PS-03.A.40 - Scholarship Administration for Credit Bearing Work

4.1.1. The procedural requirements for the college and institutional selection committee(s) must be written and maintained by the college and/or institution. The selection committee must discuss and document its approach to evaluating the relevant application components before reviewing the submissions. This process may be a matter of deciding how much emphasis will be placed on each component. The selection committee should establish the evaluation emphasis (such as weights in an evaluation matrix) before posting the scholarship announcement. The college and/or institution is responsible for maintaining a record of the standards used to determine awards.

4.1.2. Eligibility guidelines and selection criteria must be written and made public by the college/university. The college must also share this information with the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid and the Advancement Office (Endowments), which maintain selection criteria and procedural requirements.

4.1.3. Selection criteria and processes must comply with relevant federal, state, funding agency, and/or University of Houston System endowment and management guidelines and directives. Also, in cases in which the award was gifted to the college as an endowment, the college must ensure that all guidelines are in accordance with the memorandum of understanding between the donor(s) and the university.

4.1.4. As new scholarships are established, the college is responsible for notifying the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid of new scholarships and cost centers as well as the scholarship award criteria.

4.1.5. The Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid is responsible for publicizing a master list of all University-wide scholarships on its publicly-available website at least 21 days before the submission deadline. The college is responsible for publicizing the availability of its scholarships on its publicly-available website at least 21 days before the submission deadline. All awarding units will communicate to the student that award(s) may impact the awardee’s financial aid package. Students should be advised to contact the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid to determine the impact of the scholarship on their award package.

4.1.6. Under normal circumstances, the selection committee has 28 days from the application deadline to render its decision with supporting documentation, including meeting minutes and explanation of decision(s). Once the selection committee has made its decision and submitted the aforementioned documentation to the college office, the college has 14 days to submit a scholarship memo to the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid. Scholarship payments will be made to students prior to the semester payment deadline. As such, scholarship memos must be submitted to the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid based on the following schedule:

4.1.7. Payment of scholarship awards will be made through the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid to Student Accounting. Student Accounting is responsible for applying the actual payment of the award.

4.2.1. The procedural requirements for the institutional selection committee(s) must be written and maintained by the institution. The selection committee must discuss and document its approach to evaluating the relevant application components before reviewing the submissions. This process may be a matter of deciding how much emphasis will be placed on each component. Alternatively, the selection committee should establish the evaluation emphasis (such as weights in an evaluation matrix) before posting the scholarship announcement. The institution is responsible for maintaining a record of the standards used to determine awards.

4.2.2. The Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid is responsible for the oversight of college and institutional scholarships to ensure compliance with federal, state, institutional and University of Houston System policies and procedures.

4.3.1. Scholarship recipients' names may not be released by the university or its staff if the scholarship criterion includes a component of need and/or if the student has opted out from the release of directory information.

4.3.2. Income distributed from endowment funds will be retained in individual cost centers so spending may be traced back to the endowment corpus. Non-endowed scholarships will be deposited in cost centers so spending can be traced to original revenue and/or gift.

4.3.3. All UHD college and institutional scholarships must be made in accordance with the Civil Rights Act of 1965, Title IX of The Higher Education Act, as amended and all other federal and state regulations that seek to provide educational opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age disability, or veteran status.

4.4.1. Notification of new scholarship cost centers and criteria must be given to the Office of Scholarship and Financial Aid.

4.4.2. All funds received and/or disbursed for scholarships will be recorded with the appropriate fund codes and program codes (function) in the university’s financial records.

4.4.3. All funds received for scholarships should be awarded in accordance with the donors’ requirements, if any, and should be awarded within the period specified by the donor.

4.4.4. Each awarding unit is responsible for the monthly reconciliation of their scholarship accounts.

4.4.5. Each awarding unit is responsible for responding to requests for information regarding their scholarship accounts as requested by audit.