The Department of Education (ED) announced a new experimental site Wednesday to assess whether students are better served when their employment through the Federal Work-Study (FWS) program provides them with job experience in their field of interest. The effort, which would include 190 institutions, will provide those schools waivers to offer FWS funds to students working in the private sector and pay students for work required by their programs, such as clinical rotations. "Rather than working the dorm cafeteria line, students — particularly low-income students — will be able to 'earn and learn' in ways that will set them up for future success," Education Secretary Betsy Devos said in a statement. ED wrote it would evaluate the success of the experiment based on student retention, completion, and improved job prospects.

NASFAA’s Diversity Leadership Program (DLP) provides selectees from a wide range of diverse backgrounds with a robust portfolio of benefits, mentorship, and guidance on how to develop as a financial aid association leader at the state, regional, and national level. Meet each member of the 2019-20 DLP class over the next few weeks by reading their profiles on NASFAA’s website. This week, learn more about Danchees "D." Ingram, the associate director of student financial aid at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, who strives to ensure all voices are represented and taken into consideration when decisions are made on campus.

No. According to the U.S. Department of Education (ED), late fees, penalty fees, finance charges, and overtime charges are not allowable charges and therefore cannot be paid with Title IV funds — not even with the student's written authorization to do so. According to ED, late fees and penalty fees are not part of the student's educational program costs and cannot be included in the tuition and fees component of the student's cost of attendance (COA). View the full answer to this question to learn more and search for answers to your other pressing regulatory and compliance questions in NASFAA's AskRegs Knowledgebase.

Please join us in giving NASFAA's newest member — Princeton Information Technology Center — a warm welcome. This month we also have the pleasure of welcoming back the following members: OmniTech Institute, Peninsula College, and Saint Augustine’s University. We are glad to have all of you as NASFAA members!

A memorial service will be held in St. Louis at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020 for Mary Fenton, who passed away in December. Mary, who was the director of student financial aid services at the University of New Mexico's Health Sciences Center, was active in the graduate and professional community and served for many years on NASFAA's Graduate/Professional Issues Task Force. Mary and other task force members in 2014 participated in NASFAA's advocacy efforts to urge lawmakers to end student loan origination fees, as she noted the importance of a personal connection to the issues saying, “once I got the staffer talking about how they were personally impacted you could see them start to understand.” A colleague who wrote to NASFAA described Mary as "a student advocate and friend to so many in our profession." Our sincerest condolences and best wishes go out to Mary's family and friends. She will be sorely missed.

Federal Student Aid released a series of updates to the quarterly application, disbursement, and portfolio reports on its FSA Data Center to include data through Dec. 31, 2019.

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