Arkansas State University System institutions will be required to report information on past-due student accounts beginning next year, when a university with millions of dollars in accounts receivable anticipates joining the system.
The policy itself isn't inspired by any recent events, System President Chuck Welch said. It's designed to provide the information to system administrators and trustees in a consistent manner, he said.
Welch called it a "proactive measure" that will allow system leaders to spot outliers, trends or other information.
"We've been doing these things but felt it was important to formalize that into board policy and ensure that will continue long beyond when any of us are here," he told trustees.
Arkansas college students owe tens of millions of dollars to the state's public universities.
Among the reasons Henderson State University faced financial struggles, eventually deciding to join the system, was mounting student debt. Under previous leadership, the university was slow to collect on accounts and rarely wrote off debt as uncollectable. It also allowed students who couldn't afford to pay what they owed to continue registering for more classes, increasing their debt load.
College rules vary on restricting registration to students who owe and on collecting the debts.
The ASU System policy, passed without opposition or discussion Friday, doesn't establish those types of rules. It requires that universities report to the system total accounts receivable, student accounts receivable, allowance for doubtful accounts, written-off debt, bad debt expenses and aging student accounts to the system. The system will then report that information to trustees.
The policy also defines several of those things for consistent reporting.