiated by someone other than the payee without permission to do so an"Affidavit Concerning Forged Endorsement" may be completed. The affidavit must be submitted within one year from the date of issue of the forged check. The College performs this as a courtesy to the payee. If the Affidavit is not filed within the one year time period, the payee may pursue the matter directly with his/her bank and the local authorities. 

Refer to the FMM Section M, Financial Documents, for procedures to complete and process the affidavit.

There may be circumstances in which it is appropriate for the region to waive tuition or other charges. These situations however should be rare and this practice should not be utilized on a regular basis. Examples of when a tuition waiver might be appropriate would include: student has a valid complaint about a class and requests a refund; the waiving of a late fee; in lieu of a cash refund after the normal refund period; and adjustments to tuition.

Tuition waivers must be approved in writing by the Chancellor. If deemed appropriate, the Chancellor may delegate this approval to the Executive Director of Finance, Director of Business Office or equivalent, or Executive Campus Dean. In all cases the region must complete a Tuition Waiver/Adjustment form.

When processing a tuition waiver, the initial charge being waived must always be posted to the students account. The tuition waiver is then to be posted utilizing the regional tuition waiver sub-code. This would also be the procedure if the amount of the fee is being reduced; the original fee should be posted to the account and the tuition sub-code utilized to reduce the charge.

Copies of the approved Tuition Waiver/Adjustment form must be filed with CRF associated with the day’s transactions for which the waiver was posted. A copy of the form must be forwarded to Financial Aid. A copy of the waiver should also be sent to the student in situations where the waiver is being utilized in lieu of a refund.

All Tuition Waiver/Adjustment forms are valid one year from the date of issuance. In situations where a waiver/adjustment form is presented for redemption, the Business Office must ensure the propriety of the form. This may be accomplished by comparing the student’s form to the copy maintained in the Business Office. This should be done prior to posting to the student’s account.