Military & Veteran Enrollment

Financial Aid Advising

Our Student Financial Services staff are here to assist in financial advising and payment/refund procedures:

• Leandra Dominguez, Financial Aid Counselor and Certifying Officer
  (914) 633-2441, ldominguez@iona.edu

To contact the Office of Student Financial Services directly, please call (914) 633-2497 or email sfs@iona.edu.

Student Financial Services

Academic Advising & Accessibility Services

Iona staff from many different offices are available and ready to assist you with specific needs.

• Center for Advising and Academic Services: Stephen Scollard at (914) 633-2214 or sscollard@iona.edu
• The Gerri Ripp Center for Career Development: Darelle Thomas at (914) 633-2462 or dthomas@iona.edu
• Comprehensive Assistance Program and Accessibility Services: Daneshea Palmer at (914) 637-2774 or dpalmer@iona.edu

Other Resources

• The U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard
• The College Financing Plan
• The College Navigator
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Paying for College Application

PL 115-407 Section 103 Pending Payment Compliance

In accordance with Title 38 US Code 3679 subsection (e), Iona University adopts the following additional provisions for any students using U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Post 9/11 G.I. Bill® (Ch. 33) or Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Ch. 31) benefits, while payment to the institution is pending from the VA.

Iona University will not:

• Prevent nor delay the student’s enrollment;
• Assess a late penalty fee to the student;
• Require the student to secure alternative or additional funding;
• Deny the student access to any resources available to other students who have satisfied their tuition and fee bills to the institution, including but not limited to access to classes, libraries, or other institutional facilities.

However, to qualify for this provision, such students will be required to:

• Produce the Certificate of Eligibility by the first day of class.

Iona University will promptly readmit a service member with the same academic status as the student had when last attending Iona University or accepted for admission to Iona University. This requirement applies to any student who cannot attend school due to military service. The student must notify Iona University of their military service and intention to return to school as follows:

Notification of Military Service

The student (or an appropriate officer of the armed forces or official of the Department of Defense) must give oral or written notice of such service to Iona University as far in advance as is reasonable under the circumstances. This notice does not have to indicate whether the student intends to return to Iona University and may not be subject to any rule of timeliness. (Timeliness must be determined by the facts in each case.) Alternatively, at the time of readmission, the student may submit an attestation of military service that necessitated the student’s absence from Iona University. No notice is required if precluded by military necessity, such as service in operations that are classified or would be compromised by such notice.

Definitions for Readmission

Military service (or service in the uniformed services): service, whether voluntary or involuntary, in the armed forces, including service by a member of the National Guard or Reserve on active duty, active duty for training, or full-time National Guard duty under federal authority, for a period of more than 30 consecutive days under a call or order to active duty of more than 30 consecutive days. This does not include National Guard service under state authority.

Service member: someone who is a member of, applies to be a member of, performs, has performed, applies to perform, or has an obligation to perform, service in the uniformed services on the basis of that membership, application for membership, performance of service, application for service, or obligation to perform service.

Appropriate officer: A warrant, commissioned, or noncommissioned officer authorized to give such notice by the military service concerned.

Definitions for Tuition Rates for Military Families

Armed Forces: U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard

Active duty: Full-time duty in the active military service of the United States. Active duty includes full-time training duty, annual training duty, and attendance, while in the active military service, at a school designated as a service school by law or by the Secretary of the military department concerned. Active duty does not include full-time National Guard duty.

Notification of Intent to Return to School

The student must give oral or written notice of their intent to return to Iona University within three years after the completion of the period of service.

A student who is hospitalized or convalescing due to an illness or injury incurred or aggravated during the performance of service must notify Iona University within two years after the end of the period needed for recovery from the illness or injury. A student who fails to apply for readmission within these periods does not automatically forfeit eligibility for readmission but is subject to Iona University’s established leave of absence policy and general practices.

A school must designate one or more offices that a student may contact to provide notification of service and notification of intent to return.

Iona University may not require that notices of intent to reenroll follow any particular format.

Iona University must promptly readmit the student into the next class or classes in the program beginning after the students provides notice of intent to reenroll, unless the student requests a later date or unusual circumstances require Iona University to admit the student at a later date. This requirement supersedes state law - for example, a school must readmit a qualifying service member to the next class even if that class is at the maximum enrollment level set by the state.

Iona University must admit the student with the same academic status, which means

• to the same program to which the student was last admitted or, if that exact program is no longer offered, the program that is most similar to that program, unless the student chooses a different program;
• at the same enrollment status, unless the student wants to enroll at a different enrollment status;
• with the same number of credit hours or clock hours previously completed, unless the student is readmitted to a different program to which the completed credit hours or clock hours are not transferable, and
• with the same academic standing (e.g., with the same satisfactory academic progress status) the student previously had.

Termination for Bad Conduct

A student’s readmission rights terminate in the case of a dishonorable or bad conduct discharge, general court-martial, federal or state prison sentence, or other reasons as described in 34 CFR 668.18(h).

Reasonable Efforts to Help Prepare Student

If Iona University determines that the student is not prepared to resume the program with the same academic status at the point where the student left off or will not be able to complete the program, Iona University must make reasonable efforts at no extra cost to help the student become prepared or to enable the student to complete the program. This includes providing refresher courses and allowing the student to retake a pretest at no extra cost.

Iona University is not required to readmit the student if it determines

• that there are no reasonable efforts it can take to prepare the student to resume the program at the point where the student left off or to enable the student to complete the program, or
• that after it makes reasonable efforts (those that do not place an undue hardship on the institution), the student is not prepared to resume or complete the program.

“Undue hardship” means an action requiring significant difficulty or expense when considered in light of the overall financial resources of the institution and the impact otherwise of such action on the operation of the institution.

Iona University has the burden to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the student is not prepared to resume the program with the same academic status at the point where the student left off or that the student will not be able to complete the program.

If the student is readmitted to the same program, for the first academic year in which the student returns, Iona University must assess the tuition and fee charges that the student was or would have been assessed for the academic year during which he left Iona University. However, if the student’s veteran’s education benefits or other service member education benefits will pay the higher tuition and fee charges that other students in the program are paying for the year, Iona University may assess those charges to the student as well.

If the student is admitted to a different program, and for subsequent academic years for a student admitted to the same program, Iona University must assess no more than the tuition and fee charges that other students in the program are assessed for that academic year.

The cumulative length of the absence and of all previous absences from Iona University for military service may not exceed five years. Only the time the student spends actually performing service is counted.

It is Iona University policy to make available our Federal Student Loan Cohort Default Rate especially when it exceeds that of the National Average. For the most recent year available, Iona’s Cohort Default Rate is 5.5%, less than the National Average of 10.1%.

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