Submitting Financial Aid Documents

The Department of Education requires all institutions that gather information electronically to inform students of their requirements to secure data sent electronically. All Personal Identifiable Information (PII) received from students must be sent with a minimum of AES 256-bit encryption or higher. This encryption helps to ensure that PII is not sent to Mendocino College insecurely. 

 

When asked to provide sensitive tax documents by the Financial Aid office, we recommend that you:

1. Make copies of your tax documents 

2. Write your student ID on the copy you are sending to our office

3. Deliver your documents in one of the two ways:

• Send them by mail (Attn: Financial Aid, Mendocino College 1000 Hensley Creek Road, Ukiah, CA 95482)

• Scan and email them as an encrypted attachment (see below for instructions) to financialaid@mendocino.edu. Any emailed documents received by Financial Aid that are not encrypted are sent at the student’s risk.

 

Many programs can encrypt attachments.

 

One program is 7-Zip. For step-by-step instruction visit: https://www.northeastern.edu/securenu/sensitive-information-2/how-to-use-7-zip-to-encrypt-files-and-folders/ or https://7ziphelp.com/how-to-use-7zip

 

Another program is WinZip. For video tutorials, visit the WinZip Learning Center at https://www.winzip.com/win/en/learn/.

 

The password created during encryption must not be included in the same email message and should either be included in a separate email or verbally provided to the intended user.