University Business - January 2007 - (Page 31)

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By Haley Chitty S TUDENT LOAN GUARANTY agencies did something relatively unusual when Congress was putt i n g together the Higher Education Reconciliation Act HERA , legislation that included wide-reaching student aid changes to create $12 billion in budget savings. They urged Congress to create more requirements and federal oversight over guaranty agencies’ activities. Not surprisingly, Congress obliged. The result: a provision known as the College Access Initiative, which requires guaranty agencies to help increase college access and develop a comprehensive listing of the postsecondary education opportunities, programs, publications, and other services available in their designated states. Complying was not a big stretch for guarantors because they have been actively working to increase college access, especially among underserved student populations like those from low-income families, minorities, and first-generation students. The College Access Initiative formalized a foundational role for guaranty agencies in promoting access and contributed to a growing effort among many organizations to increase college access. “We are pleased that Congress now has codiﬁed in federal law a role that USA Funds and many other guarantors have been performing for years,” says Gregory Ayers, vice president of policy and compliance of the guaranty agency USA Funds. “Guarantors have been instrumental in helping families—particularly those with no previous college experience—connect with the information, services, and ﬁnances they need to go to college.” The legislation encourages collective action where many people have been working in isolation. While guaranty agencies have actively promoted college access, they haven’t necessarily coordinated eﬀorts. The new legislation has motivated these organizations to share best practices and resources to more eﬀectively help students reach college. The results of this collaboration will help other groups promote higher education. To accomplish the goals of the College Access Initiative, the National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs NCHELP is facilitating a workgroup representing 24 guaranty agencies. Chaired by Steven Brooks, executive director of the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority, the workgroup has been meeting regularly to develop implementation plans to fulﬁll the initiative’s two main requirements: increasing college access and creating a central resource that lists all the college resources available in states. Brooks says the legislation is important because it sets a policy goal for the country that encourages collective action in an area where many people have been working in relative isolation. The result has been a ﬂood of idea sharing, coordination among programs, collaboration among college access eﬀorts, and increased publicity about college access. “It is the first time all these groups have collaborated,” Brooks notes. “The collaboration has begun to snowball and everyone is bringing a different piece to the table.” A CENTRAL ACCESS RESOURCE Working in conjunction with Mapping Your Future, an organization that provides free college, financial aid, and financial literacy services, the guaranty agencies created College Access http://going2college .org . The new website includes detailed information about the academic, emotional, and financial support available through mentoring and tutoring programs in each state, college access resource centers, college and financial aid awareness events, and state and federal financial aid. Links to relevant websites and a comprehensive list of postsecondary education opportunities, programs, publications, and other services available in states make the site a unique resource that connects all college resource programs. To expand the number of access programs on the site, particularly those Haley Chitty is assistant director of Communications for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators NASFAA . www.universitybusiness.com January 2007 | 31 FinAid.indd 31 12/15/06 12:07:49 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://going2college.org http://going2college.org http://www.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