University Business - March 2008 - (Page HigherOne2)

Learning from the Higher One experience The University of Louisville sought a partner with a track record of providing electronic refunds. Welcome to Greetings. Welcome to the inaugural edition of Streamlined. My colleagues and I are proud to present this series of publications to inform college and university administrators about new and innovative methods of streamlining business office operations. In this edition, you’ll find out how the University of Louisville has lowered the costs associated with refund distribution by going electronic. And, through an informative interview with our senior vice president of client operations, Casey McGuane, you’ll become familiar with the new Department of Education regulations surrounding these disbursements. We hope these articles will provide you with valuable insight and improve the overall student experience at your school. Higher One provides higher education institutions and students with efficient, convenient and easy-to-use solutions to handle their financial disbursements. These include: student refunds, on-campus and community purchases, payroll and employee expenses—as well as the collection of payments from students, parents, and sponsors. As always, Higher One strives to provide you with the best service possible. Please contact us with any questions you have concerning our services. We look forward to hearing from you! Regards, H Dean Hatton CEO, Higher One aving grown up in a world ing, and the students who have OneAcof ATMs, debit cards and on- counts have the money by that afternoon, line banking, students at the and sometimes it’s as fast as two hours,” University of Louisville wanted a better Tomlinson says. Higher One mails checks way to receive financial aid and other to students who prefer to receive their retypes of refunds. Receiving paper checks funds the old-fashioned way. With a OneAccount, students with through the mail was slow, inconvenient campus jobs can have paychecks and unreliable. University administrators weren’t sat- direct deposited. Parents can also isfied either. For them, the process was transfer money online into a student’s OneAccount. labor intensive, costly and inefficient. The university intends to examine “Students move a lot and forget to update their addresses,” says R. Jason replacing its current student ID with the Tomlinson, assistant vice president in Higher One OneCard, which also could serve as a stored-value the University of Louisville’s Office of the Vice Presi- “Higher One has been card for use in campus dent for Finance. “We’d through this process copiers and vending machines. “We want to get stacks of returned with other schools, have it all in one card,” checks because the adand we had the dresses would be bad.” advantage of calling Tomlinson says. As the university Even when the pro- existing customers to sought proposals for eleccess worked perfectly, it see how everything tronic refunds, Higher took three days to issue was going.” One was the only comchecks and several more pany that had a track days for the checks to arrive in students’ mailboxes. Of course, record in handling all of the services that then students had to make time in their were required. A local bank, for example, busy schedules to get to the bank to de- proposed partnering with another firm to do the job, but university officials were posit or cash the check. “The idea came from the students wary of that solution. “We would have through the student government,” Tomlin- had to deal with their growing pains son says. “They really wanted electronic because it was their first venture,” Tomlinson explains. methods for receiving their refunds.” Using a bank presented other issues. In contracting with Higher One, the university found a solution that responded The university didn’t want to do anything to both the students’ desires and the that would seem to encourage the use of needs of the Bursar’s Office. The uni- credit cards. “But if we are dealing with versity started using the OneDisburse a bank,” Tomlinson says, “credit cards Refund Management program in the fall are one of their revenue sources, and of 2006, and it’s been generating posi- they want to promote them.” Higher One’s clear focus on higher tive feedback from students, parents and education and experience with other administrators ever since. About 80 percent of the university’s schools have proven very beneficial, more than 21,500 students have chosen Tomlinson says. Higher One also has to collect their refund via the two electronic the expertise to navigate the changing options that Higher One provides: direct regulations governing the disbursement deposit to a federally insured free check- of financial aid. “Higher One has been through this ing account, called a OneAccount, or an electronic deposit to a third-party bank process with other schools, and we had account. Students who opt for the OneAc- the advantage of calling existing customcount can use a debit card to access their ers to see how everything was going,” Tomlinson says. “They’ve already worked accounts from ATMs on campus. “When we disburse refunds, we wire through all these processes because the money to Higher One in the morn- they’ve been doing it for some time.” 2 | STREAMLINED Spring 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - March 2008

University Business - March 2008
Contents
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Editor's Note
Stats Watch
Sense of Place
Viewpoint
EduComm Insert
Financial Aid
Money Matters
Human Resources
Higher One Insert
Community College
Cadets on Campus
Keeping an Eye on the Network
Sizing Up Second Life
Endowment Management
What's New
Calendar of Events
End Note

University Business - March 2008