Faculty and Staff Resources

The purpose of this policy is to clearly describe how financial aid offers are distributed to students, in the form of scholarships, should be made at Western Michigan University. WMU must remain in compliance with federal regulations, which require that all sources of funding be taken into account in determining federal aid eligibility. This policy is also needed for WMU to be competitive with other universities, most of which follow similar policies, according to Western’s enrollment management consultants. 

Scholarships are for degree seeking students and are funds for educationally related expenses that do not need to be repaid by the student. These funds are ideally offered prior to the beginning of the semester in which they will pay. Scholarships should incentivize and support future enrollment, therefore they should not be offered retroactively. 

APPLICATIONS 
If departments solicit applications for scholarships, it is recommended that applications be made available October of the prior year and close in February. This recommendation is for scholarships offered for the academic year or the fall semester only. Spring only or summer offers may require a different application period. 

OFFER DECISIONS 
As departments may be subject to internal audit, they are responsible for assuring that any requirements stated in the DOI (Declaration of Intent), MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) or Gift Agreements, which govern scholarships, are met when choosing recipients. 

Financial aid offers are generated for incoming freshmen undergraduate students beginning in December of the student’s senior year in high school. Departments are encouraged to offer incoming freshmen scholarships by the end of November. While it is ideal to offer students scholarships at this time, we acknowledge that offering students so early may not be possible. When feasible, all scholarships for the upcoming academic year should be made for fall and spring, and not on a semester-by-semester basis. 

It is recommended that offer decisions be made and communicated to all students (new and returning) by the end of March. It is best practice to make an offer “in writing” (either via paper or electronic communication) and have the student affirm that they understand any terms and conditions of receiving the offer. 

It is required that students be advised that the acceptance of their offer may impact their other aid and that the financial aid office will determine if any adjustments are required and notify the student accordingly. The financial aid office will coordinate all offers with other sources of funding including other scholarships, tuition remission or need based offers the student is eligible to receive. Offers, including student loans, may be restricted by federal law or donor limitations. Students can contact Bronco Express to discuss their specific situation if they are concerned. 

ADDING OFFERS TO THE STUDENT’S AID OFFER 
All scholarships for the academic year and/or the fall semester only should be communicated to the financial aid office by the end of April. It may be difficult or impossible for some scholarships to be offered in the timeframe (i.e. offers for international students, graduate students, students receiving EUP scholarships, late new FTIAC admits, incoming students receiving scholarships funded by differential tuition, renewal scholarships, new students entering the spring and summer semesters, students receiving study abroad scholarships, DOI/Gift agreements that cannot be changed, Seita scholarships for incoming students, scholarships funded by grants (i.e. TRIO, CAMP), KVCC Police Academy scholarships, scholarships given by national organizations with deadlines beyond our control (i.e. AMBUCs), art exhibition offers, mentor incentive offers, Emergency Funds for Students) but offers such as these should be made as early as possible to support enrollment and avoid student confusion. 

All scholarships should be sent to the financial aid office before the end of their semester in which they are to pay. Departments wishing to make a late offer should contact the financial aid office to disclose why a late payment is necessary. Students who are receiving a scholarship or financial offer in their last semester are exempt from this rule if the offer decision was made during the student’s final semester AND the financial aid office is notified no later than one month before the end of the semester. Once a student has graduated from the University, scholarship offers will not be made regardless of the situation. 

Units and colleges must notify the financial aid office of all offers in one of two ways. 

1. Via e-mailed the appropriate scholarship authorization disbursement form https://wmich.edu/finaid/financial-literacy/resources/faculty-staff and listing on a spreadsheet the fund & cost center, the amount of the offer by semester and the name and WIN of the student.
2. Beginning in 2020 departments using Scholarship Universe will communicate student scholarship offers to the financial aid office electronically, in the online platform. 

Once received by the financial aid office offers should be added to the student’s account within 5 business days. 

Changes to student offers should be communicated to the financial aid office via email and a new scholarship authorization disbursement form or an edit in Scholarship Universe should be submitted. It is best practice to also inform the student of any changes to their aid as well. Changes requesting the fund that a student is offered out of be altered (i.e. cancelling one offer and replacing it with another offer that draws from a different account) will not be made without prior approval from the financial aid office. 

PAYMENT OF OFFERS 
Like all aid, scholarships will not pay any sooner than 10 days prior to the beginning of the semester in which they were offered. In order for a scholarship to pay, students must be enrolled in the semester of the offer. Exceptions to this rule are not possible. 

All scholarships will first be applied to the student’s University bill. If the payment of the scholarship is in excess of the student’s’ balance, a refund will be generated and paid by the accounts receivable office. Checks for offered scholarship dollars cannot issued directly to students. 

At this time, the financial aid office does not monitor the payment of departmental scholarships. Departments should monitor scholarship payments in GLOW and notify the financial aid office of any non-payment issues. Oftentimes, scholarships do not pay to a student’s account due to underenrollment (i.e. the amount of credits the student is enrolled in is fewer than the credits the fund code was set up to require). If this is the case, the enrolment requirement may be over-ridden on a case by case basis if the DOI/MOU/Gift Agreement allows. Please contact the financial aid office via email to request such overrides, after assessing if the enrollment requirement can be waived.

Visit https://bwfp2.cc.wmich.edu:8440/wfbprod and select “BPROD Workflow (Workflow SSO)". If you do not have access to Workflow, email oit-workflow@wmich.edu to request access. 

Once signed into workflow: 

1. Click on "My processes" (under User Profile on the left)
2. Click on "WMU Fund Code Request-XXXX"
3. Enter the name of your scholarship next to "Workflow specifics name". Must be 25 characters or less. This will be how the scholarship is shown on the students WMU account.
4. Click "Start Workflow"
5. Click "Worklist" (under Home on the left)
6. Click on the workflow request you just started.
7. At this point you will guided by instructions on the form (see screen shot below), only complete the required fields (noted by *) and follow instructions in red.

Please allow up to 5 business days for the Workflow request to be processed and for a new fund code to be assigned to that scholarship. Once the fund code is established, you can submit a “Departmental Scholarship Disbursement Authorization Form” to finaid-scholarship@wmich.edu to request the scholarship be applied to the students account. If you have any questions concerning this process, please contact Nicole Martinez at nicole.martinez@wmich.edu.

Funds distributed from the University to students must be properly accounted for so that the University remains in compliance with Federal financial aid and Federal taxation requirements. All payments to students must be initiated through the Office of Student Financial Aid or Payroll and Disbursements. 

Funds given to students in exchange for work or other activities to the benefit of the university are generally handled through Payroll and Disbursements. Funds offered to WMU students which are related to their enrollment status and expressly for the purpose of covering educational expenses related to the student cost of attendance (tuition and fees, housing and food, books, academic supplies and miscellaneous personal expenses) are to be either offered through financial aid or accounted for as a source of estimated financial assistance and factored into the student’s financial aid edibility (HEA section 480(j)). 

Payments made to students often fall into one of the following categories: scholarships, prizes/awards, compensation or reimbursements. As a department, understanding how to classify a student payment and knowing which office should process a particular type of payment can be confusing. This document outlines some of the most common examples of student payments and how such payments should be processed. 

1. Scholarships are funds applied directly to the student’s account to support educational expenses, such as, tuition, fees, housing, meals, supplies, and travel. Recipients may be undergraduate or graduate, and must be degree-seeking students with enrollment in the semester for which the award is being made. For taxation purposes, two types of scholarships exist: Qualified and Non-qualified.
   1. Qualified scholarships are offered for the payment of tuition and fees, or course-required expenses (required fees, books, supplies/equipment). All qualified scholarships will be reported by the University to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and to the student on IRS Form 1098-T, Tuition Statement (26 U.S. Code § 117.)
   2. Non-qualified scholarships are offered expressly for the educational expenses of room, board, travel, the cost of optional fees and personal expenses. Any scholarship that is designated specifically for these expenses is taxable. Also taxable is any combination of gift aid scholarships and grants, including Pell Grants, Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, athletic awards, undergraduate or graduate scholarships that exceed the cost of tuition, required fees and textbooks (P.L. 99‐514).
   3. Stipends are often an example of a non-qualified scholarships as they are typically offered for books or living expenses (housing and/or meals). The payment of stipends must be processed through the Office of Financial Aid so that payment can be applied directly to the student’s account. These stipends should never be related to work performed for the university. Please keep in mind that stipends are scholarships and are processed and paid in the same manner. Bi-weekly or monthly stipend payments, made throughout the semester, are not permissible.
   4. Scholarship processing is handled through the Office of Student Financial Aid through the submission of a Departmental Scholarship Disbursement Authorization form, either for a non-grant funded award or a grant-funded award. All scholarships are considered when determining a student's financial aid eligibility and the offering of any type of scholarship may require an adjustment to current or future financial aid payments. All scholarships pay to a student’s account either at the date of general financial aid disbursement (approximately 10 days prior to the first day of class, if offered prior to the beginning of the semester) or 3-5 business days after offering (if applied after the beginning of the semester). When the student’s account has a past due balance, the University reserves the right to apply the payment to the student’s bill and not refund the amount directly to the student.
2. Prizes and awards are student payments or winnings resulted to enrollment at a postsecondary institution. According to the Department of Education, if the intended recipient of any prize or award is a student, federal regulations mandate that any financial assistance shall be included in their financial aid package (HEA section 480(j)). If a recipient was not required to be a student and the contest was open to multiple audiences, the prize or award does not need to be reported to the Office of Student Financial Aid. Prizes and awards are includible in gross income and are taxable (I.R.C. § 74 (a)).
   1. Common items given to students that should be reported to the Office of Student Financial Aid include: gift cards, gas cards, school supplies, food/meals, participation incentives (if participation in the event is predicated upon holding WMU student status and could be used for educational expenses) and personal miscellaneous items (if such items are educationally related (i.e. a computer) or likely to be exchanged for cash).
   2. Items given to students that can be excluded from consideration include: plaques, medals, trophies, coffee-table books (versus textbooks or course-required readings), items of nominal value that are not educationally related.
   3. Awards not considered a scholarship are subject to 1099-MISC reporting and subject to 30% US tax withholding for international students or Nonresident Aliens. Please refer to IRS Publication Form 1099-MISC for more information. When a department purchases prizes or awards to give to students, the purchase can be made with the Procurement Card or Generic Voucher. Prior to the purchase, the department must complete the Gift card and cash payment authorization form and obtain proper signature approvals. Each gift card or gift certificate must be tracked using the Tracking log.
   4. The Prize Award Form is used to notify the Office of Student Financial Aid any student receiving a prize or award, if it is an educationally related expense. The amount of the prize or award will be added as a financial resource and factored into the student’s aid eligibility. When completing the form, the designation of student or employee is indicated on the form with instructions to route to Student Financial or Payroll and Disbursements.
3. Compensation processing is administered by Payroll and Disbursements. Compensation is paid as wages to students hired as employees who perform services primarily for the benefit of the University. Payment for services is treated as taxable income and subject to tax withholding and is reported on IRS Form W-2 pursuant to 26 U.S. Code §§ 3101 to 3512. Additional information related to direct compensation is accessible on the Human Resources website at https://wmich.edu/hr/manual-hours.
4. Other Reimbursements to students are of a complex nature and will vary depending on the circumstances of the expenses the student incurred.
5. University Business Expense Reimbursement
   1. Expenses directly related to the University, where WMU is the primary beneficiary, are reimbursed through Payroll and Disbursements and are not reportable as taxable income to the IRS. Examples of such expenses include deductible travel expenses for conferences and other business travel events or membership fees costs where student serves as a representative of WMU. More information related to deductible travel expenses is noted in IRS Publication 463.
   2. If the reimbursement requested is for optional expenses, not required for a course or for graduation, such as professional development, travel or other enrichment activities, payments will be made through Payroll and Disbursements and will be subject to 1099 reporting and 30% US tax withholding for international students or Nonresident Aliens.
6. Academic Expense Reimbursement
   1. The Office of Student Financial Aid must review expenses, for which the student is the primary beneficiary. If the reimbursement requested is related to an activity required for a student’s program, course or degree requirements it will be offered through the Office of Student Financial Aid.
   2. The funds to be reimbursed will be factored into the student’s financial aid eligibility. The “reimbursement” will need to be offered, processed, and paid to the student’s account as a scholarship (see “Scholarship processing” above).
7. Reimbursement processing
   1. Reimbursements may be handled by Payroll and Disbursement or the Office of Student Financial aid. If, after reviewing this document, you remain unsure if a particular student payment is allowable, please reach out to the Office of Student Financial Aid to review your particular situation.
   2. Some expenses incurred by students are deemed the students’ responsibility and are not reimbursable through Payroll and Disbursements and are not considered eligible for submission to Financial Aid. The process is more expeditious and in the best interest of the student if a reimbursement is properly vetted prior to committing to payment. 

Additional Questions? Please contact: Nicole Martinez, Associate Director of Scholarship Development, Student Financial Aid (269) 387-6016, nicole.martinez@wmich.edu. Lisa R. Bettis-Cooper, Associate Director Payroll and Disbursements (269) 387-2942, lisa.r.bettis-cooper@wmich.edu.