Minutes - April 5, 2007

 

Attendance

 

AFC                                                    Rachel Barker

Buffalo State College                       Lisa Morrisson & Yvonne Nagel

Canisius College                              Curt Gaume, Mary Koehneke, Lea Nicholson & Michele Rizzo

Citibank                                              Laura Worley

Daemen College                               Mary Costello

EdAmerica                                        Holly Z.

Erie Community College                  Sarah Izzo

First Niagara Bank                           Michael Woody

ITT Technical Institute                       Aimee Murch & Becky Strathearn

KeyBank                                            Jerome Moss

HSBC                                                 Sherrie Shepard

Medaille College                               Jean Branicky, Karen Miller &

                                                            Jeanne Mossios

M & T Bank                                        Kathleen Armstrong

Nelnet                                     Andy Leardini & Carrie Newman

Next Student                                      Theresa Gieseke

NY State HESC                                 Marc Woolf

PNC                                                    Patty Peterson

Sallie Mae                                          Jennifer Pollard

Student Capital                                 Dan Dunn & Katrina Delgrosso

Student Loan Xpress                        Brian Levy

Trocaire College                               Terry Adamczyk & Julie Smith

University at Buffalo              Brent McEnroe & Kevin Ryan

USA Funds Services                        Debra Eddy

Villa Maria College                           Diane Kasprzak & Sister Mary Diane Miller

Wachovia                                           Karen Blankenburg

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome & Introductions -Kevin Ryan

Thank you Lisa for organizing and hosting today’s meeting.  Janet McGrath is still out recovering from spinal surgery.  We have received a Thank You card for the flowers we had delivered in March.  She expects to be back to work in May.  She is definitely missed and the Region sends out our best wishes.

 

Future Meeting Dates

Ÿ         5/24/07 - St. Bonaventure

Ÿ         June 2007 - TBA

 

June meeting - rather than doing a large event - a suggestion was made to have a picnic.  In the past, picnics were held at Letchworth.  The membership felt that this might be a good idea. Team building (like at Beaver Hollow), Holly Z. suggested that many of our campuses have trainers on site.  Excellent facilities at Beaver Hollow for team-building activities. Chestnut Ridge is one suggestion for location, reasonable fee for shelter.  Could set up a drop-off from an area restaurant.  Holly Z. thinks she might have someone available at no cost.  Sister Diane Miller suggested the Diocesan retreat center.  She will look into it. Usually the last Thursday in June, but the Admissions Advisor workshop is scheduled that day. Region 2 is looking into doing the Buffalo Bills Training Camp at St. John Fisher. The week before, maybe June 21st. The NOCO pavilion behind the Sheridan Golf Course. Delaware Park has a Casino that could be rented.

 

 

Treasurer’s Report - Brent McEnroe

 

Balance as of 03/15/2007: $2,796.91

 

Minus: $123.35 Check #506 Canisius College Region 1 Meeting (03/15/2007)

Equals: $2,673.56

 

Ending Balance as of 04/05/2007: $2,673.56

 

Does not include check image fee of $2.00 for March or April.

 

2007 Novice Training - SUNY Cobleskill - Sunday, 6/3/07 - Friday 6/8/07 - Registration is now open if anyone is sending someone. Training is now limited to 120 people.

 

Committee Updates

Next Admissions Advisor workshop meeting is scheduled for 4/16.

 

Webletter items need to be submitted to Laura Worley by May 25th.  Next issue to come out June 2007.

 

Shane Rauh has joined Student Capital to cover the eastern region of New York.  Dan Dunn will continue to cover regions 1, 2 & 3.

 

EASFAAA local arrangements committee are seeking volunteers to help them (Rachel & Marc) man the table and help with managing local trips. Rachel is sending around a volunteer sign-up sheet.

 

Karen Blankenburg - as there were no volunteers for the long range planning committee for Region I, Cindy Ryan from Wachovia will be volunteering to chair the committee for our Region I.

 

EASFAA - Charity Event - Holly seeking someone to act as a cub-chair for a piece of this event with the Community Missions of Greater Niagara. EASFAAA members will be able to help out with hands-on shopping, preparing, serving & cleaning up the meal. Also, a clothing drive is being put together for the center to provide clothing for interviews and first couple weeks on the job. Donation & sorting of clothing will be needed. Community Missions makes an effort to keep the site landscaped and in good repair in order to allow the consumers to maintain their dignity. Silent auction will also be held, seeking donations. Mike McGraw is working on the logistics of the Silent Auction. Need volunteers for sub-chair for food pantry & clothing drive. Zenada from Puerto Rico and Holly Z are co-chairing this event.  Often monetary donations are preferable to canned good donations as it allows them to go and buy food in bulk at a deep discount. Seeking two people from this group today to commit to be the sub-chair/point person. Volunteer pleas can also be sent out on the listserv. Web publicity also requires a writing expert. The reality is that this conference is in out Region and we should step up! 

 

HESC update - Marc Woolf

 

NYS Budget Update

There has been Legislative approval regarding the 2007-2008 NY State budget, and by mid-month HESC will make TAP Awards available to students and colleges.  A processing schedule will be published shortly on www.hesc.org.  The budget made minor changes to TAP that will apply for accelerated student and remedial programs, which will be described separately in a forthcoming bulletin.

 

Hold the Date-SESC Annual Loan Symposium

Please mark your calendars for the 3rd annual HESC Loan Symposium, which will be held from September 19-20 in Saratoga Springs.  Registration details and program information will be forwarded prior to the event.  In the near future, HESC will be seeking Loan Symposium session proposals on relevant student loan topics of general interest to the NYSFAAA membership.

 

Preferred Lender Lists

With all of the recent discussions regarding preferred lender lists, HESC wants to remind school colleagues of the following:

 

-Since its inception, HESC’s e-MPN process had provided borrowers with the ability to select any HESC originating lender, including a school’s preferred lender(s)

-Under www.hesc.org ’s “Paying for College” link, NYS students and families have access to HESC’s “Student Loan Lender Directory”.  The directory contains a complete list of HESC’s originating lender and can be searched by lender name or lender code

HESC Communications Center Quick Guide for College Administrators

HESC recently announced a new toll free number specifically for financial aid administrators: 1-866-431-HESC (4372).  The number is staffed from Monday-Friday from 8 am - 4:45 pm

 

Please refer to the following link http://www.hesc.com/content.nsf/ca/Communications_Center_Quick_Reference_for_College_Administrators for a “Quick Guide for College Administrators”

 

State Budget - legislative approval for the budget has happened, awarding will begin to be available 4/13. 4/16 eligible students will begin to be able to view TAP awards online. 

 

Retirement Dinner - Irv Bodofsky - 5/11/07

 

School, Lender & Guarantor New

 

USA funds held first workshop…in May, webcast for - great free trainings - get link info

 

First Niagara went zero fees this month

 

Current Events Discussion - Andrew Cuomo’s press releases and responses.  SUNY is imposing a series of very strict guidelines. They are prevented at UB from bringing in lenders to assist with exits, printing, etc.  All SUNY schools should obtain a copy of the 30-page document that SUNY put out detailing what schools can and cannot do.  Holly recommends that all school representatives should not take this lying down.  We should all be responding to this, we need to realize that some of the directors are under such an enormous amount of stress.  The implication of this is that financial aid personnel are unethical individuals.  This morning’s newspaper has an editorial praising Andrew Cuomo for rooting out the evil in the financial aid industry. State-operated campuses were required to sign this document without any input from the financial aid offices. The Code of Conduct is impacting all of us. Legislation is the likely next step. We as lenders and financial aid people will be required to do certain things and prohibited from certain activities in running our offices.  We are being forced into Direct Lending by the legislation that Cuomo and his connections are likely to be introduced.  Schools are now meeting with families that have caught wind of this controversy.  So far the contact has been limited. The press has not contacted our financial aid office; it has been briefly on the news. There is no question that Cuomo has a PR plan to unveil things in succession in order to build the controversy.  This settlement last week was with the schools listed and the few lenders that were mentioned in the law suit. This also only applied to the private loan piece of the business rather than FFEL.  CICU is having a meeting on Monday. Warren, Dave Canaski, Mark Humbert.  What is the lending community being told? Karen B - per Neg Reg nothing will expect to be going through until October. Business as usual with the exception of heavy dinners & tickets.  Citibank is going back to Cuomo and saying what is nominal, what are items of value…Many schools are canceling print pieces, and other business.  Never represent themselves as employees of the school, only promotional piece is their logo. Definitions are not out there, cannot have things that are co-branded. No co-branding?  Sunshine Bill committee is reviewing the business of the top several lenders in terms of volume. We are also discovering that there are agreements that Financial Aid is not aware of - alumni associations, athletic department, etc.

 

Training portion:  Creativity Workshop:  Tools to Enhance Your Creativity