Changes Made To NASFAA Conference Program

NASFAA President Dallas Martin recently received notification that the U.S. Department of Education is limiting its participation at the NASFAA Conference to a general session update. Teresa Shaw, chief operating officer of Federal Student Aid informed NASFAA via e-mail that ED "...would only be offering participation in the form of a single general session this year."

Shaw's e-mail states, "We agree that the information we provide in such forums is very informative and valuable to the community. That is why Federal Student Aid hosts two such conferences each year attended by over 5,000 financial aid professionals and participates in a multitude of other regionally-hosted conferences annually. In fact, in just a few short months we will be hosting Federal Student Aid's fall conferences in New Orleans, LA and in San Diego, CA." (The full text of the e-mail is available below.)

The NASFAA Conference Committee began work on the conference sessions in late October 2006. After some negotiation, in January 2007, personnel at ED agreed to conduct interest sessions on 14 topics and to repeat some sessions for a total of 27 interest session presentations.

Although we are disappointed that the Department has chosen to limit its participation in this year's conference, in order to ensure that our conference participants receive information on many of the regulatory and compliance topics that were to be included in the ED presentations, NASFAA staff will present the following interest sessions at the conference:

ACG and National SMART Grants: The Basics
Academic Year Progression in the ACG and National SMART Grant Programs
Using NASFAA Tools to Ensure Title IV Compliance
Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM): It's Your Last Chance to Affect ED Policy!
Exercising Professional Judgment with Confidence
Confirming Eligible Noncitizen Status When Automated Secondary Confirmation Fails
Where's the Conflict? (Conflicting Information)
EFC Formula and HERA Changes
FFEL/DL Update
Use LearnStudentAid to Keep Your Staff Up to Date on Regulations

In addition, the following sessions are being added:

A Review of the Statement of Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct - presented by NASFAA's Legal Counsel
The Safeguards Rule - What Is it and How Does it Affect My School? - Gramm Leach Bliley - presented by an attorney from the Federal Trade Commission

The conference agenda on the Web will be updated soon to reflect these new offerings. The conference agenda is available at www.nasfaa.org/subhomes/AnnualConference2007/schedule.html.

The following is the e-mail received by Martin

Dallas-

Jim Manning and I did discuss this matter after we spoke to you last week and again after receipt of your letter yesterday. Unfortunately, our decision to only offer a general session at the 2007 NASFAA Conference is unchanged. As Jim and I indicated to you when we spoke last week, staff in both Federal Student Aid and OPE had moved forward to present many subject matter sessions without the appropriate internal coordination and approvals to do so. The multitude of very important issues facing the Department requires that our resources be focused on these issues for the immediate future. Once Jim and I became aware of the resource commitment that was being contemplated to participate beyond a general session, we promptly informed NASFAA that we would only be offering participation in the form of a single general session this year. We agree that the information we provide in such forums is very informative and valuable to the community. That is why Federal Student Aid hosts two such conference each year attended by over 5,000 financial aid professionals and participates in a multitude of other regionally-hosted conferences annually. In fact, in just a few short months we will be hosting Federal Student Aid's fall conferences in New Orleans, LA and in San Diego, CA. Next year the availability of our critical resources may be different and we will, of course, consider a broader participation for next year's NASFAA conference if appropriate to do so.

Theresa S. Shaw
Chief Operating Officer, Federal Student Aid
830 First Street, N.E.
Washington, DC 20202

Posted 05/18/07 to www.NASFAA.org. Redistribution to non-NASFAA institutions is prohibited. Please submit Web Site questions or comments to Web@NASFAA.org.