University of Virginia – Process Simplification
Transcript Issuance Team
Final Report – September 1998
Background and Approach to Work
During the spring 1998, the Student Enrollment Services Process Owners Group
formed a team to study the University’s process for managing the issuance of transcripts.
Specifically, the group was charged with the following tasks:
The purpose of the transcript issuance team is to evaluate the current transcript
payment process with the goal of simplifying the process for all students
(undergraduate, graduates, continuing education), alumni, and administrative
offices involved in administering the fees.
The team should consider the possibility of replacing individual fees and/or
including other "credentialing" fees (e.g., OCPP Recommendations File). The
team’s initial focus should be on the payment process. Once this evaluation is
complete, a second phase of the team’s work could be on the transcript request
process.
Rebecca Leonard, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs at the McIntire School of
Commerce, served as team leader. Other team members include: Melody Bianchetto,
Director, Budget Office; Scott Caudill, graduate student, McIntire School, Karen
Knierim, Associate Director, Office of Career Planning and Placement; Robert LeHeup,
Assistant Registrar, Registrar’s Office; Christina Morell, Process Simplification
Manager, Office of the VP for Management and Budget; Frank Papovich, Assistant
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences; and Roseann Parks, Director, Charlottesville
Regional Center, Division of Continuing Education.
Given the scope of the mission, the team adhered to a fairly straightforward
approach in its assessment of the process. The team leader conducted several preliminary
meetings with members of the Registrar’s Office and the Budget Office. Once
background information was gathered and compiled, it was sent to the team members for
review. The team met to review the issue, identify the problems, discuss alternative
solutions, and reach a final recommendation.
Review of the Transcript Issuance Process and General Findings
In its analysis of the transcript issuance process, the team studied the following
issues described in detail in the appropriate appendices:




How to Obtain a Transcript – Appendix I
Current Transcript Issuance Process – Appendix II
Collection of Fees and Current Fee Structure – Appendix III and IV
Survey of Other Colleges and Universities – Appendix V
1

“Quick” Survey of Current Students – Appendix VI
Based on the data collected, the team found that the University is spending
unnecessary time and resources in the billing and collection of fees related to transcript
requests. For example, five different employees in the Registrar’s Office spend up to a
total of twenty cumulative hours per week on billing, mailing bills, and writing refund
checks. Accordingly, team members agreed that current billing procedures for transcripts
should change and that recommendations considered for improving the transcript
issuance process should focus on eliminating this practice. The Registrar’s Office also
believes that the current system creates a negative public relations image for the
University as many alumni and students expect the University to provide this service at
no cost.
Analysis
Although the team evaluated several alternatives (see Appendix VII), three
options were considered most seriously. The first is to require requestors to pay for
transcripts in advance either through cash check, Cavalier Advantage, or by credit card.
The Office of Career Planning and Placement uses a similar process for the Credential
Services they provide. Currently, the Registrar’s Office does not accept payment by
credit card or Cavalier Advantage. These services would require additional financial
resources (purchasing equipment for the Cavalier Advantage program and transaction
charges assessed on credit card purchases) and may require additional time from staff
members for processing. However, based on experience, the Registrar’s Office believes
that instituting a policy requiring payment in advance would reduce customer
satisfaction. Requiring payment in advance would eliminate the need for billing, but
enforcing 100% pre-payment may not be practical. Transcript requests differ from
regular commercial transactions in that they can only be obtained from the University and
serve as the student's only official proof of enrollment or graduation. Transcripts are
more akin to other official records, such as medical files or payroll records, than to other
auxiliary services. Students and alumni request transcripts for needs such as graduate
school applications, employment verifications, pay increases, and teaching recertifications. The Registrar’s Office believes that the importance of such requests far
outweighs the importance of collecting a fee in advance.
Although the notion of eliminating the fee is not part of the team’s charge, a
second option is to abolish the fee entirely. This would completely eliminate problems
associated with the collection of the fee and likely would create positive relations with
students and alumni. While the volume of transcripts requested could go up in the short
term, it is believed that increases in cost would be minimal and that the number of
requests would level off in the long-term. The present system does, for the most part,
result in customers paying for what they use, and any change to this might mean that
current students would be subsidizing alumni and heavy users. The difficulty of the
abolishment of the fee is obviously the loss of $180,000 in revenue. To implement this
option, it must be determined which department’s expenditure budget could also be
reduced by $180,000.
2
Lastly, the team discussed the option of replacing the usage fee with a per
semester fee. If a fee is used (which would require approval from the General
Assembly1) it should be applied to all students, both undergraduates and graduates. Thus,
tying the fee with a summer orientation does not seem equitable. Currently, Continuing
Education students pay no mandatory student fees and it may be difficult to add this to
their current payments given the number of students and variety of credit hours
completed.2 Again, the use of a fee should not result in certain students subsidizing other
students; but this may not be entirely possible.
Recommendations
The team has determined that the current billing of transcript fees from the
Registrar’s Office can be simplified. Below are the team’s recommendations, in the
order of preference, on how to change the current process.

Ideally, the team recommends that the University eliminate the fee and search
for ways to reduce expenditures in order to absorb this lost revenue. Cost
saving opportunities might be found, such as reducing the personnel in the
Registrar’s Office.

The team recommends that if the above is not possible, the University should
submit an amendment to the General Assembly to request an increase in the
mandatory E&G fee (which it is assumed would exclude DCE and Summer
Session students). In the request, it must be noted that the increased cost to
the student will be offset by the elimination of the usage fee currently in place.
A mandatory fee would be applied to all undergraduate and graduate students
on a $5.00 per semester basis. A limit would not be placed on the number of
transcripts students could request. Based on 1997 fall headcount enrollment
figures, the University would collect $181,3103 by replacing the usage fee
with a mandatory transcript fee.

If the University is unsuccessful at receiving a special exemption to transfer
this fee, it is recommended that the Registrar’s Office implement a process of
payment in advance. In order to better serve constituents needing transcripts
urgently or not having cash, the Office should be set up to accept credit cards
and Cavalier Advantage. These two options likely would result in gained
efficiencies in the processing of payments. To accommodate additional
equipment needs and the credit card transaction costs, the usage fee may need
to be increased if this option were implemented. However, increased revenue
1
A special exemption from the General Assembly is required because undergraduate in-state tuition and
fees have been frozen. Once the freeze is lifted, only Board of Visitors approval will be necessary.
2
A mandatory technology fee may be charged to DCE students in the future.
3
This estimate is based on the number of total on-grounds full-time and part-time students, excluding
Continuing Education students.
3
fees from better collection may provide the resources needed to purchase
additional equipment.
Anticipated Benefits
The team believes that the above recommendations would result in the
elimination of an outdated billing process and significantly enhance and improve the
transcript issuance process for employees, students, and alumni. If recommendation one
or two above were implemented, the Registrar's Office would also benefit from freeing
up staff time currently spent managing the transcript fee for other duties. For example,
implementation of an on-line registration system and summer orientation process will
require a significant commitment from Office staff. Also, elimination of the fee would
provide the opportunity to develop an on-line transcript request system, which would
give students and alumni another, even quicker means to order transcripts.
4
Appendix I
How to Get a Transcript
(Registrar's Office Home Page)
Transcripts may be obtained at the Office of the University Registrar in Carruthers Hall
for a fee of $3 per copy. Transcripts can be printed and given to you while you wait.
Requests cannot be taken over the telephone or via E-mail. Transcript request forms may
be completed at the various deans' offices around Grounds and left with the correct
payment; our office courier will pick them up and bring them to the office.
Transcripts cannot be produced for anyone whose record has been blocked by the
Bursar's Office. If you choose to send a request by mail, write to: UVA Registrar's
Office, PO Box 9009, Charlottesville VA 22906-9009. Be sure to include your full name
and address, your student I.D. (social security number), the complete mailing address to
where the transcript should be sent, and your signature. The charge is $3 per copy; make
checks payable to University of Virginia.
Transcript orders can be taken via facsimile, but we do bill an additional $5 fee for all
incoming faxes as well as for all outgoing faxes. Faxes sent outside North America are
billed at $15. If we send you a copy of your transcript via fax, it will not be an official
copy. Our fax number is 804/924-4156. We will process the order and send a bill for the
transcript and fax fees to the address you give in your request.
Transcript orders are usually processed within one to two working days. For more
information, please call 804/924-4121.
5
Appendix II
Current Transcript Issuance and Billing Process:
(Bob LeHeup, Associate Registrar)
Transcript requests are received in three different ways: in person, by mail, and via fax.
Requests made in person are usually in the form of a completed request form, and
payment is almost always made at the same time. If payment is not made—when the
cash register is closed or the student does not have any money or we do not have correct
change—we write out a bill and give it to the student (keeping a copy for ourselves).
Requests sent by mail have proper payment about 80% of the time. The ones that do not
and the ones received by fax (which can never have payment included, since we do not
accept credit cards) have bills prepared programmatically as part of the “typing up” of the
mail. We type requests into a computer program, which produces address inserts that fit
in a window envelope, as well as a file copy for our records. As needed, a bill or refund
slip is also produced.
If the student has paid too much, we prepare and mail a refund check. We write checks
as least once a week. Once a month, we balance the refund account, make a deposit from
our departmental account to cover the amount of checks written in that month, and write
off checks still not cashed after one year.
If too little is paid, we issue a bill. Bills are sent on an irregular schedule, but at least
once a month. Photocopies are made for our files of all the bills, and the originals mailed
to the students. As payment is received, we pull the photocopies from our files and
discard them. At the end of one month, the remaining file copies are separated into two
piles: less than $10 and $10 or greater. The smaller bill copies are mailed to the students
as a second notice, but we do not continue to keep a copy in the files. (If these smaller
bills are never paid, there is nothing we do about it, and no way to prevent additional
orders from being processed.) The $10 and higher bills are copied again, the second
notice mailed to the student, and a copy retained in our files.
At the end of the second month, a third billing is made. Copies are made of all
outstanding bills for the files, and a third notice is sent to the students. If bills remain
unpaid at the end of the third month, we pull the original request from our transcript
request files to place in a special “referred accounts” file. We then type the necessary
information into ISIS so that the bill is placed on the student’s account with the Bursar
and a financial hold is put in place.
If a deposited check does not clear, the Bursar’s Office assumes responsibility for making
the collection, and adds a $20 bad check fee. In the Registrar’s Office, we will see that
the student now has a financial hold on their record, but that may not always prevent us
from accepting another check if the student makes a new request by mail (since checks
are deposited before the order is processed). We do get lengthy bad check reports, which
we merely file away.
6
On a daily basis, we make a deposit to our accounts at Wachovia Bank. We have
separate accounts for transcripts, postage (into which we put fax fees), diplomas, I.D.
cards, and Pavilion VIII fees. We daily call in a report to a deposit management firm and
bring the deposit to the Bursar’s Office, where it is held until the armored courier arrives
to take it to the bank. Monthly, we review the financial reports we receive from
Accounting Operations and verify them against our daily deposit reports. If a student
makes payment directly to the Bursar’s Office, which can happen if they owe additional
money to the University, we will get an IDT from the Bursar.
Transcript Volume
(Bob LeHeup, Associate Registrar)






In 1997, we produced approximately 75,000 transcripts, taking in $181,135, an
insignificant portion of the University’s revenue. Approximately 10-15,000 of those
transcripts are issued at the request of the school or for scholarship renewal at no
charge.
We billed approximately $22,800 (including billing for faxes)
In payment of those bills, we received approximately $14,000 (estimating receipt of
$3000 for faxes, which is tallied combined with postage received for diploma
mailing)
Many bills go unpaid because students know we can’t do much about it—we refer
unpaid bills to the Bursar’s Office only for $10 or more, and only after we have billed
three times
We wrote 707 refund checks, for a total of $2100, an average of $3 per check and 59
checks written per month
We spent over $1000 just in postage to mail bills and refund checks
7
Appendix III
Collection of Fees
(Jay Scott/Melody Bianchetto, Director of the Budget Office)
The University has two types of fees: mandatory, which every student must pay, and for
service, which are paid by a student when a particular service is rendered. Mandatory
fees are either categorized as educational and general (for example, fees to support
intramural recreational facilities or student computer labs and support) or as auxiliary (for
example, student transportation at University Transit and student programming at
University Union). See attached “Detail of Required Fees” for specifics. Presently,
mandatory fees for in-state and out-of-state students are exactly the same. The General
Assembly has frozen in-state undergraduate tuition and E&G mandatory fees since 199596. One exemption from the freeze, requested as a part of a Unified Amendment from all
institutions of higher education, was granted by the General Assembly in the 1998
session allowing all institutions of higher education to add a technology fee.
Currently the $3 transcript fee is a for-service fee, that is, it is paid when the service is
rendered. If you eliminate a for-service fee, the revenue impact of losing that fee must be
recovered by either increasing another revenue (ie., mandatory fees or tuition) or
reducing an expenditure budget. For example, the Library decided to change its fee
collection policy. Under the old policy the University was received about $100,000 in
revenues that were fed back into the budget. Under the new policy, only about $25,000
in library fines were generated. Somewhere, some expenditure budget must make up that
revenue loss. The University’s revenue budget equals the expenditure budget – if one
side decreases, the other side must also decrease. Therefore, the question is how to
eliminate the fee but not the revenue.
One option discussed in eliminating the for-service fee without eliminating the revenue
would be to increase mandatory E&G fees or tuition to cover the cost of issuing
transcripts. The key barrier to this is the current freeze on increasing tuition and E&G
fees for in-state undergraduate students.
Another concern with eliminating the transcript fee as a for-service fee is the “nuisance
fee” aspect. Certain fees exist as a deterrent to prevent abuse of a service. A question for
the team to consider is whether eliminating the transcript fee as a for-service fee might
invite significant increases in volume, resulting in additional costs.
8
Appendix IV
University of Virginia
Transcript Issuance Team
Detail of Required Fees - 1998-99
Per
Student
E&G Fees
Recreational Facilities
Technology Fee
Capital Renewal Fee
Arts Fee
$
Auxiliary Fees
Recreational Facilities
University Hall Facility
Athletics Capital Improvements
Athletics
Student Common Area
University Union
Student Health
University Transit (incl Student
Escort)
Auxiliary Fee
WTJU
98-99
Budget
17 $ 265,000
45
800,000
24
410,000
12
214,000
98 1,689,000
125
15
45
150
335
5,913,597
73
105
178
1,242,000
269
80
5,493,022
1,837,400
31
4
540,000
70,000
897 15,096,019
Total Comprehensive Fee
$
995 16,785,019
1998-99 Annual Revenue Budget for Other Fees
Other Fees
Duplicate Diploma Fee
$
1,500
Duplicate ID Fee
18,000
Forfeited Deposits
60,000
Transcript Fees
180,000
Library Fines
38,300
Late Fees
40,000
Veterans Service Charges
600
9
1998-99 Typical Charges for Student Living on Grounds
In-State Out-of-State
Tuition
Required Fees
Activity Fee - College of Arts &
Sciences
Dining Services (Unlimited Entry)
Housing - Alderman Road
$
98-99 School year (1/2 billed each
semester)
$
3,832 $
995
39
2,430
1,960
9,256 $
14,780
995
39
2,430
1,960
20,204
1998-99 Registrar's Budget
Personal Services
OTPS
Recoveries
$ 712,102
688,822
(4,500)
Total Expenditure Budget
$1,396,424
Lost Diploma Fee
Lost ID Card Fee
Transcript Fees
Late Registration Fees
Veterans Service Charges
1,500
18,000
180,000
10,000
600
Total Revenue Budget
$ 210,100
10
Appendix V
TRANSCRIPT FEES OF OTHER SCHOOLS
Other Virginia Schools
$2
College of Health Sciences (going to $3 soon)
James Madison University
$4
Hollins College
$5
Liberty University ($10 for next day service)
Longwood College (eliminated fee 3 years ago)
$3
Lynchburg College
Mary Washington College (eliminated fee a few years ago—students love it)
$3
Marymount University
$5
Old Dominion University (but doesn’t track people who don’t pay)
Radford University (eliminated fee 6 years ago—a great success)
$2
Roanoke College
$3
Southern Virginia College
Sweet Briar College
Thomas Nelson Community College
Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Tech (eliminated fee 7 years ago; it was too costly to receive and bill for
the money charged. The cost of production was folded into the cost of tuition.)
Washington & Lee University (eliminated fee in ’91; cost too much to process
billing; consider it good public relations)
$5
William & Mary (imposed fee 3 years ago; “It didn’t go over well.”)
Other AAU Schools
$1
University of Arizona (unofficial; $4 for official; $6 for special requests)
$2
Brandeis University (considering flat fee)
Brown University
$4
UC-Berkeley ($10 for next-day service)
$5
UC-Irvine
$5
UC-Los Angeles
$5
UC-San Diego ($10 for same-day service)
$5
UC-Santa Barbara
$1
California Institute of Technology
$4
Carnegie-Mellon University
$5
Case Western Reserve University
Catholic University of America
$6
University of Chicago ($75 maximum per order)
$3
Clark University
$3
University of Colorado ($10 for same day service)
Columbia University ($30 flat fee assessed to all first-time students)
$2
Cornell University
11
$2
$3
$5
$6
$4
$4
$5
$2
$5
$4
$5
$4
$3
$5
$3
$5
$5
$5
$6
$3
$4
$2
$3
$7
$5
$5
$2
$4
$5
$5
Duke University($30 flat fee assessed to all first-time students)
Emory University ($4 for official transcripts issued to student)
University of Florida
Harvard University ($2 for each additional copy in same order)
University of Illinois
Indiana University
University of Iowa (plus $2 for on-the-spot processing)
Iowa State University ($2 for each additional copy in same order)
Johns Hopkins University ($10 for rush service)
University of Kansas ($10 for on-the spot processing)
University of Maryland
Massachusetts Institute of Technology ($10 for overnight)
McGill University (included in generic administrative fee)
University of Michigan
Michigan State University
University of Minnesota ($8 for rush and on-the-spot service)
University of Missouri
University of Nebraska ($2 for each additional copy in same order)
New York University (postage additional; planning on going to one-time fee)
University of North Carolina
Northwestern University ($7 additional for rush service)
Ohio State University ($10 additional for same-day service
University of Oregon ($2 for unofficial; $10 for rush service)
University of Pennsylvania ($10 for on-the-spot service)
Pennsylvania State University ($6 additional for same day service)
Princeton University
Purdue University
Rice University ($0.50 for unofficial)
University of Rochester
Rutgers
University of Southern California ($5 for unofficial)
Stanford University (charges $110 document fee for transcripts and placement
files)
SUNY-Buffalo ($2.50 for unofficial)
Syracuse University
University of Texas
Vanderbilt University
University of Washington (no charge for unofficial)
Washington University (Saint Louis)
University of Wisconsin
Yale University (if ordered by mail; $3 for walk-in requests; $1 for each
additional copy in same order)
12
Appendix VI
SURVEY OF MCINTIRE STUDENTS
Question:
I have recently been appointed to serve as Chair of a Process Simplification
Team to evaluate transcript requests. Currently, students must pay $3.00 to
the Registrar's Office for each transcript ordered from that Office. One option
the team will evaluate is to discontinue the $3 per transcript fee and replace it
with a nominal student fee, which would be paid with tuition and fees each
semester a student is enrolled.
Before we begin the work of the committee, I am interested in student
feedback. Would you favor such as change? Please respond Yes (pay small
fee per semester) or No (continue fee per transcript). Any additional
comments are welcome.
Please respond directly to me via email. I appreciate your input.
***********************************************
Rebecca Locke Leonard
Assistant Dean for Student Affairs
McIntire School of Commerce
Response:
Total returned: 119
NO:
33
YES:
73
NO - Conditional 4
COMMENTS: Had questions concerning amount of fee, and other suggestions
and comments.
YES - Conditional 9
COMMENTS: 7 dependent on fee being less than $12. 2 if good `forever', for
`alumni'.
13
Appendix VII
Possible Solutions
I.
Abolish Fee
Pros:
 Excellent public relations move—students often question why we charge when so
many other schools do not, and why we are charging them again after they have
already paid a significant amount of money in tuition
 Alumni would appreciate this as a University service
 Reduce staff time spent on billing, cashiering, and making deposits—freeing them up
for more worthwhile tasks
 Satisfy Audit Department, whose requirements we have often been unable to meet
(for example, they have recommended that all checks be individually logged by hand
before being rung into the cash register, that a cashier be designated who has no part
in transcript production, that there be only one cashier allowed to use register, that the
deposit be done by someone who does not produce transcripts—all suggestions that
our staffing does not allow)
 Remove most cash flow, almost all of it in small amounts, from the office
 Would allow us in the future to accept requests via e-mail or other automated
processes
Cons:
 Loss of $180,000 in revenue
 Volume of transcripts requested could go up in the short term, although we think the
long-term change will be minimal
 Current system does mean that customers pay for what they use, and students who get
few transcripts might feel they would be subsidizing alumni and those who get many
II.
Abolish Fee and replace with one time?, one semester? Fee (potential to tie with
Orientation costs?)
 Need to be within State restriction or get waiver
 Per semester fee would exclude Cont. Ed. Students
 Tying with Orientation Costs would place burden on first time undergrads only.
III.
Bundle Services of Registrar’s Office for one time fee
 Some of the current fees serve as good deterrents (lost ID, late registration, lost
diploma)
IV.
Raise Fee but don’t bill
 Would get rid of billing problem
 would not be equitable
 Might result in lost fees
V.
Pay in Advance – model is the Credentials Service offered through the Office of
Career Planning and placement
 Gets rid of billing problem and maintains revenues
 Potential to create significant negative customer relations
14
Appendix I
How to Get a Transcript
(Registrar's Office Home Page)
Transcripts may be obtained at the Office of the University Registrar in Carruthers Hall
for a fee of $3 per copy. Transcripts can be printed and given to you while you wait.
Requests cannot be taken over the telephone or via E-mail. Transcript request forms may
be completed at the various deans' offices around Grounds and left with the correct
payment; our office courier will pick them up and bring them to the office.
Transcripts cannot be produced for anyone whose record has been blocked by the
Bursar's Office. If you choose to send a request by mail, write to: UVA Registrar's
Office, PO Box 9009, Charlottesville VA 22906-9009. Be sure to include your full name
and address, your student I.D. (social security number), the complete mailing address to
where the transcript should be sent, and your signature. The charge is $3 per copy; make
checks payable to University of Virginia.
Transcript orders can be taken via facsimile, but we do bill an additional $5 fee for all
incoming faxes as well as for all outgoing faxes. Faxes sent outside North America are
billed at $15. If we send you a copy of your transcript via fax, it will not be an official
copy. Our fax number is 804/924-4156. We will process the order and send a bill for the
transcript and fax fees to the address you give in your request.
Transcript orders are usually processed within one to two working days. For more
information, please call 804/924-4121.
15
Appendix II
Current Transcript Issuance and Billing Process:
(Robert LeHeup, Associate Registrar)
Transcript requests are received in three different ways: in person, by mail, and via fax.
Requests made in person are usually in the form of a completed request form, and
payment is almost always made at the same time. If payment is not made—when the
cash register is closed or the student does not have any money or we do not have correct
change—we write out a bill and give it to the student (keeping a copy for ourselves).
Requests sent by mail have proper payment about 80% of the time. The ones that do not
and the ones received by fax (which can never have payment included, since we do not
accept credit cards) have bills prepared programmatically as part of the “typing up” of the
mail. We type requests into a computer program, which produces address inserts that fit
in a window envelope, as well as a file copy for our records. As needed, a bill or refund
slip is also produced.
If the student has paid too much, we prepare and mail a refund check. We write checks
as least once a week. Once a month, we balance the refund account, make a deposit from
our departmental account to cover the amount of checks written in that month, and write
off checks still not cashed after one year.
If too little is paid, we issue a bill. Bills are sent on an irregular schedule, but at least
once a month. Photocopies are made for our files of all the bills, and the originals mailed
to the students. As payment is received, we pull the photocopies from our files and
discard them. At the end of one month, the remaining file copies are separated into two
piles: less than $10 and $10 or greater. The smaller bill copies are mailed to the students
as a second notice, but we do not continue to keep a copy in the files. (If these smaller
bills are never paid, there is nothing we do about it, and no way to prevent additional
orders from being processed.) The $10 and higher bills are copied again, the second
notice mailed to the student, and a copy retained in our files.
At the end of the second month, a third billing is made. Copies are made of all
outstanding bills for the files, and a third notice is sent to the students. If bills remain
unpaid at the end of the third month, we pull the original request from our transcript
request files to place in a special “referred accounts” file. We then type the necessary
information into ISIS so that the bill is placed on the student’s account with the Bursar
and a financial hold is put in place.
If a deposited check does not clear, the Bursar’s Office assumes responsibility for making
the collection, and adds a $20 bad check fee. In the Registrar’s Office, we will see that
the student now has a financial hold on their record, but that may not always prevent us
from accepting another check if the student makes a new request by mail (since checks
are deposited before the order is processed). We do get lengthy bad check reports, which
we merely file away.
16
On a daily basis, we make a deposit to our accounts at Wachovia Bank. We have
separate accounts for transcripts, postage (into which we put fax fees), diplomas, I.D.
cards, and Pavilion VIII fees. We daily call in a report to a deposit management firm and
bring the deposit to the Bursar’s Office, where it is held until the armored courier arrives
to take it to the bank. Monthly, we review the financial reports we receive from
Accounting Operations and verify them against our daily deposit reports. If a student
makes payment directly to the Bursar’s Office, which can happen if they owe additional
money to the University, we will get an IDT from the Bursar.
Transcript Volume
(Robert LeHeup, Associate Registrar)






In 1997, we produced approximately 75,000 transcripts, taking in $181,135, an
insignificant portion of the University’s revenue. Approximately 10-15,000 of those
transcripts are issued at the request of the school or for scholarship renewal at no
charge.
We billed approximately $22,800 (including billing for faxes)
In payment of those bills, we received approximately $14,000 (estimating receipt of
$3000 for faxes, which is tallied combined with postage received for diploma
mailing)
Many bills go unpaid because students know we can’t do much about it—we refer
unpaid bills to the Bursar’s Office only for $10 or more, and only after we have billed
three times
We wrote 707 refund checks, for a total of $2100, an average of $3 per check and 59
checks written per month
We spent over $1000 just in postage to mail bills and refund checks
17
Appendix III
Collection of Fees
(Jay Scott/Melody Bianchetto, Director of the Budget Office)
The University has two types of fees: mandatory, which every student must pay, and for
service, which are paid by a student when a particular service is rendered. Mandatory
fees are either categorized as educational and general (for example, fees to support
intramural recreational facilities or student computer labs and support) or as auxiliary (for
example, student transportation at University Transit and student programming at
University Union). See attached “Detail of Required Fees” for specifics. Presently,
mandatory fees for in-state and out-of-state students are exactly the same. The General
Assembly has frozen in-state undergraduate tuition and E&G mandatory fees since 199596. One exemption from the freeze, requested as a part of a Unified Amendment from all
institutions of higher education, was granted by the General Assembly in the 1998
session allowing all institutions of higher education to add a technology fee.
Currently the $3 transcript fee is a for-service fee, that is, it is paid when the service is
rendered. If you eliminate a for-service fee, the revenue impact of losing that fee must be
recovered by either increasing another revenue (ie., mandatory fees or tuition) or
reducing an expenditure budget. For example, the Library decided to change its fee
collection policy. Under the old policy the University was received about $100,000 in
revenues that were fed back into the budget. Under the new policy, only about $25,000
in library fines were generated. Somewhere, some expenditure budget must make up that
revenue loss. The University’s revenue budget equals the expenditure budget – if one
side decreases, the other side must also decrease. Therefore, the question is how to
eliminate the fee but not the revenue.
One option discussed in eliminating the for-service fee without eliminating the revenue
would be to increase mandatory E&G fees or tuition to cover the cost of issuing
transcripts. The key barrier to this is the current freeze on increasing tuition and E&G
fees for in-state undergraduate students.
Another concern with eliminating the transcript fee as a for-service fee is the “nuisance
fee” aspect. Certain fees exist as a deterrent to prevent abuse of a service. A question for
the team to consider is whether eliminating the transcript fee as a for-service fee might
invite significant increases in volume, resulting in additional costs.
18
Appendix IV
University of Virginia
Transcript Issuance Team
Detail of Required Fees - 1998-99
Per
98-99
Student
Budget
E&G Fees
Recreational Facilities
Technology Fee
Capital Renewal Fee
Arts Fee
$
Auxiliary Fees
Recreational Facilities
University Hall Facility
Athletics Capital Improvements
Athletics
Student Common Area
University Union
Student Health
University Transit (incl Student
Escort)
Auxiliary Fee
WTJU
17 $ 265,000
45
800,000
24
410,000
12
214,000
98 1,689,000
125
15
45
150
335
5,913,597
73
105
178
1,242,000
269
80
5,493,022
1,837,400
31
4
540,000
70,000
897 15,096,019
Total Comprehensive Fee
$
995 16,785,019
1998-99 Annual Revenue Budget for Other Fees
Other Fees
Duplicate Diploma Fee
$
1,500
Duplicate ID Fee
18,000
Forfeited Deposits
60,000
Transcript Fees
180,000
Library Fines
38,300
Late Fees
40,000
Veterans Service Charges
600
19
1998-99 Typical Charges for Student Living on Grounds
In-State Out-of-State
Tuition
Required Fees
Activity Fee - College of Arts &
Sciences
Dining Services (Unlimited Entry)
Housing - Alderman Road
$
98-99 School year (1/2 billed each
semester)
$
3,832 $
995
39
2,430
1,960
9,256 $
14,780
995
39
2,430
1,960
20,204
1998-99 Registrar's Budget
Personal Services
OTPS
Recoveries
$ 712,102
688,822
(4,500)
Total Expenditure Budget
$1,396,424
Lost Diploma Fee
Lost ID Card Fee
Transcript Fees
Late Registration Fees
Veterans Service Charges
1,500
18,000
180,000
10,000
600
Total Revenue Budget
$ 210,100
20
Appendix V
TRANSCRIPT FEES OF OTHER SCHOOLS
Other Virginia Schools
$2
College of Health Sciences (going to $3 soon)
James Madison University
$4
Hollins College
$5
Liberty University ($10 for next day service)
Longwood College (eliminated fee 3 years ago)
$3
Lynchburg College
Mary Washington College (eliminated fee a few years ago—students love it)
$3
Marymount University
$5
Old Dominion University (but doesn’t track people who don’t pay)
Radford University (eliminated fee 6 years ago—a great success)
$2
Roanoke College
$3
Southern Virginia College
Sweet Briar College
Thomas Nelson Community College
Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Tech (eliminated fee 7 years ago; it was too costly to receive and bill for
the money charged. The cost of production was folded into the cost of tuition.)
Washington & Lee University (eliminated fee in ’91; cost too much to process
billing; consider it good public relations)
$5
William & Mary (imposed fee 3 years ago; “It didn’t go over well.”)
Other AAU Schools
$1
University of Arizona (unofficial; $4 for official; $6 for special requests)
$2
Brandeis University (considering flat fee)
Brown University
$4
UC-Berkeley ($10 for next-day service)
$5
UC-Irvine
$5
UC-Los Angeles
$5
UC-San Diego ($10 for same-day service)
$5
UC-Santa Barbara
$1
California Institute of Technology
$4
Carnegie-Mellon University
$5
Case Western Reserve University
Catholic University of America
$6
University of Chicago ($75 maximum per order)
$3
Clark University
$3
University of Colorado ($10 for same day service)
Columbia University ($30 flat fee assessed to all first-time students)
$2
Cornell University
21
$2
$3
$5
$6
$4
$4
$5
$2
$5
$4
$5
$4
$3
$5
$3
$5
$5
$5
$6
$3
$4
$2
$3
$7
$5
$5
$2
$4
$5
$5
Duke University($30 flat fee assessed to all first-time students)
Emory University ($4 for official transcripts issued to student)
University of Florida
Harvard University ($2 for each additional copy in same order)
University of Illinois
Indiana University
University of Iowa (plus $2 for on-the-spot processing)
Iowa State University ($2 for each additional copy in same order)
Johns Hopkins University ($10 for rush service)
University of Kansas ($10 for on-the spot processing)
University of Maryland
Massachusetts Institute of Technology ($10 for overnight)
McGill University (included in generic administrative fee)
University of Michigan
Michigan State University
University of Minnesota ($8 for rush and on-the-spot service)
University of Missouri
University of Nebraska ($2 for each additional copy in same order)
New York University (postage additional; planning on going to one-time fee)
University of North Carolina
Northwestern University ($7 additional for rush service)
Ohio State University ($10 additional for same-day service
University of Oregon ($2 for unofficial; $10 for rush service)
University of Pennsylvania ($10 for on-the-spot service)
Pennsylvania State University ($6 additional for same day service)
Princeton University
Purdue University
Rice University ($0.50 for unofficial)
University of Rochester
Rutgers
University of Southern California ($5 for unofficial)
Stanford University (charges $110 document fee for transcripts and placement
files)
SUNY-Buffalo ($2.50 for unofficial)
Syracuse University
University of Texas
Vanderbilt University
University of Washington (no charge for unofficial)
Washington University (Saint Louis)
University of Wisconsin
Yale University (if ordered by mail; $3 for walk-in requests; $1 for each
additional copy in same order)
22
Appendix VI
SURVEY OF MCINTIRE STUDENTS
Question:
I have recently been appointed to serve as Chair of a Process Simplification
Team to evaluate transcript requests. Currently, students must pay $3.00 to
the Registrar's Office for each transcript ordered from that Office. One option
the team will evaluate is to discontinue the $3 per transcript fee and replace it
with a nominal student fee, which would be paid with tuition and fees each
semester a student is enrolled.
Before we begin the work of the committee, I am interested in student
feedback. Would you favor such as change? Please respond Yes (pay small
fee per semester) or No (continue fee per transcript). Any additional
comments are welcome.
Please respond directly to me via email. I appreciate your input.
***********************************************
Rebecca Locke Leonard
Assistant Dean for Student Affairs
McIntire School of Commerce
Response:
Total returned: 119
NO:
33
YES:
73
NO - Conditional 4
COMMENTS: Had questions concerning amount of fee, and other suggestions
and comments.
YES - Conditional 9
COMMENTS: 7 dependent on fee being less than $12. 2 if good `forever', for
`alumni'.
23
Appendix VII
Possible Solutions
VI.
Abolish Fee
Pros:
 Excellent public relations move—students often question why we charge when so
many other schools do not, and why we are charging them again after they have
already paid a significant amount of money in tuition
 Alumni would appreciate this as a University service
 Reduce staff time spent on billing, cashiering, and making deposits—freeing them up
for more worthwhile tasks
 Satisfy Audit Department, whose requirements we have often been unable to meet
(for example, they have recommended that all checks be individually logged by hand
before being rung into the cash register, that a cashier be designated who has no part
in transcript production, that there be only one cashier allowed to use register, that the
deposit be done by someone who does not produce transcripts—all suggestions that
our staffing does not allow)
 Remove most cash flow, almost all of it in small amounts, from the office
 Would allow us in the future to accept requests via e-mail or other automated
processes
Cons:
 Loss of $180,000 in revenue
 Volume of transcripts requested could go up in the short term, although we think the
long-term change will be minimal
 Current system does mean that customers pay for what they use, and students who get
few transcripts might feel they would be subsidizing alumni and those who get many
VII. Abolish Fee and replace with one time?, one semester? Fee (potential to tie with
Orientation costs?)
 Need to be within State restriction or get waiver
 Per semester fee would exclude Cont. Ed. Students
 Tying with Orientation Costs would place burden on first time undergrads only
VIII. Bundle Services of Registrar’s Office for one time fee
 Some of the current fees serve as good deterrents (lost ID, late registration, lost
diploma)
IX.
Raise Fee but don’t bill
 Would get rid of billing problem
 would not be equitable
 Might result in lost fees
X.
Pay in Advance – model is the Credentials Service offered through the Office of
Career Planning and placement
 Gets rid of billing problem and maintains revenues
 Potential to create significant negative customer relations
24