Fall 2003 Newsletter

Fall 2003 RMASFAA Decentralized Training
October 29, 2003 at the SLCC's Miller campus
Note: This training was originally scheduled on November 6 at the same location.

The focus for this year's training is student eligibility. Issues will include: Academic requirements for admission vs. eligibility for Title IV Aid Database matches Citizenship/eligible noncitizens Overpayment/default Veteran's status and definition Drug convictions and criteria for rehabilitation programs Impact of institutional policies on student eligibility Enrollment status tracking Regaining/losing eligibility

The registration fee is $67.00.

UHEAA Has Begun Servicing Loans in Repayment

UHEAA's Loan Servicing Center in Salt Lake City has begun "live" servicing of student loans in repayment. "We began servicing loans in repayment on target in the first quarter," said Michael Nemelka, UHEAA's associate executive director for Loan Program Business Operations. "Beginning in March, we have retained the servicing of a small number of first-time borrowers in-house each month in our Portfolio Servicing area. We intend to limit the growth of the repayment portfolio to ensure our operations are fully in place and working effectively. We want to get it right!"

Last fall, UHEAA announced it intended to expand its servicing operation to include the capability of offering "life-of-loan" servicing. By servicing its own loans from origination to repayment, UHEAA believes it can:

Provide higher quality, more focused service to borrowers—UHEAA services UHEAA borrowers
Be more responsive to the needs of student and parent borrowers—borrowers call the same place from origination through repayment
Be more responsive to the needs of schools—schools call one place regardless of the student's status
Promote closer cooperation between lenders, schools, and borrowers on servicing issues and problems
Provide better feedback on delinquency and default trends

Through December, UHEAA in-house servicing will continue to limit the number of first-time borrowers to several hundred each month. Once UHEAA senior executives are confident that all required processes and procedures are in place and ready, all first-time borrowers will be transferred to in-house servicing. As of July 30, 2003 the in-house repayment servicing portfolio contained 1,302 borrowers with 2,880 loans totaling $8,239,282.02 outstanding. By calendar year-end, the in-house portfolio is projected to exceed 5,000 borrowers and 10,000 loans.

As part of the repayment servicing set up, UHEAA also reorganized its Loan Program Operations Division. A new Borrower Services area was created to handle all incoming and outgoing borrower telephone contact. Other areas were reorganized and renamed to improve processes and increase efficiency. A summary of some of the key operational groups involved in repayment servicing follows:

Borrower Services – Combined inbound and outbound call-center, handling all borrower telephone inquires and communications. Borrower Services handles borrower telephone inquiries regardless of status. In other words, students in school or in grace, as well as students in repayment, may call Borrower Services for "one-stop" assistance no matter what their problem or question. Borrower Services can be reached locally or toll-free at respectively (801) 321-7294 or (877) 336-7378.

Borrower Services is managed by Jon Hazelgren, (801) 366-8411 or jhazelgren@utahsbr.edu.

Account Services – Manages all account and loan updates, deferments and forbearances, borrower correspondence, and payment processing. Account Services is managed by Randie Bales, (801) 321-7190 or rbales@utahsbr.edu.

Loan Origination Services – Manages all origination activities, including disbursements, refunds, and enrollment reporting. Loan Origination is the primary source of assistance and support for schools regarding guarantee, origination, and disbursement issues. All questions and problems concerning loan origination may be referred to Loan Origination for "one-stop" assistance. Their local and toll-free numbers are respectively (801) 321-7236 and (877) 336-7397. Loan Origination Services is managed by Teri Vig, (801) 321-7223 or tvig@utahsbr.edu.

Document Services – Manages all incoming and outgoing mail, imaging, and file room operations. Document Services is managed by Dean Cox, (801) 321-7230 or dcox@utahsbr.edu.

Locate Services – Manages all skip tracing activities for UHEAA. Locate Services is led by Richard Robbins, (801) 321-7270 or rrobbins@utahsbr.edu.

Another key area of successful servicing is the recruitment and training of new front-line staff. According to Mr. Nemelka, "A very important part of creating a successful servicing center is training. We have created a comprehensive training program that emphasizes those principals and skills required to effectively service student loans. As we add loan volume, recruiting, training, and retaining quality employees will be both our primary objective and our primary concern. We cannot over-emphasize the importance of this." As of July, UHEAA has added twelve new employees.

Letter from NASFAA President Addresses Reauthorization
www.NASFAA.org/publications/2003/nmartinreauthletter081903.html

August 18, 2003

Dear NASFAA Member:

In September, we anticipate that the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and the House Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness will begin markups to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA). I am writing with two important requests as we enter this time of increased legislative activity.

We need you to stay focused on critical financial aid issues.
We need your involvement in the legislative process as never before.

Reauthorization always deals with a complex array of issues, but this year much of the discussion has focused broadly on affordability, accountability, and access. Certainly, there can be widespread agreement on these general themes, but it is during the legislative process where such ideas are given specificity. Several legislative initiatives under consideration could have a significant impact on the operation of your institution, affecting such practices as how you admit students, how you set your tuition policy, and how you are accountable to your various constituencies.

While these issues are critical to all of us—and particularly to many of the higher education associations that represent college presidents, business and admissions officers, faculty, and state officials—they are not central to the process of providing assistance to students or to the daily operations of the financial aid office. NASFAA is and will continue to be an active participant in the coordinated efforts of the higher education associations to address creatively these broader legislative initiatives. However, we will focus the majority of our efforts on matters directly related to increasing and improving the delivery of federal aid dollars to needy students.

We believe many lawmakers are sincere in raising broader issues such as affordability, accountability, and access. However, giving attention to these matters can divert efforts away from other topics that go to the core of our interests as financial aid administrators. Furthermore, in the current economic and political climate, some believe that these issues are being used to diffuse the discussion of the issues we care about most.

Clearly we cannot allow this to happen, but NASFAA cannot succeed alone. It is imperative that you and your colleagues become and stay involved on matters that directly affect your students, your office, and your work. If we are unified in communicating our core needs to Congress—such as the need to increase grant funding and the need to raise loan limits—then we are more likely to achieve our goals.

We recognize that this is an extremely busy time for you, but unfortunately we cannot control the Congress's schedule. Therefore, we will try to be judicious about our requests for your assistance. In the coming weeks, we will share more specifics with you and outline the steps that must be taken to help us to reach our goals. As you know, NASFAA has developed a comprehensive set of recommendations, some of which are different from the approaches taken by other groups. Where possible, we continue to work toward consensus proposals with partners in the student aid arena. While we note that some of the consensus proposals may differ from NASFAA's initial recommendations, we expect them to embrace the fundamental goals and policy positions that have been approved by NASFAA's Board of Directors. We anticipate that details of these community consensus proposals may be available soon.

Our past experience has shown that it is essential for the higher education community to speak with a unified voice. With your help and support of these recommendations, we can actively focus Congress's attention on critical student aid matters and succeed in reauthorizing a Higher Education Act that will efficiently and effectively deliver financial aid funds to needy students across the nation.

Again, thank you for your continued support and willingness to help us send the right message to Members of Congress.

Sincerely,
Dallas Martin
NASFAA President

Printed by permission of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA).

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