TG Updates

TG leads national English-Spanish industry glossary initiative
TG has recently sponsored and led a national initiative to create an English-Spanish glossary of standard terms relating to student financial aid and postsecondary education. The glossary is free and available on TG's corporate website TG Online at www.tgslc.org/pdf/Spanish_glossary.pdf in an easily searchable Portable Document Format (PDF).

TG to offer industry, professional development training opportunities for schools, lenders
TG is initiating the year with a variety of opportunities for industry partners to enhance their knowledge, skills, and abilities. All training opportunities are offered at no cost for current and prospective partners. Registration is required.

Students, parents to receive answers about financial aid, FAFSA, and career during MYF chat
Students, parents, and high school counselors can get answers to their financial aid and career questions and receive assistance with completing the FAFSA during a chat event on the Mapping Your Future (MYF) website (http://mapping-your-future.org) on Tuesday, January 11, 2005, at 7 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Central, 5 p.m. Mountain, and 4 p.m. Pacific.

Federal Updates

ED amends guidance on post-120-day late disbursements
ED has modified guidance that it provided last June (see Shoptalk Online 259) concerning how a school requests to make a late disbursement beyond the 120-day timeframe allowed by federal regulations. At the recent Electronic Access Conferences, ED announced several revised procedures.

Trends and Issues

Student Title IV eligibility in various enrollment situations
When a new period of enrollment is about to begin at a school, the school's financial aid officers dream that each student who is receiving financial aid will register for and maintain full-time hours for the entire period. Unfortunately, that dream soon fades as many students change their enrollment statuses before and during the period of enrollment. Because we know that these changes will occur, it is useful to review how some typical student enrollment status changes affect a student's eligibility for Title IV aid.

This, That, and the Other...

Over the holidays, the Department of Education (ED) received a well-deserved gift — presidential recognition for its successful management practices.

In a recent press release, ED reported that it had been honored with the Presidential Award for Management Excellence. It was one of six federal agencies to receive the award out of more than 61 agencies nominated.

ED was selected for the award for various reasons, including: receiving its first clean audit in six years (and only the second in its history); effectively managing its annual budget of over $67 million; and maintaining one of the smallest federal agency staffs, despite having to manage the third-largest discretionary budget among cabinet-level agencies.

Read more about this accomplishment at http://www.ed.gov/news/
pressreleases/2004/12/
12202004.html.