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ELM Resources. It's official, ELM re-certified as a Great Place to Work! These exceptional results affirm our core values of delivering exceptional, speaking up, innovating, doing what's right, and giving back. During this special time of year, we send our wishes for a wonderful holiday season on behalf of ELM's entire team. Learn more about ELM at www.elmresources.com or contact us at [email protected].

This week on "Off The Cuff," Justin and Karen are joined by Jon Fansmith, the American Council on Education's assistant vice president for government relations, to discuss the latest news from the Department of Education (ED) concerning borrower defense claims against Corinthian Colleges, Inc. The team discusses the Biden administration’s efforts to implement targeted loan cancellation and whether the discussion over the potential for broad scale cancellation has overshadowed ED’s recent actions to provide relief to defrauded borrowers. 

Earlier this week, those with the FAAC® designation tackled a tough conversation about NASFAA's recently released survey on staffing shortages in the financial aid office. Read on for more from practicing aid administrators about how staffing challenges have intensified in recent years, and how it's impacting office operations.

NASFAA launched Blue Icon Advisors — NASFAA's financial aid consulting service for colleges, universities, and career schools — three years ago today. Since the launch in 2019, we have worked on more than 200 projects with schools across the country, welcomed 200 participants to group coaching, and engaged with over 1,900 individuals during Let's Talk sessions. We have also secured more than 80 independent consultants in that time and, due our ever-growing list of client projects, we're currently looking for more seasoned professionals to join our ranks. Have a project you need help with? When you work with Blue Icon, you gain access to top professionals and thought-leaders in financial aid and enrollment management. See what Blue Icon can do for you.

Last week NASFAA conducted its Annual Business Meeting virtually, followed by a policy update. The recording is now available. The meeting included updates on NASFAA's financial status, FAAC® program, governance and oversight, and diversity efforts. The policy update included the latest updates on what’s happening in Washington related to student aid policy. The Policy Team provided updates on Higher Education Act reauthorization, student aid funding, regulatory action, and closed with a question-and-answer session. Register now.

Please join us in congratulating Georgene Diaz, financial aid advisor at Erwin Technical College, who will retire at the end of June after 40 years in the field of education as a teacher, administrator, community school administrator, and financial aid administrator; Jason Sloan, who was promoted from financial aid counselor to assistant director of financial aid at Iowa Wesleyan University; LaShawnda Roberts, who was promoted from senior financial aid counselor to director of financial aid at Iowa Wesleyan University; and Ginny Johnson, FAAC®, who was promoted from director of aid operations, systems and processing to assistant vice president, student financial services at Columbia College Chicago. Celebrate your own career developments by completing the "Movers and Shakers" form to share the news with your colleagues.

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