Please Help Me Promote Registration to the SASFAA Nine News

Dear SASFAA Nine News Subscriber,

During the week of February 6, I registered 739 SASFAA Members for the SASFAA Nine News blog website.  These 739 persons were not registered for the blog or had tried previously to register for the blog, but did not successfully complete all the steps to confirm their registration.  This mass registration for the SASFAA Nine News blog was a planned initiative to further the use of the blog to speed communication to the SASFAA membership. 

We have had 233 of the 739 persons to complete the confirmation process to the blog in the past 8 days.  I need your help in encouraging our fellow SASFAA friends to confirm their registration to our blog.  Please tell them to look for the email verification message from FeedBurner Email Subscriptions, the service that delivers email subscriptions for SASFAA Nine News.  The web address may look something like this:

http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailconfirm?k=BWmCZY-s9dOUOg-_9dVO9hGx7zY

The person will need to click the link listed in the message to activate their subscription. If they do not see a confirmation e-mail in a reasonable amount of time, they should check their bulk/spam folder.

The SASFAA Nine News may become our primary (maybe only) means of communications to the SASFAA membership.  We have already ceased the publication of the newsletter.  The next step is to “deactivate” the SASFAA List-serv.

David Bartnicki, our friendly FED, is one of the biggest users of the SASFAA List-serv.  If the list-serv is deactivated and you want to stay apprised of David’s regulatory updates, you will need a “confirmed” subscription to the SASFAA Nine News.  Furthermore, job announcements, conference information, reports from officers and committee chairs, news from other states, etc., will be posted through the blog.

There is no cost or fee to register for the SASFAA Nine News.  On the other hand, you must be a dues-paying member of SASFAA to utilize the SASFAA List-serv.

Please help me spread the word about the SASFAA Nine News. 

Thanks,

Ben J. Baker

SASFAA Communications Chair

U.S. Economic Development Administration Announces University Center Competition

2012 University Center Competition

Thursday, Feb 9, 2012

U.S. EDA Announces FY 2012 University Center Competition Eligible Universities in EDA's Atlanta & Seattle Regions Encouraged to Apply The U.S. Commerce Department's Economic Development Administration (EDA) today announced its FY 2012 University Center Economic Development Program competition to promote bottom-up regional strategies that help foster business expansion and job creation in EDA's Atlanta and Seattle regions. Accredited institutions of higher education, including community colleges, or a consortium of accredited institutions of higher education are encouraged to apply by the March 30, 2012 deadline. For prospective applicants, teleconferences will be held to provide general program information and information regarding the preparation of applications for funding under this competitive solicitation. The Atlanta Regional Office will hold its informational teleconference on February 23, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. ET.  The Seattle Regional Office will hold its informational teleconference on March 1, 2012 at 1:30 p.m PT. To ensure that enough incoming lines are available for each caller, the Atlanta Regional Office requires interested parties planning to participate on the teleconference to register no later than 12:00 p.m. ET on February 21, 2011; the Seattle Regional Office requires interested parties planning to participate on the teleconference to register no later than 12:00 p.m. PT on February 28, 2012. To register, please send a fax with "FY 2012 UC Teleconference Registration" in the subject line to the designated contact listed below.  The telephone number and pass code for each teleconference will be provided upon registration. For Atlanta: Gloria Huang, Program Analyst 404.730.2827 404.7303025 (fax) For Seattle: Frances Sakaguchi, Economic Development Specialist 203.220.7693 206.220.7669 (fax) To review FFO, click here. Submitted by Amy Berrier, SASFAA Secretary

Hop Aboard the NAFSAA Training Track at the SASFAA Annual Conference

If you are going to the SASFSAA Annual Conference later this month, check out the new NASFAA Training Track – a series of in-person conference sessions taught by a member of NASFAA’s training staff at your conference!

Each NASFAA session is designed to enhance your knowledge and application of regulations at your school.  Our goal is to provide you with guidance and resources to ensure you are in compliance and following best practices.  If you are registered for the conference, there is no additional charge to attend the NASFAA sessions.

State and regional associations could select up to three session topics from NSASFAA that would most appeal to their members. For a list of NASFAA sessions being offered at your conference, please refer to the final conference schedule provided at registration.

Kind regards,

Connie McCormick

NASFAA Chief Training Officer

Amy Berrier Reports on Capitol Hill Visits

Happy Tuesday SASFAA,

On February 2nd, 2012, Executive Board Members from SASFAA, EASFAA, and the Tri-State (DC-DE-MD) regions met on Capitol Hill to discuss financial aid issues affecting our community.  EASFAA and Tri-State did this last year (2010-2011) and this being only the second year, invited SASFAA to participate in this event.  Most of you will also remember that some of us participated in the Legislative Briefing on Capitol Hill back in October as well.  At the October event, we invited members of Congressional offices to come hear us discuss important topics in financial aid.

A big thank you goes out to the EASFAA/Tri-State Federal Relations Chairs, Dawn Mosisa and Rachel Smith for their outstanding efforts in coordinating communication, invitations, and managing the appointments and group set-up with all of the Board attendees.  NASFAA Staff also assisted in providing services and information for us to include in the debriefing document.  It was certainly a joint-ASFAA effort!  They also worked hard at creating a debriefing document that we used in our meetings and also dropped off to key Congressional members with which we did not have an appointment.  These members were on the House Education/Labor Subcommittee and the Senate HELP Committee.  We had in excess of 24 appointments with Congressional staffers and dropped over debriefing documents to over 35 offices.

Several attendees had the opportunity to sit in on a majority of the Senate HELP Committee's Hearing on Innovations in College Affordability.  Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC), Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA), and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) are on this committee.  For those of you interested in watching this Senate Hearing, please do so at the following link:

http://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/hearing/?id=2f5ce9b3-5056-9502-5d14-2428cbd01c06

The larger group was divided into 8 subgroups for the individual meetings.  Brad's particular subgroup met with the Legislative Director and Legal Counsel for Congressman Bobby Scott (VA), Congressman Joe Wilson (SC) and his Deputy Chief of Staff/Legislative Director, and Education Counselor for Senator Bernie Sanders (VT).  David Gelinas' group met with Celia Sims from Senator Richard Burr's staff, Simone Hardeman from Senator Kay Hagan's staff, and one other Congressional staffer.  My group met with staff from Senator Orrin Hatch's (UT) office, Congresswoman Susan Davis (CA), and Congressman Trey Gowdy (SC).  Thanks to Brad Barnett and David Gelinas for participating in this event.

Our meetings were very productive.  We discussed such topics as the Financial Aid Shopping Sheet. College Scorecard, Pell and the EFC Formula, needed need analysis changes, loan interest rates, loan debt, private loans, financial literacy/education, Gainful Employment, employability of our students, and administrative burden.

One of the hot topics right now is the College Scorecard.  You can find the scorecard at http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/scorecard.  The administration is seeking feedback, so please take a few minutes to provide some on-line feedback.

As Brad indicated in a previous message, our main goal was to increase awareness and create relationships between ourselves, the Financial Aid Experts (that means all of YOU), and the Congressional staffers.  We asked to remain a key player in these discussions and to allow us to be at the table when things need to be discussed.

Brad summed it up very well.  I hope we can continue this effort in the future.  Great job SASFAA!

Thanks for your support,
Amy Berrier
SASFAA Legislative Relations Chair
SASFAA Secretary

SASFAA Visits Capitol Hill

Happy Monday SASFAA,

The end of last week Board members from the SASFAA, EASFAA, and Tri-States regions converged on Capitol Hill for meetings with Congressional members to discuss some hot topics in financial aid and build relationships.  This was the first attempt at coordinating an event like this for the three boards (EASFAA/Tri-State did this for the first time last year), and I truly appreciate EASFAA and Tri-States for allowing us to be a part of this with them.  I also appreciate all of the hard work their legislative affairs folks put into scheduling our appointments and taking the lead in creating the debriefing materials we provided the legislators.  It should also be noted that NASFAA provided support services to our associations in putting this event together.  It was truly a joint effort. 

Our group had 24 different appointments scheduled with legislators and/or their staff.  We dropped off packets of information for 35 other members of the House Education/Labor Subcommittee and Senate HELP Committee with whom we could not get appointments.  We also had the opportunity to sit in on part of the Senate HELP Committee’s Hearing on Innovations in College Affordability.  All in all, the visit was very productive and we’ll start following up with them now that we are back in our offices.

We divided our larger group into 8 subgroups for the individual meetings.  My particular subgroup met with the Legislative Director and Legal Counsel for Congressman Bobby Scott (VA), Congressman Joe Wilson (SC) and his Deputy Chief of Staff/Legislative Director, and Education Counselor for Senator Bernie Sanders (VT).

Overall, I believe our meetings were very productive.  The subgroup I was a part of discussed topics such as the Financial Aid Shopping Sheet, College Scorecard, Pell and the EFC Formula, the cost of borrowing, private loans, changes to the subsidized loan interest rate going into effect in July, loan debt, financial education, employability of our graduates as it relates to their loan debt, and the manner in which some of the current laws and regulations create barriers towards what we can do for our students. 

One of the hot topics right now is the College Scorecard.  You can find the scorecard at http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/scorecard.  The administration is seeking feedback, so if you can carve out a few minutes to provide some on-line feedback that would be great. 

The individuals I saw were all very willing to meet with us, and some even applauded our timing in meeting with them now since Reauthorization will be coming up in the not too distant future.  My hope is that these meetings are part of a bigger process of developing relationships with these offices so we can serve as a resource for them as they move forward on their higher education initiatives.

Amy Berrier, SASFAA Legislative Relations Chair, was instrumental in organizing SASFAA’s involvement in this event.  You will hear from more her about this event as she prepares her comments to post.

Have a great day!

Brad Barnett

SASFAA President

SASFAA Conference Information

Hello SASFAA Friends,

The SASFAA conference is in three weeks away and if you haven’t registered don’t worry you still have time!  Your SASFAA conference committee has been hard at work to develop an outstanding conference.  This year’s committee is Biz Daniel, Lisanne Masterson, Jody Darby, Janet Nowiski, Amanda Sharp, Emily Staggs, Nathan Basford, Sandra Rockett, Cindy May, Laura Diven-Brown, Sharon Oliver and Jennifer Priest.  If you see any of these committee members at the conference please thank them for countless hours of work planning a great meeting for you.

You will not want to miss out on the information packed sessions provided by our friendly feds pertaining to new changes affecting the financial aid community.  In addition, we have a variety of breakout sessions ranging from SAP, Verification, Outsourcing and Detecting Fraud.

The special SASFAA room rate of $124.00 is good until February 10th so make sure to call 1-800-242-6556 and reserve your room.

Other important things to know about the SASFAA conference:

·         BINGO will have a special caller – Elvis.  Go through those Christmas gifts you received that you didn’t want and pack them up to bring for BINGO.  SASFAA members are not picky – we will take anything that is FREE.  During BINGO SASFAA members will have an opportunity to tell funny financial aid stories.  A prize will be given for the best story.

·         Session moderators don’t forget to contact your presenters for their bios and please be in your meeting rooms 10 minutes before the session you are moderating.

·         Get the word out to your EM/Retention folks about the workshop on Sunday “Enhancing the Power of Need-Based Aid to Improve Student Access and Persistence”.   When are you ever going to be able to so easily afford to attend a Noel- Levitz workshop and have the company president /CEO present!

I hope you are ready to get educated, reacquainted with your financial aid family and focused on what’s best for our students!

Shelley Park

SASFAA Conference Chair

Click the link to view a detailed outline of the 2012 SASFAA Conference Program http://www.sasfaa.org/ListLock/N9WXVfbKgbywmmuw.docx

State of the Union

NASFAA President Justin Draeger sent a summary to the NASFAA Board last night of President Obama's higher education/financial aid comments in his State of the Union address.  The summary below (bullet points) is from Justin.  This does not contain any opinions or policy points, but is a compilation of some of President Obama's comments in case you missed his speech.

·         Schools that don’t keep costs down will face punitive measures: So let me put colleges and universities on notice: If you can't stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down. Higher education can't be a luxury - it's an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford.

·         Student Loan Interest Rate Hike:  When kids do graduate, the most daunting challenge can be the cost of college. At a time when Americans owe more in tuition debt than credit card debt, this Congress needs to stop the interest rates on student loans from doubling in July.

·         Tuition Tax Credit: Extend the tuition tax credit we started that saves middle-class families thousands of dollars.

·         Double Work-Study Jobs: Give more young people the chance to earn their way through college by doubling the number of work-study jobs in the next five years.

·         College/Business Partnerships: Model partnerships between businesses like Siemens and community colleges in places like Charlotte, Orlando, and Louisville are up and running. Now you need to give more community colleges the resources they need to become community career centers - places that teach people skills that local businesses are looking for right now, from data management to high-tech manufacturing.

·         Simplifying Labor Retraining Programs: And I want to cut through the maze of confusing training programs, so that from now on, people like Jackie have one program, one website, and one place to go for all the information and help they need. It's time to turn our unemployment system into a reemployment system that puts people to work.

·         Dream Act: Let's also remember that hundreds of thousands of talented, hardworking students in this country face another challenge: The fact that they aren't yet American citizens. Many were brought here as small children, are American through and through, yet they live every day with the threat of deportation. Others came more recently, to study business and science and engineering, but as soon as they get their degree, we send them home to invent new products and create new jobs somewhere else. That doesn't make sense. The opponents of action are out of excuses. We should be working on comprehensive immigration reform right now. But if election-year politics keeps Congress from acting on a comprehensive plan, let's at least agree to stop expelling responsible young people who want to staff our labs, start new businesses, and defend this country. Send me a law that gives them the chance to earn their citizenship. I will sign it right away.