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Inceptia. How did your school fare with the recent CDR release? Positive outreach and a personal approach with Repayment Counseling Outreach from Inceptia gets student borrowers back on track to successful repayment. Borrower-specific solutions combined with industry-leading financial education tools empower borrowers to make more informed decisions. Learn more at Inceptia.org.

After a summer full of attending events on Capitol Hill and across Washington, D.C., traveling to the NASFAA National Conference in Orlando, FL, supporting the policy and federal relations team with research and recommendations, and exploring all the nation's capital has to offer, Maylene's summer internship is coming to a close. Read on to hear more about her experiences, what she's loved the most about being the Dallas Martin Endowment intern, and what's next for her. Please share your well wishes for Maylene in the comments!

NASFAA signed onto a letter Thursday, along with 33 other higher education groups, to express its support for a bill to expand the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to allow more students to qualify. The bill—introduced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Alfred Lawson, Jr. (D-FL) and dubbed the College Student Hunger Act of 2019—would lower the SNAP work requirement from 20 hours a week to 10 hours a week, and amend a provision that prohibits students with campus meal plans from participating in SNAP. The bill also requires the Department of Education (ED) to notify students with a zero Expected Family Contribution (EFC) or those who are eligible for a Pell Grant that they may qualify for SNAP. “The problem of food insecurity is a real one—and one that takes a serious toll on the health, emotional, and educational well-being of affected students every day,” the groups wrote.

Presidential hopefuls continue to make their case for the 2020 election. In the last month, candidates such as Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and former Rep. Beto O'Rourke have all released proposals to cancel or reduce student loan debt for certain populations. Harris, for example, proposed forgiving up to $20,000 in debt for Pell Grant recipients with loans who start a business that operates for three years in disadvantaged communities. Meanwhile, O'Rourke proposed cancelling debt for public school teachers. Catch up on all the latest and review updates for other candidates with NASFAA's 2020 Presidential Cheat Sheet.

Institutions are required to provide loan disbursement notifications that include information such as the anticipated date and amount of the disbursement, as well as the student's or parent's right to cancel all or a portion of that loan, loan disbursement, TEACH Grant, or TEACH Grant disbursement, and more. Many of our members have inquired what their colleagues are doing around this notification requirement. In the spirit of collaboration and the sharing of best practices, NASFAA invites schools to share their institutions' notifications by 5:00 p.m. ET today. We will remove any identifying information about your institution before publishing the notifications. Submissions will be made available to NASFAA members soon.

Our members are constantly going above and beyond to help their students succeed in higher education, and taking on projects that exceed the traditional scope of responsibilities of a financial aid office. For example, the aid office at the University of Utah hosted an open house for its students to curb “verification melt,” and the financial aid director at Tallahassee Community College found a way to offer his staff free professional training. We want to hear about the unique efforts your office has taken to help students—send us an email for the chance to be featured in an article in our Member Spotlight series.

Please join us in congratulating Taina Morales, formerly the service quality evaluator at Adtalem Global Education, who is now the assistant director of financial aid at Middlesex County College, Marcus “Mark” San Marino, who was promoted from manager of regulatory affairs to director of government relations at DeVry University, and Stephen Nabors, who was promoted from senior financial aid administrator to assistant director for outreach at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor. Learn more about other colleagues' accomplishments, recognitions, and achievements, and submit your own on our Movers and Shakers page.

The updated 2019-20 Federal School Code (FSC) List of Participating Schools is available on the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) website. The Federal School Code List contains the unique codes assigned by the Department of Education for schools participating in the Title IV federal student aid programs.

The program provides grants to institutions of higher education and combinations of institutions of higher education for projects designed to increase the retention and graduation rates of eligible students; increase the transfer rate of eligible students from two-year to four-year institutions; and foster an institutional climate supportive of the success of low-income and first generation students and individuals with disabilities through the provision of support services.

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