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TG Updates

Shoptalk Online 499, April 14, 2009

TG Updates

TG Annual Training Conference set to begin next Wednesday

Higher education has seen significant change in the last several years — both legislative and regulatory shifts as well as effects of the current economic turmoil. There's no better way of staying on top of such a variety of developments than training. Next week, TG kicks off three days of industry training designed to address a broad range of financial aid interests, from default aversion and professional judgment to tips for implementing a campus financial literacy program.

The 2009 TG Annual Training Conference offers more than 50 specialized sessions and workshops covering seven different subject areas, or tracks. Set to begin on Wednesday, April 22, at the Renaissance Hotel in Austin, Texas, TG's conference provides attendees a chance to explore the financial aid issues that matter to them, such as Income-Based Repayment, the new cohort default rate calculation, and enrollment management.

A few conference highlights
The TG Annual Training Conference is a meticulously planned event that places particular focus on policy issues as well as topics drawing discussion in the financial aid community. To help attendees plan their conference experience, here are a few featured sessions. Sessions are led by TG experts, respected presenters from outside TG, or panels of school and lender representatives in discussions moderated by TG team members.

Financial Literacy Mini-symposium
This session offers a dialogue on campus financial literacy programs, highlighting ways to gauge the effectiveness and success of a program. Come to this session ready to share your own perspective on emerging trends in financial literacy and to hear how TG plans to expand and enhance its own financial literacy offerings.
Professional Judgment
Stumped by a dependency override or income adjustment? This interactive session will focus on when to apply professional judgment and how to document unusual circumstances. Participants are encouraged to share real-life situations and contribute their expertise and solutions in discussion on the cases presented.
Contending with the Creation of a Preferred Lender List
Is your school searching for an industry tool that can help unravel the challenges associated with implementing a preferred lender list (PLL)? If so, come to this session to hear TG's regulatory and product experts deliver an informative review of the federal requirements for recommended lender lists. This session will also present best practices for creating and implementing a PLL, and will highlight TG's latest product, List Assist^SM, which is designed for schools that want to create or maintain a FFEL recommended lender list.
ECASLA's Effect on ACG/SMART
Cynthia Thornton of ED's Dallas regional office leads a special session via webinar on Thursday. The session focuses on the many changes that the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (ECASLA) and the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) recently made to the Academic Competitiveness Grant and National Smart Grant programs.
Federal Update
Thornton also leads a special federal update on Friday. The session considers the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA), which reauthorized the Higher Education Act of 1965. The HEOA made important changes to the Title IV federal student aid programs. This session considers those changes and others that will take effect for the 2009-10 academic year.
Engaging Faculty and Staff for Student Success
Learn some of the underlying issues influencing student success and failure. Discover a model for student retention and persistence and hear what is being done on campuses across the country to keep students on the path to graduation.
Successful Integration of Default Aversion
One challenge for many financial aid offices is determining how to best integrate new procedures and strategies, usually because of limited resources, limited time, or both. This session will explore how one West Texas school successfully integrated a default aversion and financial literacy program on campus and began lowering its default rate.

Agenda online
The conference agenda is available online and offers a day-by-day rundown of sessions according to subject and time. The agenda provides a tool for choosing sessions, learning more about keynote speakers, and planning for evening events. Receptions are scheduled immediately following general sessions on Wednesday and Thursday, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., CDT.

Find out more about this year's varied agenda by visiting TG Online at www.tgslc.org/tgconference/index.cfm.

To register
You can register for the conference at www.tgslc.org/tgconference/register.cfm.

TG launches enhanced version of TG Message Central^SM

This week, TG will roll out a new version of its customer notification service, TG Message Central^SM. TG Message Central provides schools and lenders with news about TG, including information about product enhancements, processing schedule changes, conferences, and workshops. TG Message Central streamlines communications between TG and its customers, offering a direct and efficient way to transmit news.

Shoptalk Online edition 493 provided advance announcement about the change so that interested users could transition to the service early.

Current subscribers to TG Message Central will not have to resubscribe to receive messages. Subscribers should watch for an announcement about the implementation in their e-mail. The subject line will be "TG Message Central — Welcome to TG Message Central 2.0." The message will contain a temporary password, user ID, and other useful information.

Key enhancements
Modifications to the service offer subscribers a variety of benefits. Changes to TG Message Central include these:

Login — TG has added a login process to protect access to a subscriber's TG Message Central profile and e-mail inbox.
Subscriber profiles — Now, subscribers can control what messages they receive from TG by selecting options on a new user profile. Subscribers can adjust their user profiles to receive messages according to institutional and professional need, including news about TG system availability, processing updates, regional trainings, conferences, and more.
TG Message Central 2.0 e-mail inbox — The user's e-mail box allows subscribers to retain messages for up to 180 days.

For questions
To learn more about TG Message Central, contact TG's product support team at (800) 332-1455, or send an e-mail message to product.support@tgslc.org.