State Update
Hilton Wilmington Riverside Hotel
Wilmington, NC
April 24, 2013
Steven E. Brooks
Executive Director
North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority
Legislative Update
• Essentially status quo funding from prior year
– Community College Grant
– Education Lottery Scholarship
• Funding limited to recurring budget from prior year
– Need Based Scholarship (Independent Colleges)
– UNC Need Based Grant
• Number of questions around
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Who is served /how they progress to degree (esp. re: UNC NBG)
Remedial courses and funding them
“Runners” (especially re: Community College Grant)
Do campuses do enough to raise private funds for needy
students? (UNC)
– Appropriate role of “merit” in need based aid (all)
Other issues of interest... Fate unknown
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New financial aid study?
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Lottery Bonus Grant?
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“Opportunity Scholarship Grant” - private K-12 < 300% fed. poverty guidelines?
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“Opportunity Scholarship Grant” for disabled children in private K-12?
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Optometry scholarship?
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Free CC tuition for students with minimum 3.0 grade point average (2015-16)?
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Repeal automatic “in-state” for all full scholarship recipients at UNC
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Child support to age 21 paid directly to a college if court orders?
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$1 tuition increase at community colleges to support financial assistance for nonneedy students in low enrollment/high demand programs
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Reinstate the tuition grant to graduates of NC School of Science and Math?
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Lottery-funded CC scholarship for veterans and needy students (2 per county)
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STEM Teacher Forgivable Education Loan (not FELS; “stringent academic” reminiscent of Teaching Fellows except at SEAA and for science, technology,
engineering, mathematics, and special education only)
Forgivable Education Loans for Service
2012-13
• 2,500 applications submitted
• 1,120 new students funded under FELS program
• 1,700 students renewed under former programs
• Net disbursed: $16,800,000
2013-14
• 3,684 applications received
• ~ 1,600 offers to students
• 1,500 estimated renewals
• Estimate $21.5m in disbursements
529 Update
3/31
Accounts
Dollars
2012
102,642
$951 Million
2013
116,147
$1.2 Billion
Increase
+13.2%
+25.1%
SEAA Training
• New Aid Administrator Training
– 25th session offered in March 2013
– 36 participants
– 750 Total participants trained to date
• Leadership Transition
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New Aid Session to be scheduled in the fall
Jane Kanipe – 10 years of leadership in training
Created and maintained our training materials
Has moved into a new role with school services
Thank you, Jane!
FAFSA Day
For 2013
• 4,540 students served in 100 counties
• 1,720 volunteers made this possible
Next Year: FAFSA Day will be February 22, 2014
– Locations in all 100 counties across North Carolina
– Help from NCASFAA and SECU makes this possible THANK YOU!
Robbie Schultz has led 13 FAFSA Days – since 2001
– Retiring before he has to do this even one more time
Congratulations, Robbie!
School Services Update
Verification numbers
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4 pilot campuses last year
13 schools – 11 community colleges plus 2 UNC
Expect approximately 35,000 students this year
Expect considerable out of state interest in 2014-2015
Why is the centralized verification service
desirable to campuses?
Address Institutional Challenges:
Federal Verification can result in
• More cost to fill seats
• Lower net tuition revenue if students enroll fewer hours
• Lose thousands of dollars if student does not enroll at all
• FA Staff does more paperwork than assisting students
• Negative perception of financial aid reflects on school
• Delayed aid disbursements create financial strain on college
• Extra work to monitor students’ accounts with estimated aid
• Need to provide emergency loans for distressed students
• Resulting difficulty in forecasting and financial projections
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Avoid Institutional Liabilities
Federal Verification is a large driver of liabilities
in program review findings
• Non-standard verification/extra documents
• produces conflicting information
• prolongs the process
• creates liability
• Insufficient technology support results in delays and errors
• Errors can create school liabilities and punitive damages
• Centralized verification lessens liabilities based on
inconsistencies and errors AND offers insurance protection
Centralized Verification Addresses Concerns
• Uses standard, fully compliant (and insured) system
• Verification completed more rapidly
• in 5-7 days; not 18-20 averaged nationwide
• Pilot schools report 50% more aid processed and available
by fall registration/fee payment deadline
• FA administrators reported more time with students most
likely to withdraw or defer enrollment
• Noticeable reduction in office visits and phone traffic during
verification cycle and fall registration
• Students “pleasantly shocked” by significant improvement in
process and, specifically, how quickly FA funds available
Additional school service to help campuses:
Default Prevention/ Student Retention and Success
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Advanced services and analytics to promote student satisfaction
and retention
Comprehensive financial education for all students during
enrollment
Targeted financial education for borrowers as they leave school
Regular contact with former students as their advocate in the
student loan area
Designed to comply with federal demands on campuses for
default prevention activities
Provide campus with power of 50 years experience preventing
defaults
Additional school services to help campuses
Open to your ideas on other outsourcing
1. Streamline burdensome campus chores
2. Free staff to engage in more meaningful work
3. Benefit students with more efficient, cost-effective services
4. Achieve consistency of result
CFNC Update
Data for most recent 12 months ending 3/31/2013
Accounts
Applications
Transcripts
521,220
486,024
332,463
Average visitors to CFNC during March 2013: 10,819 per day
Why the focus on CFNC in North Carolina?
We KNOW a lot about the benefits of education!
We also know Five Ways ED Pays
Takes the many tables in the research document
Education Pays 2012, and makes them simple.
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5.
Greater Wealth
More Security
Better Health
Closer Family
Stronger Community
Short video on Five Ways
For each of these Five Ways....
College Works
• New marketing campaign for CFNC
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33 billboards
24 television stations
44 radio stations
70 high school newspapers
• New middle school landing page:
– CFNC.org/Collegeworks
College Works and the “Open Path”
Dr. Mesmin Destin
Assistant Professor, Social Psychology
Northwestern University
Can early info about college & how to pay influence study
habits & parental support so that the path to college stays
open?
Experiment in two similar rooms of middle school students
1. Closed path: info on how much college costs
2. Open path: info on how much financial aid is available
3. Major increases in grades, study time, extra credit work when
path is open
4. We have just made a video of Dr. Destin discussing the open
path for our middle school students
Mesmin Destin video
Questions
and
Comments