Federal Updates

Final rules 101: electronically signed MPNs and eligible lender trustees
Hold on tight as we enter the fourth segment in our series on the final rules recently released by the Department of Education (ED).

Teacher Loan Forgiveness forms update
The Department of Education (ED) recently provided guidance on some common forms currently in use.

TG Updates

TG to continue to subsidize federal default fee on behalf of students
TG's Board of Directors today voted to continue to subsidize the 1 percent federal default fee for federal Stafford and PLUS loans for student and parent borrowers for the 2008-09 award year.

TG appoints Carmen Dominguez to its relationship management and consulting team
Carmen Dominguez has joined TG as a relationship management consultant for corporate school accounts, a new position with the federal student loan guarantor.

TG releases NSLDS submittal schedule for 2008
TG's data reporting team has released its 2008 schedule for reports to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS).

Luanne Dodge, TG's ombudsman, offers the ear that helps borrowers find solutions
Luanne Dodge knows something about the art of intervention — as TG's ombudsman, she's been practicing it for more than eight years.

Trends and Issues

Teach your students the essentials of financial responsibility with TG's Money Management 101 training
As a financial aid professional, you can help students set and follow a pattern of responsible budgeting by providing training that teaches financial responsibility — like TG's Money Management 101 session from its POSITIVE+BALANCE™ training series on financial literacy and life skills.

Question of the week
Must an individual (paper) check from the lender be made copayable to both the borrower and the school?

Legislative Update

The first session of the 110th Congress is scheduled to adjourn on December 21, 2007. The second session will convene on January 15, 2008, with an early September 26, 2008 adjournment due to the November general election — over 430 House seats and some 33 Senate seats will be up for vote. One of the constants of the first session has been a congressional insistence on increases in the federal student financial aid programs. The source for these increases has been significant reductions for the largest Title IV program — the Federal Family Education Loan Program — which may result in reductions in FFELP borrower benefits and a broader emphasis on private alternative educational loans. Learn more about ongoing developments by reading the complete, latest Legislative Report at www.tgslc.org/lege_report/2007/lr_071206.cfm.

This, That, and the Other...

Ask any student — an inspired teacher who shares insight and enthusiasm for his or her subject can be a source of joy, not to mention knowledge. Recently, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching hailed four examples of just such teachers, naming four professors, out of 300 candidates, as this year's national "Professors of the Year."

Rosemary M. Karr, of Collin County Community College, in Plano, Tex., won in the category of community colleges. As a professor of developmental math, Karr deals daily with students' math anxiety. To counter it, she created a program called Passport that allows students to learn at whatever pace they choose.

According to Karr, the program provides students "the opportunity to accelerate without forced acceleration." Students in her Passport courses were 15 percent more likely to pass beginning algebra than were students enrolled in the standard course, and were also more likely to pass subsequent college-level math courses.

The source for this week's "This, that, and the other" is located at http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i14/14a00802.htm?utm_source=cc&utm_mediumz=en.

Note that the Chronicle of Higher Education requires a paid subscription to review some content.