TG Updates

TG redesigns its comprehensive Web site on college finance — TG Online

Innovation and a need to provide the best experience for users have been the guiding principles behind TG Online since its inception in 1995. TG Web site designers review the site on a regular basis to ensure its effectiveness and to plan enhancements that make it an even better resource for schools, lenders, borrowers, and students and their families.

The latest example of their efforts is now on view: TG has launched a redesign of TG Online (www.tgslc.org), which updates the site's look and incorporates customer feedback on issues of usability. The revised TG Online contains all of the great features of the present Web site but adds more — more tools, more content, and even better navigation.

TG Online serves as an all-purpose Web site for its many users. The site answers college finance questions for students, provides timely regulatory information for schools and lenders, and guides all of its users through the complex arena of the FFELP.

"With more school and lender partners, borrowers, families, and students relying on our site for information, we want to make it as easy as possible for them to find what they need," said Art Martinez, Web content director for TG's site. "By providing better navigational tools and re-organizing key areas of the site, our audience can find information more intuitively than ever."

Focus on enhancement
TG has been a pioneer in serving an online audience since it launched its first Web site in 1995. The latest incarnation of TG Online continues and adds to that tradition of customer service. Among other changes, you'll find innovations in these areas:

• Site reorganization — popular features such as TG products and training are expanded and quicker to find
• Timely communication — up-to-date news and messages are prominently featured
• Audience collaboration — an "e-mail this page" feature, print-from-page capability, and a text-only version make the site easier to share with others
• Intuitive navigation — a dynamic menu system and "quick links" streamline page navigation

"Our goal is to make a positive difference in the work lives of financial aid professionals and for students going to school," said Michael Gee, TG's assistant vice president of communications. "With the redesign, TG provides an even stronger informational resource to its many customers, one that helps to clarify financial aid processes and connect users to financial aid information in fast, intuitive ways."

Tell us what you think
Provide TG your thoughts and reactions to the redesigned site. Send an e-mail message to TG's Web site directors at webmaster@tgslc.org. Your comments and thoughts are greatly appreciated.

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TG and Council produce A School's Guide to Servicers and other resources for schools and students

TG and the Council for the Management of Educational Finance have recently completed work on several resources that help schools and students in the area of student loan default prevention and debt management.

The newly revised edition of A School's Guide to Servicers provides schools an overview of the work and responsibilities of servicers. A flyer titled Get the Facts on Forbearance offers students highly useful information on forbearance. And the final modules in the Council's training guide series provide help to financial aid professionals on how and what to communicate with borrowers.

"With these new resources we hope to give our schools, lenders, and servicers additional tools they need in order to best help the student," said Terry Bazán, co-chair of the Council and director of student financial assistance at Austin Community College. "Ultimately it is the intent of the Council to educate our student borrowers and help them make informed decisions so that they successfully repay their student loans."

Two publications
The revised A School's Guide to Servicers booklet looks closely at the role that servicers play in default aversion activities; it also describes how schools and servicers can build alliances with lenders and guarantors to more effectively assist borrowers with successful loan repayment.

TG and the Council have provided a useful flyer for borrowers as well. The Get the Facts on Forbearance leaflet helps students understand repayment and encourages them to learn more. The flyer, which is designed to fit in a standard business envelope, cautions students about the effects of forbearance. It also helps students distinguish between deferment and forbearance and suggests students research all their repayment options.

TG has added important information about forbearance to its site at www.tgslc.org/borrowers/forbearance/index.cfm. This section includes an online calculator designed to estimate the costs of forbearance. Students can use this tool to calculate accumulated interest, new loan balance, and new payment amount resulting from forbearance. The calculator can prove useful to call center customer service representatives and also financial aid administrators advising students.

Creating Consistency in Educational Finance: A training curriculum
This fall, the Council completed the final modules in its training curriculum, "Creating Consistency in Educational Finance." These guides are designed to train call center staff, including customer service representatives, supervisors, and managers; campus administrators; and lender representatives in the financial aid community.

With these modules, the Council intends to build consistency among the messages that borrowers receive when communicating with schools, lenders/servicers, and guarantors. The material presented in each module will complement other existing training materials. Training modules are also offered in the categories of Customer Service Representatives, Call Center Management, Campus Administrators, and Entrance and Exit Counseling.

"TG shares the concern that students are increasingly borrowing to pay for their postsecondary education, and commends the Council for its efforts to help students navigate the loan repayment process," said Sue McMillin, TG president and CEO. She added, "These resources add to an already impressive array of debt management tools developed by the Council and TG over the past 10 years."

To order
Publications are available to order through TG Online at www.tgslc.org/order/index.cfm.

To find out more about the Council More information about the Council is available at www.tgslc.org/council/index.cfm. For particular questions, contact Maria Luna-Torres, TG's director of educational finance initiatives, at (800) 252-9743, ext. 4632, or send an e-mail message to maria.luna-torres@tgslc.org.

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Spotlight on TG's Public Benefit Grant Program: Austin Community College

For FY 2007, TG awarded more than $3.5 million in competitive grants to 28 institutions and nonprofit organizations. Grant recipients will use this money to help ensure the academic access and success of college students, especially student populations that have been traditionally underrepresented on college campuses.

In this second in a series of grant profiles, Shoptalk Online looks closer at one of the recipients of TG's program: Austin Community College (ACC). As the eighth largest community college in the U.S., ACC boasts an enrollment of over 30,000 students, of which some 7,500 are full-time. ACC serves one of 50 community college districts in Texas, an area encompassing eight counties in Central Texas: Blanco, Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Gillespie, Gonzales, Travis, and Williamson.

TG's grant to ACC, which came to over $155,000, will be used to support ACC's "College Connection" outreach program and various need-based grants offered through the program.

The enrollment connection
ACC has crafted a unique and effective outreach service in its "College Connection" program. Provided at particular high school campuses throughout Central Texas, the program offers students direct access to ACC's admissions application, assessment, academic advising, career planning, student life information, and even campus tours. ACC targets schools with large minority populations and low college-going rates. The goal is to ensure students attend college and then steer a successful academic course through school.

Since its inception, "College Connection" has made college a reality for a growing number of high school students, many of whom may not have considered postsecondary education a viable option. In 2005, college enrollment at participating high schools increased more than 36 percent over the previous year; participants of the program are automatically offered admission to ACC once they graduate.

ACC wants to expand the program to every high school within its service area, including some eight rural independent school districts. TG's grant will help with this development, providing a significant boost to a program that will potentially benefit more than 60,000 students in 2007.

"ACC's 'College Connection' provides a model that other colleges and universities can use in their outreach efforts," said Jacob Fraire, TG's assistant vice president of educational alliances. "By bringing their enrollment services directly to high school campuses, ACC bypasses many of the barriers that have prevented some students from going to college. This direct approach will ensure more college access for minority students and students from poorer areas."

TG's funding will also help provide need-based grants in conjunction with other "College Connection" services. Qualified students who enroll at ACC will receive these need-based grants for their first and second semesters.

TG's award process
To receive funds, all 28 awarded institutions, including Austin Community College, had to submit proposals that addressed the issue of access to postsecondary education. More specifically, awards went to institutions with programs and services that focused on the needs of first-generation college students, students from high schools with low college-going rates, and/or students who are underrepresented in higher education.

To learn more
If you'd like to learn more about TG's Public Benefit Grant Program, you'll find a description of its purpose and process on TG Online at www.tgslc.org/publicbenefit.

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Looking to hone your leadership skills? Apply to TG's Financial Aid Leadership Symposium

TG offers a unique leadership development opportunity for professionals in financial aid. TG hosts its 2007 Financial Aid Leadership Symposium from February 5 - 9 at the TG Campus in Round Rock, Texas. The Symposium looks closely at particular qualities of leadership — vision, trust, motivation, teamwork, and change — within the context of the student financial aid community. Participants will interact in small-group projects and exercises, make individual presentations, and discuss real-world financial aid issues in an open forum. Throughout the workshop, attendees will hear from experts in financial aid and get the feedback of their colleagues and peers in the industry.

How can I attend the 2007 Symposium?
To apply, download the application forms from TG Online at www.tgslc.org/training/leaders/.

The application deadline is December 1, 2006. The fee for the symposium is $1,000 per participant, which includes the full week of classes and materials, as well as hotel accommodations and selected meals.

More information
To learn more about TG's Financial Aid Leadership Symposium, visit TG Online at www.tgslc.org/training/leaders/. You can also contact Tom Rebstock at (800) 252-9743, ext. 2835, or send an e-mail message to tom.rebstock@tgslc.org.

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Reporting Back: 2000

Since January, Shoptalk Online has marked TG's 25th year as a guarantor in the FFELP industry by looking back at the company's quarter century of work. No better time capsule of each year's projects and initiatives can be found than in TG's annual reports, a digest of the events and priorities which engaged TG resources during the year. The annual report for 2000 makes note of a number of milestones in various areas, including outreach, industry training, and technology products. All of these "millennial" efforts highlight ways in which TG continued to grow in terms of excellence of service and innovation of product. To illustrate, here are a few excerpts from that year's report:

"The theme of this year' annual report accurately demonstrates what we have become over the past twenty-one years. Like the brightest star in the night sky, our commitment and dedication to Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) participants guides others to Texas Guaranteed (TG), a source for access and opportunity.

"Fiscal year (FY) 2000 was an exceptional year by many measures. We provided 260,603 borrowers with more than 477,464 student loan guarantees totaling $2.0 billion. Out-of-state volume for FY 2000 totaled $64.5 million, surpassing FY 1999 volume of $34.7 million by nearly $30 million. The most recent report issued by the U.S. Department of Education indicated our default rate has declined from 11.7 percent in 1997 to 9.4 percent in 1998.

"To further fulfill our vision as the premier source of information, financing, and assistance for students and their families, we aggressively undertook several new initiatives during FY 2000. Among them are the following:

• Playing a major role in establishing the Texas Financial Aid Information Center (TFAIC), a one-stop source of financial aid information for all Texans, accessible toll-free;
• Awarding 33 Texas Guaranteed Grants to Texas colleges totaling $250,000;
• Partnering to create Learnstudentaid.org, a new learning community for financial aid administrators on the World Wide Web;
• Launching Know Before You Go, a statewide public library outreach campaign; and
• Working with our business partners to gain approval for our Voluntary Flexible Agreement (VFA) proposal.

"As in years past, TG has continued its work to keep the FFELP community informed through a wealth of informational services. We have consistently produced a variety of publications — Shoptalk, TG Connection, and TG NetWorks — that provide the FFELP community with up-to-date information about TG and the student financial aid industry. Our outreach campaigns, on-site presentations, and media relations efforts have continually informed the public about higher education issues, initiatives, and programs. This year alone, our team members conducted over 100 internal and external industry training sessions on a state and national level.

"Technology is an integral part of how we do business. Having qualified staff to support industry demands is paramount to TG. In FY 2000, our technology experts successfully navigated the Y2K challenge. We released AdvanTG™ 2.2, a single integrated product that allows schools and lenders to manage their student loan portfolios from application tracking to loan maintenance. During the year, we also developed an online, integrated version of the Common Manual, a standard reference guide to industry policies, definitions, and procedures. This new tool enhances research capabilities, providing the most current information to our business partners.

"So, where do we go from here? Onward and upward, of course!"

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