If you're going to the FSA Conference in Las Vegas, you have the perfect opportunity to participate in NASFAA's National Conversation Initiative (NCI) Listening Session on December 2 at 4:45 in the Vendome A room. Come with your most creative ideas for the kinds of changes you feel are needed in the student aid system.

Why You?

You're a financial aid professional. You work with the families, you know the rules, you understand your school. Isn't it about time someone listened to your views on how we can better serve students?

NASFAA is listening. Through the NCI, NASFAA Listening Sessions have already reached out to financial aid professionals in over 23 states at regional and state conferences. Hundreds of financial aid administrators have attended these sessions and shared their comments, concerns, and recommendations. Others have participated in the NCI online forum, or submitted comments online. Numerous suggestions have been received and there has been a groundswell of support for this campaign.

Recommendations and comments gathered at the listening sessions, as well as online, will be carefully researched and analyzed. These will serve as the foundation for NASFAA's recommendations to restructure student aid to better meet our goals - eliminating the financial barriers to higher education.

Within the first 100 days of the Obama administration, NASFAA intends to present the administration and legislators with preliminary recommendations. The NCI will then refine these recommendations, work to create consensus on final recommendations, and generate support for the recommendations with the goal of getting them enacted.

Your Time Is Now

You are the voice of your students, the voice of your school, and even the voice of the taxpayers. Don't get left out of the conversation. Members of NASFAA's Board of Directors will facilitate the Dec. 2 Listening Session and report all of your ideas back to NASFAA President and CEO Dr. Phil Day, who is unable to attend due to a conflicting speaking engagement.

Like previous Listening Sessions, we expect you will find the Dec. 2 event intriguing, energizing, and a highly receptive forum in which to share your outside-of-the-box ideas about how to best help students and families. Tips for preparing for a Listening Session appear at the end of this article.

Be part of the financial aid solution: Participate in an NCI Listening Session, or send your recommendations online or via email at nationalconversation@nasfaa.org.

For additional information on the NCI project, please visit NASFAA's NCI Web Center.

Current schedule for upcoming NCI Listening Sessions:

• Dept. of Education FSA Conference, Las Vegas, NV, Dec. 2, 4:45 pm (Vendome A)
• CCCSFAA, Anaheim, CA, Sat., Dec. 6 3:15 pm
• CASFAA, Anaheim, CA, Sun., Dec, 7, 3:30 pm
• CASFAA, Anaheim, CA, Mon, Dec. 8, 10:15 am
• SASFAA Management Institute, Asheville, NC, Mon., Dec. 8 - 3:00 pm
• SWASFAA, Little Rock, AR, Thurs., Dec. 11 - 3:30 pm
• MSFAA, Dearborn, MI, 2009, date and time TBD
• SASFAA, Myrtle Beach, SC 2009, date and time TBD

Preparing for a Listening Session

NASFAA has developed a PowerPoint presentation and a list of questions to facilitate the discussion at these sessions. Reviewing this presentation and the questions before attending will help you prepare to participate. Some of the questions and topics for discussion appear below.

College Access

• Should financial aid be used as a tool to level the playing field for economically disadvantaged, underserved, and underrepresented student groups?
• What are the most successful conduits for channeling these student groups into a postsecondary institution?

Simplification

• Should we eliminate the FAFSA and determine need-based aid eligibility using existing data, such as IRS data?
• How could we simplify the application process and still address the needs of states/institutions?
• Would students benefit from a simplified needs analysis approach that would allow them to know in advance the amount of need-based aid for which they qualify?

Grants

• What do you regard as the "right" mix of grants vs. loans, work-study and personal/family contribution?
• Should only the neediest students receive grant aid?
• Should grants be front-loaded, and if so, how would that process work?
• Should Pell Grants be a true entitlement program with set maximums that rise over time with inflation? Why or why not?
• Academic Competitiveness Grants and SMART Grants bring an element of merit into the Pell equation. Is this appropriate? What are the benefits and drawbacks?

Loans

• What role should loans play in helping students pay for college?
• Should all undergraduate students be expected to borrow? None? What about graduate students?
• If you could describe the "perfect" student loan system, what would you say?
• What do you think of the current system in which students with demonstrated need can qualify for an interest subsidy on their Stafford loans while in school or in deferment?
• What are your thoughts on loan forgiveness?
• What loan repayment option makes the most sense for students?

Personal and Family Contribution

• Should expectations of personal/family responsibility increase as a student progresses through school?
• How can we encourage families and individuals to save to support their education?
• How could existing current college savings mechanisms (e.g., 529s) be structured to encourage more saving?

Campus Based Programs / State and Local Funding

• What is the appropriate balance between federal, state, and institutional financial aid?
• How can the federal government and states better coordinate their efforts to provide student aid? Or should they?
• What are your thoughts about LEAP? How can that program grow or improve?

Tax Policy

• How can our tax policy be shaped to increase access to college?

General

• How could the Department of Education provide better service to students?
• What is the responsibility of the private sector in helping students attend college?
• What role does financing play in the reason students drop out or stop out of college?
• Should our financial aid system enable every qualified student to attend any college, no matter the cost?
• What should be the government's role in assisting:
  • graduate students?
  • part-time students?
  • nontraditional students?
  • independent students?
  • students with families?

Visit the NASFAA Web site for more information about NCI and how you can help make the National Conversation Initiative a success.

Posted 11/20/08 to www.NASFAA.org. Redistribution to non-NASFAA institutions is prohibited. Please submit Web Site questions or comments to Web@NASFAA.org.