Policy on Holds

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Policy Category: Executive

Effective Date: 9/13/2023

Responsible Officer: Senior Vice President and Provost

History: Holds and Your Records

Responsible Office: Registrar

Location: Link

Purpose

This policy guides Wentworth Institute of Technology (university) students, faculty, and staff on how holds are placed and removed from a student account.

Scope/Applicability

This policy applies to all students at Wentworth.

Legal

Massachusetts regulation 105 CMR 220.00: Immunization of students before admission to school  

Policy

An authorized official or office can place a hold on a student’s record for reasons including, but not limited to, admissions, academics, graduation, business, financial aid, student accounts, disciplinary, housing-related, or immunization reasons. A hold may prevent a student from registering for courses. Registration will not be possible until all holds are reconciled and removed. Sometimes, a hold may prevent students from other university activities, such as accessing their residence hall.  

To protect a student from losing financial aid funds or being unable to pay for additional courses each term, after the close of the add/drop period, the university may place a hold on all student accounts. Student account holds are placed on the student records if semester or term charges are not paid in full, on a payment plan, and/or covered by anticipated financial aid funds or certified loan funds by each semester’s due date. Once the Offices of Financial Aid or Student Accounts determine that the student made satisfactory repayment arrangements, the authorized official/office will remove the hold, and/or the hold is automatically lifted within fifteen minutes of the student account reflecting a zero balance. 

The Center for Wellness will place an immunization hold on a student account of full-time Massachusetts resident students who have not presented completed immunization forms to the university by Massachusetts law.  

Students are responsible for ensuring that their student account is free of holds. 

Definitions

  • Add/Drop period: the period at the beginning of a term when students can sign up for new courses and drop courses for which they were previously registered. 
  • Hold: hold on a student account indicates that administrative action has not been completed or there has been a change to the student’s status. 
  • Registration: the time students select courses for an upcoming academic semester. 
  • Student Account: the information about a student held in the university student information system. 
  • Authorized Official/Office: the employee or office responsible for placing and removing a particular hold.  

Procedure(s)

Checking for a hold 

Students can determine if there is a hold on their student account by entering their Wentworth ID and password into LeopardWeb. In cases where a hold is listed, the student will see a description of the hold and can determine the origin of the hold and contact information for the official or office who can remedy the situation by referring to Holds and Your Record. 

Holds and Student Records 

In most cases, a hold will only prevent a student from registration, and receiving transcripts, grades, and diplomas. If an authorized official/office would like to for a hold to prevent more actions by a student beyond registration, they must request approval from the Student Accounts Office. 

Removing a hold 

The university utilizes an automatic process to remove a student account hold within fifteen minutes of when a student account balance is zero. The student account hold can also be manually end dated.  Other hold types will be manually removed by the authorized official/office who placed the hold once the condition has been ameliorated.

Temporary hold removal 

There are situations where a hold may be removed temporarily by an authorized official or office, even if the situation has not been resolved. In those cases, the student should receive communication on when the hold will be placed back on their student account. 

Authorized official/office audit 

Any university official or office authorized to place a hold on a student account is responsible for an annual audit. Those individuals must review all hold codes under their purview for accuracy and ensure holds are not on a student account in error. 

Requesting a hold status 

Requests for creating a new hold status or to remove an existing hold status must be made to the Office of Student Accounts by emailing studentaccounts@wit.edu with appropriate information.

Additional Information & Related Documents

Interpretation & Revision

Any questions of interpretation regarding this policy shall be referred to the Registrar. They will be the final authority regarding the interpretation of this policy. 

This policy shall be reviewed every three years; however, minor changes and updates can be made anytime. 

Wentworth will typically apply the policy when it receives a report concerning the respected policy. 

Additionally, when two or more policies are implicated, a case-by-case determination will be made to determine what policy will be used. 

Review and Revision History

This policy was drafted by representatives from Financial Aid, Academic Affairs, and Student Affairs. This policy was reviewed by Cabinet and approved by the President on 9/13/2023.

Policies must be reviewed periodically by the Responsible Executive or designee. If a policy has been revised, it must have all necessary approvals before publication. In the last column, indicate whether the activity was a review or revision; if a correction, summarize the changes and provide a link to how previous versions can be accessed.