NASFAA officially kicked off the 2009 National Conference on Sunday with a general session featuring Robert Shireman, Deputy Undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Education.

Before Shireman, delivered his remarks, 2008-09 National Chair Dave Gruen gave an update of the association's plans to move forward after NASFAA President and CEO Dr. Phil Day took a voluntary, unpaid leave of absence to deal with legal issues stemming from his employment as Chancellor of the City College of San Francisco.

"Phil - to his credit - did not want these developments to distract the association from this conference, NASFAA's advocacy efforts, and to distract from NASFAA's primary responsibility - how best to serve the nation's students," Gruen said.

Gruen assured NASFAA members that the Day's departure would not affect NASFAA's ability to accomplish its goals.

"I want to make it clear that NASFAA is not now and has never been leaderless," Gruen said. "We have three National Chairs and a strong senior management team in place to handle the day-to-day operations of NASFAA. I know we will not skip a beat with the Conference and it will be a great success. I can assure you that the Association's public policy and advocacy efforts, its service to our membership and all of the other functions the Association provides will continue uninterrupted."

He noted that within a day of Day's departure, he appointed Joan Crissman to act as NASFAA's interim president and CEO. Crissman has most recently served as NASFAA's executive vice president. She has been with NASFAA for 32 years and served in her current position for more than 20 years. She also served as interim President following the retirement of Dr. Dallas Martin in 2007.

Crissman assured attendees that she would take this responsibility seriously and will work to continue NASFAA's work fullest capacity.

"I am eager to build on the association's recent momentum during these exciting times in financial aid," she said.

Crissman also reminded attendees that the Association is much more than one person.

"The National association is you, the members," She said. "More than 20,000 financial aid administrators that work at member institutions."

As for the near and immediate future, Gruen said that the Board of Directors will continue to monitor the situation with Dr. Day as facts become known, and we will take appropriate actions at the right time. He noted that the National Chairs are in the process of consulting legal counsel to ensure that the Association's interests are protected.

"We, along with the Board of Directors - who are your elected representatives - will be meeting regularly in the coming weeks to frequently assess the situation," Gruen said.

During his remarks, Shireman outlined the Administrations plan to transform student aid and answered many questions from NASFAA members.

Shireman noted that financial aid administrators are often seen as "paper pushers," but that couldn't be further from the truth. He noted that FAAs transform the trajectory of students lives and reassured members that their role was not an abstraction to the White House because student aid had made such a difference in the lives of President Obama and his wife.

He noted that Obama had set an ambitious reform agenda but that these goals were achievable. Noting the growing achievement gap between low-income students and others, Shireman said it was time to secure the Pell Grant by making it a mandatory program that increases with inflation. He also stressed the importance of expanding and redistributing the Perkins Loan program to help students avoid private student loans.

Shireman also stressed the importance of moving to the Direct Loan program to permanently solve the instability in the student loan market caused by the freezing credit markets.

NASFAA will post a more comprehensive summary of Shireman's remarks as well as some of the questions and answers. In the near future.

By Haley Chitty
NASFAA Director of Communications

Posted 07/13/09 to www.NASFAA.org. Redistribution to non-NASFAA institutions is prohibited. Please submit Web site questions or comments to Web@NASFAA.org.