Report from the KASFAA State President
Ron McMakin

KASFAA held its Spring Conference in Louisville at the Marriott East. The Program Committee selected “JOIN THE WINNER’S CIRCLE WITH KASFAA” as its theme. The Conference featured a “Hands on Track” web site with the opportunity to work at PC’s.

Ron Day, SASFAA President, was a guest as was Dave Myette the NASFAA Chair. Steve Morgan was the opening speaker and was UNFORGETTABLE.

For fun the Entertainment Committee planned a series of Derby/Racing Activities. At the Sector Meetings everyone decorated a Hot Air Balloon. At the President’s Reception there was a Derby Hat Contest and on Thursday at the luncheon there was a Shoe Box Float parade. On Thursday night there was Dinner and a Racing Event at the Kentucky Derby Museum.

New Officers for 2004/2005 were elected. President-Elect is Shelly Park from Eastern Kentucky University. Runan Pendergrast from Lexington Community College is the new VP-Training. Lissa Caldwell from KHEAA is Secretary. Lender Representative is Rosemary Tutt from National Education and 4-Year Public Rep is Pat Arauz from the University of Louisville.

The Conference also had plenty of Sessions that appealed to New Aid Officers, Seasoned Financial Aid Veterans and those who were in-between. The HERB VESCIO Award went to Rhonda Swim from Morehead University with a special SASFAA Award to Tim Rhodes former Director of Financial Aid at Morehead .Tim was also a KASFAA Past President.
The Executive Board of KASFAA held it’s meeting on Tuesday night before the Conference and concluded with Dinner. The Transition Meeting for 2004 will be held at the Cumberland Falls Resort on June28th with the final Board Meeting on the 29th.

The Fall 2004 Conference will be held in Owensboro at the Executive Inn Rivermont and will run from Wednesday October the 20th through Friday the 22nd…The Spring 2005 Conference will be back in Louisville at the Hilton Garden Inn and will be April 20th through the 22nd.

Report from the Agency Liaison
Michael Morgan

Simplification of the FAFSA?
By Dr. Joe L. McCormick
KHEAA/Student Loan People Executive Director

On March 1, 2004, the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance announced a series of field hearings to

discuss ways to simplify the federal financial aid delivery process. In particular, the committee will review (1) the impact of complexities in the financial aid process on access to postsecondary education, particularly for low-income students; (2) opportunities for simplification in financial aid processes and forms; and (3) specific issues related to financial aid simplification such as early notification of financial aid eligibility. The committee’s first hearing was at the University of Illinois-Chicago on March 30. A second hearing was held in Los Angeles on April 15, 2004.

The Advisory Committee is a congressionally mandated committee established in 1987 to advise Congress on issues related to federal student financial aid. As a former charter member of this committee and one who has championed simplification of the financial aid process for over 35 years, I was more than curious about this new assignment for the committee and fully supportive of any sincere effort to simplify the financial aid process and remove artificial barriers that students and families must overcome year after year.

One of the first assignments that Advisory Committee members received from Congress in 1987 was to recommend ways to move the financial aid process to a common, free form for applying for aid and to recommend a uniform need analysis methodology for all students at all schools. Prior to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), at least seven different need analysis methodologies were accepted by the U.S. Department of Education, and filing the forms was not free. On average, students spent $15 to $60 to apply for financial aid, depending on the number of schools to which they applied. What a mess! We found an entire “cottage” industry had grown up around the student aid delivery system, and administrators divided themselves into groups based on the need analysis methodology used to determine financial need.

When the FAFSA and a congressionally mandated uniform need analysis methodology were adopted to simplify the process, a major paradigm shift in federal student aid delivery occurred. Nearly 20 years later, Congress is asking the Advisory Committee to further simplify the process. Why? Is the process still complex, cumbersome, and a barrier to needy students? Are there ways to simplify the process further? In the humble opinion of one old war-horse of financial aid, YES! Think about the FAFSA itself for a moment. There over 100 questions just to determine that a student is poor. The same determination could be made with fewer questions. Further, we assume that sometime during a typical financially needy student’s four years in college, he or she will get rich and no longer be need financial aid since students are required to fill out a FAFSA every year to prove they are still poor. The truth is that students are probably poorer upon graduation than when they started college! We do know many students are much further in debt.

Let them know what you think. Maybe the process can be made even less cumbersome and complex than is currently perceived by some of us.