
258.0 VIII-2.41 POLICY ON INSTITUTIONAL STUDENT FINANCIAL AID FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS (Approved by the Board of Regents, February 10, 1995) I. Purpose The Regents of the University of Maryland System (UMS) recognize that financial support of deserving students is an important means of enhancing the human capital of the State of Maryland and enriching the learning environments of the System's institutions. Therefore, each institution of the System is encouraged, to the extent feasible and prudent, to use institutional financial resources to supplement federal, state, and private financial resources in aiding students of all types who, in the absence of such support, may be unable to enroll in the institution. Institutional financial aid should also support the institution's particular mission and student clienteles. This policy is applicable only to institutional student financial aid provided to undergraduate students. II. Definitions Institutional student financial aid is financial assistance provided from state-supported unrestricted funds, i.e., those general state funds and tuition and fee revenues that are not specifically restricted as to the purpose(s) for which the funds may be expended. Tuition waivers that are not a part of UMS employee benefits (e.g., employee, spouse, and dependent tuition waivers) are a form of institutional student financial aid. Such tuition waivers shall be accounted for and reported at the face value of the tuition being waived. Work-study payments to students from state-supported unrestricted funds on the basis of need, merit, or a combination of both are a form of institutional student financial aid. Intra-institutional student employment for which job-related skills are the only requirement is not a form of institutional student financial aid, since it is not different from comparable extra-institutional employment. The definitions of "financial need," "cost of attendance," and "family contribution" are the currently applicable definitions of these terms adopted by the State Scholarship Administration. The total amount of institutional student financial aid awarded any individual undergraduate student shall not exceed the cost of attendance for that student. III. Policy A. Each institution of the University of Maryland that enrolls undergraduate students shall develop policy guidelines for the award of institutional financial aid to undergraduate students. These policy guidelines should explicitly include the following elements: 1. Criteria for awards to state-resident and to non- state- resident students based on need, on merit (including special talent--academic, artistic, musical, and/or athletic), or a combination of need and merit. 2. Criteria for awards to full-time students and to part-time students. 3. Criteria for awards to students who transfer from Maryland community colleges, from other UMS institutions, from other Maryland public four-year institutions, and from non-Maryland institutions. 4. Criteria for the inclusion of mission related awards. B. The policy guidelines should include targets or other characterization of the intended apportionment of state-supported unrestricted funds among the various elements and student categories listed in Paragraph A above. C. Each institution shall include with its annual request to the Regents for increases in undergraduate tuitions an indication of the proportion of new undergraduate tuition revenues that will be allocated to institutional student financial aid. D. Institutional policy guidelines developed in response to this regents' policy shall be approved by the institution's president and submitted to the Chancellor no later than June 30, 1995, for implementation starting with the 1996-97 academic year. The Chancellor shall report to the Regents on the institutional policy guidelines no later than December, 1995. Thereafter, any changes in institutional policy guidelines shall be reported to the Chancellor no later than June 30 of the relevant year. E. To provide the necessary accountability to the Regents and to the State, each president shall submit a report to the Regents by October 1 of each year, in a format prescribed by the Chancellor. The report shall include the amount and proportion of institutional student aid funds awarded in each of the student categories specified in the various elements listed in Paragraph A above, and the number of students aided in each category. The report shall be accompanied by a copy of the currently applicable institutional policy guidelines. This policy replaces the Board of Regents Policy on Waiver of Tuition for Meritorious Undergraduate Students (BOR VIII-2.40)