News
The College is planning to implement a new billing system, which could be in use as early as Fall term, that would divide students' expenses into two separate bills, according to Director of Financial Services Win Johnson.
Under the new system, one bill that would include "cost of attendance charges" like tuition and room and board would be sent home, while another that would include miscellaneous expenses and fines would be sent directly to students' hinman boxes.
Under the proposed system, which Johnson called the Dartcard Program, students would establish a declining balance account on their College Identification cards.
Dartcard program
The Dartcard program would be comprised of four accounts: an administrative fee account, a discretionary account, a dining account and a Dartalk account, that would be billed to students' hinman boxes.
The administrative fee account would include fines for non-compliance with College regulations such as parking fines, late registration fees, alcohol policy violations, library fines and lost ID charges.
The discretionary account would include charges for concert tickets, College publications, Dartmouth Outing Club rentals, alcohol purchases at the Lone Pine Tavern and Hanover Inn, game room charges, dining service charges in excess of the selected meal plan and fraternity and sorority dues.
The dining accounts and Dartalk accounts will remain essentially unchanged.
Students will be able to monitor the balances of each of the four accounts, by accessing a Dartcard program file through the Dartmouth College Information System, Johnson said.
Deposits to all accounts will be made through the Dartcard Office, which Johnson said will be located in what is currently the Validine Office.
Validine database manager Jeannette Montgomery said students will be permitted to exceed their credit on the discretionary account plan by $100.
Montgomery said deposits can be made by check or credit card and a $100 credit is necessary to establish a Dartcard account.
Montgomery said Dartcard use will be available to all students with an active Dartmouth Plan.
For many reasons
According to the proposal, the change to the billing system was made in part to address "new federal cash management regulations which have significantly complicated the manner in which Dartmouth must process student charges."
The proposal states that under the new federal regulations, which affect financial aid, many charges that are currently processed on the student bill are "non-allowable."
In addition, the proposal states that the changes will allow the College to offer more opportunities for students to make cashless purchases around campus.
"Furthermore," the proposal reads, "it permits the College to extend these services without relying on its own working capital to underwrite each student's entire line of credit."
Johnson said the current billing system was not adequate for day-to day living expenses.
The current billing system has "no credit limit.
