From Jonna.Raney at okbu.edu Mon Dec 4 16:16:08 2017 From: Jonna.Raney at okbu.edu (Jonna Raney) Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2017 22:16:08 +0000 Subject: [Oasfaa] Verification change summary form? Message-ID: Does anyone have a form that you use for verification changes? I'm thinking of something that has the ISIR values in one column and the Verif changes in a second column so that we can track the changes made during verification. Way back in my memory, I remember a similar form being used during verification. (We have some Banner issues that won't allow us to make changes in Banner so I'd like the form so we can proceed with verification processes.) Thanks in advance, Jonna [Oklahoma Baptist University] Jonna Raney Director of Student Financial Services 405.585.5020 Oklahoma Baptist University -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From lperry at rose.edu Fri Dec 8 13:20:43 2017 From: lperry at rose.edu (Perry, Lori A.) Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2017 19:20:43 +0000 Subject: [Oasfaa] How do you identify students by phone? Message-ID: Hello OASFAA, Our office is trying to establish a FERPA compliant method to identify students over the phone before discussing their financial aid application. Do any of you have procedures in place that you are willing to share? Of particular concern are those potential students that have not yet enrolled in our institution but have applied for aid and are seeking assistance through the financial aid process. In dealing with these potential students we are not able to ask them to verify a unique institutional question such "give us the course number/name of a class in which you currently enrolled" for example. Thanks in advance for any suggestions and have a Happy Friday! Lori Lori Perry|Assistant Director|Financial Aid Office 6420 SE 15th Street|Midwest City, OK 73110 Voice 405.733.7424| Fax 405.736.0359 lperry at rose.edu [RSC-email-tag] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image003.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 4587 bytes Desc: image003.jpg URL: From imagee at osrhe.edu Mon Dec 11 14:10:22 2017 From: imagee at osrhe.edu (Magee, Irala) Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2017 20:10:22 +0000 Subject: [Oasfaa] Spring OTAG (2017-2018) Message-ID: <9f830c9fb63c445d8a633edd5f054b29@osrhe.edu> With Fall 2017 OTAG disbursement activity now finalized by most institutions, we have determined that we cannot extend the original FAFSA receipt deadline of December 1, 2016. Pre-populated Award Claim Forms generated by OTAG for Spring 2018 will include: * students who were awarded and disbursed in Fall 2017 * students who were awarded and subsequently cancelled in Fall 2017, unless they were cancelled due to a change in EFC greater than 1700 * students with award potential who were not awarded in fall but could be awarded in spring. Students included in an Excel pre-populated Award Claim Form for spring will be sorted in the following order: * Awarded * Cancelled * Pending On the Excel spreadsheet Award Claim Form this status will be displayed in Column J. On the Text Award Claim Form the status will be displayed in Field #11, Position 71. As in fall Award Claim Form reporting, institutions using the pre-populated form will need to delete information for students who should not be paid in spring (even if they were paid in fall) and edit the information as appropriate (FT/PT, over-awards, etc.) for the students to be paid in spring. Enrollment status for students that were awarded in the fall will be the same as reported on the fall Award Claim Form. Full-time enrollment status will be assumed for pending students. Please update as needed. If you would like to receive a "work copy" pre-populated Award Claim Form to assist you in identifying students who can be awarded in spring, please send a request to reports at otag.org. Please contact our office at 405.225.9456 or toll free 800.858.1840 or send e-mail to reports at otag.org if you have questions or require more information regarding spring OTAG awarding and disbursement processes. Happy Holidays! Irala K. Magee Director of Scholarship and Grant Administration Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education P.O. Box 108850 Oklahoma City, OK 73101-8850 (405) 225-9378 Fax (405) 225-9392 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu Wed Dec 20 13:43:25 2017 From: Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu (Schmerer, Mendy M. (HSC)) Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2017 19:43:25 +0000 Subject: [Oasfaa] FW: Graduate Students Escaped Tax Increases, but They Still Feel a Target on Their Backs In-Reply-To: References: <4A5E055888188F468A85436749F6FA400124EFA48C@NYMC-EX01.nymc.edu> Message-ID: Without starting a lot of political commentary, I want to share this email thread with you all to give you some food for thought. While the thread itself is in response to a graduate student-specific article, I believe the tenor of the article speaks to all of higher education. Regardless of where you identify on the political spectrum, I believe higher education is a greater political target now than ever before. The funding programs that directly impact our students, that many of our students heavily depend upon, are being adversely affected due to policy and budget decisions that are often based upon flawed logic (or none at all, opinions will vary), poor or skewed data, or assumptions not based in fact. Our legislators need to be reminded how extremely valuable higher education is to a successful civilization. Education changes lives - that of the student, the immediate family, and in most cases, the family for generations to come. Is the system flawed and need of improvement? Absolutely. Should the students suffer the brunt of ill-thought out policy? They should absolutely not. The proposal below was part of the tax bill currently awaiting Presidential signature and was not included in the final version. However this, and many other provisions that have passed in recent years that have chipped away at funding and eligibility highlights the fact that we, as financial aid administrators, need to barrage our legislators with our advocacy efforts since a reauthorization bill of the HEA has passed out of the House committee. Reauthorization is way overdue, and while the political climate we currently live in makes it uncertain if and when anything happens out of Congress, we must be prepared. Our legislators need to hear our voices, whether they like what we have to say not, they still need to hear it. Before reaching out to any federal legislators and/or staffers, talk to your administration. They need to know, if they don't already, how important our advocacy efforts are. However, you want to ensure you are following your institution's protocol in terms of any advocacy work you wish to do. Senator Jim Inhofe, https://www.inhofe.senate.gov/ Senator James Lankford, https://www.lankford.senate.gov/ Representative Jim Bridenstine, https://bridenstine.house.gov/ Representative Markwayne Mullin, https://mullin.house.gov/ Representative Frank Lucas, https://lucas.house.gov/ Representative Tom Cole, https://cole.house.gov/ Representative Steve Russell, https://russell.house.gov/ Have a safe and blessed break and a very merry Christmas! Mendy Schmerer, M.Ed. Director, Office of Student Financial Aid University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center 1106 N. Stonewall, Rm 301 Oklahoma City, OK 73117 (405) 271-2118, x 48817 (p) (405) 271-5446 (f) Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu http://www.ouhsc.edu/financialservices/SFA/ [FB-f-Logo__blue_29] Become our fan on Facebook: www.facebook.com/OUHSCFinancialAid CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE This email, including any attachments, contains information from The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, which may be confidential or privileged. The information is intended to be for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution, or use of the contents of this information is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately by a "reply to sender only" message and destroy all electronic and hard copies of the communication, including attachments. From: Graduate Professional Listserv [mailto:GRADPROF-L at LISTSERV.NASFAA.ORG] On Behalf Of David Sheridan Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2017 8:34 AM To: GRADPROF-L at LISTSERV.NASFAA.ORG Subject: Re: Graduate Students Escaped Tax Increases, but They Still Feel a Target on Their Backs Good morning folks, Justin is absolutely right...the fake populism that we're seeing in DC and elsewhere has created an environment that is unbelievably hostile towards higher education. American colleges and universities are widely considered to be the world's finest and most innovative, and have served the country as its most reliable economic incubator. No country has ever built up its economy and opportunity for its people by diminishing access to higher education, and that's what we're seeing a concerted effort towards. These tax cuts will leave a hole in the budget that can be used as an excuse for cuts to virtually every domestic spending program you can name, and higher ed is clearly at the top of the list for many so-called budget hawks. But of course you better believe that these legislators who have put higher ed opportunity in their budget crosshairs will all send their own kids to college. To answer Justin's perhaps rhetorical question, no, once the target is on students' backs, they're never in the clear. We have to roll up every sleeve folks, our students deserve no less. Even if your representatives in DC are 100% on the side of students and you know you can rely on their support for a strong commitment to education, don't let them forget. Even those who voted for this tax bill are hearing from lots of worried constituents now; make sure that all of them hear about the importance of higher ed and financial aid over and over and over. As always, my views are my views. Hope they're lots of others' though. David Sheridan Director of Financial Aid Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs 514 West 113th Street New York, NY 10025 212-854-3822 From: Graduate Professional Listserv [mailto:GRADPROF-L at LISTSERV.NASFAA.ORG] On Behalf Of Sozzo, Anthony Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2017 8:45 AM To: GRADPROF-L at LISTSERV.NASFAA.ORG Subject: Graduate Students Escaped Tax Increases, but They Still Feel a Target on Their Backs Posted on the www.nasfaa.org website and redistributed with permission. NASFAA President Justin Draeger is quoted... "I think there's a general assault on higher education right now," said Justin Draeger, the president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. "I think it's tied into a dangerous narrative in our country about elitism. It undervalues our most important resource, which is our inventiveness, our ingenuity, our ability to solve big problems. A lot of that work happens at graduate-level education." Graduate Students Escaped Tax Increases, but They Still Feel a Target on Their Backs "Samantha Hernandez was finishing up an argument for her dissertation about Latinos and affirmative action on Thursday when the emails started pouring in with the subject line 'Congratulations,'" The New York Times reports. "President Trump had finished a celebratory news conference to announce the completion of a sweeping overhaul of the nation's tax code, and graduates students were breathing a deep sigh of relief. House Republicans had targeted them for a hefty tax increase, one that many of them could not hope to pay, but they had escaped unscathed. The question now is this: Once lawmakers put a target on your back, are you ever really in the clear?" NASFAA President Justin Draeger is quoted. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 1364 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From chad.blew at okstate.edu Thu Dec 21 11:24:11 2017 From: chad.blew at okstate.edu (Blew, Chad) Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2017 17:24:11 +0000 Subject: [Oasfaa] Data sharing Message-ID: FYI – due to the comments made by a federal presenter at FSA that “a student is entitled to their information” (answering a question on whether we can use 3rd party forms as long as we give the form directly to the student) we will not be developing a generic needs-analysis document as I described below. Instead we’ll be completing the 3rd-party form but will give it to the student and will never submit it directly to the 3rd party. For paper trail purposes we’re making students sign a statement verifying we gave the completed document directly to them. Chad Blew Director Office of Scholarships & Financial Aid Oklahoma State University 119 Student Union | Stillwater, OK 74078 405-744-7440 financialaid.okstate.edu [ABO] From: Blew, Chad Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2017 4:56 PM To: oasfaa at lists.onenet.net Subject: Data sharing I called PTAC to ask them some questions about the new restriction on data sharing, specifically for 3rd-party aid providers. They confirmed that we cannot complete a 3rd-party needs analysis form and give it to the student and let the student give it to the provider. Even though we’re giving it directly to the student, if we’re completing a needs analysis document provided by a 3rd-party they consider it a violation of HEA. As some of us have discussed, we’ll probably move toward creating an official document we can give to students that will list the data most commonly requested by 3rd-party providers and hope that those providers will accept it in lieu of their own forms. Also - I don’t know about the rest of you, but we’ve been questioned on whether we could consider a tribal grant to be federal aid, since they are federally recognized entities. I doubted that would fly, but asked the question anyway. PTAC pointed out that it’s a moot point as the provision in HEA specifically pertains to Title IV aid, not all federal aid. So regardless, we can’t share information with the tribes. He did act as if further guidance may be issued soon. Which would be wonderful. Hopefully something will be shared at FSA. Chad Blew Director Office of Scholarships & Financial Aid Oklahoma State University 119 Student Union | Stillwater, OK 74078 405-744-7440 financialaid.okstate.edu [ABO] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 17947 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From cochrant at nsuok.edu Thu Dec 28 08:04:09 2017 From: cochrant at nsuok.edu (Teri Cochran) Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2017 08:04:09 -0600 Subject: [Oasfaa] Job Posting Message-ID: Northeastern State University is accepting applications for a Financial Aid Counselor. Job description and requirements can be found at *https://nsuok.peopleadmin.com/postings/4499 * Thank you, Teri Cochran -- Teri Cochran, Ed.D Director of Student Financial Services Northeastern State University 715 N Grand Ave Tahlequah, OK 74464 918-444-3456 How to Create a FSA ID How to Complete a FAFSA This electronic mail transmission ("EMT") and any attached documents may contain confidential and privileged information. Such information is intended solely for the use of the individual(s) to whom this EMT was intended to be sent. Any printing, disclosure, reproduction, distribution or taking of action based on the information herein by other than the intended recipient(s) is strictly prohibited. If you believe you have received this EMT in error, please notify me the sender by telephone or via return e-mail and delete this e-mail from your system. Thank You. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: