Dialing for Dollars
Syracuse University’s Process for Managing Student A/R
Steven Kelly
Director, Student Debt Management
Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Facts
• 14,800 Full Time
Undergraduate and
Law Students
• 4,000 Full Time
Graduate Students
• 2,200 Part Time
Students
Students are from all
50 states and 130
countries and can
pursue over 500
degrees in 13
different
schools/colleges
Financial / Staffing
Information
Financial Data:
• $640 million net billings
(tuition, fees, and housing
LESS Financial Aid)
• A/R / net billings at year end
= 0.009%
• Write Offs / net billings at year
end = 0.0004%
Staffing Data:
21 fulltime staff reporting to the
Treasurer’s Office responsibilities include:
• Student & 3rd party Billing
• Call Center
• University Collections
• Perkins Administration
• New York State TAP
Administration
Goal
GOAL - to confirm a registration:
• Account paid in full before classes begin OR
• Up to date on installment payment plan OR
• Satisfactory payment agreement in place
• Lacking any of these, a conversation with the family to understand
their situation
Additional Information:
• Installment payment plan is available and the family can enroll at
any point (5 payments in the Fall (June – October) and 6 in the
Spring (November – April)). The number of months is fixed so
someone that enrolls in August would put 1/3 down and the
remaining balance would be billed in September and October.
• All billings and payment plans are done in house via PeopleSoft.
• Anticipated Financial Aid is factored into all billing statements.
Sample Schedule for a Fall Semester
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6/13
6/25
7/15
7/29
8/4
8/6
8/20
8/24
8/25
9/16
10/30
11/7
Fall ‘pre’ bill (due 7/25)
Freshman call
Bill is due next week call
Bill is past due call
‘Dialing for Dollars’ list calls/emails
Letter #1
Letter #2
Schedule Confirmation
Classes Begin
Follow-up process
Registration begins soon call
Spring ‘pre’ bill
Fall ‘pre’ Bill
Since the majority of our Undergraduate/Law
population pays a flat rate of tuition, we use a feature
that calculates/bills that flat rate regardless of their
actual registration. (once the semester begins, we
revert to looking at actual registration.)
This bill contains tuition, fees, room, meal plan and
anticipated financial aid along with any past due
balance from a prior semester.
‘Freshman’ Call
We have found that the parents of incoming freshman are often intimidated
by the entire college process, confused, operating using incorrect
information, or just really need some help understanding everything. We
place an automated call to all freshman families about a week after the bill is
generated using this text:
Good Afternoon, this is the Syracuse University Bursar’s Office. We hope you
have now received your fall billing statement.
We wish to take a moment to let you know that we are here to assist you
with any questions or concerns you may have regarding your bill. Early
communication with our office helps us to provide you with the best possible
service. Also, if anything has changed on your end, keeping us up to date is
always appreciated.
Welcome to SU and please give us a call at 315 443 2444 or email
bursar@syr.edu if we can be of any assistance. Thank you.
As you can imagine, this call generates quite a few phone calls and emails,
but it is worth it to get questions answered, issues dealt with and any general
uneasiness out of the way now. This has been a great success for us.
‘Bill is Due Next Week’ Call
We place automated calls the week before the bill is due
and the week after the bill is due. We are careful not to
violate any privacy/collection regulations with the wording:
This is the Syracuse University Bursar Office calling with a
reminder for all students: the FALL Tuition and fee bill is due July
25th. We would like to take a moment to let you know that we
are here to assist you with any questions or concerns you may
have regarding your bill. Early communication with our office
helps us to provide you with the best possible service. Please
give us a call at 315 443 2444 or email bursar@syr.edu if we can
be of any assistance. Thank you
‘Bill is Past Due’ Call
We place automated calls the week before the bill is due and the week
after the bill is due. We are careful not to violate any privacy/collection
regulations with the wording:
This is the Syracuse University Bursar Office with an important
message: we need additional information from you in order to ensure
confirmation of your Fall 2014 registration. If possible, would you
please call us at 315-443-2444 prior to August 9th? Your attention to
this matter is greatly appreciated. We look forward to hearing from
you.
As with the Freshman call, both of these generate quite a few return
calls and emails but given the timing of the calls, the family and the
University have plenty of time to resolve any issues that are preventing
payment, get loans approved, etc.
‘Dialing for Dollars’
This is the heart of the process. At this point in the timeline, we jump in with both feet. We run a
report of all of those that have received a fall bill and have not paid. That list is divided equally among
ALL in the area. Each person then begins to send personal emails to the student and parent as well as a
phone call. The initial email we send:
Good Morning,
We are in the process of confirming Fall 2014 registrations. There is currently a financial hold on your
Bursar Account which is preventing us from confirming your course schedule.
I am reaching out in an effort to ensure that you are aware of the hold, and to make sure that we have
not missed anything on our end.
I would ask you to please log on to your MySlice account and review your account. If you agree with the
hold amount indicated, please respond to this email (include your SU ID#) as I would need to know your
plans to clear the outstanding balance creating this hold, as I don’t want to see anything interfere with
the confirmation of your schedule. If we have missed something, I would need to know that as well.
I thank you for your attention to this matter.
This email gets a great response and usually begins a good dialog between our group and the family.
Again, timing is the key. The first week or so of this process, there is still plenty of time to apply and get
approved for a loan, submit a FAFSA, etc.
As payments come in, the list gets smaller. There is always some friendly competition among the group
to see who makes the most calls or clears the most students. It is important to note that during these 3
weeks, it is ‘all hands on deck.’ We tend to back off on collection accounts, attending meetings, and the
like. We believe (and our statistics prove) that spending the time like we do on these accounts now is
the single most important activity we can do to control the A/R.
‘Letter #1’
Despite our emails and phone calls, sometimes a letter can have a great impact. We use these to
supplement the entire effort.
This letter is mailed to the student’s home address as we begin the ‘dialing for dollars effort.’
Dear Student,
We at Syracuse University appreciate your attendance at our institution and we are genuinely
concerned when we see any issue arise that might interfere with your education.
We ask that you review the following outstanding obligation(s) to make sure we are in
agreement, and if so, please settle your account as we wish to help prevent any delay with your
registration when you arrive. There will be no further notification concerning this amount due
prior to your registration.
• Bursar - $xxx.xx
• Parking - $xx.xx
If you do not agree with the balance(s) indicated, please contact the Bursar’s Office for a
thorough review of your account.
The Bursar Office is open Monday-Friday from 8:00 AM until 4:30 PM to assist you with your
questions and concerns. In addition, the office will be open Saturday, August 23 from 9:00 AM
until 5:00 PM, and Sunday, August 24 from 10:00 AM until 5:00 PM.
We look forward to your arrival on campus.
Syracuse University Bursar Office
‘Letter #2’
This letter is delivered to the student’s dormitory the Thursday before classes start:
IMPORTANT NOTICE
Dear Student,
We wish to help you resolve a serious matter. We are currently unable to confirm your Fall 2014
schedule and accordingly may not be able to guarantee your place in classes for which you have
previously registered. This is because your Bursar account has an outstanding balance, and the
payment due date of July 25, 2014, or August 1, 2014 if on the monthly payment plan, has
passed.
It is very important to us that you have your desired course schedule in place. Please call the
Bursar’s Office immediately at (315) 443-2444, and we will thoroughly review your account and
help to initiate any action if necessary. The office will be open Saturday, August 23 from 9:00 AM
until 5:00 PM and Sunday, August 24 from 10:00 AM until 5:00 PM.
In closing, we do not wish to cause undue alarm but only wish to encourage you to act now and
protect your Fall schedule.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
Syracuse University Bursar Office
Follow-up Process
• Once we pass our main financial drop deadline, we
begin a process very similar to the ‘dialing for dollars’
process.
• Reports are run showing those past due. These are
divided up and we begin personal phone calls and
emails to contact the family.
• We give the staff great latitude to make payment
arrangements as long as the end of the agreement
does not fall after end of the semester.
• This step helps identify problems, provides a nudge to
get a loan in process and ultimately eases the
rush/panic of students that cannot register for the next
semester due to non-payment.
‘Registration Begins Soon’ Call
We found that we cut out much of the shock that a
student had when they tried to register and were blocked
due to non-payment. This call goes out a week to ten
days before the registration process begins:
This is the Bursar’s Office of Syracuse University with a
message to all students.
Registration for the Spring 2015 term begins the week of
November 12th.
We encourage all students to review your records to make
sure there are no financial or academic holds which, if left
unresolved, could delay your ability to register.
If you have any questions, please call our office at 315
443 2444 or email Bursar@syr.edu. Thank you.
Students Who Graduate or Leave the
University
A few weeks into each semester, we begin reviewing those students
with an unpaid balance and no current semester registration. These
accounts are reviewed for accuracy (lingering current semester
room/meal charges) and to determine if the charges are legitimate (no
payments for the prior semester, and no grades.) Once we determine
the balance is indeed past due, we transfer to our in-house collection
team.
***In most cases you cannot predict whether a student will not return
to the University. In the case of a student that is scheduled to
graduate, you can. We are supplied graduation lists from our
Registrar’s Office throughout the Spring semester and make a special
effort to work with these families to get balances paid prior to
graduation. It is much easier to do this while the student is still on
campus.
Legal Support
As part of the admission acceptance process, we have the student AND a parent sign a
statement of financial responsibility.
I, (name and ID#) represent that I am fully responsible for all tuition, fees, charges and
expenses incurred by me during my entire attendance at Syracuse University as
governed by the State of New York. I agree to either pay or make arrangements for
payment suitable to the University which will be due before confirmation of
registration each semester. I have reviewed and agree to be bound to the University's
Tuition and Fees publication available online here.
If you are a US resident for verification purposes, the last four digits of my social
security number are _ _ _ _
My electronic signature set forth between the slashes herein is intended by me to be
equal to and legally enforceable as my original signature.
/
/
In addition, we have the student sign something very similar each semester when they
register for classes. In this agreement we also discuss the consent for the University
and agents to call their cell phone, text message, etc. (exact text taken from Perkins
Loan promissory note)
How are we doing?
Questions?
Please feel free to contact me at stkelly@syr.edu
if you have any questions, would like clarification
or more explanation about anything I have
discussed today.