May 2025

Historically, Gateway has placed a registration hold on students who owed a debt to the college of more than $200. This debt hold has disproportionately impacted minorities and women.

By nominally raising this debt floor to $500, we anticipate giving 24% more Hispanic students, 23% more Black students and 25% more female students with outstanding debts the ability to register for additional classes. Not only does this keep students on the path to graduation, but it also benefits the college with a significant projected increase in enrollment and financial return on investment. Beyond registration hold reform, the college has discontinued the practice of withholding transcripts and diplomas from students with debts. Accomplishing this reduces barriers for students to access earned credits, apply for scholarships and ultimately secure employment.

Goal Statement

We aim to revise the policy of the official transcript debt hold and the student registration debt threshold, allowing students and graduates with nominal debt to continue their education or to enter the workforce and support our regional economy.

Work To Date

As of December 2023, we have ended our policy of withholding official transcripts and diplomas from students with debt. This has resulted in a total of five to ten additional transcript requests per month now being fulfilled and 50 diplomas per semester no longer being withheld.

Short-Term Goals

We will implement changes to the registration threshold, increasing it from $200 to $500, in time for Spring 2025 Semester registration, including changes to system coding, student communications and related policies.

Questions? Please email Travis Jansen at jansent@gtc.edu.

Committee Members

Travis Jansen (Committee Lead) – Registrar
Breezann Warnock – Director, Student Accounts
Amanda Virzi-Frahman – Academic Advisor