To Our Friends in the Financial Aid Community,
Thank you for your calls of concern, your offers of help, and your positive thoughts and prayers for the Louisiana citizens affected by hurricane Katrina. Several of you have asked, "How can I help?" You can help by contacting any evacuees who may be in your area or donate to the American Red Cross/Katrina Disaster Relief. Many have lost much, if not all. Give as your heart dictates.
Our students from the New Orleans area are scattered throughout Louisiana and neighboring states. Many are making efforts to enroll in schools in the areas where they sought shelter. Our colleagues are now faced with the frustrations of trying to help these students start to rebuild their lives by continuing their education - while at the same time trying to apply the complex policies and procedures of Title IV programs to their unique situations.
As a result, we-members of LASFAA- have contacted NASFAA for support and are waiting on guidance from the Department of Education on how to award federal aid to displaced students who are seeking enrollment at other schools for the fall term. Some of the issues that we are asking the Department of Education officials to consider are:
- Can we award federal aid to students that are admitted with
"non-degree seeking" statuses such as: visiting, transients, etc?
- Should be disregard SAP?
- How do we determine a student's academic level for loan limits
without complete academic records?
- What documents would we require from the students to complete
verification or verify citizenship status if vital records are lost?
- What happens to the funds that were disbursed to schools but not
released to students prior to the schools closing?
- How do we determine the students remaining eligibility if funds have
already been disbursed to a school that is inoperable because of the hurricane?
- Will the DOE increase campus based allocations for schools that are
accepting displaced students?
- Will the DOE relax R2T4 policies for schools who have students that
are withdrawing from their institutions to relocate with their displaced families?
- Will loan forgiveness, not forbearance, be granted to students who
are unable to continue their enrollment this academic year or for students who can not complete their academic program because the school may not reopen this year?
The association is interested in helping our colleagues put their offices back together. Therefore, we are asking these questions on behalf of the schools that are closed or inoperable because of the hurricane damage:
- What will be their new administrative responsibilities?
- Will they have to complete R2T4 calculations for the students that
failed to return after the school reopened?
- Will they have to return all Title IV disbursement received for
2005/2006? If so, what is the time frame?
- What reports will they need to file?
- Is there a "rescue and recovery" training session for FAAs who need
guidance on how to pick up the pieces and put them back together again? If not, can someone put one together?
Many LASFAA members are helping me to coordinate the efforts of our association to assist our colleagues and displaced students. Their names, contact information, and responsibilities are listed below. I will add more contacts to the list as our needs are assessed and determined. Please contact these people if you have suggestions for our schools, donations that will help stranded out-of-state students return to their homes and families, or have been in contact with a LASFAA member that evacuated to your area. We desperately want to know the status of these individuals.
Financial Aid Policy/Procedure Issues:
Taina Savoit (4 year schools): tsavoit@mail.mcneese.edu
Jackie LaChapelle (2 year schools): jlachape@lsue.edu
Barry Zerangue (Vocational/Technical): BZerangue@sowela.net
JoAnn Boudreaux (Proprietary): joann.boudreaux@remingtoncollege.edu
Donations For Displaced Students:
Kalynda Cook: kalynda.cook@nelnet.net
Anna Lisa Deal: annalisa.greer@nelnet.net
Updated Information For Displaced LASFAA Members:
Gil Gilson: gilson@nsula.edu
We are in the process of updating our website (www.lasfaa.org) so that members and others can keep abreast of our communications with NASFAA and the Department of Education, and to receive updated information on the needs of our association.
Thank you again for your support and assistance.
Best regards,
Sherry Gladney
LASFAA President
Director of Student Financial Aid
LSUHSC-Shreveport
(318) 675-5561
sgladn1@lsuhsc.edu
Posted September 2, 2005 on www.NASFAA.org, the Web Site of the
National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA).
Please submit Web Site questions or comments to web@nasfaa.org
