Beginning with the fall 2006 (term 1067) the President’s Executive Council approved the assessment of a 1.5% Past Due Fee on account balances of students, faculty, and staff at SMU. The Fee will be assessed monthly until the balance is resolved.
Why is the University implementing this policy?
Over the years the University has tried a number of strategies to motivate members of the SMU community to pay charges on their accounts. These charges can be a result of parking citations, library fines or, for students, charges for tuition, fees, room and board, Health Center, and direct charges from the Bookstore and the Computer Corner. Collection of these balances are a real cost for the University as well as represents lost revenue. Assessing a penalty for past due charges is a common practice in business and one that SMU is trying in the hope that balances will be resolved in a more timely manner. By collecting this fee the University can recuperate some of its costs of collections and assess these costs to the students, faculty, and staff that create the necessity to spend staff time collecting balances. This also should assist the University in holding down costs and limiting future tuition increases.
Being a part of an education institution also suggests that we have an obligation to provide an environment that helps students make the transition to responsible adulthood. This new policy can help to make the students learn fiscal responsibility while at SMU.
How will this work?
Through the month end process that is executed by Student Financial Services each month, accounts with past due balances will be identified and assessed a penalty of 1.5% of the past due balance. This process will begin in the fall of 2006 and only will include balances generated from term 1067 (fall 06) forward. Balances carried over from previous terms will not be assessed the penalty. This penalty will be assessed for all past due accounts from this point forward for students, faculty, and staff. Once a term students also will continue to pay a $150 Late Payment Fee charged for payments made after the payment due date.
