DIVISION III FINANCIAL AID COMMITTEE

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Composition of Committee

The NCAA Division III Financial Aid Committee shall consist of 12 members. Four members shall be financial aid administrators, one shall be a member of the NCAA Division III Management Council, at least one shall be a president or chancellor and at least one shall be a member of an ethnic minority. At least four positions shall be allocated for men and at least four allocated for women. [NCAA Bylaw 21.9.6.6.1]

Length of Term

Division III chancellors or presidents serving on all Division III general committees (per Bylaw 21.9.6) are limited to a two-year term of service. Chancellors or presidents may be reappointed or re-elected to one additional term, resulting in four years of service. Unless otherwise specified, all other Division III members of committees shall be appointed or elected for one four-year term. Terms of service shall commence in January following the adjournment of the annual NCAA Convention following the member's election or appointment. [Bylaw 21.9.2.1]

Election of Chair

The chair of the committee shall be elected by the committee members for a term not to exceed two years. A chair is not eligible for immediate re-election to the position of chair. The chair of each committee shall have the privilege of voting on any issue considered by the committee. [Bylaw 21.9.2.2.1]

Voting

In order for the committee to take action, a majority vote of those members who have agreed to hear the waiver is required. The chair only votes in case of a tie. Vote tallies of decisions are private and will not be provided to the media or the involved institution. Final decisions of Level II reviews made by the committee will be forwarded to NCAA enforcement.

Committee Duties

The following are the general duties of the committee:

1. Maintain oversight of the financial aid reporting process including Level I and Level II reviews of financial aid reports;

2. Report to the Management Council on a regular basis;

3. Review/track financial aid issues that may impact Division III;

4. Review proposed financial aid legislation;

5. Recommend educational initiatives for the membership regarding financial aid; and

6. Attend and participate in all in-person and teleconference meetings.

Attendance Policy

As an NCAA committee member, you are required to attend all committee meetings and conference calls. The chair is authorized to recommend to the Management Council that a member be replaced if such member is not discharging the member's duties properly. In addition, a member who is absent from two consecutive meetings without reason approved by the Management Council shall be removed from the committee. [Bylaw 21.9.3]

Meeting Procedures

The following procedures will apply to all in-person and teleconference committee meetings:

1. Agendas and supplements to the agendas are sent to all committee members approximately two weeks in advance of the meeting. Committee members will then have the opportunity to review all materials prior to arrival at the meeting site;

2. All committee information and action items will be reported in summary fashion to the Management Council for ratification; and

3. For purposes of parliamentary procedure, the committee shall apply the provisions of Robert's Rules of Order.

Meeting Information

The committee is bound by various Association meeting policies including:

1. The committee will meet at least once a year in Indianapolis per current NCAA meeting guidelines;

2. The committee will meet two to three times a year (e.g., February/March, June and December). Meetings are scheduled for two days in length;

3. The committee conducts teleconference calls as needed;

4. Meetings are considered closed and not open to the membership or public at-large. The chair has the authority to approve requests for special guests or observers to attend meetings; and

5. All members are expected to use Short's Travel Management, the Association's travel agency, for their transportation arrangements to committee meetings. An NCAA Travel Handbook is given to each new member of the committee.

The Association's policies regarding meeting expenses are set forth in Bylaw 31.7.2 in the NCAA Manual. The NCAA pays for transportation to and from meetings, hotel room and tax charges at the meetings and a $75 per diem for each day or part thereof involved in traveling to and from and attendance at the meeting. The member may claim 43 cents per mile for the round trip based on the most direct route between the two points if travel is by automobile.

Air transportation and the hotel room and tax charges are billed directly to the NCAA; the member needs only to pay incidental charges to his or her room when leaving the meeting site. At the meeting, each member will receive a form on which to claim per diem and any other expenses permitted under NCAA policies. The member will receive reimbursement for those expenses from the NCAA national office within a reasonable time after each meeting. Also, early in each calendar year, each member will receive a Form 1099 reporting the amounts thus paid during the preceding year, if that amount exceeds $600. In such instances, the member then will declare that amount in filing his or her income tax return for that year, so members will want to record their committee-related expenses in order to deduct the appropriate amount. [Bylaw 31.7.2]

Operating Principle

Guiding Principle – No Athletics Aid

A member institution shall not award financial aid to student-athletes based on athletics participation or performance. [Bylaw 15.01.3]

The composition of the financial aid package offered to a student-athlete shall be consistent with the established policy of the institution's financial aid office for all students and shall meet all of the following criteria:

1. A member institution shall not consider athletics ability as a criterion in the formulation of the financial aid package;

2. The financial aid procedures used for a student-athlete are the same as the existing official financial aid policies of the institution;

3. The financial aid package for a particular student-athlete cannot be clearly distinguishable from the general pattern of all financial aid for all recipients at the institution; and

4. The percentage of the total dollar value of institutionally administered grants awarded to student-athletes shall be closely equivalent to the percentage of student-athletes within the student body. A differential is defensible if it can be demonstrated that the average need of the student-athletes at the institution is equivalently greater than the average need of other students. [Bylaw 15.4.1]

Guiding Principle - Student-Athlete Well-Being

In support of the "student-first" philosophy, consistent with NCAA Constitution Principles for Conduct of Intercollegiate Athletics including Student-Athlete Well-Being, Rules Compliance and Competitive Equity and meeting Objective 2.1 in the Association's Strategic Plan (to increase the application of fair and more flexible regulations that favor student-athletes), the following principle will serve to ensure consistency in the application of NCAA regulations and messaging.

The well-being of student-athletes is at the center of all we do:

1. Any process must be flexible and timely and include effective communication; and

2. Decisions must be fair, reasonable and consider the potential impact on the student-athlete.

Conflict of Interest, Recusal and Confidentiality Committee Protocol

Conflict of Interest and Recusal

A committee member shall not participate in the committee’s discussion or vote on any action that might bring direct or indirect financial benefit to the member or any organization in which the member is financially interested (other than the member’s institution or the conference of which it is a member). A member of an NCAA committee has a fiduciary duty to the Association not to use knowledge or information obtained solely due to service on that committee to the disadvantage of the Association during the term of committee service. Such abuse of one's position as a member of a committee may result in dismissal from that position.

A committee member shall recuse himself or herself from participating in decisions (e.g., representing his or her institution or deliberating as a committee member) when he or she is directly connected with the involved institution, playing conference or another member of their conference. A committee member with a personal relationship or institutional affiliation that reasonably would result in the appearance of bias or prejudice should refrain from participating in any manner in the review decision. It is the responsibility of the committee member to remove himself or herself if a conflict exists. Exceptions to the recusal policy may be granted by the chair or most senior member of the committee due to time constraints.

A violation of these rules by a member of the committee shall not invalidate the action taken by the committee if, after disclosure of the conflict of interest, the committee authorizes, ratifies or approves the action by a vote sufficient for the purpose without counting the vote of the committee member with the conflict of interest and the Management Council approves such action. [Bylaw 21.9.4]

Confidentiality and Anonymity

Confidentiality and anonymity of students, as well as confidentiality of the institution, are of paramount importance to the NCAA.

A unique username and password has been given to each institution’s chancellor or president and primary financial aid contact.

All data will be secured and stored on NCAA servers with data access limited to the NCAA staff through a password protected data management system.

Individual record confidentiality will be accomplished through the use of a unique identification code established by the institution prior to data file submission. To ensure anonymity of the student during the analysis of data, the unique identifiers will be removed from the copy of the submitted data set that will be used for analysis by NCAA research staff.

Confidentiality of the institution during the analysis and review process will be maintained through the use of a unique identification code established by the NCAA staff.

To maintain and ensure the confidentiality and anonymity of individuals and institutions through the interim, preliminary and final reporting phases, the data will be aggregated to an appropriate level. Reporting will be suppressed if the individual record level falls below three in the need bracket or sport-by-sport breakdown.

Committee members may not discuss any information related to the financial aid reporting process or advise institutions regarding the preparation of their data or justifications. Committee members must forward any inquiries from the membership regarding the financial aid reporting process to the NCAA staff.

Policy Regarding Speaking Agents of the Association

The president of the Association and the chair of the NCAA Executive Committee are the only individuals authorized to speak on behalf of the Association except as outlined below.

An individual representing an institution or conference who speaks or opines on an Association issue only has the authority to express the view of that individual or the institution or conference unless the individual has been designated by the Executive Committee of the Association as a speaking agent of the Association on that issue.

Committee chairs are hereby designated as speaking agents of their committees regarding issues within their committee's jurisdiction on which there is consensus, except that positions of advocacy on behalf of the committee or the Association to be communicated in writing or orally to persons or entities external to the Association must have prior approval by the Executive Committee or the president of the Association.

The president of the Association is hereby granted authority to designate additional speaking agents of the Association.

Date	Action
July 1-Last Friday in September	Institution submits financial aid data from previous academic year.
October 1-December 1	Level I Review by NCAA staff and Financial Aid Committee. Determination of acceptable variance based on factors including, but not limited to, statistical considerations, proportion of student-athletes in incoming class, gift aid as a proportion of cost of attendance, packaging methodology, bylaw proportionality test, financial need-bracket assessment, sport-by-sport breakdown assessment and historical review.
Mid-December	Notification to institutions that are outside the acceptable variance to submit justifications.
December 31	Final detailed report to institutions that have an acceptable variance.
February 1	Deadline for institutions to submit justifications.
February/March	Level II Reviews by Financial Aid Committee. Determination of acceptable justification based on factors including, but not limited to, written justification in conjunction with institutional financial aid data report to determine compliance with Division III financial aid legislation.
March	Notification to institutions that have acceptable justifications. No further review necessary.
March	Notification to institutions that do not have acceptable justifications and referral to NCAA enforcement staff based on committee determination that institution appears to be in noncompliance with financial aid legislation.
April-July	Summary of financial aid reporting process results and educational initiatives available to membership and financial aid community (e.g., NCAA Regional Rules Seminar, National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators convention).

Late Submission

An institution that submits its annual electronic report after the due date will be subject to a loss of eligibility for championships and Division III strategic initiative grants. The period of ineligibility shall last until the report is submitted.

Appeal Opportunity

An institution may appeal the application of the late submission penalty to the Financial Aid Committee, subject to final approval by the Management Council.

Failure to Submit

If an institution fails to submit the annual financial aid electronic report by the conclusion of the academic year during which the report was due, its entire program (both men's and women's sports) shall be placed on probation for one year beginning in the next academic year after noncompliance is discovered. An institution shall be afforded the one-year probationary period for failure to comply with submission requirement only once in a 10-year period. The 10-year period shall begin September 1 following the completion of the academic year in which the annual financial aid electronic report is not submitted.

If an institution fails to submit the annual financial aid electronic report at the end of the probationary year or is ineligible for the once-in-10-year probationary period, it shall be placed in restricted membership per NCAA Constitution 3.02.3.1.2.1. If the institution does not submit the annual electronic financial aid report by the end of that year, it shall be reclassified as a corresponding member.

The Management Council, on the recommendation of the NCAA Division III Membership Committee, may grant waivers of Bylaw 15.4.1.1.2 if it deems that extenuating circumstances warrant such action.