Committee IV Institutional Eligibility Issues

Fourth Meeting
May 5-7, 1999
Washington, DC

The fourth meeting of Committee IV commenced as scheduled at approximately 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 5, 1999, and adjourned on Friday, May 7 at approximately 12:00 p.m. The meeting was held at Department of Education offices in Federal Building Six. The meeting was facilitated by and this meeting summary was written by Greg Bourne and Greg Sobel.

The meeting began with the facilitators and spokespersons introducing themselves. Next the facilitators provided an overview of activities since the last meeting and the proposed agenda for this meeting. In particular, the Accreditation and Branch Campus Definition Subcommittees had met and were prepared to report their progress to the Committee.

The primary focus of this meeting was to hear and review reports from the Subcommittees and respond to draft negotiating text and related materials prepared by the Department and other Committee members since the last meeting.

The first order of business was to review and approve the summary of the third meeting. Several changes were suggested and adopted by the Subcommittee. These included some editorial changes and a couple substantive changes. The last page of the draft meeting summary stated that the Crime Log Subcommittee was to meet on May 5. In fact, no plans were made for the Subcommittee to meet then. In Attachment I under Section 668.46, Information on Completion or Graduation Rates, it was noted that item number one should also be included under Section 668.49. The Subcommittee agreed with the proposed changes and they will be reflected in the final meeting summary.

The next agenda item was a report from the Accreditation Subcommittee. Subcommittee members reported significant progress on draft negotiating text and highlighted three areas where discussions were ongoing: validation, monitoring cases of institutions involved in civil proceedings and notice an accrediting agency must give about possible actions. The Subcommittee set aside some time to discuss some of the issues further and suggested it would report back later in the meeting on progress made. (Areas of agreement and major issues remaining are highlighted in Attachment I.)

The Committee then turned its attention to campus crime reporting issues. It was reported that considerable work had occurred since the last meeting and discussions of some issues were conducted electronically on the listserve. Specifically, the issue of counselor's reporting of crime statistics was the subject of significant interest. Based on additional discussions involving the Department and several other Committee members, the following proposal was presented as a "compromise" by the Department:

1. counselors would not have to report statistics from counseling sessions - in other words, confidentiality would be maintained
2. campuses should establish policies and make potential victims aware that they can report a crime confidentially to other entities, such as the security department, and
3. encourage counselors, using their professional judgement, to inform victims they can report the crime elsewhere.

Several concerns were raised about this proposal, including the need and capacity to provide training, the potential for double counting of crimes and the potential liability to institutions. The Department said it would consider all the comments and work further on proposed language to address the issues raised.

The Committee then proceeded to discuss the remaining campus crime reporting issues, followed by the other provisions included in Package II. Packages I and III were discussed thereafter. The primary outstanding issues requiring additional attention were identified as provisions related to the 90/10 rule and right-to know. A working group on the latter met twice during the meeting to try to resolve the outstanding issues. They reported significant progress and indicated they would continue to talk in an effort to complete their work before the next meeting.

The Accreditation Subcommittee then provided an update on discussions held since the beginning of the meeting. Subcommittee members reported progress on three Sections, 602.21, 602.24(c) and 602.22(c) and after some discussion the Committee reached tentative agreement on these provisions. They indicated progress had also occurred on Sections 602.3, 602.14(b) and 602.35 (b)(1) but these remained under discussion. Finally, they noted significant disagreements remained on Sections 602.19(c) and 602.28. Many Committee members expressed their belief that the former was not operable, but the Department stated its interests based on the perspective that accreditors should get involved when the quality of education is at stake. After considerable discussion, the Subcommittee indicated it would continue working on these remaining provisions.

Representatives of the Department were questioned about how the preambles would be reviewed and expressed concern that tentative agreements reached to date were in some instances linked to the assurance that additional information would be contained in the preamble. This, it was argued, means that the Committee should be allowed to comment on the preamble as part of the regulatory negotiation process. After further deliberations, the Department confirmed its stance that preamble language would not be part of the negotiation. Nonetheless, in trying to be responsive to the interests of the other Committee negotiators, the Department suggested the following strategy: for those provisions where tentative agreements had been linked to preamble language, the Department would outline the concepts of importance and provide these preamble concept points in conjunction with the provisions. This would allow Committee members to confirm the Department was aware of their major issues of concern. In addition, the Department would provide an electronic version of the substance of the preamble and the full proposed regulation for review by the committee prior to publication.

The next, and final, meeting of the full Committee will convene Wednesday, May 26, 1999 at 1:30 p.m., and adjourn on Friday, May 28 by 5:00 p.m. The Accreditation Subcommittee will continue to work on its outstanding issues, and plans to meet on the morning of May 26. The Committee meeting will be held at Department of Education offices in Federal Building Six, located at 400 Maryland Avenue, S.W. Specific locations for Committee and Subcommittee meetings will be provided by the Department prior to next meeting.

The agenda for May 26 is to discuss and finalize agreements, to the extent possible, on accreditation and campus crime reporting issues: campus crime reporting from 1:30 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. and accreditation from 3:30 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. Discussion of accreditation and campus crime reporting issues will conclude Wednesday afternoon if at all possible. May 27 and 28 will be devoted to all remaining issues. (Since the last meeting, the accreditation subcommittee members have suggested that they discuss their issues on Thursday, May 27.)

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NOTE: AT THIS STAGE OF THE PROCESS ALL AGREEMENTS NOTED IN THE MEETING SUMMARY AND ATTACHMENT I ARE PRELIMINARY. THE COMMITTEE WILL DETERMINE ITS FINAL AGREEMENTS ONLY AFTER ALL PROVISIONS HAVE BEEN THOROUGHLY CONSIDERED.

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ATTACHMENT I

Preliminary agreements on Committee IV negotiating text, listed by section of regulations, based on discussions held May 5-7, 1999.

Accreditation Issues

Tentative agreement was declared on the following subsections of Section 602: 1, 2, 10-13, 15-18, 20-25, 27, 30-34, 36, 40-45 and 50. All other subsections remain the subject of negotiations as noted in the meeting summary.

Package II

Sec. 668.47 Institutional Security Policies and Crime Statistics

The Department agreed to consider changing the proposed language for definition of Campus, under (2), changing "area of the institution that is owned" to "area of the institution as in (1) above."

Under Campus Security Authority, subsection (4), the word "activities" after "student housing" should be deleted.

The Committee agreed to consider deleting the reference to "A police or campus security department maintained by an institution."

Under Noncampus building or property, the Committee agreed to change "organization recognized" to "organization officially recognized."

Under Public Property, the Committee agreed to change "adjacent to the campus" to "adjacent to and accessible from the campus."

The Committee agreed with the proposed language for (b) What must be included in the Annual Security Report, with one exception: the following language was originally suggested for use in the preamble: "An institution's annual security reports due October 1, 1999, October 1, 2000 and October 1, 2001 must contain the statistics as described in (c) covering the most recent calendar year and the two proceeding calendar years, or the portion thereof for which the breakdown of the statistics by category of locations are reasonably available." Depending on how preamble issues work out, the Committee suggested this language might be included in the regulations.

Committee members agreed with the proposed language under (c), with two exceptions. The Department will consider the following addition under (c)(6):

"The crime and arrest statistics required under paragraphs (c)(1) and (2) shall be compiled in accordance with the definitions and guidelines used in the Uniform Crime Reporting system of the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (as provided in Appendix E) or the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). The numbers of persons referred for disciplinary action concerning liquor and drug law violations shall be compiled in accordance with the UCR or NIBRS procedures for arrest statistics. The Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook and UCR Hate Crime Data Collection Guidelines may be used as reference materials."

Under (c)(8), the Department will consider changing "... an institution may rely..." to "...an institution making a reasonably good faith effort may rely..."

The Committee agreed with the proposed language under (e) and (g).

The Committee agreed with the proposed language under (h) Crime Log, with the following exceptions which will be given further consideration by the Department:

1. under (h)(1), change "...that records in the order reported..." to "...that records by the date it was reported..."
2. under (3)(i), change "...may withhold information..." to "...may withhold some or all of the information..."
3. under (3)(ii), references to (4)(i) should be (3)(i).

The Committee agreed with proposed language under Definitions, Appendix E.

Section 668.48 Report on Athletic Program Participation Rates and Financial Support Data

The Committee agreed with the proposed language in this section with two exceptions: the Department will further clarify (c)(3)(i) and the Department will consider deleting (c)(6).

Section 668.41 Reporting and Disclosure of Information

The Committee agreed to the proposed language under this section with the following changes:

1. consider changing references to "computer network" to "electronic communications"
2. use references to the "Intranet" only where appropriate
3. under (c)(1)(i) and (c)(1)(ii), based on earlier discussions, change "List and describe..." to "List and briefly describe..."
4. under (d)(3) change "...and its transfer-out..." to "...and, if applicable, its transfer-out..."
5. under (e)(2), change the title to include current students.

Section 668.44 Institutional Information

The Committee agreed with proposed language in this section with the following suggestions:

1. under (2)(i), modify to incorporate refund applications to students in question
2. under (2)(iii), provide a model identifying specific guidelines or requirements under this section given concerns raised by institutions about liability also under (2)(iii), modify "...return of grant..." to "...return of federal or Title IV grant..."

Section 668.46 Information on Completion or Graduation Rates

The Committee agreed with proposed language under this section with the following exceptions to be considered later:

1. under (a)(3)(ii), the 30 day time period should be changed to 15 days
2. more discussion is needed in reference to the transfer-out rate; the work group will continue to work on language related to these provisions
3. under (c)(1), change "...for which the prior institution..." to "...for which the reporting institution..."
4. under (f), references to (i), (ii), and (iii) should be (1), (2) and (3) respectively.

Package I

The Committee agreed with the proposed language in all the sections contained in Package I with the following exceptions:

1. extensive discussions occurred on how the 90/10 calculation is figured, and what goes into the calculation, including what is or is not considered income to the institution (e)(3); differences remain on this issue and will be discussed further
2. the Department noted that under (h), "binding arbitration" should be "initial arbitration."

Package III

The Committee agreed with the proposed language in all the sections contained in Package III with the following modifications or exceptions which the Department will consider:

1. under Sec. 668.12 Application Procedures, the Department indicated its preference for transferring this section into Section 600 and, under (d), for deleting "Temporary" from the term "Temporary Provisional Program Participation Agreement"; a modification was suggested under (c)(1) to change "...results in a change in control,..." to "...results in a change in control as specified in Section 600.31?",
2. the Committee agreed under (c)(2)(iv) to deleting "each of" from the phrase "...statement for each of the institution's..."
3. under Sec. 668.27 Waiver of Annual Audit Submission Requirement, specifically (c)(7), the Committee discussed the following changes: "...or emergency action initiated..." to "...or emergency action, or probation, initiated..."; "...or a guarantee agency..." to "...or a guarantee agency or state oversight agency..." but concluded that these changes were not needed.
4. preference was given to alternative one for (c)(7); alternative two was deleted
5. under Sec. 668.92 Fines, the Department will consider suggested modifications suggested as re-writing (d)(2)(ii) and (d)(2)(iii) as follows: (ii) "is required to return, on behalf of a student or borrower, a percentage of unearned Title IV funds related to institutional charges to a lender or to the Secretary; and (iii) willfully fails to return such funds or willfully attempts in any manner to evade returning such funds."
6. under Sec. 668.95 Reimbursements, Refunds and Offsets, the Committee agreed with the proposed addition of (d)(2); the Department will consider suggested modifications including adding a phrase to the end of the provision, such as "...without additional penalties, fines or sanctions..."

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