Federal Updates

In Washington this week: Pigs fly
Congress approved H.R. 4137, the Higher Education Opportunity Act, by an overwhelming majority, reauthorizing and extending the HEA for another five years.

ED provides instructions for submitting loan purchase program documents
ED released two Electronic Announcements (E-ANN) providing additional instructions for submitting documents for the loan participation purchase program authorized by the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of 2008 (ECASLA).

2009-10 Draft FAFSA out for review and comments
ED released a draft version of the 2009-10 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for community review and comments. ED has also posted a summary of the proposed changes and instructions for submitting comments.

Closed school corner
The Department of Education announces one new closure.

TG Updates

Order your 2008-09 TG Academic Year Planner
In today's work environment, time is a precious resource, and using it to the fullest is a challenging but essential task. To help, TG has created an easy-to-use daily planner you can order now.

Offer students the financial literacy basics with TG's online resources
TG offers a variety of financial literacy tools designed to help you teach students the basics of money management, including videos and a set of online interactive resources illustrating the consequences of poor credit card use.

Texas State Technical College Harlingen creates a learning community for students, thanks in part to a TG grant
The Texas State Technical College Harlingen (TSTC Harlingen) Harlingen, a 2-year college of the TSTC System, has designed a learning environment to support high school students interested in a technical profession. The program, called the Living and Learning Community, brings together high school students and TSTC Harlingen undergraduates who serve as mentors on technical topics.

Trends and Issues

Question of the week
Last week, ED announced that it would send new postscreening 2008-09 Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) transactions that may incorrectly indicate that a student has or is about to exceed Stafford aggregate loan limits. Can we just ignore these?

This, That, and the Other...

The Princeton Review recently released its Best 368 Colleges, ranking colleges and universities according to various topics, including a new "Green" category. A school's "Green Rating" measures how environmentally-friendly a school is, that is, whether the school's students have a campus quality of life that is healthy and sustainable; how well the school prepares its students for citizenship in a world defined by environmental challenges; and the school's overall commitment to environmental issues. The Princeton Review produces the list of best colleges on an annual basis from survey rankings gathered from thousands of students and parents.

Survey results show that interest is rising among students who wish to attend schools that practice, teach, and support environmentally responsible choices. Among 10,300 college applicants and parents of applicants surveyed, 63 percent said they would value having information about a college's commitment to the environment. About a quarter of respondents said such information would "strongly" or "very much" affect their decision — or their child's decision — to apply to or attend the school.

According to Rob Franek, vice president of Princeton Review and the annual book's author, many colleges and their student bodies are making a stronger commitment to environmental issues, including following greener practices, using resources more effectively, and even creating academic and research programs on the topic.

You can read the complete press release on the book and the new "Green Rating" at www.princetonreview.com/green/press-release.aspx?uidbadge=%07.