Region 1 Meeting

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Buffalo State College

Submitted by Leigh M. Fiorenzo, Region 1 Secretary

 

Attendance:     

 

AFC                                                    Kristen Carey

Bank of America                                  Darcie Stephens

Bank One                                             Michael Woody

Buffalo State College                            Linda Chilson, Jason Farrell, Janet Ganley, Warren Hoffman, Stephanie Kindzia, Kent McGowan, Lisa Morrison, Sharon Spagnoli, Pam Steffan, Michael Woodruff, Susan Wright

Canisius College                                   Mary Koehneke, Lea Nicholson, Michele A. Rizzo

Citibank                                               Laura Worley

College Loan Corp                               Vince Scalise

The College Board                               Scott Lewis

EdFund                                                Dan Dreves

Erie 1 Boces                                         Paula Galante

First Niagara                                        Sandy Stevenson

Hilbert College                         Beverly Chudy, Julie Lanski

HSBC                                                  Sherrie Sheppard

M & T Bank                                        Leigh M. Fiorenzo, Andrew Leardini

NCCC                                                 Kim Buerger, Kathy Michalski

Nellie Mae                                           Katrina DelGrosso, Abbey Linsner

Nelnet                                                  Carrie Newman

NYSHESC                                          Casandra Cade, Bonnie Evans, Mike Williams

St. Bonaventure                                    Mary Jo Brockel, Gail Quiny, Elizabeth Rankin

Student Loan Xpress                            Brian Levy

Trocaire College                                   Terry Adamczyk, Janet McGrath

UB                                                       Joseph Alongi, Roseanne Johnson, Brent McEnroe, Yvonne Nagel, Kevin Ryan,

Wachovia                                             Karen Blankenburg

 

 

Presentation:  FISH! Philosophy

Presenter:  Jennifer Houseknecht, EDFUND Client Training Consultant

Moderated by Dan Dreves, Senior Client Relations Manager, EDFUND Eastern Region

 

 

NYSFAAA Nominations and Elections (Carrie Newman)

·        It is time once again to think about nominations for the following positions:  Regional Chair, Exec Counsel, Secretary, and Treasurer

·        The region is looking for active members to volunteer to run or we will be looking for members to nominate fellow members (please verify with that person before you nominate)

·        Several committees may be available as chairs and co-chairs look to recruit volunteers to participate on various committees

·        Congratulations to Dave Canaski from SUNY Cortland as he won the President Elect position

·        Region 1 will be participating in the electronic voting process for the upcoming elections. All we need to do is come up with the list of nominees, prepare the ballot, and forward the information on to ATAC to get an e-mail prepared

·        Mary Koehneke will most likely be the person to contact with nominations but a message will be sent over the list serv

·        Thank you to Mary Koehneke for running the past and present nominations/elections

 

Region 1 Outing (Laura Worley)

·        A message was posted on the list serv to gather ideas for the summer outing

·        Only a few suggestions were received:  Darien Lake and a Bison’s Game

·        Darien Lake:  we haven’t had the outing there since 1999 or 2000, we would be required to have 50 people in attendance to get the group rate, catering, and shelter

·        Bison’s Game:  June 23rd home game at 1:00 which is a Thursday

·        A suggestion was also made to look into the Miss Buffalo but this is usually fairly pricey

·        Laura will send out a message to the list serv to get a vote on preference

 

 

Committee Updates

·        Sherrie Sheppard from the SUNYFAP registration committee is looking for volunteers to man the registration table at the conference so if you are interested please contact her

 

HESC Update (Bonnie Evans)

Please see notes below submitted by Bonnie Evans:

 

 

HESC Update

April 2005

 

Grants and Awards Messages

 

HESC recently released Financial Aid Services Bulletin 2005-007,

“G+S Award Messages” (3/31/05), that lists the Grants and Scholarship messages and codes, which will be used for the ’05-06 academic year. The bulletin can be viewed by visiting the “College Administrators and Lenders” link on or by clicking on:

 

TAP Stats

 

To date, HESC has received 136,611 TAP applications for the ‘05-06 academic year, with the majority received electronically via the TAP on the Web (TOTW) or multi-year process. Only 7 % of the applications submitted were received via paper and HESC predicts that as many as 90 percent of an estimated 600,000 TAP applications will be filed electronically for the 2005-06 academic year.

 

The majority of multi-year and TOTW applications received to date had sufficient data to make awards or denials, reflecting only a 2 percent error rate. This indicates that students are filling out electronic applications more completely and accurately.  

 

05-06 TAP Awards

 

Information should be available shortly regarding the status of 05-06 TAP Awards and the New York State budget process.

 

Student Status Listing Reminder

 

The 2004-05 Student Status Listing will be run on each Friday until July 2005, and the 2004-05 Remittance Advice will be available each Friday until August 2005.

 

Files will be available for retrieval the following morning. Payments will be mailed or electronically transferred within three to five weeks of the date of the associated Roster or Accounting Documents.

 

HESC Grants and Scholarships reports are also now available for printing and viewing by visiting or clicking on the following HESC web link:

 

If you are authorized to access this data, you will be required to logon with your HESC User ID and password. For assistance in obtaining a User ID and password, contact HESC’s Help Desk at 1-888-NYS-HESC,

(1-888-697-4372).

 

New Preferred Lender List Option

 

HESC recently developed a new preferred lender list option for Stafford Graduate students’ that is now operational. HESC also quickly reacted to our customer’s needs for a Stafford Graduate Law and Stafford Medical School option, which will be available shortly.

 

Information regarding this new option can be found in Financial Aid Services Bulletin 2005-005, “New Web Features for FFEL Administrators" (3/14/05), and can be viewed by visiting the “College Administrators and Lenders” link on or by clicking on:

.

 

For more information regarding preferred lender list options, contact HESC’s Solution’s Team at (518) 473-0480, or via e-mail at .

 

Lenders/Servicers Reports

 

Effective April 11, 2005, HESC will discontinue mailing paper versions of several lenders/servicers reports. HESC will make reports available in either CommonLine format or in HESC’s proprietary format. Reports can be viewed or printed from the HESC web site.

 

Servicers and lenders can find more information regarding this paperless processing initiative in Financial Aid Services Bulletin 2005-008, “ Paperless Processing” (3/31/05) that can be viewed by visiting the “College Administrators and Lenders” link on or by clicking on:

 

PLUS Credit Check Update

 

HESC recently released the second in a series of bulletins describing the implementation of HESC's PLUS credit check process that is being implemented in phases. To view the most recent bulletin, visit the “College Administrators and Lenders” link on or by clicking on:    

 

Empire EFT Process

 

Contracts for the new Empire EFT process, a new loan disbursement option, in addition to HESC’ s current EFT Escrow Service, that will give schools greater control and faster delivery of HESC-guaranteed loan funds, will be available shortly.

 

Schools will be able to choose the FFEL funds they want disbursed as often as every day, and have the funds in their account the next morning. Contracts and procedure manuals will be available shortly.

 

More information on this disbursement option can be found in Financial Aid Services Bulletin 2005-003, HESC Offers Empire EFT for Schools and Lenders”, which can be viewed by clicking on:

.

 

SUNYFAP Conference

 

HESC will be participating at the upcoming SUNYFAP Conference,

which will be held at the Queensbury Hotel in Glens Falls from

April 20th-22nd, 2005. The “HESC Update” session is scheduled for 9am on Thursday, April 21. HESC looks forward to seeing our SUNY and lender colleagues at the SUNYFAP Conference. 

 

 

School, Lender, & Guarantor News

·        Brian Levy has joined Student Loan Xpress as the Region 1, 2, 3 and part of 8 representative

·        Andy Leardini has returned to the sales team at M & T as the Region 1, 2, and 3 representative

·        Michael Woody is the new representative at Bank One/Chase for Region’s 1 and 2

 

Reminder from Carrie Newman:  Please check your credit report to make sure you are not a victim of identity theft!!  You could be next if you aren’t careful.

 

 

 

Next Meeting:  May 19, 2005

Medaille College

Amherst Campus