SFA Spring Conference
In the past, the Department of Education has hosted a spring conference for institutions involved with Direct Lending. This year for the first time, the conference was expanded to include FFEL schools as well. The conference was held March 6-8 in Baltimore, MD. Many important topics were presented and discussed. There were breakout sessions for discussions on many of the issues that concern all schools regarding debt management and default prevention. We were given an update on negotiated rulemaking as well as an overview of the Bush Administration Commitment to Improving Federal Student Aid.
Demonstrations were given on the School Portal and the soon to be operational Student Portal (this looks really great). These are very important tools that will help all those concerned with the financial aid process. Norm Finlinson, Director of Financial Aid at Brigham Young University served on a panel directed by Kay Jacks regarding managing student aid programs with integrity.
Issues were discussed regarding the PLUS Master Promissory Note. Alternative and Supplemental Loan Products were presented as a product to help cover rising costs of education and how they are being used by different institutions.
Other sessions of interest covered Common Origination and Disbursement, Entrance and Exit Counseling for loans, C Code Resolutions, the National Student Loan Data System Transfer Monitor Process, Distance Education, Direct Loan issues and many more interesting subjects.
Computer labs were available for hands-on demonstrations of the systems available to us that will make our day-to-day jobs easier to manage. The 2003 Spring Conference will be held March 5-7 in Kansas City, Kansas, at the Westin Crown Center. I would highly recommend this conference to everyone.
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