Paying (National) Dues through your University

[NYGreek]

Hello everyone,

I attend a school where greek life is relatively small (<5%) and still improving. Many of our organizations collect dues through fee based websites and most recently we have began discussing collecting our national dues through the university. Our administrators have asked us to reach out and see if/how other schools go about doing this.

Please let me know if your school, or a school you know of allows greek life to charge dues through the University's electronic pay system.

If so, how does it work?
Does it get bundled with your tuition?
Does your students loans / other aid cover it?

Any information is useful!

Thanks in advance,
NYGreek

[Titchou]

Many schools include all the chapter's bill thru the Bursar's Office (or whatever it may be called)as a separate line item. The chapter has to give them a list of the members and the amounts each semester. The U then adds to the student's bill, collects and pays the chapter after taking a small fee (1-2%). I know LSU and Iowa for sure do it. Am sure they would be willing to talk to your administrators. There are others but I forget (I used to deal with housing so knew which ones came thru the U). NCSU is going to start doing it for Greeks in the new Greek Village.

My GLO requires all chapter to use GreekBill. Even the chapters who use the U's collection system still use GB but the vp:finance posts payments as if the member had given her the payment so that it will reflect her status properly.

If the student doesn't pay, they are not allowed to register for the next semester and the U will withhold their degree and transcript if they are a graduating senior. Hope this helps.

[thetalady]

Originally Posted by Titchou

If the student doesn't pay, they are not allowed to register for the next semester and the U will withhold their degree and transcript if they are a graduating senior. Hope this helps.

Am I understanding this correctly? If a graduating student is delinquent on something to the GLO, let's say social type fees of maybe fines for something) that the university can withhold their degee or refuse to allow them to register for next semester classes?

[Titchou]

Only if it's billed thru the University. In these cases, the U is billing and collecting from the member based on our information and then in turns pays the chapter. The collection rate is outstanding, to say the least.

[DubaiSis]

As a Hawkeye alum, and from a member perspective, it worked great. Because my parents handled my bills (which I paid later via student loans) I never really had to worry about those costs. I think the school handled it this way because they required the sorority houses to cost approximately the same as the dorms, although at least in our case it was a little less. It might also have been a way to keep a finger on Greek life.

I'm sure it was better for the Treasurer. She certainly had enough to do dealing with the phone bill, the Joe Photo bills, housing and chapter expenses, etc., that dealing with deadbeats would have really been hard.

If your sorority has a chapter at Iowa, maybe the VP Financial would be willing to explain how it all works.

[33girl]

If your housing is not on University land, I would advise strongly against this.

[Titchou]

And why would that be, 33girl? This isn't a housing issue but rather a chapter issue as the entire chapter bill is on it....not just the housing part. When our LSU chapter went on it they had a pretty substantial receivables problem. In the first 3 years they were on the Bursar's system, they only gad to write off $1000 from one woman. That's all in THREE years at a chapter that had a large six figure annual budget. That's pretty darned good. Of course, you have to be recognized by the University to do this but living on their property would not need be a requirement.

[Smile_Awhile]

My university used the university's stystem for semester dues (no sorority housing at my university), but t-shirts or any extra fees for other events were charged to BillHighway (which is required to be used by our headquarters). It seemed to work fairly well for us- we still had a system that we were in full control of for more flexible and changing costs, but something that vastly improved our rate on dues collection. Of course, I was never VP Finance, so I'm not sure how well it worked on her end, but it felt seamless on ours.

[Titchou]

Yes, same for us. Any incidentals not on the semester bill are paid thru GreekBill directly by the member to the chapter.aa

[NYGreek]

Smile_Awhile, if you don't mind me asking, what University did you attend?

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Titchou

And why would that be, 33girl? This isn't a housing issue but rather a chapter issue as the entire chapter bill is on it....not just the housing part. When our LSU chapter went on it they had a pretty substantial receivables problem. In the first 3 years they were on the Bursar's system, they only gad to write off $1000 from one woman. That's all in THREE years at a chapter that had a large six figure annual budget. That's pretty darned good. Of course, you have to be recognized by the University to do this but living on their property would not need be a requirement.

If your house's rent has nothing to do with the school, it's fine for collecting dues, but a total waste if someone ditches their commitment to live in the house. This affiliation with the school does nothing to collect rent and you can still get in financial trouble in that area, plus then you have the school all up in things that I personally think aren't their business (I think the school really has no right to know what kind of dues I pay to a private organization). JMO.

[Titchou]

I don't think we are talking the same thing. Everything that is on the semesterly bill is put on the university bill. Rent, parlor fees, dues, etc. Things like tee shirts, formal or whatever you may sign up for along the way are not...incidentals. The student pays the U, the U pays the chapter, the chapter pays its bills and all is well. It works beautifully. Like I said, at LSU where we have over 200 members and a house that holds 50 plus, we only wrote off $1000 in the first 3 years. Because even if they left school, quit the sorority or whatever, they can't register for class, transfer anywhere else or get their degree till they pay the U. That's a huge incentive to do right and pay your bill. Now refusing to move in is an entirely different issue. We're not talking about that but rather making sure all accounts are paid. But if there is a fine for not living in when you are supposed to, that wouldn't be on it anyway. Fines fall under incidentals. But at places like LSU, Iowa, etc, the main chapter bill is the bulk of the money so that's what you want to be sure to get. And it works.

[Smile_Awhile]

Originally Posted by NYGreek

Smile_Awhile, if you don't mind me asking, what University did you attend?

PMed you.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Titchou

I don't think we are talking the same thing. Everything that is on the semesterly bill is put on the university bill. Rent, parlor fees, dues, etc. Things like tee shirts, formal or whatever you may sign up for along the way are not...incidentals. The student pays the U, the U pays the chapter, the chapter pays its bills and all is well. It works beautifully. Like I said, at LSU where we have over 200 members and a house that holds 50 plus, we only wrote off $1000 in the first 3 years. Because even if they left school, quit the sorority or whatever, they can't register for class, transfer anywhere else or get their degree till they pay the U. That's a huge incentive to do right and pay your bill. Now refusing to move in is an entirely different issue. We're not talking about that but rather making sure all accounts are paid. But if there is a fine for not living in when you are supposed to, that wouldn't be on it anyway. Fines fall under incidentals. But at places like LSU, Iowa, etc, the main chapter bill is the bulk of the money so that's what you want to be sure to get. And it works.

We are talking different things. I'm talking where the Greek housing (the housing, not the groups) is not on campus and not recognized, sanctioned or in any way overseen by the school. No housemoms, cooks, house corps, any of that sort of thing.

For a relatively small school/Greek system in NY I'm guessing that might be her case and I'd hate to see them sign up for something they think will fix any issues in that arena, when it will not. If all they're using it for is to collect spring and fall national dues (just dues, no housing costs), I think that's kind of a waste and that there's no reason to get the school involved. It gives them way too much power without the org really getting anything in return.

[Titchou]

Orginally you simply said if the house wasn't on campus. Just because a house isn't on campus doesn't mean that the chapter isn't recognized by the U (I can give you many examples, UAB being the one right here at my back door). So that was what I was addressing. As long as the U recognizes the org, there is no reason not to do it. And I agree that just putting national dues on it wouldn't be optimum but the whole chapter bill - there really isn't a downside. And sorry you wouldn't want the U to know you're bill amount but most don't care because the chapters typically give that info out anyway at recruitment. Everywhere we have this situation, it's been a blessing to the chapter.