North Dakota

NDASFAA News for RMASFAA Exchange – March 2006

The North Dakota Association of Student Financial Aid Administers (NDASFAA) is pleased to present its 2006 Board of Directors:

The 2006 NDASFAA Spring Conference will be held at the Spirit Lake Resort and Casino in Fort Totten, ND over March 29-31, 2006.

The conference, titled Spirit of Change will highlight topics such as:

• Satisfactory Progress and Treatment of Military Benefits by Devin Croft, DOE;
• The Leadership Pipeline by Sally Schuman, RMASFAA President, and;
• An Update and Discussion about the Reconciliation /HEA by Brett Leif, NCHELP and Devin Croft, DOE.

Other activities include a tour of Cankdeska Cikana Community College, motivational speakers and personal time at the casino. We look forward to seeing everyone there!

Transitions…

Ruth Gress of Dickinson State University left her position in the financial aid office on February 1, 2006. After 23 years of service in the financial aid field, Ruth took a position with a telephone company in Dickinson.

James Kennedy of North Dakota State University accepted the financial aid director position at Indiana State University. While remaining in the financial aid family, he will be missed in North Dakota

NDASFAA wishes both Ruth and James much success in their new endeavors.

Kansas

KASFAA College Goal Sunday 2006
By Cheryl Bellinger, College Goal Sunday Chair

What a great combination for our 2006 College Goal Sunday in Kansas! 867 students, over 220 volunteers, 40 scholarships given, 20 great sites and weather on the chilly side. It was a success after a lot of hard work done by every one of those volunteers. That is what makes College Goal Sunday work in Kansas. We certainly couldn’t do it without the dedicated Site Coordinators and volunteers who continue to come through every year for not only those two hours on a Sunday afternoon, but throughout the year. Since this is our eighth year doing College Goal Sunday, our High School Counselors have become one of the keys to getting the word out around the state. Counselors are ready the minute we come in the door with brochures and posters.

We had one volunteer who accidentally went to last year’s site and parents and students were there (shows what creatures of habit some of us are). The volunteer found a room and helped those parents and students before going over to the site he was supposed to be at. Now that is dedication to our goal.

Yes, we will always have more work to do to get students and parents prepared for their college adventure, but College Goal Sunday in Kansas is a start.

In Memory of Chris Martindale

KASFAA and RMASFAA lost a dear friend on February 28. She was diagnosed with cancer last summer just after finishing the Bike Across Kansas in July. Chris began her college career at Kansas Wesleyan University in the summer of 1986. She was a single mother of four children, twins Joshua and Jason, Becky, and Justin. By the spring semester of 1987, she knew she wanted to attend college full-time and made the sacrifices necessary for this to happen. She found tutoring history classes very fulfilling and loved teaching and helping others. That calling to help others led her to the financial assistance profession.

After beginning as a work-study student in the spring semester of 1987, she became the full-time Assistant Director of Financial Assistance in May, 1990 at Kansas Wesleyan University. In May, 1990 she graduated summa cum laude with a 3.978 GPA and majors in History and English and minor in Religion. Had she not received a "B" in a quiz out, she would have had a perfect 4.0 GPA. She continued to study, earning an Associate of Arts in Business Administration in December, 1993. She later went on to earn a Master's degree in Political History from Kansas State University. In September 1998 she left KWU to become the Financial Assistance Director at Kansas State University-Salina. After KWU began the Adult Professional Studies Program, she taught History courses. The students loved her! She continued her work at Kansas State until late summer.

Chris had a passion for exercise and she spent much time walking, biking, and on her treadmill. At financial aid conferences, we would often find Chris "relaxing" in the fitness center. Her grandson, Jourdan, was the light of her life. She loved to have him spend the night once or twice a week with her on the farm. She taught him at such a young age and made sure he had a Christian education and upbringing. She was devoted to her church, leading many studies over the years. Chris was originally from Phillipsburg, Kansas, and still has many family members living there. She was recently engaged to the love of her life, Larry Billinger. She really had no vices and the only fault one can think of was that she cared so much about the students she literally bore their burdens with each one. We rejoice with Chris as she is now in a place where there is no pain.

*Editors note – For a special memory of Chris, please link to this website to read an article that Chris wrote for the KASFAA newsletter in the spring of 2003.
http://www.kasfaa.org/docs/archives/newsletters/2003/Spring/clean.html

John Pappas has resigned his position with Chase Bank. John began a new career with Student Loan Xpress and will cover the states of Kansas and Nebraska.

Colorado

At the state level:

Broke versus Broken:
State higher education leaders have been working\debating with leaders of institutions over the future direction of state financial aid. State leaders have a belief that the current system in the state is broken due to a study they conducted. They believe that their study showed a vast majority of eligible, needy students do NOT receive any state aid. Financial aid professionals have mainly taken the position that the current system is fine. The problem is there simply is just NOT enough money being allocated to this area to go around.

The most recent proposal from the state is to basically “voucherize” state financial aid, which achieves the Commission's (Colorado Commission on Higher Education) goals of “making it (aid) transparent and demystifying college costs, transferable, no bait-n-switch, not rewarding price hikes with automatic financial aid hikes, etc.” This would replace the current system where schools are allocated dollars from the state and then award as they see best for their students and institution within a certain set of guidelines.

More to come on this topic for sure!

At the school level:

Erin Waitley, Financial Aid Advisor at Northeastern Junior College, Sterling, CO is the proud new mother of healthy daughter, Peyton Rohe, who arrived on 02/07/06. Peyton checked in at 7lbs, 12 oz.

Barbara Stapleton of Texas Guarantee is the proud new mother of Corinne Elizabeth. Corinne was born on January 18 at 8:33am. Corinne was 6 lbs, 12 oz and 20 3/4 in long.

Jaz Edmonds is welcomed as a new Financial Aid Advisor for the Office of Financial Aid at the University of Denver.

East joins West
Jim Swanson, Director of Financial Aid at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, CO and Jannette Parks, Associate Director of Financial Aid at Harvard College in Cambridge, MA wish to announce their elopement this past February where they shared and exchanged their vows and their life-long commitment to each other on an outcropping of rocks overlooking the Continental Divide in Rocky Mountain National Park. Jim and Jannette will share their love and life, and passion for the great outdoors, together in Colorado Springs. (Many thanks to the College Board and the PowerFAIDS Users Group for the opportunity for Jim and Jannette to meet!!) Jim looks forward to introducing Jannette to his RMASFAA friends and colleagues at future RMASFAA events

Pat McTee is the new Director of Financial Aid at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center (UCDHSC). A native of Nebraska, Pat hails most recently from UNLV, but worked a stint at NELNET and University of Missouri at Kansas City. He's happy to be back in Colorado.

CSU-Pueblo has a new Financial Aid Director, Sean McGivney. Sean was the director of financial aid at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and prior to that, he was the director of financial aid at the University of Vermont, College of Medicine. He also worked at that school as a financial aid officer in the undergraduate program.

Congratulations to Sandy Calhoun, CSU–Ft. Collins, who was selected (and an excellent choice, I may add) to run for a NASFAA, Representative-at-Large position.

At the association level:

It has been a very busy winter for CAFAA members who are currently working on 3 exciting projects. The first project is the distribution of very attractive CAFAA folders to prospective Spanish-speaking students and their parents. The folders consist of state and federal brochures and materials written in Spanish, along with a Spanish financial aid presentation on compact disc. Over 1200 folders have been distributed since October 2005 to statewide financial aid officers, high schools counselors, and organizations that perform student financial aid outreach in the late fall and early spring.

The second project is scheduled for March 21 at the Colorado State Capitol. CAFAA is sponsoring an early morning legislative coffee, which will give CAFAA members the opportunity to discuss important financial aid issues and concerns with Colorado legislators and their aides. Timing for the coffee is excellent as the Colorado Commission on Higher Education is currently working on “revamping” state financial aid funding.

For our third project, CAFAA is also taking the lead role in plans for the implementation of Colorado’s first College Goal Sunday to be held in February 2007. We are joining the many other states who are involved in this valuable outreach project, working with numerous other statewide organizations to make the FAFSA and financial aid a household name. We have enlisted the assistance of 2 retired CAFAA members, Karon Johnson from the University of Colorado at Boulder and Lydia McMillan from Regis University, to be the state and site coordinators for this project.

We anticipate that a large section of our membership will participate in all 3 of these events.

South Dakota

SDASFAA has been preparing for our 2006 Annual Conference, “Service to Our Students”, which will be held in Watertown, SD. This also happens to be the home of one of our most famous wild life artists, Terry Redlin. The conference committee has a great agenda in store for us on March 27-29, and will be followed by the Department of Education Fiscal Officer Training on March 30 ,also in Watertown.

Members have been busy as always at the start of 2006 with start of the new term, system updates for the new processing year, loading of 2006-07 federal results, and interpretation of HEA Reauthorization changes, some of which are effective July 1, 2006. What would we do with ourselves if the industry was the same each year... for in financial aid, we are all about change since we live it!

Reauthorization has changes impacting all facets of the association—schools, students, lenders and guarantee agencies. So this is a year of "if you snooze you loose", or at least a tougher time catching up with the ever-changing topography of student financial aid.

SDASFAA has the following good news announcements to share about our members:

Starla Russell of Western Dakota Technical Institute was elected as the 2006-07 South Dakota College Personnel Association Executive Board Technical/2-year Institutional Representative. Starla is the Director of Financial Aid at WDTI.

Mike Niles is a new South Dakota State University financial aid counselor. He began his duties on November 1, 2005.

New Additions to the SDASFAA Family over the winter

Bryce Eben of North American Baptist Seminary and his wife announce the birth of their new baby girl just after Christmas! Clara Ruth Kay Eben was born on 12/27/05 and weighted 8 lbs, 9 oz. Bryce is the Director of Enrollment Development of NABS.

Pam Lane of Northern State University and husband Mark had a baby boy on Monday, February 6. Gavin Richard Lane at 7 lbs, 14 oz, joins a big brother Carter who can't wait for him to grow a bit so they can play! Pam is the Assistant Director of Financial Aid at NSU.

Kim Nida of Black Hills State University and husband Aaron are proud first-time parents of their baby girl, Claire Elizabeth Nida. Claire arrived on February, 8 weighing 7 lbs, 7 oz. Kim is the Assistant Director of Financial Aid at BHSU.

Glen Poppinga, Kilian Community College, is a grandpa again! Andrew Joseph is Glen’s first grandson weighing in at 9 lbs, 1 oz. Now he has a granddaughter and a grandson to divide his attention.

AND, we have TWINS! Just in from South Dakota State University – Carrie Johnson and husband Jason became the proud parents of Joselyn Rose and Davis Wesley on February 27. Joselyn was born at 9:15 and Davis Wesley at 9:22. They both weighed 6 lbs, 13oz. They join 4 other siblings at home, (3 teenagers and 1 toddler). Oh what fun now and in the years to come!

Congratulations to these families on their new arrivals!

May the luck and blessings of the Irish be with you until we see you in Seattle at NASFAA or Salt Lake at RMASFAA in October!

Nebraska

James Harris, former ASAP/Union Bank & Trust campus director in Colorado, has been promoted to Regional Director for Nelnet. He will be covering Nebraska and all the RMASFAA states in his new role with Nelnet. Many NeASFAA members know Jim from the Summer Institute and RMASFAA conferences. Jim will begin his Nelnet duties with his attendance at the spring NeASFAA conference in Columbus.

Amanda Blue, Nelnet, will again be spending the majority of her time in Nebraska. Amanda has been reassigned to work with Nebraska and Kansas in her capacity with Integrated Solutions. Amanda’s technical knowledge and understanding of what Nebraska schools need and want will again provide NeASFAA members with quality service. Additionally, she will resurrect her NSA duties and coordinate the NSA activities in Nebraska.

Patty Rogers worked with the schools through Commercial Federal Bank through December 2, 2005. She is now employed by School Loans Corporation representing Bank of the West student loans. She can be reached at 800-990-2689, extension 236, or local cell number is 402-672-0155. Her new e-mail address is progers@bankoftheweststudentloans.com.

From Susan Hardy, Metropolitian Community College:
Susan Hardy, Metropolitan Community College would like to announce two new administrative appointments at Metropolitan Community College, Omaha, Nebraska. She is pleased to announce that effective April 3, 2006, Rhonda Carlson and Laura Thayer-Mencke will assume their new duties as Coordinators of Financial Aid.

The Clarkson College (Omaha) Student Financial Services Department, encompassing both the financial aid office and the student accounts office, has a new Student Financial Services Representative, Nikita Baskin, and a new Student Accounts Manager, Marty Povondra. Laurie Nading, Financial Aid Counselor, now has a full-time assistant. Randi Mann, formerly Clarkson College's Student Financial Services Representative, has been promoted to the position of Assistant Financial Aid Counselor.

The 2006 NeASFAA Spring Conference will be held April 19-21 at the New World Inn in Columbus, Nebraska. The theme is "The Best Never Rest!"

Utah

Salt Lake Community College is pleased to welcome Ruth Henneman as our new Scholarship Specialist. Ruth joins us from Westminster College where she was Director of Financial Aid. After 30 years of service to Westminster, Ruth thought it may be nice to make a change, but one that still allowed her to assist students in the pursuit of their educational goals. She was looking for something fun and challenging and SLCC is very fortunate to offer her the chance to continue a career that is close to her heart, one of helping students. Ruth has had a warm welcome from the staff and we are happy to have her as part of our team.

Also, Utah is still looking for a Director of Financial Aid at Weber State University, and obviously Westminster is now looking for a new director.

UASFAA will be holding its annual conference at SLCC April 26, 27 & 28. If you haven’t registered yet, please do so soon at www.uasfaa.org/conference.