1. Navigating CPoS – Sam Houston State University's Journey
Sam Houston State University- Office of the Registrar M.4.07

2. Disclosure
This presentation references SHSU’s journey as accurately as possible. Some slides contain summarized information as interpreted by the presenter regarding Federal Regulations and Business Processes.

3. About SHSU Student population 21363 Population on Financial Aid
Degree Works and Banner School
Degree Works 4.1.6
Student
TCC Student
Student Registration SSB 9.9
Student Registration SSB TCC 9.15

4. Federal Regulations 34 CFR 600.2
Regular student: A person who is enrolled or accepted for enrollment at an institution for the purpose of obtaining a degree, certificate, or other recognized educational credential offered by that institution.
34 CFR
A student is eligible to receive Title IV, HEA program assistance if the student either meets all of the requirements in paragraphs (a) throu h m} of this section or meets the requirement in paragraph (n) of this section as follows : (a1(1 (i) Is a regular student enrolled, or accepted for enrollment, in an eligible program at an eligible institution;
FSA Handbook, Volume 1-Student Eligibility, Chapter 1- School­ Determined Requirements pg
Federal Regulations

5. definition What is Course Program of Study (CPoS) ?
Per Federal regulations (34 CFR ) your eligibility for federal aid and your financial aid cost of attendance (COA) are based on your enrollment in courses that meet outstanding degree requirements. Course Program of Study refers to the outstanding coursework that is required for a student to obtain their officially declared degree, certificate, or other recognized credential. This is a federal requirement that currently only relates to Federal Financial Aid Regulations (Title IV funding). Should a student register for courses not required to satisfy their program of study they may see an impact in their federal financial aid award packages as well as their cost of attendance.
When did this become a requirement?
SHSU went live with the system audit process to ensure compliance Fall However, this federal mandate has been a long standing requirement for all institutions of higher education dispersing federal funding.

6. Purpose Graduate Students
Keep students on track = Timely graduation rates
Reduce Student Loan Debt
Interest accumulates the longer a student is in school
Student loan debt is higher due to students taking unnecessary courses
Each unnecessary 3 credit hour course taken costs the SH student an additional $ (based upon Fall 2019 tuition/fee rates)
Maximize Sources of Governmental Funding for Students
When federal aid is awarded ONLY for required degree program classes, greater grant funding becomes eligible to allow more students the opportunity to receive such aid

7. How it began for sam Houston …
March 13, 2017, Financial Aid Office learns of a Federal CPoS audit conducted at an institution where 28 of 30 students were registered and receiving federal aid for courses not required of the plan. The audit result: 100% review spanning over 5 years costing the school millions of dollars!
So …. Starts our CPoS Team Development
2017 – Development of a CPoS Team
Team consisted of members from Financial Aid, Registrar, IT
February Consultant hired to set up the rules for CPoS
March 2018 – First CPoS Test Plan Ready
October 2018 – First Test Run of CPoS

8. Test plan details
Performance Testing – Important to know how long your CPoS process will run
Process will take 2 – 3 days with initial run each term, Tested various number of students as attempt to determine a safe number for the process!
Tested one full day each week until live process was ready to go
Testing revealed the needed overview of curriculum
Work through the errors (addressed in a future slide!)
Critical Information: Don’t change a lot of settings all at once!

9. … And the testing continued
Waitlisted Courses
Repeated Courses
Incomplete Grades
Disbursement of Funds
Custom Popsels utilizing credit hours – do they need to point to federal hours as a change in the Popsel
Elective credits
End of Term Process
EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING WAS TESTED!

10. Decisions, decisions, decisions …
How often should your CPoS process run?
When to run initial CPoS report each term?
When to stop running CPoS report each term?
What population of students will you include?
Will you run CPoS for all aid programs (federal, state, institutional) or just federal?
When will you adjust Cost of Attendance?
Who will have access to override SFASCRE?
Who will be point of contact for faculty/staff?
Who will be point of contact for students?
Who will communication to students, staff and faculty?

11. Institutional processes considered
Repeat coursework
Honors programs
Study abroad
Changes to Student Curriculum
Degree plan course substitutions
4+1, 3+2, MA-PHD programs

12. Cpos ownership Departments Academic Advisors
Registrar/Degree Works Scriber
Financial Aid IT
Who will set up/maintain Banner forms?
Who will run/schedule the jobs?
Who can override courses?
Who troubleshoots if the audit is “wrong?”
Who communicates to students?

13. New Development of assistant registrar position
Assistant Registrar of Compliance – Primary duty is CPoS but will encompass scribing and additional reporting to aid in keeping Sam Houston in compliance with all state and federal guidelines.

14. Assistant Registrar - cpos?
Daily - Runs two custom reports
Manually reviews all courses that students have enrolled for but are not showing to be part of their degree plan. The manual review process will allow for overrides to take place for individual students on a case by case basis.
Override Eligible:
Hidden prerequisites
Allowable repeats
Not eligible for Overrides:
Courses not required in the student's noted catalog year.
Repeated course(s) which no longer qualify for aid based on Institutional rules.
Course is an elective and the student has already fulfilled all electives required for degree completion.
Degree Plan requires a Concentration or Minor which has not been noted on plan.
SHSU Veteran Resource center (VRC) currently reviews all registered courses for Veterans and dependents of Veterans who receive federal benefits to ensure they are part of their degree plan. About 30% of the courses reviewed are not initially on the degree plan.

15. How CPOS Works
CPoS identifies the “Count in Program” courses by programmatically sending a degree evaluation (audit) request via the Degree Works System.
The audit output from Degree Works determines if a course is required in the student’s program of study. This output data is utilized by the Financial Aid Department for the purposes of Federal Aid disbursement and Cost of Attendance calculations.
The Student Course Evaluation Audit Form (SFASCRE) within Banner populates an entry for each course in which the student has registered (current term as defined by institution) and displays a Yes or No for “Count in Program”.

16. What triggers a new audit
Banner Changes Trigger an Auto Re-Run of the CPoS Process
SZAREGS - Adding/Dropping a class
SGASTDN - Student Curriculum changes
SHATCKN - Rolling academic history, grade changes, posting repeated indicators to courses completed
SHATRNS - New courses articulated
Degree Works Changes
Do not cause SFPRCPOS to automatically run a new audit
You will have to manually run students for degree plan exception(s) or scribe change(s)

17. SFASCRE

18. CPOS- What if history

19. RHACOMM

20. Issues identified
Consideration of Certificate Programs for degree seeking graduate students
The need for early submission and processing of degree plan exceptions
Changes to Student Curriculum - timing critical
Hidden Pre-requisites
Courses coded with special prefixes such as HONR (Honors program) which are not scribed as requirements to the degree plans (plan exceptions needed)
Students with more than one active curriculum
Override applies to CRN only not a course
No way to flag course as already reviewed
Undergraduate prerequisite coursework will not pull into Graduate degree plans

21. … and More Issues
Exceptions processed to Degree Works do not auto-trigger a re-run of the CPoS process for the student
Courses repeatable for multiple hours
First time students will require an immediate change to curriculum in most cases
Final semester issues (only need 3 more hours to graduate)
Marching Band, Dance Team, etc. courses do not count for aid
Transfer articulation timing, including articulation of AP courses

22. Lessons learned Prepare your academic campus offices
Allow time for DW “cleanup”
Communication plans needed for academic staff and students
Documenting your test plan with details when settings are changed
Pursue needed policies and changes to current policies

23. Thank you for your interest!
Christine Liles – Assistant Registrar
Maria Busby – Director of Registrar Operations