A new process at the UA will enroll University students in a tuition payment plan instead of dropping them if they have not paid by Feb. 4. This is meant to help rid students, faculty and staff of unnecessary stress and additional work.
University of Arizona students who have not paid their tuition and fees by the first day of classes will be signed up in a payment plan under a new policy.
Each semester, about 2,000 students voluntarily enroll in the UA's tuition payment plan. Students can voluntarily sign up for the payment plan on or before Jan. 14. And now, those who do not pay in time will automatically be signed up for the plan.
UA students are already receiving information about the new policy via Student Link, a Web-based system that tracks each student's academic history, shows available financial aid and allows students to register and make payments online.
"The other two state universities have adopted this practice and it makes sense for us for many reasons," Beth Acree, interim UA registrar, noted in a campuswide memo.
Acree said the new policy will help many University students avoid "unnecessary anxiety.
This is how the program works:
John Nametz, the UA's financial aid director, said the new process will ensure that "students who are expecting financial aid and other money from outside sources that they are are truly safe from having classes cancelled."
The new process also helps the University streamline the enrollment process in several ways, Nametz said.
For instance, faculty should have a better headcount in the first weeks of the semester because the system will not be automatically dropping students who have full intention of being enrolled.
Also, students will not have to be manually re-registered into courses after they are able to make their payments, he said.
Acree noted another benefit: state full-time equivalent funding will not be reduced by canceled registrants who end up adding courses after the census date, which is the 21st day of classes.