Federal Updates

Secretary of Education releases plan for purchasing loans and restoring FFELP liquidity
In a letter to the chief executive officers of FFELP lenders released on May 21, ED Secretary Margaret Spellings outlined a four-part contingency plan with the goal of "ensuring continued and timely access to federal student loans for all eligible student and parent borrowers." The letter is ED's first widespread public response to the authority it was granted in the "Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of 2008" (P.L. 110-227) and comes on the heels of a series of meetings with FFELP industry participants over the last several weeks.

Congress passes another HEA extension
This most recent extension, S. 3035, is the fourth such bill to be approved in the last 7 months. S. 3035 is a clean extension of the HEA through June 30, 2008, and has been sent to the president for his signature.

TG Updates

Two new members appointed to TG's Board of Directors
Michael J. Savoie of Justin, Texas, and Steven Wroe Jackson of Austin, Texas, will serve terms expiring January 31, 2011. Savoie, who will be one of four education representatives on TG’s 11-member governing board, replaces Phil Diebel of Denton, who resigned. Jackson replaces Sade Johnson of Houston, who also resigned, as the student representative on the panel.

Creating a college-going culture: With help from TG, the University of North Texas designs a "pipeline" for college access and persistence
Offering college access to more first-generation students is a challenge many schools are taking up. For the University of North Texas (UNT), the focus is on the long-term. UNT wants to create a "college-going culture" — that is, a community that treats college as the expectation.

The training difference: TG presents at Faulkner State Community College
Last spring, Dr. Samuel O. Chuks, director of financial assistance at Faulkner State Community College saw TG's senior corporate trainer Pat Woods lead a session at an industry conference. He came away so impressed with her interactive approach that he invited Pat — through TG's Speakers Bureau — to present several Speakers Bureau sessions for his staff.

Trends and Issues

Question of the week
After a school has fully disbursed a student's Stafford loan, it learns that the student received a scholarship for that period of enrollment. The student is now overawarded, but since the loan was fully disbursed, the school is not required to return any loan funds to the lender. However, can the school elect to do so to reduce the student's indebtedness?

This, That, and the Other...

Like most people, college students prefer an electronic way of managing their money. According to a new survey of 1,547 college students conducted by Higher One — a company that sells a suite of online banking services to institutions of higher education and their students — many students rely on debit cards and online tools to handle their finances.

In the Digital Age, this may not be such a surprising finding; however, the fact that about 11 percent of students have never been to a bank to make a transaction is interesting. Seven out of 10 prefer to use a debit card when making a purchase. Only 16 percent are likely or very likely to use a credit card.

In other findings: Nearly half of the respondents say that they're saving at least five percent of their income; a fifth invest their money in some way. Also, about two-thirds of respondents reported that they were confident in their ability to manage money.

Read the complete Campus Technology article on the survey at http://campustechnology.com/articles/63154/.