Helping Others to Navigate the Choppy Waters of Financial Aid

1. Helping Others to Navigate the Choppy Waters of Financial Aid

2. Managing Your Responsibilities Cathy Shell Director of Financial Aid Lees-McRae College shell@lmc.edu (828) 898-8740

3. The FA Administrator Master of Multitasking!!

4. Managing Priorities • Prioritizing tasks • Define your priorities from highest to lowest • Daily • Monthly • Annual • Factor the unexpected into your plan • Employee absences • Volatile student issues • Demands from upper management • Use your business model • Anticipate the drama • Peak processing issues • Admissions expectations • Create a compliance calendar • List of all required campus reporting requirements • Master calendar shared by other campus offices • Used with project management software for resource management

5. Defining Expectations • Who • List of individuals that have expectations of you • Prioritize this list by importance • Identify the most effective communication style per individual • What • Ask for a list of expectations from superiors and campus partners • Request clarification of expectation for precise understanding if needed • Communicate resources needed to meet expectations • Identify technological needs and IT support • Request additional support if needed to meet expectations • When • Request dates and timelines of all expectations from superiors and campus partners • Create calendars for all time frames and deadlines

6. Financial Aid Team Organization • Match talent with Tasks • Customer service skills matched with student facing positions • Bilingual staff available for customer assistance • Technically advanced staff in key processing position • Quality assurance positions filled by detail oriented people • Identifying staff resources for peak processing • Incorporate peak processing time frames into master calendar • Review past processing statistics for accuracy • Partner with admissions for most up to date enrollment predictions • Understanding training needs • Conduct periodic file reviews for compliance training needs • Monitor feedback from students and campus partners for customer service related training

7. Financial Aid Team Organization • Onboarding new staff • Team interviews incorporating FA staff members • Clearly defined list of expectations for position • Hiring from within versus outside • Discipline/Counseling staff issues • Reviewing expectations of position • Discussing staff member’s role in the office and team contribution • Review of complaints from students or team members • Evaluation of performance using statistical examples avoiding hearsay or gossip • Document all counseling and coordinate with HR for all disciplinary actions • Creating a fun team atmosphere • Motivating staff through praise, appreciation and promotion • Celebrating milestones, diversity, anniversaries and birthdays • Frequent staff meetings with open discussion regarding policies and strategies • Incorporate staff contributions into policy or procedural changes accepting all input

8. Regulatory Reporting • State Reporting/ Certification • Federal reporting • FISAP • If campus is approved for campus based funds • Monthly and annual federal funds reconciliation • Coordination with fiscal office • Documenting completion • IPEDS • Financial aid data collection • SSCR • Clearinghouse response reports • 3rd party servicer information provided • Coordination with registrars office

9. Regulatory Reporting • Net Price Calculator • Annual updates on website • Annual Crime Reporting • Reported to the US Ed. • Published on college website • Included in annual notification • Student Right to Know annual notification • Basic financial aid information • General information about the school • Schools retention rate • Drug and alcohol abuse policy • Completion and graduation rate • Placement and types of employment • Types of graduate and professional programs that students completing a 4 year degree can obtain • Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act • Annual fire and safety reports

10. Daily Operations • Coordinating staff schedules • Fair and equitable • Best case scenario for everyone in the office • Match schedules to specific needs of staff • Prioritizing regulatory requirements • Timelines and deadlines • Campus partnerships • IPEDS reporting • Fiscal office reporting • SAP • SSCR

11. Daily Operations • Identifying student needs • Application processing • Support for students and parents • Resolving PIN and processing issues • Daily ISIR import • Review of System generated ISIRs • Communicating effectively • Notification of additional documentation • Resolution of C-Comments • Verification requirements • Follow up communications • Emphasizing the need to meet processing deadlines

12. Daily Operations • Timely awarding • Competitive award notification • Equitable distribution of institutional and campus based aid • Management of acceptance responses • Coordination with admissions team • Timely disbursements and delivery of funds • Sensitive to the needs of off campus students • Clear communication regarding expected delivery dates • Timely notification of disbursements • Managing disbursement cancellation requests

13. Partnerships with Other Campus Teams • Identify shared reporting requirements • IPEDS • SSCR • Clearinghouse rejected records • NSLDS Submittal • Gainful Employment • Coordination of completion and placement statistics • Student Right to Know annual notifications • Campus Security Report • Website updates • Communicating compliance updates • Shared campus responsibilities • Don’t shoot the messenger • Requesting automation or support from IT

14. Partnerships with Other Campus Teams • Registrar • Updating student SAP statuses • Monitoring students on appeal • Career Services • Coordination of information with default prevention team • Employment services for students on unemployment deferment • Admissions Team • Partnerships include • Sharing enrollment goals • Identifying at risk prospects • Managing institutional funding

15. Interfacing with Upper Management • Honest appraisal of staffing needs • Temporary assistance during peak processing • Budgetary guidelines for pay increases • Requesting support for automation • New reporting requirements • Updated communication • Strategic planning efforts • Policy and procedure updates • Compliance updates • Congressional initiatives • Impact to higher education

16. Mentoring • Find a mentor • Conferences • List serves • Be a mentor • Share your expertise • Train the next generation • Support your professional organizations and communities • NCASFAA/SASFAA committees • Support at conferences • High school outreach • Networking • Support is out there

17. Questions?

18. Veterans on our Campuses Rachel Cavenaugh Assistant Director of Financial Aid & Veterans Services Cape Fear Community College rcavenaugh@cfcc.edu 910-362-7317

19. Some Ideas: Veterans Center • Reserved for student veterans • Computers and printer • Fax service • VA Certifying official • Assistance with registration and advising • Coffee • Networking opportunities Veteran to Veteran mentor and tutor • Veterans volunteer to tutor and mentor each other in areas such as math, for example. “Veteran Friendly” • Veteran Friendly sticker on Faculty and Staff doors • Student veterans select those offices that are “veteran friendly” • Veteran Coordinator provides information to interested faculty/staff • Veterans Day Celebration

26. Best Practices at CFCC • Red White and Blue cords for graduates • Attendance Policy for veterans • Student ID’s marked as “veteran” • Representatives on campus to help with disability filings • Social gatherings for veterans and families on weekends • Student Veterans Club active and growing • Wooden funeral urns and canes for families of veterans & veterans • Helping veterans get service dogs

27. Questions?

28. Best Practices in the Financial Aid Office Joey Trogdon Asst. Director of Financial Aid and Veterans Affairs Randolph Community College

29. Best Practices • Know how much you can impact your institution, and use it to your advantage • Communicate externally and internally • Embrace Technology • Professional Engagement

30. Know Your Impact A professional journal article titled “The Relationship Between FAFSA Filing and Persistence Among First-Year Community College Students” noted that less than half of community college students actually file a FAFSA. However, full-time students that completed a FAFSA in their sample were 79% more likely to persist from Fall to Spring, after controlling for other predictors. The positive association between FAFSA filing and persistence is even stronger for part-time students in their sample as these students demonstrated 100% higher odds of persisting when compared to those who did not file. Journal Citation: McKinney, L., & Novak, H. (2013). The Relationship Between FAFSA Filing and Persistence Among First-Year Community College Students. Community College Review, 41(1), 63-85. doi:10.1177/0091552112469251

31. Know Your Impact…(cont.) • Financial Aid • Provides access to higher education for students from underprivileged backgrounds • Assists with recruitment • Increases retention • Increases persistence to graduation, which assists with local economic development • Affords students the opportunity to get work experience through the Federal Work Study Program • The impact is vast and profound!

32. Communication • Make sure you develop effective and current communication pieces for your students • Know trends and embrace them • Realize that they give a first impression • Develop communication pieces to send out to your division and/or institution(ex. Newsletter)

33. Embrace Technology • Equipment can be obsolete in a few short years – or even months. Some of the students we serve remember the days of learning to add using a basic calculator, now they are learning to use iPads and computers during retraining. • The pace of technological change has been drastic over the last 50 years. As Ramage noted in 2011, “Technological change is constant and its rate is accelerating exponentially”. Therefore we must stay curious, flexible, and unsatisfied with today’s standard of technological excellence. • What is considered excellent today may be considered average tomorrow. Journal Citation Ramage, T. (2011). What is next? Futuristic thinking for community colleges. New Directions For Community Colleges, 2011(154), 107-113. doi:10.1002/cc.451

34. Embrace Technology…(cont.) • Things you should consider: • Use your student management system to automate processes (ex. SAP reviews, packaging aid, etc.) • Utilize email HTML communications from your student management system • Allows you to create hyperlinks and embed pictures • Review your student population and demographics and see if social media and phone tree communications would be helpful • Use a document imaging system to go “paperless” • Create workflows for your office and online forms for your students

35. Professional Engagement • Serve on committees at your institution and in professional organizations • Allows you to learn, and expand, your knowledge at an institutional level and within your profession • Gives you the ability to see the bigger picture and plan accordingly

36. Questions?

37. Financial Aid…..As a Career?? Andrea Simpson Director of Financial Aid and Veterans Affairs Surry Community College simpsona@surry.edu (336) 386-3263

38. Flooding the market…. National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) • July 1, 2011- June 12, 2012 • 26 million undergraduates • 4 million graduate students How many planned to enter Financial Aid upon completion of college?

39. Working in Financial Aid is so hard! • Federal regulations are ever-changing. • We are overworked and underappreciated. • Students are unhappy, disrespectful, demanding….shall I go on? • And then there are the parents!!

40. Solution….

41. So why Financial Aid?? • Job security • Offices are understaffed and you are needed! • Awards for them = Rewards for you • $238.5 billion total financial aid awarded to students • Resources and support from so many angles

42. Financial Aid is a career! A career is built through investing… • Invest your time • Invest your energy • Invest yourself

43. Questions?

44. Advocacy & Volunteerism Amy Berrier Assistant Director for Operations The University of North Carolina at Greensboro alberrie@uncg.edu (336) 334-3372

45. Advocacy • Why should we be focused on advocacy? • Use your voice • Types of advocacy • On Campus • State • Regional • National • Ways to advocate • Letters to lawmakers • Visits to state lawmakers • Congressional visits on the Hill in DC

46. Contacting Legislators • To whom do you need to speak? Higher Education staffer? Legislative Director? • Important to know the office structure • Email, phone calls, snail mail – which do you use? • Phone call – see who you need to speak with, obtain an email address of that individual • Email – ok to use to request appointment, follow up with phone call to verify appointment • Do not use snail mail – takes too long to reach the individual • Use proper etiquette when contacting offices and/or individuals • What is it you want to say in an email? Phone call? • Important!!! Get approval from your institution before participating in advocacy efforts

47. Requesting Appointment • Be clear and concise in your request for an appointment • How many individuals will be attending the meeting with you? Not every office is the same size. • Who is attending the meeting? Provide that information to the staffer. • Responsiveness – especially when you have their attention • There are different staffers for each topic – higher education, veterans affairs, budget, and others • Reminder – not every Congressional office is organized in the same manner

48. Communication in Meeting • Be prepared with talking points. • What can happen at a meeting? • Talking point documents – leave behinds • Thank the staffer AND the Senator/Congressman • IMPORTANT – FOLLOW UP!!!

49. Reach out!! • Do you have questions? Fears? Concerns? Contact someone for help and advice! • Campus state/federal relations offices • NCASFAA Legislative Advisory Chair/Committee • Dana Kelly – dana.kelly@nelnet.net • SASFAA Legislative Relations Chair/Committee • phawkins@westga.edu • As of July 1st, Sharon Oliver – soliver@nccu.edu • NASFAA Staff • NCASFAA/SASFAA Executive Boards

50. NCASFAA • Be a member! http://www.ncasfaa.com/docs/forms/memApp.html • Request a mentor - http://www.ncasfaa.com/docs/memberservices/mentoring.html • Submit your volunteer form NOW for 2014-2015 • http://www.ncasfaa.com/docs/forms/memVolunteer.html • Committees – Conference, Legislative Advisory, Publicity & Publications, and others • Check out the different committees at http://www.ncasfaa.com/docs/inside/governingdocs/pandp3.html • Conference on-site volunteers • Network at conferences • 2 conferences every year - Fall & Spring • Fall 2014 – November 8-12, 2014 – Crowne Plaza Tennis & Golf Resort, Asheville, NC • Spring 2015 – April 11-15, 2015 – Holiday Inn Resort, Wrightsville Beach, NC • Listserv • Other NCASFAA events & opportunities • Find employment opportunities • http://www.ncasfaa.com/docs/toc_employment.html