November 16, 2006

Dear Parents and Students,

As part of the College's implementation of a new campus information system, the Business Office will soon be making the transition to a new student billing process. We are excited about this product but wanted to alert you to some of the important changes you will notice on the bill, such as:

• A student's Social Security number will no longer serve as their account number.
• Each student will be issued a unique identification number, which will be used campus-wide to access a student's educational records.
• Statements will be more legible and will show financial aid in greater detail, including pending and disbursed aid. 
• In the future, we will be able to provide you with more timely bills at the beginning of an academic year.

From the perspective of the parent, the first and most important change that you will notice is that tuition bills will no longer be addressed to the parents or guardians of a student. Rather, they will be addressed to the students themselves. Because of this change and the need to comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), we will no longer be able to discuss a student's financial affairs as they pertain to the tuition bill and financial aid award with a parent/guardian without prior permission of the student.

We understand that many parents will still assume full responsibility for the financial concerns resulting from a student's enrollment at Saint Anselm College, and we are prepared to continue to answer questions if you require assistance. Therefore, we are enclosing an Authorization To Release Information Form  (PDF/30KB), which should be completed and signed by the student indicating to whom we can release written or verbal information pertaining to their tuition account and/or financial aid award.

We hope that you will understand the reasons for changes to our current policy and will find the new bill format helpful. We ask for your continued support and patience as we implement these changes.

Sincerely,

Peg Bourque 
Associate Vice President for Finance and Assistant Treasurer

Elizabeth Keuffel
Director of Financial Aid