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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.
"We are very fortunate to have individuals with such levels of educational and financial expertise on the TG Board," said Sue McMillin, TG President and CEO. "We look forward to working with our current board chair, and our new members, as we help students and their families seek a higher education."
Some background on each
Dora Ann Verde, certified public accountant and director of internal audit for the San Antonio Water System, was re-appointed to serve on the TG Board. She currently serves as Board Chair. Verde is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants, the San Antonio Chapter of Certified Public Accountants, and the Institute of Internal Auditors. She was recently elected to the Board of Governors for the San Antonio Chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors. Verde received a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Dr. Rhodes is the president of El Paso Community College, serving 25,000 students and five campuses. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants, and is chair-elect of the Texas Association of Community Colleges. He serves on the United Way of El Paso Executive Board, Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce, and El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Rhodes received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in education administration from New Mexico State University and a doctorate degree in education administration from the University of Texas at Austin.
Wilson is president of GSL Welcome Group. He is also a member of CoreNet Global, the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, and the Houston Board of Realtors. He is vice chairman of the Houston Food Bank, and a board member of the Sharpstown Management District, the Texas Business Hall of Fame Foundation, Houstonian Club Advisory Board, and Kinkaid School Alumni Association.
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TG introduces new public policy Web page
Change is definitely a word that is familiar to the financial aid industry. Change in the law. Change in the regulations. Change in ED policy. Change in industry trends and practices.
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. This new page, located on TG Online, includes several new and pre-existing resources that you may find useful in your public policy research and analysis.
The page's content is divided into the following:
- Government agencies/industry associations and proposals
Many government agencies and industry associations have developed proposals released over the last few years that call for a restructuring of the federal student aid programs. This portion of the page features those proposals as well as links to higher education and financial aid public policy organizations.
- TG public policy positions
As higher education, national priorities, and the needs of students continue to evolve, the federal financial aid programs must also keep pace. TG will use this portion of the page to provide readers with TG's views on a variety of public policy issues.
- Legislative resources
This portion of the page contains links to existing statutory/legislative resources on TG Online, and also contains links to external sites that you can use to monitor developing legislation affecting the financial aid industry.
- Regulatory resources
This portion of the page contains links to existing regulatory resources on TG Online, and also contains links to external sites that you can use to monitor developing federal financial aid regulations.
- Research resources
This portion of the page contains links to existing research resources on TG Online, and also contains links to external financial aid-related research resources.
Ongoing resource
TG's public policy Web page continues to evolve; TG welcomes suggestions from the financial aid community on how to expand and improve it. If you have ideas for additions or enhancements to the page, please contact Kelly Kaelin, TG's senior policy and legislative liaison, at kelly.kaelin@tgslc.org. Shoptalk Online will alert readers when substantive updates are made to the page.
To learn more
Visit TG's new public policy Web page at www.tgslc.org/publicpolicy/index.cfm.
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TG offers webinar on enhancements to Integrated Default Assistant™
TG recently unveiled enhancements to its flagship software products, AdvanTG Web™ and TG Loans By Web™. TG has also introduced an enhanced version of its default management tool — the Integrated Default Assistant™ (IDA™). IDA is an online interactive application used to help schools, lenders, and servicers achieve successful default aversion goals for their TG loans.
IDA's query feature and pre-formatted reports allow schools, lenders, and servicers to track and manage their TG cohort default rate performance by pinpointing student populations at risk of delinquency or default. IDA also offers customizable letters for notifying student borrowers of their status.
Based on customer feedback, TG has added features to IDA to make the tool even more versatile and effective. These changes include:
- Providing the ability to forecast a three-year cohort default rate for the institution's TG loans.
- Assisting schools in identifying borrowers at risk of default based on pre-defined attributes, including graduation status and academic level.
- Offering a filter for identifying delinquent borrowers who can affect the institution's cohort default rate for TG loans.
- Including a sort order option for user-specified delinquency ranges.
- Offering schools the ability to generate letters in English only or Spanish only, or with an English front page and a Spanish back page.
Webinar times
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.
- Monday, May 11, 2 p.m.-3 p.m., CDT
- Tuesday, May 12, 10 a.m.-11 a.m., CDT (repeat session)
To attend a webinar
To participate, register for one of the listed webinars at www.tgslc.org/training/webinars/register.cfm.
For help
For questions about TG Loans By Web, AdvanTG Web, or IDA, please contact TG's product support team at (800) 332-1455, or send an e-mail to product.support@tgslc.org.
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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.
Smart help, great timing
New Directions also serves as a resource on other topics, including:
- Managing money;
- Understanding the rights and responsibilities of a borrower;
- Evaluating the consequences of not managing repayment;
- Estimating a loan payment amount; and
- Understanding the options available if the student has difficulty making payments.
Offer the booklet to your students who are graduating or about to graduate.
To order the booklet
To order copies of New Directions for your office, visit TG Online at www.tgslc.org/order/index.cfm.
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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. The report offers examples of service that demonstrate TG's ongoing commitment to higher education. The report also showcases TG's winning combination of benefits, including excellent customer service, effective technology, and industry expertise.
Report highlights
To serve students at a time of economic turmoil, TG focused on its core services during the course of FY 2008. Here is a partial listing of this year's successes.
- A changing economy and growing borrower debt make it imperative for students to cultivate responsible and effective money management habits early on. To help, TG expanded key offerings of its college and career planning Web site, Adventures In Education.
- TG helped link schools and lenders to electronic services that can make their work more efficient, including List AssistSM, an online lender survey management tool. TG team members also worked diligently behind the scenes to help borrowers connect with lenders and receive funding. This comprehensive approach earned TG a high customer satisfaction score of 4.53 out of 5.
- By the end of the year, TG made guarantees totaling over $6.71 billion, and, to date, has helped more than 3.9 million borrowers by guaranteeing nearly $61.9 billion in student loans.
- TG's default prevention team provides guidance to borrowers in thousands of conversations conducted via phone and e-mail. Their work is vital to students and parents, especially as economic uncertainty affects more consumers entering repayment. To provide even more effective default prevention services, TG invested in a new auto-dialer system and hired additional specialized staff to locate borrowers without currently known addresses. Over the course of the year, TG's Default Prevention team helped some 367,000 borrowers avoid default on more than $3 billion in student loans.
To download a copy
To learn more about TG's service for the year, download a copy of the 2008 TG Annual Report at www.tgslc.org/pdf/2008annualrpt.pdf.
To order a copy
You can order a print copy of the report by contacting TG's communications team at communications@tgslc.org. Please provide your name, mailing address, and number of requested copies.
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Join TG at the 43rd Annual EASFAA Conference
Legislative changes in the student loan program have garnered lots of attention in the news recently. They're also the centerpiece for the 43rd Annual Conference of the Eastern Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (EASFAA). TG offers a session, titled "Policy Potpourri," on that very topic at this year's conference, which will be held in Washington, D.C., from April 17-20.
During TG's session, TG's presenter flashes a series of regulatory and student aid questions on a screen; audience members choose the right answer using a hand-held device called a "clicker." The game-show format tests the audience's level of regulatory knowledge, leaving participants knowing more about financial aid and entertaining them at the same time.
More about TG's training
Would you like to learn more about the many training opportunities TG offers? Visit www.tgslc.org/speakers/index.cfm to view the complete list of workshops and sessions available through the TG Speakers Bureau. Keep in mind that TG can adapt a training session to meet the needs of your school campus. To find out how, contact your account executive at (800) 252-9743.
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