Understanding Passive/Active Mode in Manual Packaging

For Packaging to determine whether awards are active or passive, the process needs to evaluate the award period for which you are packaging the student. Packaging compares the award period for which you are currently packaging against the disbursement plan/split code patterns of existing awards to determine whether to process them as active or passive awards. During Auto and Mass Packaging, Packaging uses the packaging plan award period attribute for this comparison. Because Manual Packaging does not employ packaging plans, the Award Period field on the award entry pages enables you to specify the award periods this packaging session covers.

Before you begin awarding manually, select an award period processing mode in the Award Period field. The default value for this field is Both − Both Award Periods, so if you do not change the value in this field, all existing awards are reevaluated based on need and eligibility for both the academic and NSAPs. After you select an award period processing mode, Packaging evaluates all existing awards to determine which awards fall within the selected award period and, therefore, can be changed. These awards are considered active. You cannot change awards that do not match the selected award period. These awards are considered passive and are made unavailable on the award entry pages.

Note:

The Award Period field serves as a target for Packaging and is not a characteristic of the awards in this packaging session. This field controls which existing posted awards are treated as active or passive awards.

To determine which awards you can change, Packaging compares the selected award period against the disbursement plan/split code patterns of existing awards. Packaging does this by evaluating all nonzero disbursement rows for each award. Each disbursement ID within the disbursement plan is tied to a term, and each term has been designated for either the AAP or the NSAP. If all the nonzero disbursements belong to the AAP, Packaging considers the award for AAP processing. If all the nonzero disbursements belong to the NSAP, Packaging considers the award for NSAP processing. If the nonzero disbursements span both the AAP and the NSAP, Packaging considers the award for both AAP and NSAP processing.

Packaging then compares the type of processing (AAP, NSAP, or both) for which an award is eligible based on the selected award period processing mode. If the award period processing mode is Academic, then Packaging processes the awards whose nonzero disbursements all fall in the AAP as active awards. If the award period processing mode is Non-Standard, then Packaging processes the awards whose nonzero disbursements all fall in the NSAP as active awards. Packaging evaluates awards whose nonzero disbursements span both the AAP and the NSAP in a slightly different fashion than those awards that fall within a single award period. If the award period processing mode is Academic, Packaging processes the award as an active award but reevaluates only the portion of the award designated for the AAP. This portion consists of the nonzero disbursements tied to terms designated for that award period. If the award period processing mode is Non-Standard, Packaging processes the award as an active award but reevaluates only the portion of the award designated for the NSAP. If the award period processing mode is Both, Packaging processes the award as an active award and reevaluates the entire award.

If the disbursement plan/split code pattern of an existing award designates an award period that does not match the selected award period processing mode, the award is passive and therefore cannot be changed by either you or Packaging when submitted for validation. Passive awards are unavailable on the award entry pages to indicate visually that you and Packaging cannot change them. Active awards are open and available on the award entry pages to indicate visually that you and Packaging can change them.

When you add new awards, the disbursement plan/split code pattern of the new award must match or fall within the selected award period processing mode. If the disbursement plan/split code pattern of the award designates it for a single award period (for example, the AAP) that does not match the single award period selected as the award period processing mode (Non-Standard) you receive error message 9580 after validation. This message indicates that you must change either the award's disbursement plan/split code pattern or the award period processing mode so that the award's designated award period and the award period processing mode match. If the disbursement plan/split code pattern of the award designates that it is for both award periods when a single award period is selected as the award period processing mode, the Validation process assigns the award only to those disbursement IDs designated for the award period selected as the award period processing mode.

The following three sections describe three different awarding scenarios and the behavior of Packaging.