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Jenzabar. Jenzabar Financial Aid enables institutions to quickly deliver compliant and accurate financial aid offers, personalize communications, and engage with students on their preferred channels. It enables institutions to automate the financial aid process so staff can spend more time helping students feel financially confident in enrolling and returning to campus.

In kicking off the NASFAA 2021 Virtual Conference, a group of financial aid professionals held a discussion Monday centering around the issue of equity and efforts to remove bias from the aid application process. The discussion participants shared perspectives meant to spur conversation within financial aid offices to address implicit bias and highlight how policy stakeholders can look to reform the system to provide disadvantaged students with the tools needed to achieve their higher education goals, without being truncated by paperwork or other bureaucratic obstacles.

As states begin to administer their reopening plans following sharp declines in COVID-19 cases and increased vaccinations, some are beginning to offer reflections on how the pandemic has impacted their students. California, which was heavily impacted by the coronavirus, has a new report offering key insights into how their student populations have experienced the ongoing health crisis and aims to serve as a guide to help inform state and federal policy decisions that can best get their populations back on track to meet their higher education trajectories.

Another round of negotiated rulemaking, or “neg reg,” hearings kicked off Monday, as the Department of Education (ED) attempts to reform the higher education landscape through the regulatory process with input and recommendations from affected parties and key stakeholders. The opening neg reg hearings touched on a wide range of higher education issues, including providing borrowers better odds of loan forgiveness through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, improving income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, and how to fix the student loan and lending program.

This AskRegs Knowledgebase Q&A was updated on June 16, 2021 to clarify that the return of Title IV funds (R2T4) Lump Sum Reporting is only for Title IV funds that the institution otherwise would have been required to return under the R2T4 waiver. 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.

Employee turnover and onboarding can be draining to an already overwhelmed staff. Sam Houston State University worked with Blue Icon Advisors to determine the cause of turnover and develop an onboarding and training program to help retain employees. The financial aid director said, "Our three new hires told us they feel like they are being set up for success and that the office culture is positive." Contact Blue Icon for help with your onboarding program.

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