Tennessee State Report
Forrest Stuart, TASFAA President
The 2005-2006 year in TASFAA has been an incredible and rewarding
journey. The honor of leading such a talented, hard-working board
has allowed me to grow individually and professionally. A president
can not say “thank you” enough to those who have spent
countless hours giving their energy to TASFAA. Because of the board’s
work, financial aid professionals across the state of Tennessee have
had many opportunities to expand and improve.
We started the year with a benchmark of success—one borrowed
from a former college president.
Here was the chance of a lifetime; a chance to
set the standard of an institution for all time; a chance to go forth
unhampered … and to launch an institution which was as nearly
ideal for its purpose as painstaking investigation and careful and
thorough planning could make it. Realizing that the good is
ever the enemy of the best, we did not seek merely the good, but the
best. There was ever before us the idea of excellence. It
was our purpose to launch here an institution which would endure for
centuries, and which would command the respect and quicken the pride
of succeeding generations. – Dr. Charles E. Diehl, President
of Rhodes College, 1917 - 1949
In accomplishing our goals, we sought not only to be good, but to
be the best. Evidenced in this spirit were the following:
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Membership dues were set to zero for the foreseeable
future.
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The TASFAA membership process utilizing ATAC has
been updated to accommodate this structural change. TASFAA is the
first client of ATAC to have moved to this structure.
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Membership has increased to 698, an increase of
181 members over 2004-05.
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TASFAA participated in Tennessee’s first
College Goal Sunday.
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Annual aggregate sponsorship funding is collected
now, not just that for conferences.
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2004-05 sponsorship amounted to $184,999.
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2005-06 sponsorship funding has not been totaled.
Conference sponsorship has reached $125,000.
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Training opportunities expanded beyond the norm.
This includes new opportunities in research, leadership within the
institution, national trends in college pricing and higher education,
and benchmarks for evaluating student debt.
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The TASFAA Policies and Procedures has been revised
and updated.
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Guidance counselor training and internship opportunities
for the summer have been reviewed; possible enhancements will be
made in the next associational year.
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The Governmental Relations Committee released several
updates on the Higher Education Reconciliation Act as well as Reauthorization.
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New TASFAA members have been incorporated into
the work of the association to a degree that is better than in prior
years. President-Elect Janette Overton is expanding this for her
presidential year.
While in no way comprehensive, the above demonstrates the passion
TASFAA has for financial aid professionals and the work that is done
by all. Supporting financial aid officers is vital, and our hope is
that higher education, and financial aid specifically, as a career
will become a more attractive option for college graduates.
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JUNE
2006
