SEARCH TODAY'S NEWS ARCHIVES
NASFAA
TODAY'S NEWS

today’s news for Friday, August 21, 2015

Brought to you by:

For over 20 years, ELM Resources has provided open and lender-neutral choice. Our new web interface, ELMOne, converges your interaction with the complete suite of ELM Products (ELMNet, ELM NDN, and ELMSelect). Built with the latest and most secure technologies, ELMOne will become your go-to resource to manage private student loan services.  www.elmone.com.

NEWS FROM NASFAA

An increasing number of student loan borrowers are taking advantage of income-driven repayment plans that cap their monthly payments at a certain percentage of monthly earnings, the Department of Education (ED) said Thursday.

The rise of “unbundling” in higher education provides policymakers with the opportunity to experiment with new approaches to regulating higher education and financial aid policy, according to a new report from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

If a student is only authorized for employment, but has filed with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) provision, is this person now eligible for Title IV aid? Read on to see if you got the answer right.

With a goal of enhancing the availability of quality research to better inform scholars, leaders in the legal education community, and policymakers, the Access Group Center for Research & Policy Analysis has awarded NASFAA a $125,000 research grant. NASFAA will work to determine what consumer information students in law, graduate, and professional programs feel would be most useful in informing their decisions about enrollment and student loan borrowing.

Find out how other schools help students re-establish Title IV eligibility during NASFAA’s Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeals webinar, September 30, 2:00-3:30 pm ET. School panelists will share how their schools manage the appeal process and develop academic plans to best help students achieve their academic goals. The webinar is offered at a cost of $120 for members and $240 for non-members. There is no additional cost for webinar package purchasers, however advanced registration is still required. Register today to save your spot.

Whether you are searching for a new job or the perfect addition to your financial aid team, you can use NASFAA's Career Center to help. As the definitive career resource for financial aid professionals, the career center offers free job searching and resume posting, as well as discounted job posting rates and special offers for NASFAA members. You can search for jobs by state or function, and even for openings for NASFAA University-credentialed professionals. Upgrade your job posting to "preferred status" for more visibility - it will appear on the career center homepage as a featured job and will show up in the top of the job listings.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

The Department recently enhanced functionality on the NSLDS Professional Access Web site to assist institutions with managing the requirements for gainful employment (GE) reporting to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS®). This enhanced functionality includes a new Gainful Employment Program Tracking Web page.

Federal Student Aid posted a series of updates to its FSA Data Center, the centralized online source for Federal Student Aid data. Below is a summary of the updated quarterly reports available on the FSA Data Center. All reports reflect activity through or as of June 30, 2015.

The Department’s Liaison for Proprietary Institutions of Higher Education (the Liaison) serves as a policy advisor on matters affecting proprietary institutions.  On August 28, 2015 the current Liaison, Bob James, will be retiring from the Department.

x - FEDERAL REGISTER

The Department announces its intention to establish a negotiated rulemaking committee to prepare proposed regulations for the Federal Student Aid programs authorized under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA).

x - HEADLINES

National News

"The percentage of federal student loan debtors who are behind on their payments, while still shockingly high, is declining, the U.S. Department of Education reported today," Time Money reports. "'Declining delinquencies are a good thing,' said Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. 'Whatever the reason for the drop, more borrowers are steering away from the terrible consequences of defaulting.'"

"Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools are budgeting more than $73 million for new cost of attendance expenses that range from under $1,000 per scholarship to more than $6,000, according to a CBS Sports survey examining the costs of the additional money now allowed under NCAA rules," CBS Sports reports. "The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators conducted a survey last winter after the NCAA rule change that showed 25 percent of sampled financial aid officers had received pressure from outside influences at the university."

"A federal appeals judge said Tuesday that student loan guaranty agencies are not allowed to charge collection fees to borrowers who default on their debt but quickly start repaying," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"The Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump may be known for his nativist rhetoric and policy positions in favor of mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, the building of a border wall billed to the treasury of Mexico, and the elimination of birthright citizenship for children whose parents are in the U.S. illegally -- but his recent comments on international students struck a welcoming tone," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"Senate Democrats have introduced legislation that aims to increase access to affordable post-secondary education for low- to moderate-income students through Pell Grants," The Hill reports.

"It’s the height of summer, and some would-be college students are starting to fade in the searing heat of bureaucratic blockades," Diverse: Issues in Higher Education reports.

State News

"J’Remi Barnes locks the door behind him as he steps into the squat, three-bedroom duplex his family rents in New Orleans East. ... A recent graduate of New Orleans’ Sci Academy, J’Remi, 18, is among the post-Katrina swell of poor, African-American students who are going to college at a higher rate than before the storm," according to Education Week.

"They were once the envy of the world for the access they offered to high-quality education for all students at a low price," according to The Hechinger Report. "But California’s public colleges and universities delivered something different to Andrew Hotchkiss when he applied for admission two years ago: a punch to the gut."

Opinions

"The National Labor Relations Board unanimously ruled on Monday against a petition by football players from Northwestern University that sought to have them legally declared 'employees' for the purpose of potentially unionizing," according to Slate's Sports Nut.

"Massachusetts prides itself on a long history of protecting people at the margins of society. But in one important area — supporting the college aspirations of undocumented students — we lag behind 20 states, including Republican strongholds like Texas,"Jessica Lander, a teacher and writer living in the Boston area, writes in an opinion piece for The Boston Globe.

Blogs & Think Tanks

"John Kasich may have recently joined a large and ever-growing handful of Republican hopefuls last month, but the Ohio governor has enjoyed rising poll numbers since his inception into the presidential race," PolicyMic reports.

"The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released its latest Report on Household Debt and Credit Developments, and the news isn’t good for student-borrowers," Mitchell D. Weiss writes in Credit.com's blog.

"Lately, there's been an uptick of consumers worried that the federal public service loan forgiveness program is going away​, so the Student Loan Ranger thought it might be a good time to separate fact from fiction on that front," according to U.S. News & World Report's Student Loan Ranger.

"At some point, you've probably read that the federal government makes a big pile of money every year off of student lending. But that's an oversimplification," according to Slate's Moneybox.

"College students this past fall likely borrowed the least amount for higher education in five years, federal data show, amid declining overall enrollment and a drop in lending to students at for-profit schools," The Huffington Post reports.

NASFAA TRAINING

NASFAA CAREER CENTER


NEXT

Contact us to submit questions, content or to purchase advertisements.

View Desktop Version