TG Updates

TG board of directors elects new executive officers
The TG board of directors has elected a new slate of executive officers to serve for the 2007 fiscal year. Tommy Brooks, executive vice president and chief financial officer for Unity National Bank, has been named chair of the board. Dora Ann Verde, partner with the public accounting firm of Garza/Gonzalez & Associates, will serve as vice chair; and Yvonne Batts, president and owner of Batts Communications Inc., will serve as board secretary.

Customer care profile: College of the Southwest and TG Loans By Web™
Simplicity in the student loan application process is something everyone values — students and financial aid offices. Online or Web-based tools, like TG Loans By Web (Loans By Web), offer just that. Students like the convenience of completing an application at their leisure. Administrators like being able to track essential documents like master promissory notes more efficiently.

Reach out to students and families with free resources from AIE™
In early August, TG launched a redesign of its award-winning college and career planning website — Adventures In Education (AIE). As part of that effort, TG created printed materials that feature the new look and that address questions about college and careers. TG made these materials available to educators last week as one more way to reach out to students and families planning for school and a career. Colleges can use these materials in working with their own student populations; or they can provide them to high schools with which they work in their outreach efforts.

Read the latest Edufacts™ — October 2006
The October 2006 edition of Edufacts highlights the cost of a higher education at Texas two-year colleges.

Trends and Issues

Question of the week
Once a student with a defaulted loan has had his or her Title IV aid eligibility reinstated, can the school certify a new loan for the student for the full academic year (including previous terms in the year)?

Common Manual

2006 Common Manual has arrived
The 2006 annual update of the Common Manual is here. The update contains all of the policies approved since the July 2005 update, including numerous policies derived from the passage of the Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005 (HERA). The inclusion of these HERA policies is the reason that the annual update is being issued in October, instead of in the traditional release month of July.

This, That, and the Other...

More parents are joining their children on road trips to various campuses before their son or daughter decides on a college. According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling, 74 percent of colleges and universities reported a rise in campus visits in 2005 over 2004. Why the increase? According to a New York Times article on the phenomenon, many parents take these "education vacations" to see what kind of school they're spending their money on. They're also interested in sharing quality time with their children before they go off to school. For many parents, these trips offer a "rite of passage," an experience by which to bond with their son or daughter before he or she begins leading an independent, essentially separate life.