1. Northwest Missouri State University Statement of Consent for Electronic Communication At Northwest Missouri State University we feel very strongly that we are able to better serve our students by providing information and services as quickly and efficiently as possible.  Electronic formats: email and secure websites gives us the ability to serve our students.  Per Federal Regulation, if an institution is going to use electronic means to communicate with students regarding their financial aid, the student must consent to this method prior to the actual electronic communication and must be obtained electronically.  Consent must be: voluntary, student must be allowed to opt out or withdraw their consent at any time, and only the students can consent or withdraw consent.

2. Northwest Missouri State University each student is assigned a University e-mail account upon admission and is informed that they will receive academic and administrative information via this account. Each student is assigned:  Username and password secure account on CatPAWS- web service for students.  Student ID, which serves as their username and they are given a generic password for first time access to the account. (Must create a new password for further access to the account.)  The CatPAWS account is also the student’s access to all academic scheduling, degree audit, and grading information.

3. Accepting Financial Awards on CatPAWS  Students log into their CatPAWS accounts and proceed to the student and financial aid section and are asked to accept or decline the electronic format consent statement.  This statement must be accepted before proceeding to any financial aid related information.  In the rare event that a student does not consent they will contacted via regular mail to complete a verification form indicating that they indeed do not wish to receive their information electronically.  At this time a hold is placed on their account and future information is sent via regular mail.

4. After the students accept the electronic format consent statement they are then allowed to:  Review financial aid awards  Accept/Decline awards  Reduce award amounts  Access parent plus loan information forms  View financial aid history  View messages from the financial aid office concerning documentation requests, scholarship renewal/non- renewal and other related messages. Students will receive billing information, disbursement information, and requests for documentation or verification via e-mail.

5. Our actual statement is very simple: I authorize the use of electronic means of communication such as e-mail and secure websites for official notifications concerning financial aid awards, eligibility, disbursements, and any related programs and services. I understand that I have the right to rescind this statement at any time by written notification to the Office of Scholarships and Financial Assistance.