REGION II MEETING

CHURCHVILLE PARK, ROCHESTER

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2005

 

 

ATTENDANCE

 

Schools:

Continental School of Beauty:  Charla Buckner

Eastman School of Music:  Gladys Torres

Genesee Community College:  Joe Bailey

Monroe Community College:  Mark Schwartz, Jerome St. Croix

Roberts Wesleyan College:  Jeff Wright, Steve Field, Laura McClelland, Kris Reed

SUNY Brockport:  Scott Atkinson

SUNY Geneseo:  Susan Romano, Archie Cureton, Andrea Mason

SUNY Geneseo Emeritus:  Ed Reiman

University of Rochester:  Corey Hill

University of Rochester School of Medicine:  Ellen Poole, Margaret Christian

 

Vendors:

Bank of America:  Darcie Stevens

Citibank:  Debi Mansour

Citizens Bank:  Jean Fura

Edamerica:  Holly Zaglaniczny

Fifth Third Bank:  Marc Woolf

Key Education Resources:  Kathleen O’Connell

M&T Bank:  Andy Leardini, Rick Ross

National Education:  Eddie Viera

Nellie Mae:  Katrina Delgrosso, Abbey Linsner

NYHESC:  Ed Gilbert

Sallie Mae:  Ithrene Cameron

Student Loan Xpress:  Brian Levy

Wachovia Education Finance:  Karen Blankenburg

 

Treasurer’s Report (Scott Atkinson for Nora Bell):

§          Balance = $520.88

 

Membership (Katrina Delgrosso):

§          05-06 NYSFAAA membership renewal/new applications are available on-line at www.nysfaaa.org.

§          With your membership, you will be signed up for the NYSFAAA listserv for 05-06, as long as you check that box in the membership renewal/new application.  You have to sign yourself up for the regional listservs separately—that is not automatically done for you.

§          Margaret Christian volunteered to take the Region II membership role starting in 05-06.  Thank you, Margaret!

 

Support Staff Workshop (Karen Blankenburg):

§          Cost was $826, which was less than the $950 they requested from NYSFAAA.

§          38 attendees

§          Evaluations were great.

§          If you would like to volunteer for this spring workshop in 2006, please let Karen know at karen.blankenburg@wachovia.com.  So far, we have 2 volunteers for the committee—Ro Monachino from GCC and Alton Johnson from University of Rochester.

 

Guidance Counselor Workshop (Jerome St. Croix for Nancy VanZetta):

§          Nancy is looking for volunteers for the committee to plan the workshops for this fall.  Please e-mail her at vanzetnm@flcc.edu .

§          Also looking for a location in the Rochester area to host the workshop.  Usually, we have 1 near/in Alfred and 1 near/in Rochester (late November/early December timeframe).

 

05-06 Region II Meeting Schedule (Jerome St. Croix):

§          Will continue with training topics.  Please let Susan Romano know if you have training topics you would like to see (romano@geneseo.edu). 

§          Meetings will be held in September, November, December, February, March, April or May and June.  Dates will be available in late August for the 05-06 meetings.  If other regions have meetings planned for 05-06, we will be careful to work around those. 

 

Executive Council (Jerome St. Croix for John Smith):

§          John Smith finished his term as the Exec Council rep.  Thank you, John, for serving Region II in this role.  Steve Dodds will be the new Exec Council rep for Region II.  There were no other Region II members who ran for this position, so no election was held for it.

 

Thank you to today’s sponsors for the extras that were needed (water, soda, doughnuts, etc.):

§          Edamerica, Nellie Mae, Student Loan Xpress and Key Education Resources

 

HESC Update (Ed Gilbert):

 

NYS Waives Insurance Fee

 

§          For the seventh year in a row, New York State is waiving a 1 percent insurance fee on student loans for one year starting July 1, 2005, saving college students and their families a record $25 million this year.

APTS Deadline Notification

 

§          HESC has implemented an automated e-mail system to notify schools of approaching deadlines for the submission of the Aid for Part-time Study (APTS) recipients and for the certification of the APTS roster.  The APTS coordinator and the TAP certification officer will receive the e-mail.

 

§          According to state law, schools must submit eligible recipients and replacements/deletions within 45 days of the add/drop date.  Certifications must be submitted within 45 days of the term end date or by July 30 of the current academic year, whichever is first.

 

§          Please verify the school’s add/drop dates and term-end dates on the college file Web page in G&S Transaction Processing on hesc.org. Please make sure e-mail addresses for the APTS coordinator and TAP certification officer are correct on HESC’s files.

 

§          Please contact John DeFazio at jdefazio@hesc.org with questions about APTS e-mail.

 

 

 

G&S 2005-06 Processing Update

 

§          Income Verification has been completed.  Award Certificates/Change forms are being mailed.  Summer Rosters became available June 1st.  Online Change forms will be available by the summer of 2005.

 

Student Status Listing

 

§          Beginning in June, the 2005-06 student status listing will be run each Friday;  the 2004-05 listing will be run once per month through December 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:

§          https://web.hesc.org/hescweb/main?target=topnav&selectedTab=1

 

§          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).

 

Preferred Lender List Options Expanded

 

§          As previously announced, HESC created separate preferred lender lists for Stafford undergraduate and graduate students. When a borrower completes an e-MPN, HESC asks Stafford borrowers for their level of education. Based on their response, HESC will display the undergraduate or graduate preferred lender list.

§          HESC also added another option for schools to have a graduate law and graduate medical preferred lender list displayed for graduate borrowers. When a borrower is asked for his or her level of education, a drop down box will display.

Schools will only create the graduate law or medical preferred lender list if it is different from the graduate or undergraduate list. If a graduate law or graduate medical preferred list is not found, a graduate list will be displayed. If a graduate list is not found, HESC will automatically display the undergraduate list to both graduate and undergraduate borrowers.

To add preferred lender lists, go to College Administrators and Lenders on www.hesc.org and click on College & Lender Transactions. Select HESC Web Transaction Processing and click on Loans via the Web. Sign in with your user ID and password. Click on the School Tab. Select View/Update Preferred Lender List. The drop down box has these selections:

§          Stafford – Undergraduate
Stafford – Graduate
Graduate – Law
Graduate – Medical
PLUS
Questions or comments regarding the use of HESC’s electronic products or services should be directed to the Solutions Team at solutions@hesc.org.

 

§          If you have any technical problems using HESC’s electronic services, contact the HESC Help Desk. To contact HESC toll free, call 1-888-NYS-HESC (1-888-697-4372) and follow the menu prompts.

 

§          Contact HESC’s Solution’s Team at (518) 473-0480, solutions@hesc.org for more information regarding preferred lender list options, or click on the attached bulletins which can be found on the College Administrators and Lenders link on hesc.org:

 

http://www.hesc.com/bulletin.nsf/0/0DE08DFC17391EBC8525700A0057701C?OpenDocument&a=SL

 

http://www.hesc.com/bulletin.nsf/0/D2A5E163F7E9F02C85256FC500591302?OpenDocument&a=SL.

 

Common Manual Policy Changes

 

§          The Common Manual Governing Board, of which the New York Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC) is one of 36 participants, has recently approved several policies to modify the Common Manual.

§          The electronic Common Manual, which can be found on the College Administrators and Lenders page on hesc.org, has been updated to include these changes. The effective date for each policy change is also provided.

If HESC has any specific comments or there are any operational advisories related to these policies, that information will be placed at the bottom of each policy labeled “Guarantor Comments.”

Questions regarding Common Manual policy issues should be directed to the Office of Counsel & Regulatory Compliance, at 1-888-NYSHESC (1-888-697-4372) press 2-2-3-3 or (518) 473-3986.

 

Loan Symposium—September 15-16, 2005

§          For schools (mostly directors and above) and lenders (lender reps and operations)

§          1.5 day symposium

§          Prime Hotel, Saratoga Springs

§          Lenders—please supply any topics you would like to Mike Williams (mwilliams@hesc.org) .

§          There will be more information about this symposium on the listservs soon.

 

Jim Ross was just recently confirmed as the official new President of HESC by the legislature.