Federal Updates

Resource on changes to Economic Hardship Deferment now available
TG is pleased to provide a new resource titled, "Questions and Answers Related to July 1, 2009 Changes in Eligibility Criteria."

ACG and SMART grant interim final rules published
ED published interim final rules for the Academic Competitiveness Grant and National SMART Grant Programs, implementing changes brought about by the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (ECASLA) and Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA).

Mapping Your Future^® announces TEACH grant counseling changes for 2009-10 academic year
Beginning with the 2009-10 academic year, students must satisfy the TEACH grant initial and subsequent counseling requirements by completing a U.S. Department of Education (ED) counseling session. Initial or subsequent counseling sessions provided by Mapping Your Future or any other entity will not satisfy the counseling requirement.

TG Updates

Three appointed to serve on TG's Board of Directors
Governor Rick Perry has re-appointed Dora Ann Verde, and appointed two new members, Dr. Richard M. Rhodes and Mr. Welcome W. Wilson, Jr., to serve on TG's Board of Directors. Each of the appointees' terms is set to expire on January 31, 2015.

TG introduces new public policy Web page
TG has created a new Web page that attempts to keep a finger on the pulse of change in our industry, particularly in the realm of public policy development.

TG offers webinar on enhancements to Integrated Default Assistant™
TG recently introduced an enhanced version of its default management tool — the Integrated Default Assistant™ (IDA™). To help users benefit from these enhancements and incorporate them effectively as a part of their institution’s default aversion program, TG has scheduled webinars that explain the changes and offer time for customer Q&A.

TG's New Directions publication helps graduating students understand their repayment options
Your graduates are entering a tough job market and a challenging economy. TG offers some help with New Directions: A Guide to Repaying Your Stafford Loans. The publication provides graduating students useful information on their repayment obligations for Stafford loans and includes tips on budgeting, estimating loan payments, deferment, forbearance, and avoiding default.

TG makes TG Annual Report for FY 2008 available online
In 2008, TG marked its 29th year serving in the FFELP, a sign of dedication to the college dreams of millions of students. Over the last year, TG grew as a corporation, expanding its financial literacy and default prevention services and connecting more students to funds that enabled them to begin or continue their education. At the same time, TG subsidized the federal default fee for federal Stafford, PLUS, and Grad PLUS loans, resulting in nearly $54 million in savings collectively for more than 600,000 borrowers. TG's Annual Report for FY 2008, Opening doors of opportunity: Making a difference in higher education, focuses on these and other facts.

Common Manual

Common Manual Updates
Information on recent updates to the Common Manual.

This, That, and the Other...

If your students are looking for an especially effective learning method, they could do worse than talk to their grandparents, or great grandparents, as the case may be. Recitation, an old school way of teaching a subject, has gained some new school credence with several studies that show a link between long-term memory retention and "active recall," that is, flashcards, self-quizzing, and reciting on a topic without notes or books.

Research into this form of learning is fairly lengthy; however, the topic has gained more attention lately with the publication of two articles, one in Psychological Science and the other in Contemporary Educational Psychology. Active recall has its advocates among psychologists, but academia has been less welcoming of the approach, calling it robotic memorization.

To learn more about the discussion around active recall as a study technique, read the complete Chronicle of Higher Education article at http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i34/34a00101.htm?utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en. Note that some articles in the Chronicle are available only to subscribers.