INFORMATION FOR
The following information is for individuals serving as references. If you are a student and are looking for more information about providing the name of a reference in your donor scholarship application, please click here.
Reference Instructions
Thank you for serving as a reference for a William Paterson student. Please click here for instructions. We ask that you follow the instructions to submit the reference by the deadline stated in the automated email that you received from IAScholarships@wpunj.edu. If you did not receive an automated email with the link to the reference questionnaire, please contact the Office of Donor Scholarships at IAScholarships@wpunj.edu or 973.720.2934.
Please note, when submitting the reference:
Frequently Asked Questions
In order to submit the reference, before you try to log in, please make sure that you click on the “References and Reviewers” tab. If you are William Paterson faculty or staff, make sure that you are completely logged out of WPConnect and any other William Paterson systems, otherwise, the donor scholarship portal will “remember” you and automatically log you in as an applicant (which is the default). If the system automatically logged you in, please log out and then follow the instructions above to log in.
If you have logged into the donor scholarship portal in a previous year, please be sure to use that same password. If you are logging in with your William Paterson username and password, but the password that you set to log in to the donor scholarship portal is different, then it will automatically log you in as an applicant. If you do not remember your password, on the “References and Reviewers” tab on the login page, please click on “Trouble Signing In?” (located towards the bottom of the page). Enter your email address and click on “Recover Password.” You will receive an automated email with instructions on how to change your password.
You will need to create a password specifically for the donor scholarship portal (Blackbaud Award Management). This is true even for William Paterson faculty and staff. To create a password, on the “References and Reviewers” tab on the login page, please click on “Trouble Signing In?” (located towards the bottom of the page). Enter your email address and click on “Recover Password.” You will receive an automated email with instructions on how to change your password.
On the “References and Reviewers” tab on the login page, please click on “Trouble Signing In?” (located towards the bottom of the page). Enter your email address and click on “Recover Password.” You will receive an automated email with instructions on how to change your password.
Your account will unlock itself after a specified period of time. Please wait a while and then try logging into your account.
We are not able to reset your password for you. If you do not remember your password, on the “References and Reviewers” tab on the login page, please click on “Trouble Signing In?” (located towards the bottom of the page). Enter your email address and click on “Recover Password.” You will receive an automated email with instructions on how to change your password.
Because we use an online application and review process, the recommendation must be submitted online. There are specific questions that, as a reference, you will need to answer and you will need to log into the donor scholarship portal in order to complete the recommendation.
It is possible that the student has not yet listed you as the reference for their scholarship application or that the student has requested someone else to serve as their reference. Once the student provides your name and email address, you will receive an automated email with a link to the donor scholarship portal.
If you received an automated email with the link to the portal, please make sure that you are logging in using that specific email address. This is particularly important if you have shared multiple email addresses with a student; i.e., a William Paterson email address and a personal email address. The portal recognizes users based on their email address, which means that the system does not know that someone with two or more email addresses is the same person.
In order to submit the recommendation, you must complete all required fields (indicated by an asterisk) and then click on the red "Submit" button on the bottom right of the screen. Make sure that you are using Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge (or Mozilla Firefox or Apple Safari if using a Mac) web browsers. Internet Explorer is not fully compatible with the donor scholarship portal and can prevent the website from functioning correctly.
While we advise students to confirm with their reference before they provide the reference name and email address, some students unfortunately do not follow that guidance.
If you are not able to provide a reference for the student, please reach out to the student so that they can select another person to serve as their reference. If you are not comfortable with contacting the student, please contact us at IAScholarships@wpunj.edu or 973.720.2934 so that we can reach out to the student.
We ask that you please submit the recommendation as soon as possible, even if the deadline has passed.
If you have any questions, please contact the Office of Donor Scholarships at IAScholarships@wpunj.edu or 973.720.2934.
