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Student Connections. No matter your scope or budget, you can simplify the complex task of helping students repay their loans and improve your results, whether measured in reduced CDRs or higher repayment rates. Learn more how the industry’s only patented solution is creating real-time transparency for more than 500 campuses, at studentconnections.org.

Meet Maureen 'Mo' Amos. She has worked in the financial aid profession for approximately 23 years, 15 of which have been at Northeastern Illinois University. Her career in financial aid began at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois when she was looking for a transition career after working for eight years in student activities and athletics at the community college level. Mo has served on several NASFAA committees and task forces and is currently serving on the Higher Education Committee of 50—or "Forward50"—a group convened by NASFAA and tasked with producing four white papers on specific, pre-identified policy areas related to access, affordability, accountability, and transparency.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report this week, in response to an inquiry from a group of Republican senators, highlighting the characteristics of Grad PLUS Loan borrowers, as well as the potential implications of instituting annual and aggregate loan limits on Grad PLUS Loans. This report comes out as House Republicans are awaiting a vote on their bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA), which includes a proposal to eliminate Grad PLUS Loans, and the Senate is working to release its legislation.     

NASFAA’s AskRegs Knowledgebase service is moving to a new platform. AskRegs tickets created prior to January 1, 2015, will no longer be accessible online. To keep a record of your older tickets, you will need to save them from the existing platform. Before May 4, 2018, log in to the current AskRegs Knowledgebase, click on "MY SUPPORT" from the upper right corner, and then "My Tickets." Select each ticket you want to save and either copy and paste the ticket information into a separate document (e.g., Word) or select "Print this Ticket" located at the bottom of the page, to print or save the ticket as a PDF file.

If you were unable to join us for the Leveraging Campus Relationships to Improve Financial Wellness Programming webinar that aired May 8, you may now order the on-demand webinar. You’ll have full access to the webinar archive and handout, as well as access to the Top Most Frequently Asked Questions document compiled from questions submitted by attendees during the live webcast. If you attended the live event, you can still use your registration link to access the on-demand event and FAQ document. Order today.

Several Department of Education (ED) interest sessions will be offered at the 2019 NASFAA National Conference in Orlando and the popular "Ask a Fed" table will be set up in the exhibit hall so you can stop by to discuss Title IV-related questions with ED staff. Scheduled sessions will address today’s hot topics, including administering aid for transfer students, 2020-21 FAFSA updates, cybersecurity and data protection, SULA misunderstandings and misreporting, and verification. Check out the full conference schedule for details about more great sessions. Early-bird conference pricing ends April 26; register today.

The data submitted electronically in the Fiscal Operations Report and Application to Participate (FISAP) is used by the Department of Education to determine the institution's funding need for the award year and monitor program effectiveness and accountability of fund expenditures. 

"A U.S. bill that would drastically alter the student loan offering and repayment process is making its way through the U.S. House," the Northwest Missourian reports. "...In place of the loan forgiveness program would be a $25 minimum monthly payment cap and the condition that borrowers can have their remaining debt forgiven if they repay the entirety of the loan according to guidelines in the standard repayment plan. 'It’s a very regressive and punitive change,' Justin Draeger, President of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said to The Washington Post."

"Jamie McKnight, 35, a mother of two, filed her federal tax return in late January, expecting to get a roughly $9,700 refund that would help her pay for rent, health care expenses and other bills," USA Today reports. "What the Kingston, N.Y., resident didn't anticipate was that nothing would show up in her bank account."

"Look to the top of the U.S. News & World Report college rankings, and you'll find public universities that tend to spend a greater share of their budgets on managing human resources and research. Move down the list, and you'll see institutions that put more of their payroll dollars toward soliciting donations and marketing their campuses. So says a recent paper analyzing universities' labor costs," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

"Xavier Mountain remembers the last look his adoptive mother gave him before leaving him at a foster youth shelter. It was a look of relief," according to The Chronicle of Social Change. "... And so, at age 15, Mountain was re-introduced to California's foster care system. The stress of his situation caused him to struggle academically. 'I was told I wasn't going to graduate high school and I finally realized to myself that I can't be a statistic,' Mountain said. 'I need to go beyond that.'"

"'Congratulations! You've been accepted …' Imagine my excitement when I was accepted into the No. 1 college of my dreams, a four-year, private school right here in Connecticut. All of my hard work paid off and I can start to think about future classes, dorm assignments and student activities. I should be floating on air, right? Wrong," Jennifer Cone writes for the Hartford Courant.

"Picture this: Sonya, a low-income student at a California high school, receives an acceptance letter from the University of Hawaii. While the tuition is higher than a public university in California, she decides to go to Hawaii, even though it means that both Sonya — not her real name — and her mother would have to take out loans. After two semesters of lackluster grades, Sonya loses her merit-based aid and has a hold on her student account (also known as a bursar's account) due to an outstanding balance because of a lack of payment, so her transcript cannot be released to transfer her credits. She is now in debt, out of school and stuck. With some financial guidance, Sonya could have been facing much better prospects," Melissa Fries writes for EdSource.

"Presidents and provosts in U.S. colleges and universities tend to change jobs frequently; in fact, administrators in higher education overall tend to have fairly short tenures, with a median of five years in their position," CUPA-HR writes in its The Higher Ed Workplace Blog.

NASFAA is saddened to have learned of the passing of Dr. Ed Miller, who served as director of financial aid at USC-Columbia from 1999 to 2014. Besides serving in many positions at the state and regional level, he was a peer evaluator for the NASFAA Standards of Excellence Review Program, and was awarded the Meritorious Achievement Award from NASFAA in 2004. His impact will be long lasting and his presence deeply missed.

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