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As the newly-initiated 2015-16 NASFAA National Chair, Director of Student Financial Aid at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Dan Mann closed this year’s conference with a call to action. “I have an overarching goal that the association will be even stronger when I pass the gavel to [National Chair-Elect] Lisa Blazer next year in Washington, D.C.,” Mann told attendees. “As we move forward, we must continue to think big, considering both the immediate and future needs of our financial aid programs.”

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) held a hearing on June 3 on the Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, centered on the question of college affordability. Committee Chair Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) posed the question: Can you afford to pay for college? A number of familiar themes emerged from the panelist testimony and from the questions posed to panelists by the HELP Committee members.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Wednesday fined Discover Bank $18.5 million for illegal servicing practices that negatively affected thousands of private student loan borrowers. The bureau ordered Discover to refund $16 million to affected borrowers – those with private student loans transferred from CitiBank – and to pay a $2.5 million penalty. 

CORE is a comprehensive set of instructional materials for teaching financial aid fundamentals to individuals with less than two years experience. CORE’s 14 modules cover financial aid administration from A to Z and its flexible design allows you to use it for teaching small or large groups. If you have never tried CORE, purchase and download one module at a time to see if it meets your staff training needs. If you are a Value or Value Plus member, CORE is included in your membership package, so there is no additional cost for you to download it.

The Department continues its efforts to improve the servicing of William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program loans and Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Purchased Loans, more simply referred to as federally-owned loans. In this announcement, it informs the community of an upcoming change to our federal loan servicer team.

The Department announces the posting of an update to the 2015-2016 SAR Comment Codes and Text reference guide. 

This newsletter describes enhancements to NSLDS enrollment reporting, including student address reporting, correct reporting of program data, the availability of enrollment reporting statistics online, and the new Enrollment Statistics Report.

"Plenty of prognosticators believe the end is near for affirmative action in college admissions. Arthur L. Coleman is not one of them," according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

"Working in college has its benefits: extra income, resume-boosting experience and professional references. But there's a potential downside to that college job," according to U.S. News and World Report.

"Nearly two years ago, President Obama proposed a federal system to rate the nation's colleges and universities, one that would provide families with an objective and unified tool to compare schools and for taxpayers to determine whether the massive investments in scholarships and other government spending on higher education are worthwhile," The Los Angeles Times reports.

"...Students of all races and ethnicities are taking out loans, but a larger percentage of Black undergraduates took out students loans than any other demographic group in 2011-12, according to a Wells Fargo report," Diverse Issues in Higher Education reports.

"The St. Louis Graduates nonprofit organization has recently been awarded a $240,000 grant intended to bring students together to create a statewide advocacy group to lobby on behalf of college students," the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

"Here are my top 7 mistakes that pundits and critics make when they talk about open online education: Mistake #1: 'Open Online Courses Are a Substitute for Traditional Courses,'" Joshua Kim writes for Inside Higher Education's Technology and Learning blog. Read on for the rest.

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