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Yesterday, NASFAA submitted comments to the Department of Education suggesting ways to improve the FAFSA filing process for the 2016-17 award year. The comments focus specifically on ways to enhance the Internal Revenue Service Data Retrieval Tool (IRS-DRT), which will facilitate the use of prior-prior year income information for the upcoming 2017-18 award year. 

Last year was a busy one for NASFAA, but with the help of member volunteers, the association's relationship with lawmakers is stronger than ever. In addition to advocating for important policies on Capitol Hill, among many other undertakings, NASFAA in 2016-17 created its weekly "Off The Cuff" podcast to help keep members abreast of important events and changes stemming from Washington, and unveiled its new Policies & Procedures Builder to aid members in their compliance efforts. Have a look at NASFAA Now, our annual impact report, for more on the association's efforts and accomplishments. And don't miss the "Movers and Shakers" column for a rundown of your colleagues' promotions, job changes, and retirements.

NASFAA is updating its Staffing and Salary Models via our NASFAA Benchmarking Survey. All Today’s News subscribers should have previously received a direct email from us with a link to a survey. Due to a system error with our survey software, we have extended the deadline to complete this survey to 5:00pm ET, Tuesday, October 25. NASFAA plans to publish a final report with the results of this benchmarking survey in early 2017. Again please refer to your email for the link to the survey.

On October 2 and 3, a team of 12 NASFAA members and staff set off on the 2015 Washington D.C. Ragnar Relay Race, a 36-hour, 200-plus mile run from Cumberland, MD to Washington, D.C. Thanks to your generous donations, we raised $10,855 for the Dallas Martin Endowment for Public Policy and Student Aid (DME). Check out our two "Run Like Pell" Facebook albums for pictures of our team in action and visit NASFAA's DME page to learn more about the endowment's projects or to make a donation at any point throughout the year.

Whether you’re a newly appointed financial aid director or have accepted a director position at a new school, NASFAA’s Standards of Excellence (SOE) program can help you start off on the right foot. The SOE review process provides new financial aid directors with the necessary information to make informed changes to current processes and can provide documentation to support important budgetary decisions. For more information on how NASFAA’s SOE program can help you, please fill out this short informational form or email [email protected] today.

NASFAA's Board of Directors is here to represent you and is seeking your input. Please email any questions or comments you might have directly to a member of the NASFAA Board by clicking on their name on our Board Member Bios page. Questions or feedback may pertain to NASFAA products and services, membership benefits, policy issues, and advocacy efforts, or any other topic you would like to bring before the Board. The Board will compile feedback and discuss at the June 23-24 Board meeting. We welcome your insight.

The Department of Education is requesting a revision of the currently approved Direct Loan General Forbearance Request form information collection.

Eligible participating institutions are required to provide this SRK information to all enrolled students, prospective students prior to their enrolling or entering into a financial obligation with the school as well as to institution's employees.

"Some important changes are coming to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid next year, but Joseph Orsolini, a college financial aid adviser in the Chicago area, hasn't fielded many questions from parents," according to U.S. News & World Report. "As Megan McClean, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators' managing director of policy and federal relations, puts it: 'There are some biggies this year.'"

"The U.S. Education Department is cracking open the door to federal financial aid for students enrolled in nontraditional education programs — and trying out alternatives to accreditation in the process," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

"College students spend a small fortune for their textbooks. But imagine a world where the required reading list was affordable," MarketWatch reports.

"Cutting the financial cord with adult children can be hard to do. Just ask Virginia Illiano, a substitute teacher who lives in Brooklyn. After her daughter graduated from an expensive private college, Ms. Illiano thought her days of paying big bills for her daughter were over," according to The New York Times.

"For now, the University of Phoenix is barred from enrolling active-duty military personnel under the Department of Defense’s Tuition Assistance Program. The money associated with that program — some $20.5 million — represents a small fraction of the university’s estimated $2.5 billion in annual revenue, but the loss of the program’s funds could have an outsize impact on its bottom line," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

"When the Obama administration agreed this summer to erase the federal loan debt of some former students at Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit school that filed for bankruptcy in the face of charges of widespread fraud, education officials promised to 'protect students from abusive colleges and safeguard the interests of taxpayers,'" The New York Times reports.

"Supporting first-generation students is a priority that many institutions have identified but not many have mastered," Diverse: Issues in Higher Education reports.

“'It feels like I’m being set up to fail.' That’s how Patrick Wittwer, 31, described his experience trying to repay his roughly $50,000 in student loans," according to The New York Times.

"House lawmakers have introduced legislation to make student loans more affordable," The Hill reports.

"This week the owner of Nevada’s Bunny Ranch, the legal brothel featured in the HBO series Cathouse, announced a new perk for his sex-worker employees: He will match their student loan payments 100% for two months, up to the amount they make as prostitutes at the ranch," Time Money reports.

"Every few weeks, it seems, a new investigation is launched into one of the larger for-profit colleges in the country," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"The U.S. Department of Education could do more to make sure college students are aware of their options in repaying loans, an August Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found," The Daily Illini reports. "Dan Mann, director of the Office of Student Financial Aid [at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and current NASFAA National Chair], said about 40 percent of University undergraduates took out loans last year."

"Parents, students and those looking to start a new career typically pore over glossy university brochures and popular magazine ratings to help them make what’s likely to be one of the most expensive decisions of their lives: where to get a college degree. Now, for the first time, a trove of new federal data sheds fresh light on the value of a college education at thousands of schools across the nation," the Bangor Daily News reports.

"You've been doing your level best to repay your college student loans since graduating, but now you're struggling and in need of advice. A call to the company servicing your loan leaves you more in the dark. You can't get straight answers, some information on your account is inaccurate and additional fees are even mentioned that could spiral you into delinquency," Steve Rosen writes in an opinion piece for The Chicago Tribune.

"Mark Twain famously said, 'It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so,'" George Leef writes in an opinion piece for Forbes.

"I’m still a toddler as far as my tenure as a financial aid professional goes. I know that, and appreciate that I still have so much yet to learn. What I have learned so far, though, is that MASFAA is the main reason I want to stay in this profession," Emily Haynam-Janero, assistant director of compliance and training in The Ohio State University's Office of Enrollment Services Student Financial Aid, writes for the MASFAA Moments blog.

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