SATISFACTORY ACADEMIC PROGRESS

To be eligible for Title IV aid, a student must maintain satisfactory academic progress (SAP).  The SAP policy includes quantitative and qualitative measures reviewed at the end of each semester, including the summer term.  Students who are not making SAP are not eligible for Title IV aid, unless they are approved for an appeal.  If a student receiving financial aid is academically dismissed from the University, their financial aid will be immediately cancelled for the next semester. The student’s SAP status remains in place for any subsequent semester until the student is readmitted to the University.

At the end of each semester, after grades have been posted by the Registrar’s Office, a report is generated to the Office of Student Financial Services.  Students who are not making SAP will receive a notification letter.  The students will see their notification in the Banner Self-Service portal.

Qualitative & Quantitative Measures  

The SAP standards, which differ from the academic policies set by the Provost, apply to all students seeking Title IV aid, regardless of whether the student received Title IV aid in the past.  Students must meet all three measures to be eligible for Title IV aid.

1. Qualitative Measure – Cumulative Cheyney grade point average (GPA)

• All undergraduate students: Must achieve a minimum cumulative GPA at the end of each semester based on the cumulative credits attempted. The following chart indicates the required minimum GPA based on attempted credits.

Minimum Cumulative GPA	Cumulative Attempted Credits
1.50	1-24 credit hours
1.60	25-36 credit hours
1.75	37-48 credit hours
1.85	49-59 credit hours
2.00	60 credit hours and over (until graduation)

 

Credits with the following grades will be included in the GPA calculation: A, B, C, D and F. Courses transferred into Cheyney will not have the grade calculated into the GPA. Grades earned in courses taken at another institution may not be included in determining a student’s GPA since only grades earned at Cheyney University or taken through the Visiting Student Program will affect the GPA. This includes courses given a final grade of “TR” or “CR”.

 

2. Quantitative Measure – Cumulative Pace of Completion
   • All undergraduate students must complete a percentage of the total cumulative attempted credits. Pace of completion is calculated by dividing the number of cumulative credit hours successfully completed by the cumulative number of attempted credit hours.

• Credits are considered successfully completed when a grade of A, B, C, or D is earned.
• Transfer credits with a TR or CR are also included as successfully completed and included in the attempted credits.
• Credits taken through the Visiting Student Program.
• Credits with the following grades will be included in attempted credits only: F (Fail), I (Incomplete), AW (Administrative Withdraw), W (Withdraw), WC (Official Withdraw), TR and CR (Transfer Credit), and NGR (No Grade Recorded) NG (No Grade Recorded) N (Academic Amnesty).

 

The Pace percentage will be graduated for all students enrolled as of the Fall 2024 semester at Cheyney. The following chart will show the pace percentage at the end of the first semester or second semester.

Minimum Required Completion Percentage	GPA Credit Hours Cumulative Attempted
50%	1-12 credit hours
60%	13-24 credit hours
67%	25 credit hours and over (until graduation)

 

Evaluation Periods

The Student Financial Services Office evaluates SAP at the end of the fall, spring, and summer semesters for all students. All students who are determined to be in Failing calculated status, must submit a SAP Appeal to determine financial aid eligibility for the next semester of enrollment.

Cheyney provides a financial aid warning period for students who are not making SAP for the first time during which they remain eligible for financial aid for one semester.  Students may not receive more than 2 warning periods in their academic career and must return to good standing in the semester before being eligible for the second warning period. Students are not required to file an appeal to be eligible for financial aid during the warning period.

A student who is not making SAP and is not eligible for a second warning period but has been granted an appeal approval will be placed on probation for semester during which they may receive financial aid assistance.

Students placed on Warning or Probation will be referred to the Academic Success Center (ASC) to work with the Academic Navigators.  The ASC will evaluate and recommend services to assist the student with improving their academic performance.  A student placed on Probation will need to create an Academic Success Plan with their Academic Navigator to be submitted with the SAP appeal, if the student chooses to appeal.

Filing a SAP Appeal

Students in a FAIL status may submit an appeal, if they have experienced extenuating circumstances that affected their ability to meet the SAP requirements.  In general, extenuating circumstances can include, but are not limited to, illness, injury, death of relative or friend, difficulties with accommodations for students with disabilities and adversity due to unforeseen events. The appeal must document what contributed to the student’s inability to meet the minimum standards of academic progress and what has changed to allow the student to reestablish SAP.

Students should submit the appeal by the priority deadline of August 1 for Fall, December 20 for Spring, and June 1 for Summer approval for financial aid for the 2024-2025 Academic Year. All submitted complete appeals received after the priority deadline will still be considered.

Effective Fall 2024, the appeal will need to include the following:

• Satisfactory Academic Appeal Form (see Appendix);
• A signed statement explaining the extenuating circumstance.
• Supporting documentation of the extenuating circumstances based on the following chart;

Type of extenuating circumstance	Required documentation
Personal illness, surgery, or treatment	Documentation from a doctor’s office outlining the illness and recovery time for extended absences, if needed.
Illness of a family member that requires assistance from the student	Documentation from a doctor’s office that indicates the illness of the family member. Statement from the student on the assistance that they will provide to the family member that interfered with their courses.
Death of a family member	Death certificate for the family member or the published obituary for the family member.
Death of a close friend	Obituary for the close friend Statement from the student on how the death interfered with their ability to complete coursework. If the student is in counseling, a statement from the attending therapist, counselor, spiritual leader, physician or other professional that supports the student’s statement. The letter must be on an official letterhead and include contact information for the supporting professional.
Disability accommodations that are not meeting needs	Statement from the student on the lack of services and the type of accommodation missing that was needed for the successful completion of their coursework. Documentation regarding where the student made the request for the accommodation and the response or lack of response from that office.
Other adverse situation that caused the inability to attend classes and achieve GPA or Pace	Statement from the student describing the adverse situation and how it affected them. Documentation to support the student’s statement. The documentation must be specific to the semester where the SAP calculation was completed.
Students have taken summer courses to improve their GPA or Pace percentage.	Statement from the student that they have taken summer courses based on their advisor’s advice. A statement from the student’s advisor that the student worked with them to enroll in summer coursework. A copy of their summer course schedule.  Summer course completion will be validated by the office against the student’s academic transcript.
Courses taken at another school after FAIL SAP status	Student statement, transcript, or proof of obtained credential

 

The SFS Office will collect the appeal and determine that the documentation is complete and has the appropriate required signatures. Cheyney uses a third-party processor, FAS-Atlanta, whose staff will review the documentation and determine if the appeal is substantiated by the documentation provided. If the documentation is not sufficient, the Cheyney SFS staff will contact the student to provide additional information is being requested.  Students will see the documentation needed listed in the Banner Self-Service portal.

If the appeal is denied, the student will receive a denial letter with recommendations of steps to take to achieve academic success. Counseling students on denial appeals is handled by CU SFS staff.  A student may appeal a SAP denial to the CU SFS staff and determine if a reconsideration is warranted.  CU SFS staff will collect any additional documentation needed   Denial appeals must be requested by the student within 5 working days of the denial notification. Students denied a SAP appeal are responsible for all billed charges on their student account.

 

Academic Success Plan
Students who have a status of FAIL or have reached the 150% point of the attempted credit maximum for their degree program of study will be required to file an academic plan along with their appeal. To continue their financial aid eligibility, students will be required to submit:

• The SAP appeal form,
• a student statement outlining the reason they have not completed their degree in the maximum timeframe. The completion of a minor is not a valid appeal status as maximum timeframe applies only to the student’s degree major.
• an approved academic plan from their Academic Navigator outlining how the student will complete the courses needed to complete their degree major within a reasonable number of semesters not to exceed two (2) semesters.  Only courses needed to complete the major will be allowed in the academic plan.

Once they have filed the appeal form with an approved academic success plan, the student’s progress will be reviewed at the end of each semester.  Failure to submit the approved academic success plan will prevent the approval of the SAP appeal.   Failure to adhere to the academic plan created for the student and achieving the required GPA will result in termination of Title IV aid.

 Maximum Timeframe to complete a degree.

Students must complete their degree within 150% of the time needed to complete a standard four-year degree.  To obtain a degree at Cheyney, a student must complete 120 credits but will have up to 180 attempted credits to finish their degree.  (120 credits x 150% = 180 credits)

SFS staff will monitor students who are close to max timeframe beginning at 165 attempted credits and provide a notice to the students explaining the max timeframe rules and potential SAP issue.

Regaining Eligibility

Students who do not meet the satisfactory academic progress standards will not be eligible for Title IV aid. Once Title IV aid has been discontinued, it may be considered for reinstatement provided:

• The student has successfully achieved the qualitative and quantitative requirements for SAP based on subsequent non-federal aid funded enrollment attendance and future semester eligibility calculations, OR
• The student has requested reinstatement in writing and has been readmitted to the institution after successful completion of a semester(s) at a community college.  A college transcript must be submitted with the SAP appeal. Upon receipt of the official community college transcript and transfer credit evaluation, Cheyney will perform a SAP recalculation by adding the approved credits and GPA to the students previous qualitative and quantitative achieved eligibility.  If, based on the recalculation and the tables above, the student is determined to be eligible. The student will be placed in a PASS status with aid eligibility for the next enrollment semester; OR
• The student has requested reinstatement in writing and has been readmitted to the institution after successful completion of a semester(s) at a community college.  A college transcript must be submitted with the SAP appeal.  Based on the recalculation, including the approved transfer credit and GPA, it is determined the student is NOT achieving an eligibility status, the student will be placed in a FAIL status and required to submit documentation to support the denied appeal, OR
• The student has requested reinstatement in writing after being readmitted to the institution but did not attend community college. If the student has been separated from Cheyney for two (2) years or longer, the student may apply for re-admission to the University.  Regarding aid eligibility, the student will return to the same SAP status that was determined prior to separation.  The student can submit a SAP appeal for reconsideration of their financial aid eligibility if they were not in good standing.

If a student is deficient in credits and/or GPA at the end of the academic year, summer course(s) may be used to eliminate the deficiency. However, the student would not be eligible for financial aid for the summer course(s) unless the student had an approved SAP appeal. If a student has a GPA deficiency, courses taken elsewhere may not be used to improve this deficiency. Only courses taken at Cheyney or through the Visiting Student Program at another Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education University will count towards the cumulative GPA. Courses taken through the Visiting Student Program may not be used for repeating courses.  Visiting Student Program forms are available in the Registrar’s Office and should be approved prior to registering for the coursework.

It is the student’s responsibility to notify the Student Financial Services Office of any grade changes that can impact the calculation of the SAP status after the semester review is completed. For example, the student had incomplete grades and has now completed the required coursework before the start of the next semester.  The student must file a SAP Appeal form and provide a letter explaining the course(s) that had the grade change and request a re-evaluation of their SAP status.  Students can review their status with the CU staff to determine if an appeal is needed.

Once a student meets the minimum SAP standards financial aid will be reinstated. Awards cannot be paid retroactively for the payment period(s) during which eligibility was lost.

Treatment of Special Grades

I	Incomplete Grades – given for courses taken and not completed within the semester due to illness or a grave emergency. Students will have a maximum of 12 months after receiving the incomplete to finish all coursework and receive a change of grade. After 12 months the grade will automatically convert to an “F”.
IP	In Progress – department designated self- paced courses. Credits may be earned by completion of the required assignments through consecutive enrollment. Interruption in enrollment will result in the IP converting to an F.
CR/TR	Accepted/Transfer credits; count in attempted and earned credits, not calculated in the GPA
WC	Official Course Withdrawal- official withdrawal from a course given after the end of the drop period; count as attempted credits.
W	Semester Withdrawal- used for a total semester withdrawal; credits count as attempted credits.
AUD	Audit- given for courses taken for audit; grades are not calculated in GPA nor counted as attempted credits.

NGR/NG    No Grace Recorded- These credits count as attempted credits.

N*              Indicates academic amnesty and has been excluded from the GPA calculation. The credits count as attempted credits. Sometimes appear as NF or ND on the transcript.

AW            Administrative Withdrawal- effective September 2009. These credits count as attempted credits.

Remedial Coursework – courses are included in the qualitative cumulative GPA calculation for SAP, quantitative pace of completion, and maximum time frame for degree completion. A student will not be allowed to receive Title IV aid for more than 30 remedial credits.

Repeat Coursework – a course that is repeated in a semester after the semester it was originally taken. All courses are included in attempted credits but only the last grade earned is used in the calculation of cumulative GPA.  Any failed course may not be repeated more than 3 times. A previously passed course may only be repeated one time and be counted as aid eligible.

Readmit Students – a student is readmitted to the University; SAP will be based on the student’s previous attempted credits and GPA at Cheyney, and all credits and GPA transferred unless the student has been separated from Cheyney and is returning without successful attendance at another institution.

Consortium Coursework – if permitted by the Registrar’s office, courses will be treated as CR or TR credits and corresponding grades will be recorded and included in the cumulative calculated GPA.  The grade will be counted for both aided and un-aided students.   The credits will be counted as both attempted and completed.

Change of Major – all credits are counted towards the maximum timeframe for degree completion, SAP is not reset.

Second Degree – SAP status is reset for the first semester. Undergraduate students who have not borrowed the maximum aggregate amount of loans may have remaining loan eligibility but will not be eligible for Pell or FSEOG as they have graduated from their first bachelor’s degree.

Grade Definitions

• A – 4 quality points
• B – 3 quality points
• C – 2 quality points
• D – 1 quality point
• F – 0 quality points.

 

Course in Program of Study (CPOS) 

To remain eligible for financial aid, a student must only take courses that count toward their degree plan.  Most degree plans have electives built into the plan, but once those electives are filled, a student must only take courses that will move them toward graduation. Therefore, it is important for students to work with their advisor to ensure they can register for courses when they are offered.

Once a student has completed graduation requirements for their major, a student is not eligible for financial aid even if they have not formally applied for graduation.  Financial aid can be used to pay for courses in a minor but only when those courses fit into the degree plan.    Taking a minor requires a good plan to complete the minor while the major is completed for graduation.

Any questions on this policy should be directed to the Office of Student Financial Services at (610) 399-2302 or by email at finaid@cheyney.edu.