With the fall 2019 semester coming to an end, you may have received emails from the Bursary Office concerning Title IV Authorization and some of the changes taking effect beginning spring 2020.

But what does it mean?

Every student registered for spring 2020 will be required to accept a Financial Responsibility Statement.

This agreement is the only banner blocking agreement that currently exists. Once the student has accepted the agreement, it will remain active for 365 days upon which it will be presented again. If a student has not completed this agreement at some point they are redirected to an agreement page when accessing the banner dashboard or the Visual Schedule Builder until they have completed the agreement. 

After accepting the Financial Responsibility Agreement, students will be asked to accept or deny both the Title IV Authorization and the Title IV Authorization (Prior Year/Term Charges).

According to the Bursary’s email, the Title IV Authorization financial aid is for elected charges on a student’s account. The Title IV (Prior Year/Term) financial aid is for charges on your student account from the previous year or term. Students will have to either select “yes” or “no” for these options. Otherwise, “Financial Services cannot lift any financial holds on your account that meets the threshold set for the semester.”

“Title IV Federal Funds Authorization allows a student to pay for non-institutional charges such as parking fines, health service charges, housing fines etc. using the awarded financial aid for the current semester,” said Jennifer Griffin, collections and short-term loan officer. “Prior Year/Term Charges Authorization allows a student to pay for charges prior to the current semester using financial aid.”

The authorizations are optional to apply federal financial aid to non-institutional charges on your student account. If accepted, these authorizations will be valid until 2099.

Students will have to select either “yes” or “no” for these options. Failure to complete the authorizations will result in financial services being unable to lift any financial holds on a student’s account that meets the threshold set for the semester.

“The Title IV Federal Funds Authorization is for the current semester,” Griffin said. “For an example, in spring 2020 you have federal financial aid that pays for your tuition and fees and you have excess financial aid that will be refunded to you according to the Bursary calendar.  You get a parking ticket before the excess funds are refunded to you, then if you authorize the Title IV Federal Funds Authorization this will allow you to pay for the ticket with the excess aid.”

If a student has financial holds on their account it could prevent registration, obtaining a transcript or graduating from VSU. The student would need to pay the hold or if the student has financial aid, they will need to sign the Federal Funds Authorization and contact the BVursary about the hold.

Financial Responsibility Agreement is required by every student that is registered. This agreement is the only Banner blocking agreement that exists currently. Once accepted it will remain active for 365 days at which point it will be presented again. If a student has not completed this agreement at some point historically they are redirected to an agreement page when accessing Banner Dashboard or Visual Schedule Builder until they have completed the agreement. 

If a student wishes to rescind their decision, they will need to email the Bursary at studentaccounts@valdosta.edu.

“Once a decision is made on the action item screen and then the student wants to change the decision they have made, then the student will send an email requesting the change,” said Griffin.

The authorizations will be available in the student portal until the action item is completed by selecting accept or deny.

Written by Kayla Pool, Staff Writer. Photo courtesy of The Spectator.

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