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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.

In the next step of a long process, the Department of Education (ED) ended the federal recognition of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS). If this decision ultimately stands, affected institutions will need to obtain approval from another accreditor, or lose their eligibility to participate in the Title IV aid programs.

The focus of the so-called student debt crisis has largely been on the high amount of outstanding loan debt and the high balances many students carry. However, the real problem in higher education and student loans is the number of students who are carrying student loan balances with no benefit from their education, according to a group of higher education experts speaking at an Urban Institute event on Thursday.

Last week we asked you how often you listen to podcasts. Overall, nearly half of the respondents (47 percent) said they listen to podcasts more than once a week. A comparatively small amount of respondents said they listen to podcasts about once a week (5.2 percent), once or twice a month (3.4 percent) or a few times each year (17.2 percent). About one quarter of the respondents (24 percent) said they never listen to podcasts, and 3.4 percent did not know what a podcast is. If you'd like to take more polls, head to our Poll the Pros page.

NASFAA is accepting volunteers for the 2018 National Conference Local Arrangements Task Force, one of two task forces that assist in planning of the 2018 NASFAA National Conference. Duties include of soliciting volunteers for the registration and information desk; overseeing the on-site information desk; providing local information for posting to the NASFAA website and inclusion in Today’s News; and assisting with performers as needed. View the task force charter and volunteer today. 

If you missed the live event on October 12, you can still register for the on-demand version of NASFAA’s Federal Income Taxes Demystified webinar. Tracey Martin, senior tax analyst for the IRS, and Kerri Moseley-Hobbs, policy liaison with the Department of Education, were on hand to answer questions during the Q&A portion of the live webinar. Attendees’ questions and presenters’ answers have since been compiled in a Q&A document, available with the webinar archive. If you registered for the live event, use your original registration link to view the archived webinar and Q&A document.

The Department announces the availability of test application and Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) data files and ISIR Comment Code text for use with the mainframe portion of the 2017-2018 Central Processing System (CPS) Test System on the Federal Student Aid Download (FSAdownload) Web site, located at https://www.fsadownload.ed.gov.

"The closing down of one of the largest and longest-running for-profit technical school was a shock to many but the biggest casualties were the students, especially those who were looking forward to graduating this school year. Not a month before its closure, a lot of people are wondering what will happen next to the thousands of students who have been displaced," University Herald reports. "Everything is not bad news for ITT students as the Department of Education announced that it is joining hands with the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) and Beyond 12 in providing students who have been affected by school closures an online package of supports."

"Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, on Thursday outlined his first specific idea on how to make colleges more affordable. He said that he would work with Congress to pressure institutions with large endowments to spend more on students -- or to face a loss of their tax-exempt status," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"Two U.S. senators on Wednesday proposed legislation that would give selective colleges that enroll relatively few low-income students (the bottom 5 percent of all institutions) four years to boost their enrollment numbers from this group or face paying a fee to continue being eligible for federal financial aid," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"We’re all familiar with the broke college student stereotype: eating ramen for breakfast, lunch, study munchies and dinner, mooching off the neighbor’s WiFi and settling for slow internet instead of setting up your own. ... The idea that college students are perennially penniless and constantly on their phones makes them the perfect target for phone scams that threaten them by demanding money or lure them with too-good-to-be-true concepts like relieving or consolidating their debt," according to College Times.

"'Why College Rankings Are a Joke' (column, Sept. 18) is a cheap and unsubstantiated shot at an organization that has been driving transparency in higher education for the benefit of students and families for more than 30 years," Brian Kelly, editor and chief content officer at U.S. News & World Report, writes in a letter to the editor of The New York Times.

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