(DRAFT) SASFAA Executive Board Meeting
Annual Conference- Hyatt Regency
CALL TO ORDER
President Janet Sain called
the meeting to order at
WELCOME
President Sain asked Frieda
Jones, Georgia State President to give the welcome.
CHANGES TO THE AGENDA AND SUBSTITUTE VOTING
Janet announced that the
agenda is being changed to allow Lester Mckenzie, Brent Tener and Forrest
Stuart give their reports early and then be released to attend to conference
duties.
INTRODUCTIONS
The following elected board
members were present: Janet Sain, President; Guy Gibbs, President-Elect; Ron
Day, Past-President; Zita Barree, Vice President;
Lester McKenzie, Treasurer and Sandy Neel, Secretary.
State Presidents in
attendance were: Heather Boutell, Kentucky; Joanie Walker, Tennessee; Freida
Jones, Georgia; Tom Morehouse, Virginia;
Chip Quisenberry, Alabama; Betty Whalen, South Carolina; Sharon Oliver,
North Carolina; Laura Diven-Brown, Mississippi and Ron Anderson, Florida.
Committee Chairs in
attendance were: Karen Koonce, Finance and Audit; Dee Tally, Diversity, Carol
Mowbray, Special Projects; Forrest Stuart, Membership; Ron Gambill, Site
Selection; Bob Godfrey, Vendor and Sponsor; Brent Tener, Conference; and April Kendrick, Newsletter Editor.
Liaisons present: Elizabeth
McDuffie, Agency, and Jane McNaughton, Lender.
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
ACTION: Ron Day moved to accept the minutes of the November
Board meeting held at the Sawgrass Marriott,
Jacksonville FL. The motion seconded by Freida Jones, was approved.
REPORTS FROM THE OFFICERS
SEE ATTACHMENT A
President’s report
President Janet Sain reported
that in a meeting in
President Elect’s report
Guy announced the State
President’s workshop will be held tomorrow. The meetings dates for next year
are as follows:
Vice President’s report
Zita stated there will be a
New Aid Officer’s Workshop tomorrow.
They have prepared for 75 and far 64 have registered. The presentation
is on CD. 10 of the 12 instructors are teaching tomorrow.
Past President’s report
Ron Day reported that we will
be voting electronically at this conference. The voting area is set-up outside
the vendor area. Policy and Procedure discussion occurred. The state presidents
would like the Policy and Procedures Manual issue resolved before the June
Transition meeting. There is concern on how new members will know their
passwords to vote.
ACTION: Tom Morehouse made a motion to accept the
Policy and Procedures Manual changes as amended. The motion being seconded by
Zita Barree carried.
STATE REPORTS
SEE ATTACHMENT B
COMMITTEE REPORTS
SEE ATTACHMENTS C
Report from Site selection Chair, Ron Gambill
Ron presented his options for
a site in
ACTION: Ron Day made a motion to accept the
Report from Special Projects Chair Carol Mowbray
Carol reported back about the
SASFAA retreat. It is planned for September 8-11. She asked the board if it was
worthwhile to proceed with the plan.
ACTION: Ron Day made a motion under the direction of
the board to have a retreat for planning and finalizing the
LIASON REPORTS
SEE ATTACHMENT D
Old Business
None
New Business
President Janet Sain would
like to send 2 people to the NASFAA Leadership Conference. One person would be
from our newly elected board who has never attended and one person from the
membership that has never attended. The
person will be selected from a person attending the Leadership pre-conference
Symposium on Sunday.
Laura Diven
Brown asked that SASFAA help send someone to SAFAA that has never gotten to
attend. Guy Gibbs said that will be addressed by next year’s board.
Announcements
Hospitality opens at
ACTION: Tom Morehouse made a motion to adjourn the
Executive Board meeting. The motion being seconded by Joanie Walker carried.
Meeting adjourned at
Respectfully submitted,
Sandra J. Neel, SASFAA
Secretary
ATTACHMENT A
EXECUTIVE BOARD REPORTS
President Janet Sain’s
Report
President Elect Guy Gibbs’Report
Guy F. Gibbs,
President-Elect
Board Report,
As President-Elect I have been involved in a number of
activities since the last board meeting held in
State President-Elect Workshop Scheduled for February 13, 2005
The
State Presidents-Elect workshop will be held on Sunday preceding the opening
session of the conference. Carol Mowbray
will conduct the workshop. We are very
pleased that the following individuals will be participating in the workshop as
presenters and provide invaluable information to this group to prepare them for
their year as a member of the SASFAA Executive Board:
- Guy Gibbs – General
overview
- Carol Mowbray –
Governance and Planning, Long-Range Plan
- Karen Koonce –
Association finances, budget structure, fiduciary responsibility
- Bill Spiers – Federal relations update
- Ron Gambill – Loan
issues update
- Marcia Weston – College
Goal Sunday
- Lisanne Masterson –
Parliamentary procedures and Roberts Rules of Order
- Dave Gelinas – “Getting Involved,” NASFAA and Its
Relationship to the States and Regions
- Laura Diven-Brown –
“Getting Ready and What I Wish I had Known”
Thanks
to these individuals for their willingness to participate in the orientation
for the incoming State Presidents.
The
State Presidents-Elect of their respective state associations are:
- William “Buddy”
- Ruth Strum,
- Suzanne Pittman,
- Shelley Park, Eastern
- Soraya Welden,
- Dana Kelly,
- Nancy Garmroth,
- Forrest Stuart,
- Brad Barnett,
Site Selection Activity for the Board Meetings
Ron Gambill has worked very hard with the President-Elect to identify sites for the 2005-2006 board meetings.
After
contacting a number of potential locations for the board meeting, and working
with the hotels to identify dates, the following sites and dates were selected.
- October 28-30, SASFAA
Board Meeting, The
While
the dates may not be optimum for all members of the board, it was necessary to
work with the hotels in finding dates where they could accommodate our
needs.
Spring State
President Sain has requested that I assist her in presenting the SASFAA update at several state conferences in the spring. I am pleased to assist her and thank the state associations for working with me as they found time on their schedules for the update.
- TASFAA, April
10-11. The update will be presented
on Monday, April 11.
- NCASFAA, April
12-13. The update will be presented
on Wednesday, April 13.
- GASFAA, June 1-3. No decision yet as to the date and time
of the update.
I
look forward to attending a portion of each of these conferences and
representing SASFAA. At the NCASFAA I
will have an opportunity to discuss with the 2006 conference to be held in
Summary Report of the NASFAA Board Meeting
The
President-Elect attended the NASFAA board meeting held in
As
President-Elect it provided me the opportunity to meet those in this same
position from other regional associations.
They were:
·
Susan Howard from EASFAA. Susan
works at
·
Dan Mann from MASFAA. Dan works
at the
·
Sally Schuman, RMASFAA. Sally works at the
·
Steve Herndon, WASFAA. Steve
works at California State University-Bakersfield,
Richard
Renshaw of SWASFAA was unable to attend. Richard works for the Dallas County Community
College District,
As
a regional president-elect, we are encouraged to attend another region’s
board/executive committee meeting. This
agenda is coordinated by Dave Gelinas as NASFAA Chair
Elect. I will attend the RMASFAA board
meeting to be held in
The
following is information from the NASFAA Board meeting and will be of interest
to the SASFAA board and membership:
- National Chair George
Chin reported on his activities to date.
He acknowledged discussion regarding NASFAA and diversity and noted
that the NASFAA board needs to be attentive and responsive to the concerns
of the community. He explained that
the 2004-2005 Access and Diversity and the Leadership Development and
Professional Development Committees had been assigned student and
professional diversity issues. He
went on to explain that the former Diversity and Multicultural Issues
Committee’s responsibilities had diminished somewhat because of the practical
considerations that led to discontinuing the Carnival of Learning for the
2005 NASFAA Conference in
- National Chair-Elect
Dave Gelinas announced his plans to begin
organizing 2004-2005 inter-regional visitations. He noted that NASFAA’s
40th anniversary would take place at the 2006 Seattle
Conference.
- Dallas Martin presented
the President’s Report. Some of
Martin’s comments were as follows:
- The lame duck session
of Congress and work needed on the remainder of the 13 appropriations
bills. Work on only four have been
completed. He noted that the House
and Senate are working under a self-imposed $821.9 billion ceiling and
that defense, homeland security and the
- President Martin noted
that President Bush has announced that he has a mandate from the American
people that allows him to pursue his agenda.
- Future legislation and
appropriations will hinge in part on how the economy performs. He noted that while the financial
aspects of reauthorization are uncertain.
- NASFAA will continue
to monitor the Department of Labor regulations concerning a new
interpretation that counselors in admissions and financial aid offices
who had been considered professional and exempt from overtime pay many
actually have certain responsibilities that would establish them as
exempt and now be eligible for overtime but lose other employment
benefits.
- Standard of Excellence
Review Program is averaging two reviews per month.
Jeff
Baker was unable to attend the board meeting; however, a telephone conference
was held and following items were discussed:
- The Department’s budget
had not been finalized but that the forward-funded programs are in place
and there would be no delays in the Pell payment schedule or campus-based
allocations.
- He reported on the
status of the state tax table updates and noted that ED is currently
testing its software with old as well as updated tables.
- Baker reported on
social security number issues and reported that ED has tightened up its
edits and is doing hard rejects where conflicting information
surfaces. He noted that students
should correct the information with the CPS and/or the Social Security
Administration.
- Reported that ED would
likely be changing its procedures for handling mismatches with the
Veterans Administration. This has
become an issue when recently separated persons do not show up as veterans
and result in rejected data. Most
likely ED will put a “C” flag on the record and generate a comment and the
student will need to present documentation of veteran status or intention
to become a veteran before the end of the award year.
- Baker discussed the
return to Title IV aid and the one-week rule about the 30-day window that
schools have to recalculate once they become aware of a student’s
withdrawal. ED issued a letter
saying that under most circumstances a week of absence would be grounds to
consider the student withdrawn. A
new letter will be issued that will extend that period of time from seven
to fourteen days before the thirty-day clock begins to tick.
- President Martin asked
about the on-going issue of conflicting information, particularly as it
relates to tax information and the related issue of tax preparer signature
requirements. Regarding signatures,
Mr. Baker reported that regulations require either a signature or stamped
name of the preparer—and the IRS requires that as well. The name of the company does not
suffice. Baker went on to say that
the institution must follow up and get the tax preparer’s or the filer’s
signature even if the IRS accepts a tax return as valid and even if it
might not meet all requirements.
On a Personal Note
I
would like to express my appreciation to each member of the SASFAA board, to
those who attended the Management Institute and signed the card sent to me, to
the state associations for their cards and to the many individual members of
SASFAA who took the time to send cards, call, send emails and to remember me
and my family with your prayers at the unexpected death of my mother in
December. I’ve always known that we are
a caring and generous people, but it was so very evident during this time. Thank you so very much from my brother Tracy,
my sister-in-law Phyllis and myself.
Past President Ron Day’s Report
Past President’s Report
Submitted by Ron Day
The Nominations and Elections
Committee will perform one of its tasks during the annual conference. The presentation of the candidates, the
voting process, and the tabulation of the votes will be performed by the
committee:
Deborah Byrd
Nathan Basford
Lenora Jackson
Ron McMakin
Patrick James
Keith Reeves
Bruce Blackmon
Nancy Beverly
Sherwin Hibbets
The voting is scheduled for
The voting process will be
done electronically for the first time at an annual conference. All active members have been notified about
the need for a password and username to access the voting module. There have been multiple emails.
The GAP committee will meet in
April following the submission of the annual reports from board members. The GAP report will be completed and
presented at the transitional board mtg.
Vice President Zita Barree’s
Report
Vice President’s
Report
Submitted
by Zita Barree
Sunday’s New Aid Officer’s Workshop
Although there are a total of
71 people registered for the workshop, it is anticipated that a lesser number
will actually attend. An e-mail was sent
to all registrants asking them to confirm their participation and of the 71,
only 32 confirmed. Materials are
available for up to 75 participants.
The workshop will begin at
Ten of the twelve instructors
for the June New Aid Officer’s Workshop will serve as the instructors for
Sunday’s workshop – Brent Tener and Lisanne Masterson are the only exceptions
due to their conference responsibilities.
This year, participants of
Sunday’s workshop will receive a portfolio and a CD with all presentations on
it instead of the regular notebook with paper handouts. This cut overall costs of the workshop by
half.
At Brent’s request, an e-mail
was also sent to all first-time conference attendees giving them information
about Sunday’s workshop but also items to consider when planning for the
conference. Great feedback was provided
by many of the recipients of this e-mail.
New Aid Officer Session Track at Conference
Vice President Barree helped coordinate several of the New Aid Officer
track sessions for the conference including one to be presented by Janette
Overton (one of the SASFAA NAO Workshop instructors) on Building Your Financial
Aid Tool Box and another to be presented by Mick Hanson on Financial Aid
Nights.
New Aid Officer Workshop Booth in Exhibit Area
The booth will be manned
during all open exhibit hours and has handouts on the June workshop as well as
a display providing information on
Committee Meeting
The Professional Advancement
Committee will meet on Tuesday at the conference over lunch to discuss the
upcoming Instructor’s Retreat, the June workshop, and to sign contracts.
Instructor’s Retreat
The Instructor’s Retreat will
be held in
June Workshop
The 2005 SASFAA New Aid
Officer’s Workshop will be held
Treasurer Lester McKenzie’s Report
ATTACHMENT B
STATE PRESIDENTS REPORTS
Ron Anderson, FAFSAA President
The following is a synopsis
of the current status of FASFAA and upcoming events.
·
The new year is upon us and as I write this article, FASFAA has already
concluded its second statewide training initiative of the year. The New Aid
Officers workshop held on January 19-21, drew new aid officers from every
region of the state. The fundamentals were dissected, interpreted, and
explained by some of the finest experienced aid administrators. Many thanks are
due FASFAA’s Vice President of Training, Ms. Cecile Kamath for her tireless efforts in organizing as extremely
successful workshop.
·
FASFAA conducted it’s first ever workshop dedicated solely to the issues
surrounding clock hour schools. In attendance were over 90 participants
including many Area Directors of the schools represented. As the featured
presenter, Mr. David Bartnicki Department of
Education’s Institutional Improvement Specialist tailored his presentation to
the specific needs of the clock hour community and was able to gove much needed guidance and answers to the burning
questions that many schools had.
·
FASFAA Elections will begin March 1st and the polls will be
open until March 31st. As in the past years, voting will take place
electronically and members will need your sign-in code in order to access the
voting area.
·
Registration for FASFAA’s OMLY 04-05 conference
to be held at the beautiful Hotel Fountainbleau, in
Respectfully submitted,
Ron Anderson
FASFAA President
Heather H. Boutell, KASFAA President
KASFAA has been busy this winter to provide some great
educational opportunities for students, parents, legislators and financial aid
professionals!
Outreach Activities
On January 31, KASFAA conducted its KET Call-in Show
at
Governor Ernie Fletcher declared February as Financial
Aid Awareness Month.
Training
Nominations
At our spring conference, KASFAA will hold elections. President-elect
candidates are Lori Dial,
Legislative
Issues
State Awards
KASFAA submitted 3 projects for consideration of a state award. President
Boutell submitted our CGS Video/DVD Project, our Fall Conference Opening
Session Movie, and the Shaughnessy Task Force
Legislation.
KASFAA looks forward to spring as we warm
up and prepare for freshmen packages, March Madness, our spring conference,
Derby, and much more!
SCASFAA Report to SASFAA
Board
SCASFAA’s 2005 Spring Conference will be held April 17-20 at
Ocean Dunes Resort in
Jennifer Jones-Gaddy, SCSLC, serves as conference chair. JJ and the conference committee are doing an
outstanding job in preparing a great conference for our members. Informative sessions, great entertainment,
and sunny days are all in store for participants.
SCASFAA officers and
committee chairs have been exceptionally busy during the winter months. Forty-four financial aid professionals
attended the New Aid Officers Workshop held in
The Professional Development
Committee will present a leadership workshop for mid-level managers on March 4
in
Diversity Workshops have been
organized by Bridget Blackwell and members of the Diversity Committee. The workshops will be presented by Pat Woods
of TG in
The Counselor Relations
Committee, chaired by Meg Hurt,
The SCASFAA Executive Board
and committee chairs continue to review results of the SCASFAA Membership
Survey organized and tabulated by Nancy Garmroth,
SCASFAA President-Elect. The task of an
ad hoc group will be to incorporate the findings into SCASFAA initiatives in
the future.
The Nominations and Elections
Committee, chaired by Keith Reeves, SCASFAA Past President, has presented an
outstanding dual slate of candidates for office for the 2005-06 year. Voting will take place at the Spring
Conference.
Candidates for office are
listed below:
President-Elect: Jeff
Dennis, Southern
Kim Jenerette, USC Upstate
Vice President: Tabitha
McAllister,
Bill
Whitlock,
Treasurer: Kim
Ellisor,
Josh Haugh, The Citadel
Member at Large: Jeff
Holliday,
Meg
Hurt, Coastal
SCASFAA is pleased to be
represented by Bill Whitlock on the SASFAA Conference Committee.
Respectfully submitted,
Tom Morehouse, VASFAA President
It’s been a busy winter for VASFAA. We’ve completed
the decentralized training, high school guidance counselor workshops and one
session of support staff training, Our goal was to provide training
opportunities around the state at no cost to our members that would serve their
needs.
The VASFAA Board held its Winter Board meeting in
Governor Warner proclaimed Feb 11 to March 11th as
Financial Aid awareness month. In a ceremony in the Governor’s Office, the
Governor recognized VASFAA and its work. Attending the signing ceremony were
Awareness Chair, Linda Woodley; State Relations Chair, Melissa Wyatt; Board
Member, Pat Kelly; and Board Member John Crowley.
Super Saturday is an annual VASFAA event sponsored by the Awareness Committee.
The event is hosted at various sites throughout the
I was invited to attend an announcement by Governor
Warner on a new loan program for Teachers and Nurses. In a joint announcement
with Sallie Mae and the Sallie Mae Fund, Governor Warner announced that certain
teachers and nurses in the Commonwealth could have 10% of their student loan
forgiven or returned to them as cash under certain conditions. It’s very
apparent from the activism of our Governor and the positive comments that he
has received from all corners that he is truly an “education” governor.
The annual VASFAA conference will be held on May
22-25 at the brand new Hilton Oceanfront. This conference promises to be a
first-rate conference with lots of well-known speakers and a very entertaining
Dinner Club on Tuesday. And this year, the Conference officially begins on
Sunday with a General Session and our key note speaker, Jean Chatsky, a financial commentator for NBC’s Today Show, as
well as the Editor-at-Large of Money Magazine. Watch the web site for
announcements!
Joanie Walker
The Tennessee Lottery
Scholarship continues to bring an enormous amount of work to financial aid
offices and the questions surrounding the scholarship are ever changing. As TASFAA President, I formed an ad-hoc
committee of TASFAA members representing all types of colleges and universities
to address questions, concerns and recommendations surrounding the scholarship
and those were submitted to the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation.
I have been serving on the
search committee for a new executive director of TSAC. Our challenge in the beginning was to rewrite
the job description. This has been
completed and the job has been posted.
Hopefully a new director will be in place by June 2005.
Plans are well underway for
the spring 2005 conference in
Alabama President’s Report to
the SASFAA Executive Board
Dear Colleagues:
AASFAA is looking forward to the annual Spring
Conference to be held
An invitation has been extended to FASFAA President
Ron Anderson to attend the conference.
Since
Over 70 dedicated financial
aid professionals participated in the NASFAA Fall Training Workshop held at the
Lastly, Chip Quisenberry
wrote in the most recent AASFAA Newsletter (http://www.aasfaaonline.org/pdf/Spring2005.pdf)
that a dear friend will soon be leaving the lending profession and starting a
new chapter in her professional life.
The text follows.
“Please join me in wishing
Cindy Massey of SouthTrust Bank/Wachovia all the best
as she begins a new chapter in her professional life. Many of you are aware
that Cindy will be leaving SouthTrust shortly, and I
wanted to publicly recognize her many contributions to AASFAA and to thank her
for all she has done,
both personally and in her
professional responsibilities with SouthTrust, to
make the financial aid profession in
Cindy, thanks for all you
have done. You have worked so hard to make AASFAA what it is today through your
service, and I deeply and sincerely appreciate all of your contributions to our
profession. We will all miss you dearly, and we hope that you will stop by and
visit your AASFAA friends when we make our way to the Gulf.
Shannon Cross wrote that
"Cindy always has a smile and a kind word for everyone", and that
smile and
those kind words will
definitely be missed. Thanks, Cindy--for
everything....”
Respectfully submitted,
Chip Quisenberry
2004-05 AASFAA President
SASFAA Board Meeting 2004-2005
Report from Mississippi State
MASFAA’s Fall Training Workshop, featuring NASFAA’s
Fall 2004 Workshop Series topic “Student Loan Issues”, was presented on
The
MASFAA Board met on November 11, the day before the fall workshop. An extensive review of the Policies &
Procedures was conducted. The Board
approved significant changes, including modification to conference sponsorship
levels. Discussion centered on an area
of emphasis for the MASFAA Board this year—fiscal accountability.
In
further business, the Board voted against conducting a “true audit” this
year. Cost was a factor in the decision,
as well as questions about whether a full-scale audit was necessary for an
association our size. The Audit &
Finance Committee, chaired by Jane McNaughton, was asked to propose new
language for the Bylaws allowing flexibility for MASFAA to conduct either a
“financial review” or a true audit as
deemed appropriate each year. In the
interim, Jane and her committee have been asked to conduct a review of the
recent financial records.
Another
MASFAA Board Meeting was held via conference call on
H.S.
Relations Committee Chair Donna O’Quinn and her committee have developed a
database of all the
The
Electronic Services Committee has investigated problems with posting emails to
the listserv. ATAC had been scanning all
messages for viruses manually, resulting in delays and the occasional lost
transmission. A new method of listserv
posting has been developed. All email
submissions now have to be launched via the website. The new method of posting is immediate,
although there are concerns that the listserv has become cumbersome. Also, the “members-only” requirement may
limit participation. Previously, the
listserv had remained open to members past and present.
The
Archives Committee completed categorization of MASFAA’s
historical documents. Chair Louanne Langston delivered these records to an imaging
company so they could be scanned onto a CD.
It is expected that copies of the CD will be distributed to the Board in
April.
Now
that the federal election outcomes are known, interest in reauthorization is
rising again. Legislative Chair Ron
Gambill has been asked to revisit a position paper that MASFAA prepared several
years ago. Its continued relevance will
be determined. Following his review,
MASFAA representatives planning to attend the NASFAA Leadership Conference in
D.C. will be briefed. They are expected
to advocate for financial aid issues during visits to Capitol Hill as part of
this program.
The
State Aid Committee has encouraged the Mississippi Office of Student Financial
Assistance (MOSFA) to provide a report to the SASFAA Agency Liaison for the
February Board Meeting. In addition,
MOSFA agreed to conduct a meeting with financial aid representatives in
March. The purpose of the gathering
would be to update schools on the state grant and loan programs. In addition, MASFAA and the state agency are
in discussions about sending state funds via EFT for the first time, perhaps
using Common Record format for the roster.
Patrick
James, Past President, is collecting feedback from Board Members and Chairs
regarding committee composition. At the
November Board meeting, a motion was passed to limit members to participation
on only one committee per year (unless the person holds an office where
multiple duties are specified in the Bylaws and P&P.) The Board plans to discuss possible limits on
committee size as well.
Lastly, the Conference
Committee is in full swing. This year,
the Annual Conference will be held during the month of May for the first
time. The theme, “MASFAA in May”,
features a festival atmosphere. To be
held on the
SASFAA Executive Board Meeting
We
have certainly learned valuable lessons from our fall conference that will
enable our association to produce an exciting spring conference at the Hilton
Wilmington Riverside Hotel on
Throughout
the entire year, emphasis has been placed upon volunteering. It is indeed a pleasure to present a full
slate of candidates who are willing to serve the association. The candidates are listed below:
President
Elect:
Amy Berrier
UNC-Greensboro
Rance
Jackson
Vice
President:
Bill
Zahn
UNC-Greensboro
Melody
Secretary:
Chisty Chesnut
Cynthia
Grant UNC-Wilmington
Four Year Public Sector:
Nikki
Miller UNC-Pembroke
Patricia
Bowman UNC-Charlotte
Four
Year-Private Sector:
Stephanie
Harrell
Bettie
Westbrook
Agencies:
Takelia
Barnes CFI
JoAnn Carreas Suntrust
We will continue to encourage
our members to be involved at the local, state and regional levels.
SASFAA EXECUTIVE BOARD
GASFAA Report
The GASFAA Executive Board met in
The
following Monday, the Board met via a conference call to attend to the Past
President’s report. The following names
were placed in nomination for candidacy in the following offices and approved
by the Board:
President
– elect
Jenelle
Handcox
Jill Rayner
Vice
President for Programs
Pennie
Strong
Diane Wynn
Vice
President for Professional Development
Sandra Griffin
Melody Hodge
Secretary
Anita Haynes
Gerri Bogan
The
next GASFAA Conference will be at Chateau Elan in
As
past Vice President for SASFAA, several boxes of “stuff” were accumulated that
contained leftover party favors, cooking utensils, and buckets. These items were donated to two
not-for-profit organizations. Letters of
thank-you from these organizations are being presented as documentation as to
the disposition of these items rather than paying shipping costs to pass them
on to the current Vice President.
Respectfully
submitted,
Freida
J. Jones
GASFAA
President 2004-2005
ATTACHMENT C
COMMITTEE
REPORTS
Membership Chair’s Report
SASFAA Membership Committee Report
At the writing of this
report, SASFAA has hit a new record in membership: 1,540 members. This represents a growth of more than 130 members
over 2003-04.
Here are the current
segmented data:
By State (Alpha): By
State (Rank) Ethnicity:
FL: 264 FL: 264 Black,
African-American: 258
GA: 268 NON-SASFAA: 201 Hispanic: 38
KY: 80 NC: 155 Asian or Pacific Is:
9
MS: 78 TN: 136 Other: 7
NC: 155 VA: 131
American Indian: 1
SC: 115 Not
reported: 462
TN: 136
VA: 131 KY:
80 Male: 477
NON-SASFAA: 201 MS: 78 Female: 978
Not
reported: 85
I have thoroughly enjoyed
working as Membership Chair for two years. Our committee of state association
membership chairs has done a wonderful job of “towing” the SASFAA membership
line. My thanks to them and to both Ron Day and Janet Sain for allowing me to
serve both in 2003-04 and 2004-05.
Forrest M. Stuart
SASFAA Membership Chair
Site Selection Report
SASFAA Executive Board
Meeting
Site Selection Report
The
Virginia Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators agreed to host the
2008 SASFAA Annual Meeting.
Recommendations for potential sites were provided by VASFAA. Preliminary contacts were made including
Three
facilities were selected as meeting the minimum standards on the SASFAA
checklist. Randy accompanied the Site
Selection Chair on the visit to each facility.
The three sites included:
1. Hyatt Regency –
2. Marriott Crystal Gateway
3. Marriott Norfolk Waterside
All
three hotels submitted proposals for the 2008 annual meeting. The site proposal comparison will be
presented to the SASFAA Executive Board and important features of each location
will be provided. The final decision
will be the Executive Board’s.
Additionally,
sites and dates for the 2005-2006 Executive Board meetings were finalized. The Executive Board will meet at the Sheraton
Four Seasons in
Submitted
by Ron Gambill
Vendor/Sponsor Report
2004-05 Sponsorship Report
Overall Status
As of
Clearly, we are enjoying a
“banner” year in securing financial support from our friends and
colleagues. Many thanks go out to all of
our supporters. The chair thanks the
Board members for their contributions in acknowledging the support of our
sponsors.
Note: A carryover of $6991 from last year is also
included.
Conference
A great response from our
supporters is evident in the number of vendors and sponsors we have for the
conference in
- We have 61 sponsors providing some level of
support for the conference. This is
probably a record number for our association.
- 10 Platinum
- 14 Silver
- 15 Gold
- 21 Bronze
- 1 General
- We will
have 64 booths in the exhibit hall, 1 triple, 9 doubles
- Food/Beverage Tables and chairs will be set-up
- NASFAA College Goal Sunday, SASFAA ’06, and
SASFAA New Aid Officer’s also have booths
GES Exposition Services is
our exhibit hall management company (drayage).
Our contact’s name is Stanley Phillips.
Additional exhibit hall space
was secured at the last minute to accommodate the latecomers.
SASFAA Management
Institute
The management institute was
held in December at the Grove Park Inn.
We were successful in raising $9700 towards the costs of the institute.
Wrapping Up the Year
The Chair will be gladly
hading over the sponsorship responsibilities to Keith Reeves for the 05-06
year. Effort will continue to identify
sponsorship for our last Board meeting and the New Aid Officers workshop, both
in June.
Bob Godfrey
Sponsorship Chair
Conference Chair Report
SASFAA
Executive Board Meeting
Conference Committee Report
Submitted by Brent Tener,
Chair
Welcome
to
The
following includes a few highlights of our activities since my last report in
November:
We
are looking at record registration numbers. As of Thursday, February 10, our
registration numbers include 951 total attendees, 157 registered for the
Multicultural Leadership Symposium, 73 for the NAOW, and 231 first-time
attendees. With walk-up registrants, we may have 1000 in attendance.
The
hotel provided additional vendor space by letting us use Grand Hall West as
well as Grand Hall East. Prior to this, Bob Godfrey had to turn away sponsors.
Opening the additional space resulted in approximately $6000 in additional
sponsorship support.
Members
of the committee have been very “cost conscious” as we have moved forward. Ron
Gambill and I have attempted to hold the meal prices as low as possible and
have been fairly successful in balancing quality (not having peanut butter and
jelly sandwiches) and keeping the price low. Since we are looking at record
numbers we are also looking at a record expense. The good news is that our
total meal costs, the biggest variable in the conference cost, is fairly close
to the registration fee.
Just
a reminder, instead of the customary conference gifts, a donation will be made
to the Ronald McDonald House. A total of $2000 will be given in the names of
the Executive Board, Conference Committee and other guests who would normally
receive a SASFAA gift.
Please
remember that some of you will be sitting at the head-table for various
conference events. A handout has been provided as a reminder.
Please
remember to attend the following events for the Board:
- President’s
Appreciation Reception, Saturday,
- First time attendees,
NAO Reception, Sunday,
- Opening Session,
Sunday,
- Monday Lunch, for
Elected Board Members, sit at the head table (see diagram).
Lisa
Mitchem and Todd Woodlee have been working very hard on local arrangements.
These activities include arranging VIP transportation to and from the airport,
having folks staffed to greet individuals at the airport, coordinating the
GASFAA hospitality suite, coordinating transportation to the
Thanks
to Erik and the folks at ATAC who helped to update the website in a timely
manner. The availability of ATAC to help with information management is
extremely valuable. We have the ability to see registrations in real-time,
along with the capability to download registrant information into Excel or
Access.
Also,
thanks to Zita who left a great roadmap to help navigate the vast number of details
required to host a great conference.
Respectfully
submitted,
Brent
Tener
2005
Conference Chair
Budget and Finance Chair
Report
Budget and Finance Report
SASFAA Board Meeting
Karen reported that one of our CDs turned over in January and was reinvested with Suntrust Securities. Another three CD’s will come due this year and she will work with Jim Mills at Suntrust to have them turn over at the appropriate times. A copy of the current CD listing was distributed at the meeting.
The asset list was updated to only reflect
the true assets of the association. Section 3.4 of the P & P manual should be
updated to reflect these changes. Under
section 3.4.1, the third paragraph should be deleted. Section 3.4.2 should be totally deleted.
Ken Player submitted a copy of the financial
review for 2003-2004. Karen reviewed the
major points of the review with the board.
Members of the Audit and Finance committee
were utilized during the conference each day to balance out the receipts.
Karen will work with Lester McKenzie on the
current balance sheet. It appears to
show incorrect totals because of the way it looks at prior year CD’s that were
turned over. The 04-05 Budget appears to
be in good shape at this time, with no adjustments needed. This will be reviewed again as we get closer
to the end of the fiscal year.
Report of Financial Review
FY 2003 -2004
On
General Comments:
The
overall quality of the financial records was very good. The Treasurer and
Finance and Audit Committee Chair should be commended for their diligence.
General Suggestions:
Unless
the Board decides that an independent, third party audit needs to be performed,
it is suggested that all references to an audit be removed from the Policies
and Procedures Manual (P&P) as well as to the Guidelines & Policies for the Office of Treasurer
(Guidelines). The Board may also consider changing the name of Finance
and Audit Committee (for example, Finance and Budget Committee).
The
Guidelines &
Policies for the Office of Treasurer (Guidelines) as well as the Guide to
Financial Management (which is part of P&P) should be
reviewed and updated as needed. With the adoption of electronic banking, credit
card usage and other changes to current procedures, some of the information has
become badly outdated and does not reflect current practices.
As
noted below, the Treasurer’s job is a demanding one and is made more difficult
by having to follow up to get needed information. Additional training for new
Board members and committee chairs concerning budget and financial matters,
possibly at the transitional Board meeting, should be considered.
Background and Scope of Review:
At
the recommendation of the 1999 Financial Securities Task Force, the SASFAA
Board approved establishing the Finance and Audit Committee. One responsibility
of the Finance and Audit Committee is to conduct an annual review of the
Treasurer’s records and procedures.
This
review covered financial transactions and related documentation occurring from
This
report should not be considered to be all-inclusive. The absence of reference
to specific practices should not be deemed approval of those practices. Rather,
it is an evaluation of a sampling of records intended to be representative of
the majority of activities associated with the duties of the Office of
Treasurer for the stated period of time. Specific recommendations resulting
from this review, where appropriate, are included wherever an exception is
noted.
It
should also be noted that this review was conducted on files presented by the
2003-2004 Treasurer for the stated period covered by the review. During this
period, the Treasurer used QuickBooks to track financial transactions.
The
Financial Statements are reported on a cash basis of accounting.
Documentation Reviewed
Hard
copy records were reviewed to determine if the following critical records were
retained in good order:
·
Membership
Registration Forms
·
Conference
Registration Forms
·
Vendor/Sponsor
Invoices
·
Bank
Statements/Reconciliations
·
Canceled Checks
·
Deposit Slips
·
CD/Investment
Statements
·
Credit Card
Statements
·
Insurance and
Fidelity Bond Policies
·
Miscellaneous
Expense Forms-Third Party Invoices
·
Travel Expense
Claim (TEC) Forms
·
Financial
Statements
·
990 Report for
2003-2004
Documentation
appeared to be complete in most instances. Some general suggestions for better
documentation are as follows:
·
Original credit
card receipts must be submitted
·
Forms should be
completed in blue or black ink or typed
·
Meal participants
listed
·
Purpose for
meetings indicated
·
Charges over $25
must have original receipts (Guidelines say $10)
·
Corrections noted
on form should be initialed and dated by person making correction
·
Documentation
when mileage expense exceeded airfare should be completed using actual dates
traveled
·
Invoices &
receipts must have merchant’s name included
·
Car rental
receipts should have renters name indicated on receipt
·
Proper forms
utilized
·
Any corrections
made on the expense form by the Treasurer should be done in red ink
·
It is recommended
the Treasurer sign all expense forms directly below the “For Treasurer’s Use
Only” section of the form.
·
All invoices
should be marked as “Paid” when payment is made. A “Paid” stamp is recommended
for consistency.
Voided
Checks
In
reviewing the manual checkbook, most of the actual spoiled checks were included
with the check register. Since the switch to electronic check writing, there
were fewer voided paper checks.
Findings
Some
voided checks were not marked as void on the manual check register. All voided checks
were marked as void in QuickBooks.
Recommendation
When
a manual check is voided, the actual check should be attached to the check stub
and maintained with the check register. If the check is lost, a notation should
be made on the stub as to why the actual check is not attached.
In
addition, the Treasurer should note the reason for voiding on all voided
checks.
Reimbursements
to the Treasurer
The
Treasurer and the President are encouraged to adhere to recommended guidelines
for authorizing payments to the Treasurer. In all cases, the President should
indicate in his/her authorization, the amount that is being approved for
reimbursement.
Only
original forms, with an original signature of the President, should be used as
documentation. As with any request for reimbursement, all receipts should be
original and a receipt for all items over $25 must be submitted before
approval. All other recommendations listed under “Expense Documentation” should
be closely followed.
Findings
All
of the reimbursements to the Treasurer where a check was written were approved
by the President.
Not
all of the credit card charges made by the Treasurer were approved by the
President. The President approved most of the credit card bills, but not all.
Recommendation
When
credit card charges are made by the Treasurer, the appropriate expense form
should always be completed and approved by the President. In addition, it is
recommended that the President approve all credit card bills and also initial
the page of the bill that includes the Treasurer charges.
Posting
Sponsorship Income
At
least quarterly, the Treasurer and Vendor/Sponsor Chairperson should compare
records to verify the amounts received equal the pledged amounts and to ensure
that the income has been posted to the correct sponsorship income categories.
Sponsorship and advertising income on the Budget report should match the
Vendor/Sponsor Chairperson’s records.
Findings
The Treasurer and the reviewer were able to reconcile
the Vendor/Sponsor records with the Budget report income item. There was some
minor confusion and inconsistency in the posting of Vendor/Sponsor income. Some
of the income for 2003-2004 was not collected until after
Recommendation
Sponsorship and advertising income on the Budget
report should match the Vendor/Sponsor Chairperson’s records. A more consistent
process for recording income should be instituted.
Reconciliation
to Data Bases
The
membership and conference registration data bases should be reconciled to the
income accounts on a regular basis.
Findings
Neither
the membership nor the conference data bases could be reconciled exactly to
income on the Budget report. Adjustments to the data bases were made for
complimentary dues and registration fees, Summer Workshop attendees, and other
noted exceptions. The income items were only slightly different from the
databases.
Recommendation
The
databases should be reconciled on a continuing basis to ensure all members who
pay dues are on the membership data base and that the correct number of
attendees is accounted for during the conference. The reconciliation should be
done in writing and a written record kept.
Deposits
A
list detailing the payor, amount, and purpose of
payment received should be attached to the deposit slip. This will provide an
audit trail for all receipts and proper posting of income to QuickBooks.
Findings
Deposit
slips that were examined did list the payor and
amount. Reviewer was able to compare deposit tickets to QuickBooks postings for
the most part.
Recommendation
The
current process of using computer printouts for deposit slips is very efficient
and should be continued.
Cut-off
and Matching Check Date to Posting Date
In
no instances should checks that are dated beyond the end of the fiscal year be
posted as transactions that occurred before the end of the fiscal year. Caution
should be taken to ensure that the outgoing Treasurer relinquishes financial
records (checkbook, etc.) at the end of his/her term of office AND that the
financial institution has acknowledged the transfer of signatory authority.
Additionally,
the current Treasurer is required to make appropriate postings to the accounts
to reflect these transactions.
Findings
No
findings.
Recommendation
None.
Accurate
Posting to Categories
Given
the significance placed on proper allocation of expenditures, measures should
be taken to ensure that all income and expenses are posted to the appropriate
expense categories established for the operating budget for that year. To help
provide this assurance, periodic reviews should be conducted that focus
directly on the accuracy of the Treasurer’s postings. Where the category used
to post charges is different than that reported on expense documents, the
variance should be explained by notations on, or attached to, the expense form.
Findings
The
Treasurer continues to comply with this recommendation. The only exception was
some inconsistency in posting Vendor/Sponsor income.
Recommendation
Care
should continue to be taken to post all entries to the correct category.
Expense
Documentation
Documentation
is required for all expenses paid by the Treasurer. It is the responsibility of
everyone that submits requests for payment of expenses or that incur charges
for which the Treasurer will receive a bill for payment, to provide complete
documentation to explain the nature and purpose of the expenses. The best
philosophy to apply to providing any documentation is to question if the
documentation could withstand questioning by any member of the Association.
Additionally given the magnitude of responsibilities presently assigned to the
Treasurer, it can be unreasonably burdensome on the Treasurer to have to follow
up for the necessary documentation. Any request for payment that is not
properly completed in full, should be returned to the requestor.
Findings
Some
expense vouchers were paid with copies of invoices instead of originals.
The
Guidelines state that all TEC forms should be approved by the President or
Committee chair and this is not being done consistently.
Recommendation
Original
invoices should always be used or a notation made as to why an original is not
available. Expenses should be paid from invoices and not statements. All
invoices should be clearly marked “paid” so that they are not paid twice.
All
credit card charges must be posted to the appropriate expense form before
payment. A new process and expense form for credit card charges has been
initiated by the Treasurer which should be beneficial.
The
Guidelines should be reviewed to determine if TEC form approval by the
President/Committee Chair is still necessary and updated if needed.
Contracts
& Agreements, Treasurer Use
Copies
of all contracts or agreements for meetings and other events must be signed by
the President and retained as part of the Treasurer’s records. The Treasurer
should be using these contracts to verify the accuracy of charges to the
Association.
Findings
No
exceptions were noted.
Dual
Signature Requirements
All
checks in excess of $5,000 require either the signature of both the Treasurer
and the President or written approval of the President and signature of the
Treasurer.
Findings
There
were sixteen checks written in excess of $5000. All manual checks except one
were signed by the President. Two electronic checks did not have the
President’s approval on the attached copy of the expense voucher.
Recommendation
Care
should be taken that all checks in excess of $5000 be signed or approved by the
President and Treasurer.
Disaster
Recovery
The
SASFAA P&P 2000 Edition states that the Treasurer shall provide a copy of
the account file to the President and Chair of the Finance and Audit
Committee. Copies of the QuickBooks
files should be e-mailed to the President and the Chair of the Finance and
Audit Committee monthly.
Findings
Copies
of the QuickBooks files are not being shared with the President or Chair of the
Finance and Audit Committee. The Treasurer does make frequent backups to the
QuickBooks files, but does not share those with anyone offsite.
Recommendation
The
Guidelines and P&P need to be reviewed to determine if the disaster
recovery guidelines are still appropriate. If the offsite backups are still
needed, steps need to be taken to assure compliance.
Conference
Registration Management
On
site registration of conference attendees presents special challenges because
of funds collected at the conference site. The fact that cash is often collected
creates an additional problem. Care must be taken to balance the receipts daily
and then measures taken to safeguard the funds received until they can be
safely deposited in the bank. This was the first year that credit card payments
were accepted at the conference.
Findings
An
excellent job of daily balancing was done and careful records kept.
The
funds collected, including over $2000 in cash, were not deposited until the
Thursday following the conference. The funds were kept in the hotel safe during
the meeting and a cashier’s check was obtained for the cash prior to leaving
the conference.
The
acceptance of credit card payments appeared to work well and reduced that
amount of cash received. Due to a bank error in setting up receipts on one
credit card, some of the payments were not made to SASFAA until after
Recommendation
Every
effort should be made to deposit SASFAA funds in the bank as soon as possible.
If there is a local branch of the bank, deposits should be made daily.
The
Guidelines should be updated to include procedures for the receipt and tracking
of credit card payments.
Corporate
Credit Cards
SASFAA
elected officers are issued credit cards with a credit limit of $3500 for
official SASFAA business. An agreement, as outlined in the guidelines, is to be
signed by each officer and cards relinquished promptly at the end of their
term. All credit card charges must be posted to the appropriate expense form
before payment and the original receipt attached.
Findings
The
original credit card receipt was not always attached to the expense voucher. A
written agreement is not being signed and maintained for each credit card user.
As
noted above, a new process and expense form for credit card charges has been
initiated by the Treasurer.
Recommendation
Since
so many expenses are now being paid with credit cards, extra attention to these
procedures is required. The P&P needs to be reviewed to insure that the
current procedures are updated and that credit limits are adequate.
An
agreement should be signed and maintained for each person issued a card.
All
credit card charges must be posted to the appropriate expense form with the
original receipt attached before payment.
Submitted
by,
Ken
Player,
Holding Company
|
Account # |
Contact Information |
Purchase Date |
Amount |
Interest Accrual |
Term |
Maturity Date |
Rate |
Interest Payment
Schedule |
Current Estimated
Value |
|
Suntrust
Bank |
35408 |
James
A. Mills Sr.
Investment Officer Suntrust Securities
Corporation |
|
$10,000 |
7,296.99 |
60 |
|
5.87% |
Compounded Quarterly |
$17,296.99 |
|
Mid
First Bank |
DFL006262 |
James
A. Mills Suntrust Securities |
|
$25,000 |
n/a |
48 |
|
4.30% |
Paid Monthly to Checking Account |
$25,000.00 |
|
Webb
City Bank |
DFL006262 |
Suntrust Investment
Group |
|
$25,000 |
n/a |
36 |
|
2.75% |
Paid Monthly to Checking Account |
$25,000.00 |
|
Hibernia
National Bank |
DFL006262 |
Suntrust
Investment Group |
|
$75,000 |
n/a |
60 |
|
4.35% |
Paid Monthly to Checking Account |
$75,000.00 |
|
Conseco
Bank |
DFL006262 |
Suntrust
Investment Group |
|
$50,000 |
n/a |
36 |
|
4.50% |
Paid Monthly to Checking Account |
$50,000.00 |
|
Independent
Bankers Bank |
DFL006262 |
Suntrust
Investment Group |
|
$25,000 |
n/a |
39 |
|
3.0% |
Paid Monthly to Checking Account |
$25,000.00 |
|
American
National Bank |
DFL006262 |
Suntrust
Investment Group |
|
$25,000 |
n/a |
48 |
|
3.35% |
Paid Monthly to Checking Account |
$25,000.00 |
|
Morton
Community Bank |
DFL006262 |
Suntrust
Investment Group |
|
$25,000 |
n/a |
36 |
|
2.00% |
Paid Monthly to Checking Account |
$25,000.00 |
|
Northview
Bank |
DFL006262 |
Suntrust
Investment Group |
|
$50,000 |
n/a |
36 |
|
3.65% |
Paid Monthly to Checking Account |
$50,000.00 |
|
Household
Bank |
DFL006262 |
SuntrustInvestment Group |
|
$50,000 |
n/a |
48 |
|
4.45% |
Paid Monthly to Checking Account |
$50,000.00 |
|
Middleton
Community Bank |
DFL006262 |
Suntrust
Investment Group |
|
$25,000 |
n/a |
36 |
|
3.65% |
Paid Monthly to Checking Account |
$25,000.00 |
|
Republic
Bank |
DFL006262 |
Suntrust
Investment Group |
|
$65,000 |
n/a |
48 |
|
3.60% |
Paid Monthly to Checking Account |
$65,000.00 |
|
First
Internet Bank of
|
DFL006262 |
Suntrust
Investment Group |
|
$50,000 |
n/a |
48 |
|
3.90% |
Paid Monthly to Checking Account |
$50,000.00 |
|
TOTAL INVESTMENTS |
|
|
|
$500,000.00 |
$7,296.99 |
|
|
|
|
$507,296.99 |
Updated
|
Equipment |
Serial/Model Number |
Date of Purchase |
Purchase Price |
Current Usage Status |
Current Holder |
|
|
Canon
i850 Photo Printer |
FBHP63605 |
|
$
169.00 |
Usable |
Forrest
Stuart |
|
|
HP Deskjet Printer -825c |
|
|
$
49.99 |
Usable |
Lester
McKenzie |
|
|
BELK 2 position
switch |
F1B024E |
|
$
19.99 |
Usable |
Forrest
Stuart |
|
|
HP
Pavilion zt1175 Notebook PC |
TW21600541 |
|
$
1,799.97 |
Usable |
Forrest
Stuart |
|
|
Toshiba
Satellite 4040 Laptop PC |
|
|
$ 2,367.00
|
Usable |
Lester
McKenzie |
|
|
Toshiba
Satellite Laptop PC |
78843936A |
|
unknown |
Usable |
Sandra
Neal |
|
|
Briefcase |
|
|
$
83.59 |
Usable |
Sandra
Neal |
|
|
Panasonic
Palm Camera & 5 extra disks |
|
|
$
996.37 |
Usable |
Erik
Melis |
|
|
8
Portable radios |
|
|
$
2,609.00 |
Usable |
Brent or
Zita? |
|
|
Microsoft
wireless network adapter |
MN-720 SN=69995-481-1611784-00410 |
|
$
41.07 |
Usable |
Forrest
Stuart |
|
Newletter Chair Report
February Board Report from
Newsletter Editor, April Kendrick
Since the last board meeting in
The
second quarterly edition of the newsletter, SASFAA Winter 2004/2005
Newsletter, was placed to the SASFAA Web site and accessible
April Quarterly Newsletter
Articles
and ads for the April newsletter letter need to be submitted to the newsletter editor
no later than
As
indicated previously, FL State President, Ron Anderson and MS State President, Laura Diven-Brown will be highlighted in the April
newsletter. All state presidents,
elected officers, committee chairs, and liaisons are also encouraged to provide
articles for inclusion and to keep the SASFAA membership informed of activities
taking place. As indicated, articles
need to be provided to the newsletter editor by mid-November, if at all
possible. Exceptions may be made. Contact the newsletter editor at
859-257-48272 #4235 or by e-mail at April.Kendrick@kctcs.edu if the deadline cannot be met.
*All submissions should be
provided to the Newsletter Editor. Articles are to be submitted to April D.
Kendrick,
Diversity Chair Report
SASFAA Diversity Committee Report
Dee Talley, Chair
Atlanta Hyatt Regency Hotel
Dee Talley reported that the
Diversity Committee has worked extremely hard the past several months
developing the activities and programs that will be offered at the SASFAA
conference. Listed below is the schedule
of activities:
Sunday, Feb. 13 Multicultural
Leadership Symposium
Monday, Feb. 14 Extreme
Makeover – Office Edition
(Helping
Students with Disabilities)
More Than a “Survivor”- Thriving in
Today’s Diverse FAO (Generation Gaps in
the Workplace)
Tuesday,
Feb. 15 General
Session: Sexual Orientation Issues in
the Workplace
Maslow Meets Multiculturalism
(Communicating
with Different Cultures)
“All
in the Family” (Diversity Roundtable)
Currently, 150 individuals have registered for the
symposium, although this number is
expected to decrease due to cancellations.
Electronic Services Chair Report
Electronic Services Committee Report for February
2005 Board Meeting
The following updates have
been made to the web site, through coordination with ATAC and other SASFAA
committees and board members, since the August board report:
- 2005 Conference Mini-Site updated.
- Online voting setup and tested for use at
conference.
- 2005-2006 Sponsorship Form activated and modified
as required.
- 2005 NAOW online registration form developed and
in testing. Other NAOW information
posted to web.
- Submitted update to Legislative Relations
committee chair. Not yet updated on
web as of the completion of this report.
- Worked with SASFAA Secretary to get P&P
updated on web.
- 2004-2005 President’s Annual report posted to web.
- Calendar updates were made on the web site.
- State page updates posted to the web.
The following
web-related projects are planned, are in progress or will be continued by the
2004-2005 Electronic Services Committee.:
- Electronic Services, in coordination with the
appropriate other committees and board members, will review the
functionality of the new SASFAA web site and recommend P&P changes to
the various committees now that users have a chance to experience the functionality
of the web site. (In progress)
- Will continue to work with ATAC, treasurer,
membership chair, and vendor/sponsorship chair to investigate the
possibility of capturing “comped” status during
registration/sponsorship sign up to make the process of identifying these
categories more easily for the purposes of invoicing. (Additional
discussion needed)
- Will prepare a proposal for disposition processes
for obsolete/non-working electronic equipment within SASFAA (In progress)
Throughout the course of the
upcoming year, the Electronic Services Committee will continue to work with the
elected Board, State Presidents, and Committee Chairs to get input on
improvements and updates for the SASFAA web site and to determine ways that the
Electronic Services Committee can assist in meting goals and objectives.
Special Projects Report
Special Projects Committee
Carol Mowbray
SASFAA Management Institute
Committee
members [continuing from 2003-2004
Associational Year]
Chair – Karen
Fooks – University of Florida ,
FL
Dave Cecil –
Shirley Ort –
Cruzita Lucero –
Mike O’Grady – Bank of
Carol Mowbray – Northern
Joel Harrell –
Ron Day –
Janet Sain (ex officio) –
Objectives – To conduct a
successful, professional development experience for seasoned financial aid
administrators on a timely topic.
Program Date and Location –
December 10 –12, 2004
Grove Park Inn,
Status – Completed. Karen Fooks will report on the Institute
activities and participation.
Past President’s Council (PPC)
Committee members – All
interested past SASFAA presidents
Co-Chairs – Susan Little ,
Ron Day,
Meetings – To be held by
teleconference with a report to the Board in June.
Objectives – The objectives
were approved by the SASFAA Board of Directors on
Status –
Ongoing
Ron Day is working with the
state presidents to identify a state representative to serve on the Ad Hoc
committee. The purpose of the committee
is two fold.
- The Construction of the Board needs to be reviewed. A more defined responsibility should be
distinctly stated regarding various roles on the Board, i.e., voting
members, Committee Chairs, possibly expanding the role of the State
Presidents, etc.
As
part of the report made by the PPC, it was noted that ALL regions had voting
members other than the Executive Council and State Presidents. Several had representation – elected position
– for the Lender Liaison for example.
Others had members-at-large (much like the NASFAA Board model). Because of the importance of the Annual
Conference, possible voting privileges should go to the Conference Chair.
- Levels of Membership needs to be reviewed. As was stated in the report, ALL
regions, with the exception of SASFAA, had at least two levels of
membership.
SASFAA
currently offers two “classes” of membership – Active and Honorary. Does this effectively reflect the needs of
the Association?
Long Range
Committee Members
Co –Chairs – Cruzita Lucero,
Carol
Mowbray, Northern
Juanita Russell,
Peggy Loewy-Wellisch,
Nova Southeastern University, FL
Jane C. McNaughton,
Janet Sain (ex-officio) ,
Betty Whalen,
Tom Morehouse,
Meeting(s):
1.
October 15- 16,
2004
2.
SASFAA Annual
Conference
3.
Mid-April 2005
(tentative)
Location
to be determined
Objectives – To review the
current Long-range plan and to develop a
Long-range plan for the next five year period, 2007 to 2012, which takes into
consideration the vision, mission and by-laws of the Association.
Status – On schedule
The following activities have
occurred since the November 2004 meeting of the Board of Directors.
1.
At the direction
of the Board of Directors, President Sain appointed Tom Morehouse,
2.
Carol Mowbray
solicited up to two questions from each Board member as well as committee chair
for consideration in constructing the membership survey. NASFAA forwarded a copy of its membership
survey to Carol. It is being used as a reference document in developing the
membership survey.
3.
As directed by
the Board in November, Betty Whalen has worked with the state presidents to
compile a listing of potentials individuals to attend a retreat for long range
planning.
4.
Betty Whalen and
Carol Mowbray have been working to identify a possible site conducive to a long
range planning retreat and to develop a budget request for a retreat. Dates that are being considered are September
8 – 11. The two sites under consideration are:
5.
§
The
§
The University
Hilton at
6.
Crusie Lucero is working on a brief history on the
development of the Long Range Plan.
7.
Jane McNaughton
edited the Long Range Plan (
SASFAA Management Institute
SASFAA
Executive Board
Management
Institute Committee
Approximately
eighty-five SASFAA members attended a very successful SASFAA Management
Institute was held
The
agenda included higher ed policy sessions with experts in the field of higher
education (Dr.Sandy Baum, economist and faculty
member at Skidmore University, Dr. Don Heller, faculty member at Penn State
University, Dr. Jaci King, ACE; Dr. James Johnson,
faculty member at UNC) and skill-based sessions in public speaking, dealing
with media and persuasive writing (Linda Fierman,
Speaking from Experience; Alex Slater, Group; Shirley Ort, UNC and Steve
Brooks, NCSEAA).
In
addition, Sunday morning included small group case study discussions that
incorporated use of the information and skills learned the previous day.
All
participants received a CD in early January that included copies of all the PowerPoint
presentations, handouts, readings suggested by the presenters as well as other
resource materials. The same information will be added soon to the SASFAA
website for the benefit of all SASFAA members.
On a
five-point scale, participants rated the quality of sessions as a 4.92 and the
overall conference as 4.89.
Participant
comments included:
"Outstanding",
"Fabulous"
"Very
beneficial to me as a director. I saved money in budget to attend and boy am I
glad I did. I will attend again!"
"Great
combination of where we are (statistics and trends) and tools to strengthn our message. There was so much info, the closing
session bringing a summary was essential"
"High-powered
speakers"
"Engaging,
informative, exciting"
"Same
site ALWAYS. Too soon to ID topics [for next time]. SASFAA should book dates
now for four years out even if the
"Really
appreciate the CD."
"I
was truly overwhelmed by the quality of the programming at the event. I have
mentioned to both my President and VP for Academic Affairs that much of the
material presented would have been helpful for both of them. This thorough
compilation [CD] will allow me to share some of the most pertinent information
in a more accurate fashion."
"The
best of all my years attending conferences at the state and regional
level—absolutely wonderful!
"Great
job! Best one I've been to."
SASFAA's
vendors were generous in providing over $10,000 to help underwrite the costs of
the conference.
The entire
committee worked tirelessly for over a year to bring the conference to
fruition. Thanks go to committee members:
Dave
Cecil,
Ron
Day,
Joel
Harrell,
Crusie
Lucero,
Carol
Mowbray, Northern
Mike
O'Grady, College Loan Corporation
Shirley
Ort, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Janet
Sain, ECPI
Thanks
also to:
Bob
Godfrey, Vendor Sponsor Chair
Lester
McKenzie, Treasurer
Erik
Melis, Webmaster
Ron
Gambill, Site Selection and Local Arrangements
ATTACHMENT D
LIASION REPORTS
Aency Liaison Report
Agency Liaison Report
Elizabeth V. McDuffie
Florida
Theresa Antworth
2004-05 Appropriations
State-funded financial aid programs have
an appropriation of $458 million to expend on 20 programs for the 2004-05
academic year. Our largest merit
program, Florida Bright Futures, expects to fund over 129,000 students; the
largest need-based program, Florida Student Assistance Grants (FSAG), expects
to serve over 100,000 students. One new
tuition assistance program was authorized and funded this year serving over 600
resident undergraduate students at private institutions.
Web
Applications at www.FloridaStudentFinancialAid.org
Our customer friendly web homepage
invites students to apply online with one application for all programs. This is our fourth year of operation. We are accepting and evaluating over 86,000
applicants per year. Postsecondary
institutions participating in financial aid programs continue to appreciate the
web processing of state financial aid, and enjoy its comprehensive reporting
capabilities.
2005-06
Legislation and Budget
Currently, state appropriation and
education committees are preparing for the 2005 Florida Legislative
Session. Budget is a top priority after
the natural disasters of four hurricanes in the fall of 2004. We await bills that may affect any financial
aid programs.
Shelley Nickel
A new online
resource is now available to help Georgians, plan, apply, and pay for college. GAcollege411.org,
which launched on
Key components of
GAcollege411.org include:
·
Career Info, which provides access to hundreds of job
descriptions, average salaries, required training, and assessments to help
students match their skills, personalities, and goals with specific careers.
·
GA Colleges, which enables students to compare programs, costs,
and campuses of nearly 100 public and private
·
Paying for
College, which provides information
on federal and state financial aid resources, professional advice on finding
and applying for aid, calculators, guidelines for responsible borrowing, and
repayment options.
A component of
GAcollege411.org that has generated a great deal of immediate interest is the
test preparation section, which helps students prepare to take the SAT, ACT,
and GRE. The test prep provides tutorials, practice sessions, a vocabulary
builder, test-taking tips and strategies, and timed SAT sample tests. Tutorials
cover every subject area and question format on the new SAT, the ACT, and the
GRE — including the new essay writing section of the SAT, administered for the
first time in March 2005.
In coming months,
GAcollege411.org will add other features — such as electronic transfer of
transcripts and online applications — to help students, parents, high school
counselors, and college administrators.
Since last summer,
GSFC has conducted workshops, focus groups, and other activities to promote the
site and to solicit input from students, high school counselors, and college
financial aid officers. Representatives of those groups also participated in a
beta test of the site in January. The insights and suggestions provided by our
“user partners” have proven to be invaluable.
Michael
Morgan
Go Higher,
KHEAA’s training sessions on the GoHigherKY
website have been very well received by school personnel. The GoHigherKY
website includes tools such as the Student Planner, Career Portfolio, Online
Admissions Applications and Financial Aid Estimators often found to be
beneficial to students and high school counselors.
State Grant FY 2006 Award Amounts
The College Access Program
(CAP) Grant maximum award amount for full-time students will increase to $1,700
in FY 2006. The hourly rate for less-than-full-time students will be $71 for
semester-based institutions and $47 for quarter-hour institutions. The expected family contribution (EFC) for
CAP Grant consideration will remain at 3850.
The Kentucky Tuition Grant (KTG) maximum award amount will increase from
$2,600 to $2,800.
, Student Aid Delivery System
The new student aid system, ZipACCESS will be available in February 2005 to accept
2005-2006 ISIR data, award CAP Grant and KTG, and project KEES awards (if
requested) and allow students to apply for scholarships.
Retrieving MYF
ExitExpress is a new service designed especially for the
convenience of our school partners. Through ExitExpress, KHEAA will
retrieve exit data on behalf of schools using Mapping Your Future (MYF)
Schools may contact
Tricia Crowe at tcrowe@kheaa.com or
502-696-7212 or Judy Lang at jlang@kheaa.com or 502-696-7225 for
questions about loan counseling and other default aversion activities.
KHEAA/KHESLC
Proposed Legislation
On November 15, the
KHEAA/KHESLC Boards of Directors approved proposed legislation to increase KHESLC’s debt limit from $1.95 billion to $5 billion and
authorized staff to discuss the proposal with the Executive Branch and
potential legislative sponsors for introduction of the proposal during the 2005
Regular Session of the Kentucky General Assembly.
KHEAA/KHESLC Proposed Regulatory Amendments
The Board approved several
proposed regulatory amendments, authorized staff to file the regulations with
the Legislative Research Commission, and authorized the General Counsel to make
changes on behalf of KHEAA as necessary and obtain adoption by the
Administrative Regulation Review Subcommittee.
·
Amendments to CAP
and KTG will measure eligibility in terms of percentages, rather than semesters
as currently provided, and require that a student satisfy all financial
obligations to any guaranty agency (not just KHEAA) and to any educational
institution in the United States to be eligible to receive a CAP or KTG award.
·
KHEAA grant
disbursement procedures will be amended to allow disbursements to quarter-hour
institutions in the amount of one-third per quarter, rather than the two-thirds
for either fall or spring academic term as currently allowed.
·
KTG award
determination procedures will be amended to provide for a $300 overpayment
tolerance for KTG recipients to mirror the overpayment tolerance in the CAP
Grant regulation.
·
Amendments to the
Teacher Scholarship and Osteopathic Medicine Scholarship will lower the annual
interest rate for repayment from 12 to 6 percent for students who do not
fulfill service requirements.
P-16 Council
KHEAA Executive Director Dr.
Joe L. McCormick is now a member of
Dr. McCormick currently
serves on the Cradle to College Commission and the boards of the National
Council of Higher Education Loan Programs (NCHELP) and the National College
Access Network (NCAN).
Mary Jane Covington
The Mississippi Office of
Student Financial Aid is proud to announce the birth of their new on-line
application which arrived at
We will be administering
three new programs this year, all of which are teacher driven. The William Winter Alternate Route Teacher
and the Critical Needs Teacher Alternate Route Loan/Scholarship are available
for applicants who are not education majors, but recipients must express a
desire to teach in
For the 2003-2004 year we
awarded $9,140,994 in Loan/Scholarships and $20,228,403 in Grants for a
combined total of $29,369,397. We
anticipate taking a closer look at our all our programs to determine if there
is a need for fine tuning as we strive to meet the changing needs of our
state.
Elizabeth V. McDuffie
FAFSA Day—
The
fourth annual FAFSA Day will be held on Saturday, February 19 in 30 locations
around the state to provide free assistance completing the FAFSA form. Approximately 1,000 students have been served
at FAFSA Day sites in recent years with over 200 volunteers assisting with the
day. FAFSA Day is co-sponsored by the State Education Assistance Authority and
NCASFAA.
Counselor Internships
NCSEAA
is once again sponsoring a paid summer internship for school counselors in
financial aid offices across the state. The internship has proven to be a great
way for school counselors to learn the aid process; in addition, the aid
offices benefit from the extra help with processing during the summer. Twelve campuses will serve as host
institutions during the summer of 2005.
Financial Aid Reference Guide Available
NCSEAA’s
comprehensive guide to financial aid resources, "Financial Aid for
SC Tuition Grants Program
Edward M. Shannon, III
The SC Tuition Grants Program
is a “need-based” grants program that was enacted in 1970 by the SC General
Assembly as a tuition equalization program to give
The SC Tuition Grants Program
is funded solely by state appropriation with the exception of $885,940 that is
received through the federal LEAP/SLEAP matching grant program.
The clients of the SC Tuition
Grants Program are the students of
The day-to-day operation of
the SC Tuition Grants Program includes the following:
Processing almost 25,000
applications that are received each year for SC Tuition Grant assistance;
Analyzing all applications for “financial need’ using the federal methodology
approved by Congress; Notifying the students and their colleges of grant
eligibilities; Disbursing the grant funds to the students at their colleges
once “full-time” enrollment status is confirmed; Issuing various reports to the participating
independent colleges in regard to grant eligibilities of their SC students;
Getting information about the SC Tuition Grants Program out to the general public,
the SC high schools, and the guidance counselors; Communication and
coordination with the State Treasurer’s Office, the Comptroller General’s
Office, the State Auditor’s Office, the State Budget Division, the Governor’s
Office, the SC General Assembly and its various committees, and all other state
agencies involved with administering a state program.
The SC Tuition Grants Program is a sound
investment for the State of
During 2004-2005, 12,300
awards averaging about $2,350 will be made to eligible
The 2005 SC General Assembly
is currently in session and the SC Tuition Grants Commission has requested a
total of $33.4 million for the grants program which is a $5 million increase
over the prior year and would enable the maximum grant to be increased to
$3,100 at all participating colleges.
Department of Education Liaison
Report
SASFAA Executive Board Meeting
Federal Liaison Report
Gregory P. Martin, Training Officer
Region III
Training
Beginning in March of 2005,
the Department will offer a training series entitled Managing Audits & Program Reviews: Paths for Success Training. The one-day workshops will examine the
independent audit, program review, and OIG audit processes. Extensive use of case studies gives the
training a practical bent. Participants
will look at preventative measures to evaluate and enhance Title IV
administration; and develop corrective action plans to respond to program
review and audit findings.
Access to the new and far
more user-friendly registration system may be gained through IFAP, the Schools
Portal of by going directly to www.ed.gov/offices/OSFA/training/index.html
Locations and dates for the
SASFAA region follow below:
Beginning this autumn, the
Department will offer a series of Fiscal Officer Workshops, intended primarily
for, but not limited to, school business office personnel whose responsibilities
include managing Title IV funds. A
training announcement will be issued in the future. Please look for it and appraise your business
office of this opportunity.
VA Match
An Electronic Announcement
posted
Federal Need Analysis – Allowance for State and Other
Taxes
The
R2T4 on the Web
The R2T4 demo is now
available at the FAFSA demo site http://fafsatest.ed.gov
. Select demo for FAA access to CPS
Online and select R2T4. The user ID is “eddemo” and the experiment with the web application.
Taxpayer- Teacher Protection Act of 2004
DCL GEN-04-14 contains
information on changes made to the HEA to provide increased Federal Stafford
Loan forgiveness for certain Elementary and Secondary School Teachers. Up to $17,500 in loan forgiveness is
authorized for new FFEL and DL borrowers who meet certain criteria. The increased amount of teacher loan
forgiveness is only available to an individual who had no outstanding balance
on any loan made, insured or guaranteed prior to
New PIN Terms and Conditions
Two changes affecting PIN
users became effective on
of the PIN, current users and
new applicants are required to select a challenge question and correctly
respond to that question when accessing processes that require a PIN. Refer to the Electronic Announcement for
sample language explaining these changes that you may post to your school’s
website for students.
Policy Updates
Stored Value Cards
Certain conditions must be met
in order to use this method of disbursing funds to students:
§
Schools must have
a student’s voluntary authorization to deposit Title IV funds onto a stored
value card;
§
Students must be
able to readily convert the balance to cash;
§
There must be no
charge to the student for issuance of the card;
§
Any account at a
bank must be FDIC insured;
§
Schools must advise students of the terms and
conditions of the card;
§
The card must not
convert to credit cards when the balance has been used;
§
Students must be
able to cash out the value of the card at no charge;
§
Students must
have reasonable access to use the card at the issuing bank at no charge;
§
Students may be
charged a fee for use at an ATM not
belonging to the issuing bank;
§
Schools must
follow the regulatory timeframe of 14 days to release the credit balance. The school is considered to have met this
requirement if it EFTs the funds to the bank issuing
the card within 14 days;
§
Schools may have
no control over the funds on the card once they are transferred to the issuing
bank. A 3-5 day timeframe is allowed to
retract the EFT if the amount is incorrect.
Note that school contracts
with a servicer, in this case a bank, fall under the
regulations governing contracts with third-party servicers.
Pell Re-Calculations
Guidance in this area has
been provided at various conferences and more recently at the Electronic Access
Conferences (EACs).
This guidance is applicable to schools that offer programs in terms with
coursework offered on a compressed schedule or in modules. A school makes an initial calculation of a
student’s Pell Grant based on his or her actual or expected enrollment. A school must recalculate a student’s award
if the student does not commence attendance in all the credits for which they
were awarded or paid. A school is not
required to recalculate for enrollment status changes after the initial
calculation as long as the school can document that the student commenced
attendance in all classes for which he or she was paid. A school may recalculate for enrollment
status changes if they have a policy that provides for it and they recalculate
for all students whether enrollment status increases or decreases.
A school may have a policy
that establishes a date (commonly referred to as a “census date”) after which
they will no longer recalculate for enrollment status changes. This date normally corresponds with the
established add/drop date for the term.
New flexibility allows schools to have more than one census date within
a term. This might apply to modules
within a term or coursework within a term (when a student last adds a
course). In this circumstance, the
school must take into account all adjustments to the enrollment status, both
increases and decreases, up to the add/ drop date of the student’s last class.
Conflicting Information
There are three item related
to IRS tax returns that schools are required to know:
- Whether or not an individual is required to file
a tax return;
- What filing status an individual may use when
filing a tax return; and
- That an individual may not be claimed as
exemption on two tax returns for the same year.
Policy has clarified that
institutions are not required to their ISIR databases in order to identify
these types of conflicts, but rather to address them as they come to the
attention of the FAA, either as the result of verification or some other
circumstance. The Department is working
on putting an edit in place for the 2005-06 award year to flag nonfilers with incomes above the filing thresholds.
Note that conflicting
information can occur in files not selected for verification and if so, must be
resolved before making any disbursements.
Loan Certification
Institutions may not deny a
student request to receive the full annual loan limit in a single term even if the
student plans to attend the full academic year.
Institutions may not deny loan amount requests that exceed direct costs
except under the authority granted in 682.603 (e) or 685.30(a) (7). Loan certifications may not be denied based
on the results of a credit check. No
policy that routinely reduces loan amounts or allows for other restrictions is
allowed. An institution may not have a
policy that requires students to use a preferred lender.
Late Disbursement
A loan certification or
origination must have occurred while the borrower was still enrolled and
otherwise eligible in order to qualify for a late disbursement. If the 120-day period for making a late
disbursement has elapsed, all other eligibility conditions are met and the
delay was not the fault of the student, an institution may request a late
disbursement by faxing information to:
Late Disbursement Request
(877) 623-5082
Power of Attorney and the MPN
A POA may sign the MPN on
behalf of a borrower who is physically or geographically unable to sign the
note. However, the borrower must endorse
the check or otherwise authorize that the funds be applied to their
account. Signature by POA is not
presumed to encompass multiple borrowing under the POA.
FFEL or DL Loans for Teacher Certification Programs
This exception applies to any
student enrolled in coursework or a program required to teach in the State. This includes those who are already teachers
who must obtain an endorsement to teach a different subject or grade. However, this does not include students
seeking guidance or principles certificates.
The work initial has been removed from the teacher certification language
in the 2004-05 FSA Handbook.
Credit Card Payments and Merchant Agreements
Several institutions allow
students and/or parents to charge outstanding tuition to a major credit
card. Should the student subsequently
apply for and receive for example a Stafford Loan, a credit balance is created. As part of a “merchant agreement”, the
institution refunds the credit card holder rather than the student. As long as the credit balance is not a Title
IV credit balance, this practice is permissible. Consider the following example:
A student has institutional charges of $1,000 and the
student pays those charges with a credit card.
Later, the student FFEL EFT arrives and the school credits the loan
funds to her account. This creates a
$1,200 credit balance, but only $200 of it is a Title IV credit balance. The school must pay the Title IV credit
balance directly to the student. What it
does with the $1,000 credit balance is not regulated by the Department. The school may pay that amount to the credit
card company. In actuality, Title IV
funds are not being sent to the credit card holder. Title IV funds can now be applied to the
student’s charges allowing a refund to the credit card account.
Lender Liaison Report
Lender Liaison Report
Jane McNaughton, Chair
Jane reported that the hot
topic is President Bush’s $2.57 trillion FY 2006 Budget request that he sent to
Congress on February 7. 2005. A focus of
the Budget is to increase Pell Grant funding by enacting student aid reforms
such as 1) recalling revolving loan funds used by institutions to fund the
Perkins program, thereby effectively terminating the program; 2) reducing the
amount that guaranty agencies can collect on defaulted loans; and 3) reducing
the percentage of federal loan principal guaranteed against default. Some of the policy recommendations in the
Budget Request include making interest rates on consolidation loans variable
rather than fixed and allowing reconsolidation by borrowers in repayment by
charging them a 1% origination fee.
The Bush Administration is
committed to a lender-based guaranteed Federal Family Education Loan Program
and will maintain a strong Direct Loan Program to ensure access for all
eligible students. The Administration
also feels that the Federal Government assumes almost all of the risk for both
these loan programs. Federal Subsidies
to intermediaries such as lenders and guaranty agencies are set high enough to
allow the less efficient ones to generate a profit. This causes unnecessary costs for taxpayers
and prevents the program from achieving the efficiencies the market is designed
to provide.
The Budget provides for
reforms to make these loan programs more efficient, cost-effective post
secondary education financing vehicles.
Interest subsidy payments will link payments for lenders and guaranty
agencies more closely to their costs. In
other words, a larger share of loan risk will be placed on lenders. $34 billion in savings over 10 years will be
achieved by reducing unnecessary subsidies and payments to lenders, guaranty
agencies and loan consolidators. These
savings will be used to increase the Pell Grant maximum award, pay off the
current $4.3 billion Pell shortfall, increase loan limits for first year
students and extend the current favorable interest rate framework.