How SPE Calculates Dates

This topic contains information about how Student Pace Evaluation (SPE) calculates projected dates and makes other changes for:

• Academic years
• Payment periods
• Loan period BBAY
• Disbursements for each fund source
• Loans and grants
• Housing lease

SPE will automatically adjust the start and end dates of the entities listed above when an event occurs that affects the credits or hours a student needs to complete a program. Events that affect the credits or hours include:

• Changes to transfer credits (approving or un-approving)

• Enrollment transfers

• Associated coursework completed before the SPE start date

• Reassigning coursework completed before the SPE start date

• Student doubling up on classes or substantially increasing the pace (event at the registration or un-registration of courses)

• Adding a subsequent enrollment with auto-associate on and off

• Re-entry after more than 180 days have elapsed

• Changing the Credits Required or Hours Required value on a student's enrollment

Best Practice: For the SPE to calculate dates correctly, terms should be built out up to the potential graduation date for the newest cohort of students. The best practice is to have terms built out for five years or at least one and a half times the longest program duration.

If You Are Using a Servicer

If your institution is using a servicer to process financial aid (such as Global Financial Services), the start date of all payment periods will be the day after the prior payment period ends. This is to make sure that the disbursements do not fall between any payment period dates and that a payment period ID is always assigned.

Disbursements that are set to be processed by a servicer are not updated by Anthology Student.

Academic Years

When initially creating academic years and payment periods, Anthology Student uses instructional weeks to determine the actual dates based on the weeks attribute. Anthology Student aligns academic year dates to the changed payment period dates. For academic year 1, Anthology Student sets the:

• Start date to the start date of payment period one

• End date to the end date of payment period two

This logic is repeated for all academic years. The graduation date is set to the end date of the course that completes the credits in the program.

The academic years and payment periods are updated based on the definition of instructional weeks as specified by the Department of Education (ED). The instructional weeks logic includes the weeks from failed courses and weeks from a dropped course before the drop date (by default). It does not include weeks while the student is on a leave of absence (LOA).

Payment Period Dates

The table provides information about how Anthology Student determines and SPE projects the dates.

Date	How It Is Determined or Projected
Start date of the first payment period	When Anthology Student creates the payment periods, the start date of the first payment period is always set to the start date for the program version. The start date for sequence 1 of a payment period sets the start date for the instructional weeks block for the enrollment. If SPE needs to change the date, it sets it to the start date of the first course registered on the schedule.
End date of the first payment period	If the weeks requirement for that payment period has: •   Been met, the end date of the first payment period is set to the end date of the course that completes the credits or hours in the payment period •   Not been met, the end date of the payment period is set to the date that completes the weeks that are required
Start date of subsequent payment periods	Anthology Student sets the start date to the day after the end date for the prior payment period in either of the following cases: •   If the first course in the subsequent payment period starts before the end date of the prior payment period •   If SPE is configured to always align academic year and payment periods to course section dates If these conditions are not met, Anthology Student sets the start date to the start date of the next course.
End dates of subsequent payment periods	Anthology Student shows visibility into the dates calculated by displaying milestone dates of when the student will satisfy the attributes of the payment periods. The end dates are set to a point in time where both the weeks and credits or hours payment period attributes are satisfied. Anthology Student takes the greater of the two milestone dates. If Anthology Student is configured to: •   Not align academic years and payment period dates to course section dates, Anthology Student sets the end date of the payment period to the greater of the 2 milestone dates •   Always align academic years and payment period dates to course section date, Anthology Student finds the course that encompasses the greater of the two milestone dates and sets the payment period end date to that course end date If your institution configured calendars, a payment period can never end on a holiday. The end date is always the day after the holiday ends. When SAP is executed by the payment period end date for clock hour programs and the institution has an excused absence policy, the excused absence policy is accounted for and incorporated.

Loan Period BBAY Dates

If the loan period is extended, SPE will make the corresponding adjustments to the start and end dates for the borrower-based academic year (BBAY) by extending the dates by the same number of days that the loan period start and end dates are extended.

When the student has a stub loan period, the SPE evaluation will not adjust the BBAY start date. Also, if any adjustments are made due to course progression, the loan period and the BBAY end date will not be adjusted before the NSLDS End date on the stub loan period.

Disbursement Dates

The disbursement dates for scheduled and ready-to-pay disbursement are moved the same number of days as the start date unless a disbursement would be moved outside of the payment period. If this results in a disbursement outside of a payment period, then Anthology Student applies these rules. If the current system date is: 

• Before the payment period starts, set the 1st disbursement to the start date and an additional disbursement to the midpoint

• During the payment period, set the 1st disbursement to the start date and an additional disbursement to the later of the midpoint or current system date

• Greater than the payment period end date, set the 1st disbursement to the end date of the payment period

The table provides information about the changes to disbursements.

Type of Disbursement	Results and Actions to Take (If Any)
Title IV Awards	If the student has start dates for payment periods and disbursement dates that are after the end of the award year and the disbursement has a status of: •   Paid or Ready to Pay, you should review and manually cancel them (Anthology Student displays a message. It also displays the status in the SPE Notification column on the History page.) •   Scheduled, Anthology Student cancels them automatically For:  •   Pell and SEOG grants, the payment period start date is considered when determining whether disbursements will be canceled •   Perkins loans, which are campus-based loans that follow similar regulations as Title IV grants, the disbursement date is considered when determining whether disbursements will be canceled Anthology Student also updates the award amount for grants accordingly.
Direct loans	If the student has start or end dates for the BBAY that are after the end of the award year and the disbursement has a status of: •   Paid, you should review and manually cancel them (Anthology Student displays a message. It also displays the status in the SPE Notification column on the History page.) •   Scheduled, Anthology Student cancels them automatically

If your institution configured: 

• COD grants so that Pell grants are re-originated when anticipated disbursement dates are updated and SPE changes a disbursement for a Pell grant, SPE changes the status from Accepted or Batched to Send to Ready to Send

• Direct loans so that origination changes are created when loan dates are updated and SPE changes the start or end dates for academic years or loan periods or disbursement dates, SPE creates an origination change record

When you display the results for a student, SPE displays the disbursement number, the disbursement amount, the current and projected disbursement dates, and the current and projected disbursement status.

If the change is made by the SPE SQL job, Anthology Student assigns SPE TOOL AUTO USER as the user who canceled the disbursement. If the change is made by running SPE using Anthology Student, the system records the User ID of the user who runs SPE as the user who canceled the disbursement.

Cancellations for Loans and Grants

If your institution configured Direct loans to automatically cancel a loan when loan dates are invalid, SPE can cancel a direct loan or any remaining scheduled disbursements of the direct loan in either of these situations. When the SPE updates cause: 

• The start date for the BBAY for the loan to be later than the end date for the award year

• The end date for BBAY to be earlier than the start date for the award year

For the direct loans and Title IV grants that cannot be canceled because there are disbursements with a status of Paid or Ready to Pay, Anthology Student cancels all remaining scheduled disbursements. Anthology Student also displays a message and shows the status of disbursements in the results (including ones that have been canceled). You will need to review the disbursements with a status of Paid or Ready to Pay and their awards and cancel them manually.

Anthology Student automatically creates origination change records for canceled loans if your institution configured Direct loans in financial aid to automatically create origination changes or adjustments for canceled disbursements or refunds.

When a loan or its remaining scheduled disbursements are canceled by SPE due to invalid loan dates, the dates at the loan level (the loan period and BBAY start and end date as well as disbursement dates) are not updated to the projected invalid dates. This ensures that the origination changes for the cancellation pass loan date validations during export to COD.

Your institution can also configure financial aid for a campus so that an alert is sent to notify a staff member when a direct loan is canceled or cannot be canceled by SPE.

Graduation and Externship Dates

Anthology Student calculates graduation and externship dates using the following process.

Step A: Calculate the Duration of the Remaining Classroom Time 

The duration of the remaining classroom time is calculated by using the remaining terms to map out the end date of the last term of classroom time for each student. The calculation is the same for students with or without externships. 

Remaining Terms

Remaining classroom credits or expected credits per term rounded up to the next whole number.

Remaining Classroom Credits

Total Credits for Program Version + Total Credits from Associated Areas of Study) - Total Credits for Externship - Credits Earned - Credits Currently Taking

Note: Credits for a course need to be counted only once. If a course satisfies an area of study (AOS) requirement and a core course requirement for the program version, the credits for that course are reflected in the Total Credits for the Program Version and the Required Credits for the AOS. The business rules, therefore, count those credits for the course only once.            

Total Credits for Externship

Total credits for externship of the program version.

Credits Earned

The total credit value of courses at a status of Complete and course type is not externship.

Credits Currently Taking

The total credit value of courses at a status of Scheduled or Current and course type is not externship.

Example A

Field	Value
a) Program Version Credits	130
b) Total Credit from AOS	50
c) Credits common to both Program Version Credits and Total Credits for AOS	10
d) Total Credits for Externship	30
e) Credits Earned	100
f) Credits Currently Taking	16 (4 Scheduled courses at 4 Credits Each)
g) Expected Credits per Term	10 (of Enrollment)
h) Current Term Dates	0527 (07/10/2006 - 09/23/2006)
Remaining Terms = Remaining Classroom Credits/Expected Credits per Term, rounded up to the next whole number	= ((a + b) - c - d - e - f) / g
	= ((130 + 50) - 10 - 30 - 100 - 16) / 10
	= 24 / 10
	= 2.4
	= 3 terms

Duration of Remaining Classroom Time

Using the result of the calculation for the remaining terms above, calculations for the end date of the last terms need to be verified if term sequencing or term relationship is used.

If the student is registered into a program version with term sequencing, the list of future terms is already planned out for the student. In these circumstances, the end date of the term that is listed third following the current term will be the date to be used as the basis for further calculation. If term relationships are used, only the parent terms will be considered.  

If term sequencing is not used, the terms are sorted such that the start dates fall after the end date of the current term's end date as shown below. If term relationships are used, only the parent terms will be considered. 

Using Example A above, and assuming that the campus is not using term relationships, Anthology Student calculates the end date of the remaining terms as follows:

1. Beginning with the end date of the 0527 term, the student's current term, the next term following that end date is located, which is the 0531 term (10/10/2006 - 12/23/2006).

2. Locate the next term following the end date of the term in a, which is the 0545 term (01/16/2007 - 03/31/2007).

3. Locate the next term following the end date of the term in b, which is the 0550 term (04/16/2007 - 06/30/2007) 

Step B: Calculate the Duration of Remaining Externship Time 

This step is performed only when an externship course is associated with the student's enrollment. The calculation of the graduation date and externship start date for students with an externship is based on the Duration of the Remaining Externship Time calculation result. 

Remaining Externship Weeks

Total Hours for Externship - Hours Already Recorded for the Student)/Expected Hours per Week for Externship, rounded up to the next whole number

Total Hours for Externship

This value varies depending on whether the student has scheduled or started his externship course.

If the student: 

• Has not started his externship course (if the enrollment has no externship/internship course with Current or Scheduled status), the Total Hours for Externship is equivalent to the value in the new Total Hours for Externship field 

• Has started his externship course (the enrollment has one or more externship/internship courses with Current or Scheduled status), the Total Hours for Externship is the sum of hours associated with the externship courses of the student that has a status of Scheduled or Current. 

Hours Already Recorded for the Student

This value represents the minutes attended for the courses of type externship and status of Current or Scheduled.

Expected Hours per Week for Externship

This is the value stored in the Expected Hours Per Week Of Externship field for the enrollment. If the field is blank, the Expected Hours Per Week For Externship value for the program version is used. 

Example B

Field	Value
a) Total Hours for Externship	125
b) Externship Hours Already Recorded for Student	30
c) Expected Hours per Week for Externship	15
Remaining Externship Weeks = (Total Hours for Externship - Hours Already Recorded for the Student)/Expected Hours per Week for Externship, rounded up to the next whole number	= (a - b)/c
	= (125 - 30)/15
	= 95/15
	= 6.3
	= 7 weeks

Calculating the Graduation Date

The table shows what occurs when the graduation date and expected externship start date are calculated.

Condition	Result
The student does not have an externship.	If no course of type externship/internship resides on the enrollment schedule, Anthology Student defines the student as not having an externship, the expected externship start date is set to NULL, and the last term's end date is calculated using Step A above.
The student has an externship that has already started, the expected externship start date is not calculated.	If one or more courses of type externship/internship exist on the enrollment schedule with a status of Current, Completed, LOA, or Attendance has already been posted, the externship start date is not updated for the respective enrollment, the expected externship start date is not updated, and the graduation date will equal the last term end date plus the Duration of Remaining Externship Time value.
The student has an externship that has not yet started, the expected externship start date is calculated.	If one or more courses of type externship/internship exist on the enrollment schedule, and none of the statuses are Current, Completed, LOA, or none have attendance posted yet, the externship start date is updated for the respective enrollment. The expected externship start date is set to the last term end date, and the graduation date will equal the last term end date plus the Duration of the Remaining Externship Time value.

Using the information in Step A and Step B above, calculations for the graduation date and externship start date for our Example A and Example B can be updated.

Example A

This student does not have an externship; therefore the externship start date = NULL, and graduation date = end date of the fourth term or 06/30/2007.

Example B

This student has an externship, and none of the externship courses have a status of Current, Scheduled, or Future. Assume that the end date for the student's last term according to the calculated Duration of Remaining Classroom Time is the same as Example A's value of the same name. Then, the externship start date = 06/30/2007, and the graduation date = 06/30/2007 + 6 weeks or 08/17/2007.  

Housing Leases

This grid displays student leases with a housing period of the academic year that can be updated by SPE. For each lease, the enrollment, sequence number, current lease start date, current lease end date, projected lease start date, and projected lease end date are displayed.

When the lease for a student is updated with new academic year dates, Anthology Student checks if the room is available for the new dates. If the room is occupied by another student on the new dates, the lease will be extended for the student currently occupying the room and the lease for the other student will be marked as pending. You can use the Lease Exception report to identify students with pending leases who will have to be assigned new accommodations.