Region 1 Minutes
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Submitted by Sarah Izzo,
Secretary
Attendance:
AMS Maureen Fagan
Bank of
ECC Sarah Izzo & Bernice
Anson
First
HSBC Sherrie Sheppard
M & T Bank Leigh Fiorenzo &
Kathleen O’Connell
NYSHESC Jack Rafferty
Student Capital Corporation Dan Dunn
UB Brent
McEnroe, Kevin Ryan & Amanda Wirth
Wachovia Karen Blankenburg
Welcome & Introductions (Kevin Ryan)
Marc Woolf unable to make
the meeting due to family emergency, presentation postponed & roundtable
discussion of financial aid issues will take place at end of meeting.
Treasurer’s Report (Brent McEnroe)
3/1/06
Plus deposit for Revenue Share: $920.00
Equals: $4,702.12
3/9/06
Minus Check Image Fee: $2.00
Equals: $4,700.12
3/13/06
Minus Check #480 $1,015.73 Michaels for Support Staff Workshop
Equals $3,684.39
4/4/06
Minus Check #479 $83.69 Villa Maria Region 1 March Meeting
Equals $3,600.70
Minus Check #484 $57.22 Reimbursement Support Staff Workshop
Equals $3,543.48
4/11/06
Minus $2.00 Check Image Fee
Equals $3541.48
As of April 11, 2006 our checking account balance is: $3,541.48
Summer Meeting – Despite healthy treasury balance it was recommended we continue to
charge a nominal fee for the summer and holiday meeting. Consensus is that we
should continue that practice.
June meeting will be held
on June 28th on the Miss Buffalo at 11:30 a.m. We will meet at 11 AM because they will board
promptly. Two hour cruise meeting. A nominal charge is still to be
determined.
It is unlikely that we
will be the only group on the boat at that time; we will know more when Laura
Worley sends out the detailed information.
ATAC registration will be set up; payment will be sent to someone other
than Brent or Laura because of personal conflicts. Unsure as to whether or not
we can use the credit card feature for Regional events. The funds would go to the state; they would
likely need to issue a check to the Region.
Brent will follow up.
NYSFAAA Scholarship - Info mailed to members. Please review criteria and feel encouraged to
donate as well as nominate students.
NYSFAAA voting ballots put out. Voting will
be conducted on website. Some members are up for re-election and a few new
candidates for Sam Veeder’s position.
Minutes
- We need to send out a draft version of minutes for comment and
corrections. Will send to Region I and
we will approve them at the next meeting.
Secretary will wait to post on the NYSFAAA site under the regional info
until minutes have been approved.
EASFAA
is being held in
SUNYFAP
conference is being held April 26-28th. It is a very small conference for SUNY schools. Usually has about 100 member
participants. Sarah will give a report
on the conference at the May meeting.
NYSFAAA
is seeking requests for proposals for the 2006 conference. Please send to Shane Rauh @ AMS.
Committee Updates
Training Committee – (Leah Nicholson)
Team building training canceled. Next month Scott Lewis will present on Debt
Management. Committee will meet soon to
organize training for next year and ways to liven it up. Kevin would like to begin setting up the
actual meetings for next year nice and early and to meet at new sites, colleges
that we haven’t been to for a couple years.
Canisius, maybe D’Youville…think about it and ask. Also suggested were Houghton and St. Bonaventure.
Admissions Advisor Workshop (Kevin Ryan)
Initial meeting was about
an hour and a half. Agenda worked out,
location, when - June 26th - Classics V - 9-3. We will provide a continental Breakfast and a
Buffet Lunch. NYACAC had two
representatives at the meeting, they are very excited.
Only to be held Region I
this year, hope to make this a statewide workshop for next year. We also may be doing presentations at their
annual conferences. A tentative agenda
was received from Ann Del Plato.
We did not want to spend
too much time overwhelming them on our first time out.
We were approached by the
Admissions community to provide this type of workshop. Recent EASFAA quarterly mentioned that
NYSFAAA Region I was planning this type of workshop. We would like to see the registration info
out in early to mid-May. We attempted to
schedule this around a lull in the Admissions counselors’ schedules. Anne Marie will be attending a conference in
early June and directors meeting in May.
Anne Marie and Jen are both involved with the organization’s
professional development at the statewide level. We are asking for statewide funding for this
workshop and we would not charge a fee for the first year when NYSFAAA would
shoulder the whole burden. In future
years, we would seek to share the cost with NYACAC or charge a fee for
participants. $5-$10. However, we don’t charge a fee for high
school counselor workshops. It was
pointed out that it does benefit us - in a similar way to educated HS
counselors in FA. Need to work on promotion
of the workshop and the organization.
This initiative was not in the original budget as we weren’t sure we
would be able to get this organized for the current year.
HESC Update (Jack Rafferty)
HESC Update
April 2006
Operational Training
Workshops - Save the Date!
HESC will conduct a summer
workshop series to review legislative changes associated with the NYS Tuition
Assistance Program (TAP) and other scholarships. During the afternoon portion
of the training, HESC will provide an update on HESC’s EFT Express disbursement
process and the new Grad PLUS process.
Here are the dates and
locations:
July 11
July 12 Ramada Inn –
July 14 Turf Inn –
July 18 Hilton –
July 19 &20
Registration details will
be posted soon on www.hesc.org
As a reminder, HESC has launched its spring tour of
college fairs, which will continue into the summer.
HESC is bringing financial aid information and
counseling to thousands of students and families across the state at college
fairs in
HESC will be providing information and counseling
about federal and state financial aid, including program eligibility and how to
apply for grants and scholarships.
Fairs
have already been held in
April
26--
May 7--
Nat'l Admission's Counselor's
May 8--
So.
May 10--
May 17--
May 18--
August
24-September 4-- NYS Fair-- NYS Fairgrounds,
September
1-- Higher Education Day at the NYS Fair-- NYS Fairgrounds,
If you would like information about these
outreach events, please call Linda Bridgewater at
(518) 473-4563, or lbridgewater@hesc.org.
Mark Your Calendars
HESC's second annual Loan
Symposium will be held September 21-22 in
There will be no cost to
attend the event, which last year attracted more than 125 school and lender
colleagues. Mark your calendar and plan
to join your statewide colleagues at HESC's 2006 Loan Symposium. In addition to
a wide range of relevant loan-related topics, NCHELP President Bret Leif is
scheduled to be a featured speaker as well.
Registration details will soon be posted on www.hesc.org
HESC Lender Advisory
Committee
HESC received positive
feedback about the inaugural "Lender Advisory Committee Meeting",
which was held in late February via web cast, and conference call for those
unable to access the Web. The event was hosted by HESC Senior Vice President of
Corporate Relations, Len Sippel, and is part of HESC President James Ross'
efforts to address the ongoing needs of HESC's lender partners. Meeting
invitations were extended to primary lender operations and marketing contacts.
Agenda topics included: New
HESC Master Agreement for Lenders, EFT Express Disbursement Process, HESC PLUS
Credit Check, and Grad/PLUS.
Future meetings will be
held quarterly, and agendas will be distributed in advance, allowing time for
lenders to provide comments and suggestions regarding additional topics of
interest. The next scheduled Lender Advisory Meeting is tentatively scheduled
to take place on Monday, May 22 from 1pm (EST) and invitations will be extended
shortly.
If you would like to be
added to the invitation list, please contact Michael Williams at
mwilliams@hesc.org, or 518) 473-9680.
HESC Master Lender
Agreement
HESC is
responding to the contract delays associated with lender participation
agreements. A standard Master Lender Agreement is being developed/utilized that
covers all service agreements between each lender and HESC. HESC held 2 recent
conference calls with legal representatives from HESC’s top lender partners to
discuss suggested contract language. The most recent call was held on April 6th,
which resulted in good feedback on contract language. A
new Master Lender Agreement is expected to be finalized soon.
School,
Lender, & Guarantor News
Kathleen O’Connell
has joined M&T in the role of Client Relationship Manager. Andy Leardini has accepted a promotion within
the bank.
UB will have two
positions open in the student response center.
Debi Werner has
accepted a position full time in the financial aid office at ECC South campus.
Roundtable Discussion
Open Roundtable in lieu
of training planned with Marc Woolf on school issues - topics of interest.
Michele Rizzo had an ISIR
come through for a graduate student that had been with Canisius for three
years. Per NSLDS, they are now
distinguishing between undergrad and grad sub limits. Now Michele must get a policy decision before
they can certify any further grad loans.
It seems that the student has always been over for undergrad sub, but
system did not recognize it. UB has seen
similar issues with consolidated loans and make it incredible difficult to
understand. The issue seems to be Unallocated
vs. Allocated amounts of the loans and NSLDS printout amounts don’t make
sense. It is truly a nightmare. Often the guarantee agency is blamed by NSLDS
for inaccurate data. Some loans that
were paid in full by consolidation were showing up as duplicated because of the
time lag in reporting as long as 60-120 days.
The consolidator was supposed to verify amounts prior to sending
payoff. Many loans were left out of
consolidation. DL was consolidating
loans that weren’t actually made yet AND they we’re using last years rates.
Single holder rule was disallowed and ignored in many cases.
What can we do about
NSLDS having incorrect information?
Their position is that we’re responsible for working out the
details. Bill Ridings at HESC is the
go-to guy for loans. Documentation is
the key to loan issuance. If we cannot
get clear info, print it out, total it, and put into the file. There is a huge backlog of information.
The volume for
consolidation is expected to be very high.
One drawback of in-school consolidation is the loss of grace period(s). Concerns were raised about predatory
consolidation practices. Some schools
are bringing in lenders that are not going through the financial aid office and
circumventing the process. One example
was given of a dentist turned consolidation lender. There is a HUGE portfolio
from high-balance loans. At UB, Student Affairs now requires that lenders sign
in through financial aid and Kevin needs to approve. Sometimes lenders are coming in sideways
through fraternities. They are Pre-signing
these students up, who go into it believing that the school is sanctioning the
lender. Alumni association has
agreements with lenders that do not consult financial aid. We primarily see students who have gotten
mailings. Questions abound on private
loan consolidation. There are concerns
about students wanting to reconsolidate a consolidation loan. Fly-by-night consolidation firms will no
longer be around, they will be sold on the secondary market. These companies will impersonate the school
and the lenders, as well as the federal government. Some pretty shady business practices. Legitimate lenders get tarred with the same
brush. The single-holder rule should
force students to go through the lender.
Sallie Mae lost almost a billion dollars in loans that were consolidated
out from under them when these students often did not have loans with multiple
lenders. Some smaller lenders were
taking months to consolidate. Date of
application is crucial. Lenders were
hiring people left and right to handle the phone and email volume. Training for these people is
questionable. Consolidation training is
being done at many of the campuses. Debt
volume is extremely high for many of these students. Loan forgiveness is a much more viable
repayment option. Particularly for Perkins,
Health Professions, Primary care loans.
If these loans are consolidated then these students loans the
option.
Low default rates
exemptions for 30-day delays for first-time borrowers & single disbursements
for loans. Schools must have the low
cohort default rate for three years.
Need to conference with your Bursar’s office as NYSOBA has not
Please note: November 16th at Classics &
November 17th at St. Bonaventure for the High School Counselors Workshops.
HESC Administrative
Workshops will be held in December.
Lea had something that
was ½ and issue and ½ a rant. A lender
indicated that they were a preferred lender of
Karen Blankenburg asked
if schools are packaging and sending out loans to lenders to be certified. Some schools are waiting because the addendum
regarding the new interest rate structure.
Guaranty Agencies and Lenders are not all on the same page as to who
will be responsible for collecting the addendum. None of the lenders have seen the
addendum. Some schools are reluctant to
certify loans until they know what will be happening with the addendum. The
question is whether or not proof of signature will be necessary.
Next Meeting:
Thursday, May 18th
– 9:00 a.m.
Originally
scheduled for Caudel Hall
As of 5/15/06
relocated to Moot Hall #113 (Building 19 on the map)