Back to current
Shoptalk Online Contents

TG Updates

Shoptalk Online 517, August 18, 2009

TG Updates

TG to roll out redesigned TG Online

TG works to make sure your experience of its websites is intuitive and reflects your priorities as a financial aid professional. Later this week, TG will launch an enhanced version of its corporate website, TG Online, designed to provide you financial aid information in a more efficient, user-friendly way.

TG Online offers resources to a wide variety of audiences, including schools, borrowers, students and their families. Among other things, the site answers college finance questions for students, supplies timely regulatory information for schools, and guides all of its users to tools that help them navigate the federal student loan process.

The newest version of TG Online will introduce a number of website efficiencies. These changes will make navigation simpler, offer more links to resources on popular topics, such as financial literacy, and integrate the latest Web technology, which makes sharing information easier. A more detailed overview of changes will appear in next week's Shoptalk Online.

Learn more
Watch for a redesigned TG Online later this week. Upcoming issues of Shoptalk Online will highlight key changes and offer you an opportunity to provide feedback on the enhancements.

Enhanced List Assist℠ now available

Last week, TG released an enhanced version of List Assist℠, TG's lender survey tool. List Assist provides an online resource for generating, communicating, and tracking surveys used in creating a FFELP lender list. For schools, List Assist simplifies information-gathering. For lenders, it streamlines the survey process and can help in prioritizing work.

TG's revised version of List Assist offers a variety of processing efficiencies, many suggested by users. Among other things, List Assist now allows schools to update contact information and survey end dates, send and resend survey requests more efficiently, and view a distribution list for specific surveys. List Assist now allows lenders to view the survey invitation with the school name and code in the subject line and more easily access the school's survey end date.

A complete summary of List Assist enhancements is available in last week's Shoptalk Online.

Find out more
To learn more about the latest enhancements, schools and lenders can register for one of the following training webinars.

Monday, September 28, 2009; 2 p.m.-3 p.m. Central Time
Tuesday, September 29, 2009; 10 a.m.-11 a.m. Central Time (repeat)

User Guide and online help
Information on the latest enhancements is provided through List Assist's User Guide and online help. The User Guide is located on the List Assist main menu under the Resources section.

To learn more
If you have questions about the latest changes, or would like to register to use List Assist, please contact your TG account executive at (800) 252-9743. You can also send an email message to relationship.management@tgslc.org.

On Thursday, August 20, TG will offer a webinar covering the basics of Income-Based Repayment (IBR). The webinar will provide a concise yet thorough overview of the new repayment plan, which could potentially benefit many borrowers experiencing difficulty making student loan payments. The hour-long webinar will start at 2 p.m. Central Time.

Available to FFELP and Direct Loan borrowers, IBR benefits eligible borrowers by minimizing monthly payments; it provides loan forgiveness in some cases as well. Making borrowers aware of the repayment plan is important to realizing IBR's potential benefits. TG's webinar will explain many of the components of the plan, including how borrowers qualify for IBR as well as the key advantages IBR offers to borrowers and schools. The webinar will also provide ideas for educating borrowers about IBR.

To register
Registration information for the IBR webinar is available at www.tgslc.org/training/webinars/industry.cfm. Archived recordings of webinars are available from this link also, including "R2T4 — Basics and Beyond," "Verification in the Financial Aid Office," and "Satisfactory Academic Progress."

Latest edition of TG Connection focuses on college access and outreach efforts to support students

Many colleges and universities offer more than degree opportunities to students. They reach out to families and students through altruistic efforts that make college more accessible and the academic experience easier to navigate. By offering mentoring programs, tutoring services, and outreach initiatives, schools work to create a community of support for today's students. TG's newest issue of its quarterly news magazine, TG Connection, considers a few of the many ways that colleges and universities nurture that community. Here's a preview of the edition's articles.

Spreading the word on college access — Schools are looking for more and better ways of sharing the message that a higher education is possible. While most colleges and universities make plenty of college-readiness resources available on campus, other schools are putting their awareness and access campaigns on the road through Mobile Go Centers.
First-generation tutoring and mentoring — First-generation and foreign-born residents make up a growing portion of the U.S. population — over 60 million. Providing these individuals and their children with the benefit of a postsecondary education will be key to the success of America's economy. To promote college access for this important demographic, many colleges offer support, including tutoring and mentoring programs.
Branching out: Volunteers make higher education possible one connection at a time — Volunteers make a difference in countless lives. Many financial aid professionals donate time, knowledge, and skills to people outside their offices. These efforts come in many forms but often focus on enabling students to reap the long-term benefits of a higher education.
Answering the call: Four financial aid professionals share why they volunteer — A few financial aid professionals share how they help students during the day and then devote more of their time after work to outreach efforts or other worthy causes. For these individuals, helping others is their life's mission, and sowing the seeds of hope and opportunity offers its own reward.
Going green — Almost four decades after it was first observed, Earth Day has evolved into a worldwide environmental movement. Colleges and universities play key roles in this work. Schools lead research into clean energy. Many universities use their campuses as laboratories where energy-saving technology can be tested. Still other schools, like Binghamton University of the State University of New York system, endeavor to raise consciousness by engaging students and local communities in environmental projects.

Order your issue
If you would like to request one or more issues of TG Connection, please send an email message to TG communications at communications@tgslc.org. Please allow one to two weeks for delivery.