WASFAA Committee Report
Committee: Graduate Professional Issues Committee
Meeting Date: 06/14-6/15 Meeting Location: Phoenix, AZ
Report Type:
Quarterly
Annual
Submitted by: Colleen MacDonald
Summary of Activities:
The Graduate Professional Issues Commttee began soliciting members through the
ATAC website and
Current members:
Colleen MacDonald, EDFUND
Heather Mattioli, Portland State University
Ana Ayala-Cuellar, Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine (AZ)
Danette Iyall, Seattle University
Daniel Roddick, Key Bank
Kimberly Cortijo, Sallie Mae Consolidation
Deena Lager, Sallie Mae Graduate Professional
We plan to reach out ot other volunteers through the following means:
•
Contact the Volunteer Chair to cross check if any WASFAA volunteers, not
previously placed in another committee but who identified themselves as serving
the GP community when registering.
•
Solicit volunteers through email communication directly to the GP community
by working with Membership on a list of all schools who self identified as serving the
GP community when registering.
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•
Working with the WASFAA State Presidents to assist in
locating/recommending their members for committees to achieve state
representation to the extent possible.
We would like to have representation from other states and sectors as well as
attempt to increase gender and diversity members. Particularly, it would be great to
have representation from adminstrators at a Medical, Law, Divinity, Business, Other
Graduate, and an office which serves all students (from undergraduate to PhDs).
We are hoping to make improvements in our membership in the next two months.
WASFAA Graduate Professional Issues Committee Goals for 2007-08
1.
Bring issues of relevance to graduate and professional aid administrators
and students to the attention of the Association and the Executive Council.
2.
Respond with endorsement of the Executive Council, to any State or Federal
Issues with a Graduate and Professional perspective.
3.
Advise other committees when Graduate and Professional concerns need to
be addressed and ensure Graduate and Professional representation on all
appropriate committees.
4.
Work with the Conference Committee to ensure interest sessions are
presented with graduate and professional aid administrators' needs in mind.
5.
Submit Graduate and Professional related articles for inclusion in every
WASFAA Newsletter as well as send at least one article or communication to each
state within the WASFAA region.
These goals align with Strategic Plan goals #1, to collaborate and coordinate with
conference committee in order to serve our members more applicable training and
professional development opportunities; #2, to communicate the public policy
decisions; and #7, to improve the methods of communication with membership.
Selected GP Related Activities
NASFAA "Financing Graduate Education: Guide for Prospective Students"
The NASFAA Graduate and Professional Issues Committee (GPIC) announced the
availability of the "Financing Graduate Education: Guide for Prospective Students"
(http://www.nasfaa.org/PDFs/2007/GradBrochure.pdf).The guide provides
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information, additional resources, and useful Web sites to give students a jump start
on finding financial aid and planning for their graduate education.
The brochure describes:
•
Financial aid eligibility criteria
•
The basic application process
•
Resources for debt management
•
Further information for securing graduate or professional financial aid
The four-page brochure (http://www.nasfaa.org/PDFs/2007/GradBrochure.pdf) is
available in a PDF version on the NASFAA Web site. You can link to the brochure
at this location, download and duplicate the document for distribution, or post on
your own site.
CASFAA Graduate Professional Issues Committee "Do Talk" Workshops
On June 6 & 7, CASFAA held its annual GPIC "Do Talk" Workshops, which
focused on "The Current Landscape: Update and Discussion." Speakers included
Scott Fleming, Assistant Director of Chartwell Education (former lead higher
education policy staff member for the US Senate Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pension), Richard George, President and CEO of Great Lakes Higher
Education Corporation (recent participant negotiator in the 2007 US Department of
Education negotiated rulemaking committee for Title IV loan issues), and Nancy
Coolidge, Coordinator of Student Financial Support for the University of California
Office of the President. The following was discussed:
•
Department of Education proposed rulemaking: Highlighted school officials’
inability to serve on lender’s advisory boards; lenders inability to pay loan
application referral or processing fee; lender’s restricted to only providing items of
nominal.
•
Attorney General Cuomo’s Code of Conduct: Highlighted colleges’ prohibition
from receiving anything of value to serve on lender’s advisory boards; requirement
that all preferred lender lists clearly and fully disclose the criteria and process to
select preferred lenders as well as students’ right of their choice; lender’s restricted
to only providing items of nominal; requirement that lenders must identify
themselves to students lenders, not as employees of schools.
•
Congress: Highlighted House-passed version of the Student Loan Sunshine
Act mirroring Cuomo’s Code of Conduct, Kennedy’s version of the Student Loan
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Sunshine Act, and Enzi’s bill banning preferred lender lists, prohibiting unsolicited
mailings, and placing consequences on schools violating code of conduct
requirements.
Similarities as well as differences were highlighted by speakers. In addition,
speakers hypothesized on what the passages of these requirements would mean
for the educational finance and financial aid communities.
Roundtable discussions were held to create intimate forums where participants
could talk about:
•
Changes based on the news to lender lists, websites, materials given to
students, and processing.
•
Advocacy efforts, such as letters to the editor, blogs, and contacts to lawmakers
•
Communications with students based on their inquiries and schools’
responses
•
Ethics in the industry as demonstrated through statements of principles and
whether self-policing is an option
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