Brought to you by:

CampusLogic. Shift Summit is 2022's high-impact, in-person event. Industry leaders come together for two days to learn how to eliminate financial friction and reach strategic goals by improving the student experience. Get early bird pricing when you register today and rally around Student Financial Success.

Too often, borrowers are saddled with burdensome student loan debts and leave school unable to make payments on loan amounts they probably shouldn’t have even taken out in the first place. At Western Governors University (WGU), the school sees it as its role to educate their students on the amount of loans they need in order to continue their education and degree pursuit. That approach, called the Responsible Borrowing Initiative, has already earned the online university accolades and recognition. Most recently though, WGU was awarded NASFAA’s 2021 Gold Star award, which recognizes innovative ideas in financial aid.

As discussions surrounding the student loan landscape remain at the forefront of congressional chatter, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has reintroduced a student loan repayment bill that would aim to rework the repayment system by making adjustments to the monthly repayment plans. The bill, the Leveraging Opportunities for Americans Now (LOAN) Act, would eliminate interest on federal student loans, replacing it with a financing fee which would be equal to the amount the loan costs to service, paid over the life of the loan. The financing fee would not increase over the life of the loan and the bill would not eliminate the current student loan origination fee.

This AskRegs Knowledgebase Q&A was updated on August 4, 2021 to provide further clarification NASFAA received from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) about the return of Title IV funds (R2T4) Lump Sum Reporting and how the Coronavirus Indicator on individual disbursements takes care of several reporting requirements. View the updated answer to this question to learn more.

Please join us in congratulating Abril Hunt, formerly the director of financial aid at Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA), who facilitated completion of PNCA's merger with Willamette University. She has relocated to Hawaii and is now the financial aid specialist assisting with the financial aid centralization project at University of Hawai'i Community Colleges. Celebrate your own career developments by completing the "Movers and Shakers" form to share the news with your colleagues.

VIEW NEXT ISSUE

Contact us to submit questions, content or to purchase advertisements.