University Business - January 2007 - (Page 32)

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It’s another door people can use to gain access to this valuable information. That is what access is about, creating many doors to accurate information.” Karen Lanning, NCHELP’s vice president for communications and research, encourages those in higher ed to visit College Access to ensure their state’s programs are listed. DOUBLE DUTY Also working to increase college access is the Education Finance Council EFC , a trade association representing not-forproﬁt and state-based student loan secondary market organizations. These organizations are committed to making college more aﬀordable. Some EFC members are also NCHELP members, so the two organizations keep each other informed. While distinct from the College Access Initiative, EFC’s goals are the same. EFC established an outreach and access committee last year to increase, improve, and ensure access to vital college outreach programs and services for students and families. The committee analyzes and studies issues related to programs and services designed to broaden college access and awareness and develops recommendations for improving and coordinating such programs and related services in order to better serve students, families, communities, and states. Services include: • outreach/early awareness programs. • scholarship/scholarship search related programs. • college planning centers. • financial literacy programs. • specialized websites. • counseling services. • college entrance exam preparation and assistance programs. • customized programs for elementary, 32 | January 2007 middle, and high school students. • loan forgiveness programs. “The student loan community [has] been involved in college outreach for years. As issues relating to college access have gained prominence in the higher education community, the media, and on Capitol Hill, these outreach efforts have received greater attention, and appropriately so,” says Alexa Marrero, vice president for communications and industry relations at EFC. “It’s an exciting time to be involved in the college outreach arena.” MULTILEVEL COLLABORATION Guaranty agencies have partnered with organizations at every level to increase college access. At the national level, these agencies or nontraditional learners to help guide them to postsecondary or training education programs. Some of these local partnerships include organizations like public libraries, youth centers, parent-child centers, 4-H groups, community service organizations, churches, YMCA-type groups, public television, and Junior Achievement. For example, a guaranty agency in one state partners with a nonprofit’s Tax Assistance Program TAP . The agency provides training for 1,600 TAP tax assistance volunteers so they can also assist with FAFSA completion questions. As a result, in 2005 TAP volunteers helped more than 1,100 individuals complete a FAFSA. MORE COLLABORATION: COLLEGES’ ROLE Brooks and Lanning see financial aid administrators as a vital piece of the college access puzzle because they are a direct link to students and have the ability to show people that college can be affordable. The work group is looking into ways to collaborate with financial aid advisors to leverage their knowledge of financial aid to dispel widely accepted myths that college is not affordable or not worth the cost. “We look forward to working closely with financial aid administrators,” Lanning says, adding that administrators should reach out to state guaranty agencies. As Brooks notes, every group that collaborates on college access brings an important piece to address one of the many complex challenges that deters students from attending college. Significantly increasing access among low-income, minority, and first-generation students will take the combined effort of these organizations because it’s such a complex problem. “ I n c r e a s i n g college access among underrepresented students is not easy,” Brooks says. “If it was easy we would have solved it by now.” But he is optimistic, highlighting the recent focus on college access as a sign that real progress is being made in this area. “We have not really seen this type of focus on economic diversity since the ‘70s,” he says. universitybusiness.com “It’s an exciting time to be involved in the college outreach arena.” —Alexa Marrero, Education Finance Council participate with college access groups like the National College Access Network NCAN , the Pathways to College Network, the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships, the Council for Opportunity in Education, the Jump$tart Coalition, College Goal Sunday, the Lumina Foundation, the College Board, the Pell Institute, and Excelencia in Education. At the state level, guaranty agencies work with K-16 public and private schools. In addition, many work closely with the state coordinating boards, associations of independent colleges and universities, higher education commissions, and state financial aid associations on services and programs. The agencies also provide materials and training to state departments of Education, Labor, Children and Family Services, Corrections, Community Health, Rehabilitation Services, and Career and Technical Education. Locally, agencies have formed partnerships to provide training to help program leaders who interact with at-risk students FinAid.indd 32 12/15/06 12:08:18 PM Warning : Unknown : The session id contains invalid characters, valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in Unknown on line 0 Warning : Unknown : Failed to write session data files . Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct /var/lib/php/session in Unknown on line 0 http://universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - January 2007

Contents
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Editor's Note
Sense of Place
Stats Watch
People Watch
Viewpoint
Human Resources
Money Matters
Marketing
Financial Aid
Community Colleges
Missed Connections
Escuse Me: Can you Spare a Million?
The Associate
Media Relations Boot Camp
Admissions Administrators Speak Out
Business Technology
What's New
Calendar of Events
Direct Connect
End Note

University Business - January 2007