Region 1 Regional Notes/Report

Notes/Report: DATE: March 27, 2008 - Region 1 Minutes NYSFAAA Region 1 Meeting 3/27/08 Attendees: Brent McEnroe-UB, Beverly Chudy-Hilbert, Julie Lanski- Hilbert, Michael Rivera-Chase Bank, Vince Scalise-CLC, Jeff Pagano- Daeman, Karen Miller-Medaille, Bob Neale-Medaille, Jeanne Mossios- Medaille, Laura Worley-Citibank, Jean Branicky-Medaille, Laurie Vorp- JCC, Lorraine Metz-D’Youville, Susan Barber-D’Youville, Sean Hudson- D’Youville, Jill Conlon-Canisius College, Marc Woolf-HESC, Kayann Taylor-Houghton, Marianne Loper-Houghton, Troy Martin-Houghton, Lynn Chilson-Buff State, Warren Hoffman-Buff State, Darcie Stephens-Bank of America, Megan Zeffalon-SUNY Fredonia, Sarah Miller-SUNY Fredonia, Kevin Ryan-UB, Dan Tramuta-SUNY Fredonia, Diane Kasprzak- Villa, Sister M. Diane Miller-Villa, Christina Horner-Villa, Curt Guame-Canisius, Dan Hunter-Emeritus-Buff State, Ithrene Cameron- Sallie Mae, Jennifer Pollard-Sallie Mae, Kevin Smith-Canisius, Mary Koehneke-Canisius, Michele Rizzo-Canisius, Ambrose Price II-Citizens Bank, Jerome Moss-Key Bank, Rachel Barker, Karen Blankenburg- Wachovia, Anne Barton-NSLP, Janet McGrath-Trocaire, Katrina Delgrosso-Chase, Debi Mansour-Citibank, Sandy Stevenson-Edfund, Maureen Salfi-Niagara University, Martie Howell-Niagara University, Holly Z.-Edamerica, Teresa Gieseke-TERI. SLATE One Year Later: Presented by John Austin Kevin Ryan: Introductions No April Meeting. The next meeting will be held at Buffalo State College on 5/15/08. Laura Worley will send out an e-mail checking to see if members still wish to have a June Meeting. Majority at March meeting voted yes to a meeting. Curt Guame and Heather are planning a training session across the state on SLATE. Brent Mcenroe: Made an announcement that Medaille College paid for the cost of the beveragesfor the last meeting and Canisius will do the same. Thank you Medaille and Canisius for your generous support. NYSFAAA Region 1 Meeting 3/27/2008 Canisius College Treasurer’s Report Balance as of 02/06/2008: $1,766.85 Minus: 03/06/08 $2.00 Check Image Fee Balance as of 03/27/08: $1,764.85 Dan Hunter is looking for volunteers for the mentoring program. National College Fair to be held April 1st & 2nd at the Buffalo Convention Center. NYSFAAA will be participating along with HESC. Kevin will send out information to inform the volunteers of where they need to go. Anne Barton asked if we could get brochures from the Dept. of ED. Curt Guame: Discussed what SLATE is all about. Indicated that John Austin did a great job on his presentation on SLATE. However feels that they are getting different messages Region to Region. Heather did a great job interpreting school vision. Anne Barton: Suggested that even though everyone is listening to John and Heather, however, working for a school or lender you should check with your legal attorneys and get their interpretation. This way if anything is said you will be able to place the responsibility on them as they reviewed the act and declared their interpretation. John Austin gave the impression that there is still time to submit your thoughts. Novice Training will be held at SUNY Brockport 6/7/08-6/13/08. Please ensure that everyone in your offices are NYSFAAA members and encourage anyone who is not to join. Marc Woolf: HESC Update FFEL lenders changing. An e-mail came out discussing how issues will be handled for lenders that are no longer participating in the FFEL program. HESC Update March 08 TAP Coach HESC is proud to announce a new comprehensive tool that assists college financial aid officers with TAP administration. The TAP Coach is designed to supplement the existing Programs, Policies and Procedures Manual (commonly referred to as the TAP Manual). TAP Coach contains detailed information on a variety of TAP-related topics. With an indexed format that enhances ease of use and links to related content in the TAP Manual, TAP Coach should provide you with valuable assistance for your day-to-day administrative duties. Topics include: Accelerated Study, ATB, Beneficial Placement, Financial Independence, Documentation, Duplicate Benefits, Part-time TAP, Residency, and much more… You can find TAP Coach under Transaction Support and Resources within the College Administrators section at HESC.org. New HESC EFAN User ID Applications Available On-Line On March 10, 2008, HESC implemented a new electronic application for Electronic Financial Aid Network User Identifications (EFAN User IDs). This application system has many convenient features including, on-line password resets, update user information, set up e-mail recipients for various HESC notifications and track the status of pending EFAN applications. Default Management Action Plan (Default MAP) As a service to schools, HESC’s Default Management experts will evaluate your school's current default management plan. Upon completion of the evaluation, HESC staff will suggest ways in which your efforts can be enhanced, and will provide any additional training that will assist your school in the implementation of any new practices. Upon completion of the evaluation, HESC staff will prepare a detailed report listing those practices which the school is currently utilizing and suggesting other default prevention techniques and services the school may want to consider. To schedule an evaluation or for additional information, contact Ed Gilbert at 518 473-3528 or egilbert@hesc.org. Ability to Benefit Exam Requirements For the spring 2008 term, students may take an approved ATB exam up to the last day of the term. This extension of the original time table accommodates the Spring 2008 restrictions limiting students to one of four ATB exams approved by the NYS Board of Regents. Beginning with the summer term of academic year 2008-09, students must take and pass one of the four approved exams within the institution's drop/add period or within 30 days of the first day of classes whichever is earlier to be eligible for a State award. If you have any questions contact Operational Services at (518) 474- 3552 or tappolicy@hesc.org New Residency Tracking System HESC is pleased to announce that its newly implemented Residency Tracking System has virtually eliminated duplicate Residency Affidavits. Now, when an affidavit is received, it is logged into an automated tracking system that rejects duplicates, substantially reducing processing time. As a reminder, please use the updated version of the Residency Affidavit, which can be downloaded at hesc.org in the Transaction Processing area, under Forms and Bulletins. Using an older version may cause delays in processing. Enhancements to TAP Application Status Inquiry for Students Students can now pinpoint the progress and status of their TAP application. When the student logs on to their account, the screen confirms that their application was created. It also shows the creation/submission date, the ISIR match date and the date the application files were sent to HESC. In addition, if the student did not complete the application process, it will show which reminder emails were sent to the student and whether an Express Tap Application has been printed, sent and returned for processing. Redesigned DocTrac Cover Sheet HESC has redesigned the DocTrac cover sheet which is used when faxing or e-mailing documents to HESC to ensure they go to the right people or into the right file. School officials may use the DocTrac process to track the progress of documents that maintain, update and correct information in a student’s loan, grant or TAP file, such as; TAP residency documentation, financial independence documentation, proof of dependency, federal and state income tax forms, and other time sensitive information. Please Note: TAP applications may not be processed using the DocTrac system. Download the DocTrac cover sheet at http://www.hesc.com/content.nsf/CA/1/HESC_DocTrac_Process Send the completed cover sheet, with the supporting documentation, to HESC via the dedicated DocTrac e-mail address: doctrac@hesc.org or DocTrac Fax: (518) 473-1414 For more specific information on the DocTrac service, contact HESC's Customer Communications Center at 1-866-431-4372 and ask for a DocTrac representative. HESC.org Home Page Refresh Beginning mid-March, visitors to HESC.org will be greeted by a new home page. The refreshed face of HESC will enhance the ability of students, families, borrowers and counselors to find the information they want, whether they speak English or Spanish, whether they live in New York or outside. Default Fee As previously announced, HESC will pay the default fee for all loans which have a beginning Period of Loan (POL) before May 1, 2008 to minimize any programming requirements for our customers. For example, if the beginning POL is April 30, 2008, HESC will pay the default fee. If the beginning POL is May 1, 2008, HESC will not pay the default fee. As of March 1, any requests for guarantee with a beginning Period of Loan May 1, 2008 or later, will be held. These records will be found under the School tab on the HESC loans web site. Once our programming is complete, the loans will be released to guarantee. There is no action needed on the school’s part. E-Find Now Available New York State Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC) is pleased to announce its latest enhancement to loan processing, E- Find. With E-Find school administrators can now search for a borrower by Unique ID or name. The exact Unique ID can be entered into the search box or there are two ways to search for a borrower by name: • Enter the first and last name for an exact match. All applications and loan records associated with that student and/or borrower will be located. • A wildcard search requires the full last name of the borrower and at least three letters of the first name along with a wildcard symbol, * or %. These characters can be used interchangeably. All borrowers who match the wildcard search criteria, along with application and loan records associated with each borrower, will be located. Questions or comments regarding the use of HESC electronic products or services should be directed to Priority Services at priorityservices@hesc.org. Mapping Your Future Website Redesign Mapping Your Future will launch a complete website redesign as of March 28, 2008. The redesign will refresh the look and feel, the way processes work, and how visitors link to Mapping Your Future, and the steps students follow to complete Online Student Loan Counseling. The redesign features take place in a new Web domain, MappingYourFuture.org – and will change the Website’s file structure and navigation. For complete details please read the February 2008 Mapping Your Future OSLC E-Newsletter available on-line at http://mapping-your- future.org/downloads/02-2008OSLCENews.html. Or contact Beth Ziehmer at feedback@mappingyourfuture.org or (573) 796-3730. New York’s College Goal Sunday New York’s College Goal Sunday program recently capped its second year of service with 15 public events held simultaneously at high schools and college campuses across New York State. More than 1,300 students and their families were served by more than 300 on-site volunteers, more than double the number served in 2007. New York students have greater state and federal financial aid opportunities if they use the single, FAFSA/TAP-on-the-Web application process. Therefore, New York’s College Goal Sunday objective is to provide online FAFSA and TAP application services to students in targeted locations that have a history of high financial need and disproportionately small online application rates. In 2008, our second year of operation, our success rate in meeting this objective was nearly 100% New York ‘s College Goal Sunday, funded by a three year grant from the Lumina Foundation for Education, is a collaborative public service project of the New York State Financial Aid Administrators Association (NYSFAAA), the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC), and hundreds of volunteer school counselors, college administrators, accounting professionals, teachers, parents, and others. April is Financial Literacy Month Did you know that: • 83% of college students have credit cards? • Most students have at least 3 cards? • Many students are accumulating debt at a record pace— averaging around $2,400 in credit card debt alone? With credit more available than ever, students need a financial education in order to make informed personal finance decisions and to use credit wisely. That's why HESC has created the Financial Awareness and Consumer Training for Students (FACTS) program. FACTS offers a series of financial literacy curriculums designed to help college administrators provide students with the financial information they need at this crucial point in their lives. Presented in modules and downloadable at any time, the FACTS program is convenient for administrators and an effective learning tool for students. Each module is targeted toward a different population of students and is accompanied by speaker's notes and handouts. In honor of National Financial Literacy Month—HESC invites you to review these curriculums within the College Administrators section of HESC.org under Debt Management & Default Prevention then Financial Literacy Programs. For more information on FACTS contact: Pam Jerome at 518 202-3521 or pjerome@hesc.org ED Extends Federal Stafford Loan Promissory Note ED has extended the expiration date for the current Federal Stafford Loan Master Promissory Note from 2/29/08 to 5/31/08. The current forms with the 2/29/08 expiration date will remain valid for use until new forms are approved and implemented. Direct questions regarding this guidance to the Office of Regulatory Compliance at (518) 473-3986, toll free at 1-866-431-HESC (1-866-431- 4372), press 6, or via email at askpolicy@hesc.org Dan Tramuta: Made a comment in reference to the issues and concerns about lender ID’s for schools of lenders that are no longer originating loans. POSTED BY: Kevin Ryan