Spotlight on the States
Kansas | Nebraska | Utah
President's Message from KASFAA (Kansas)
Greetings fellow RMASFAA members! My, have we been busy in Kansas this fall. Schools are seeing gains in enrollment despite tuition increases. All this activity makes our offices and our jobs much more challenging and important. What great job security!
KASFAA is looking forward to our Fall 2002 conference October 23-25 in Salina, KS. Our theme is "At the Crossroads. Where do we go from here?" We have an exciting web page and on-line registration to go with this theme.
Decentralized training, neophyte training, election of a new secretary, vice-president, and president-elect, are all part of our fall business at hand. Our good will project is to bring items of winter outerwear clothing that will be donated to "Ashby House" in Salina. KASFAA enjoys excellent participation in our two yearly conferences. One always looks forward to seeing our colleagues and taking some time to learn and relax.
KASFAA continues to work towards on-line communication as an excellent and timely vehicle to stay in close contact with our members. Newsletters, conference registrations, and elections of officers are becoming routine procedures on-line.
I see our greatest challenge as making it through reauthorization and being able to affect change to make our lives more productive and the process less intimidating for the student and family. Hopefully, by the time you read this, we will have managed to convince Congress that we need to continue regulatory relief for schools with low default rates. If not, we certainly will have taken a step backward.
Personally, I am looking forward to fall. I still get excited about the holiday season that follows. Professionally, I treasure working in a career with such caring individuals, and will enjoy seeing all of you in Bismark, ND.
Annita Huff
President's Message from Nebraska
NeASFAA members held their annual spring conference in Kearney, NE at the end of April. The conference theme was "A Year at the Movies: Celebrating 35 Years in the Biz." The highlight of the conference was the 35th anniversary gala celebration held on Thursday evening.
Ritchie Morrow from the University of Nebraska at Omaha coordinated a slide show of NeASFAA members over the past 35 years. It was fun to see pictures of long-time members and to see how far we've come in the past 35 years. Ritchie also asked several members to share their favorite NeASFAA memory with the group. Many terrific personal and professional stories were shared with the group during this time.
NeASFAA recognized several members with the lifetime achievement award. This award was given to 23 individuals who have served in the financial aid profession for 20 years or more.
The awards program was the culminating event of the evening. Paula Kohles, Creighton University, was honored with NeASFAA's highest award, the Bob Minturn Distinguished Service Award. Daphne Hall, Nelnet, received the Distinguished Service Award. Angie Miller, University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Michelle Reeson, Midland Lutheran College, both received Rookie of the Year Awards. Stacey Musil, Foundation for Educational Services, received the Feel the Excitement Award. The Professional Development Committee, chaired by Daphne Hall, was the committee of the year.
During the conference, many NeASFAA historical things were displayed. Special thanks to Bob and Judi Walker for taking the time to organize all of NeASFAA's important papers. They spent countless hours going through minutes, treasurer's reports, and lots of other things! Once they decided what to keep, they placed everything in 3-ring binders. Hopefully, this will become a valuable resource for many years to come.
It has been a pleasure serving on the RMASFAA Board of Directors this past year. It has been a very rewarding experience working with so many wonderful people!
Caroline Routh
Utah Update
The Financial Aid Office at Salt Lake Community College is currently undergoing major transitions. Along with all the budget cuts that other schools are suffering, we are also moving from SIS Plus to Banner. Although financial aid offices are used to change - just look at what we go through every year - this has been a real challenge. In addition, I started as Director in June of 2000 and have instituted major changes in the way we do business.
Banner is an Oracle based system - which is completely different from the "flat" system we have used. The ties between Financial Aid, Registration, Academics, Business Office, Payroll and Human Resources are much more involved and any change can affect several other areas. This is a challenge that our institution has never really had to deal with before. Now we actually have to "talk" to other offices before making changes. Fortunately, SLCC was able to hire a Database Administrator to try to coordinate the updates and changes.
Within our office we have an excellent Assistant Director of Technical Operation, Michelle Walton, who has taken the lead on setting up all the forms. She has kept us on task and moving ahead. In fact, the SIS consultants complemented our office on how well we were progressing. Training, as always, has been a major undertaking. It's almost as if we were moving from paper tracking to a computer tracking system. Employees are currently required to navigate through one computer system for 2001-02 and a different system for 2002-03... and the systems have no similarities. We are also moving from manual to automatic packaging. While the set-up has been involved and exhausting, in two packaging cycles we were able to award what normally took 16 weeks by hand. A major success!
We are also changing the way we do business. In the past, a student would come up to our window to turn in paperwork. They would talk to a front desk employee who would do a nominal review of the paperwork. Now, when a student comes in, they meet with a technician who does a complete review of all paperwork - even if the student is not selected for verification. If a correction is required, it can be done at that time. If the correction is complicated, the student will see an advisor immediately. If the student does not want to wait, that information is noted on their forms. We are hoping this solves the "no one told me I needed that" scenario, which we always encounter.
These changes will require a realignment of responsibilities. Advisors will no longer spend 75% of their time manually packaging students. They will be able to do more outreach with students and parents. Because of other changes at our institution, they will probably begin conducting high school visits, along with our Student Outreach Office. The front desk will transition to a complete review of forms, rather than just taking in paperwork. One of our employees will become a "front-end manager", keeping track of who is available to see students and how long it is taking. We are also in the process of creating some new positions in our Financial Aid Office, which are funded with this year's tuition increase - a Scholarship Specialist being one of them.
Lastly, we will be moving offices as soon as the remainder of our building is completed. Our administration is working towards removing barriers - so it looks like our window will be a thing of the past. We are also setting up computers within the financial aid office that will be accessible to students to complete FAFSA on the web, do loan entrance and exit counseling, and search for scholarships.
By this time next year we will have a new Financial Aid Office at Salt Lake Community College.
Cristi Easton
Director of Financial Aid
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