TG Annual Training Conference

Negotiated rulemaking, sometimes abbreviated as "neg reg," began in the early 1980s and is currently required under the Higher Education Act. Neg reg allows the benefits of face-to-face interaction and cooperation, and also allows individual negotiators who represent key stakeholder constituencies to share information and take advantage of the different skill sets of the other committee members. Join us for this session to hear details of the issues recently negotiated by the Student Loan Issues team. Some of the topics include: loan discharges based on total and permanent disability; modifications to the Income-Based and Income Contingent Repayment plans; loan rehabilitation; school enrollment status reporting requirements; and more. This is your opportunity to learn about the issues and how to provide comments to the proposed rules. There is still time to be heard!

The return of Title IV funds (R2T4) calculation is one of the more challenging duties that a financial aid officer must perform. Whether you are a new or seasoned administrator, this session will help to demystify the R2T4 calculation and will provide suggestions on how to improve the R2T4 process within your office. Join us for this session where we will discuss the general principles of the R2T4 process, explain the elements of an R2T4 calculation, and provide recommendations on how to avoid some of the more common R2T4 findings in a program review.

What might be possible if financial aid staff were fully engaged and using their strengths to collectively achieve shared visions? More than simply an organizational change process, Appreciative Inquiry is a collaborative, strengths-based approach to both personal and organizational development that is proving to be highly effective in organizations throughout the world. It is a way of bringing about change that shares leadership and learning, fully engaging everyone in the organization.  In this interactive session, participants will have an opportunity to tell stories about how they add value to their offices and to create a shared vision based on the very best about their schools and students.

Representatives from the Council of Public University Presidents and Chancellors (CPUPC) & Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas (ICUT)  discuss their statewide initiatives.

Whether the return of Title IV funds (R2T4) calculation gives you a headache, heartburn, or both, it is an essential administrative task. Often, completing an R2T4 funds calculation is easier said than done, since there are multiple complexities to consider surrounding the various R2T4 elements — including the withdrawal date, the date of determination, the number of days in the period, attendance taking requirements, and more. This session, designed to build upon R2T4 basics, will explore a range of case studies to help financial aid administrators better understand how to spot tricky situations and uncover the nuances of the calculation.

A discussion concerning the status of the state financial aid programs.

Gainful employment (GE) continues to be a topic of substantial interest for schools, taxpayers, and the Department of Education. The GE rules provide various requirements for schools offering educational programs that are intended to prepare students for gainful employment in a recognized occupation. This session will explore how a panel of schools implemented and continue to comply with the requirements, including GE disclosures, reporting, and the process of adding new GE programs. The panel will also discuss the final regulations on program metrics related to student debt levels and repayment success that become effective on July 1, 2012.  

Understanding Regulations, Preparing Policies, and Communicating to our Students  (Based on NASFAA materials)

Understanding Regulations, Preparing Policies, and Communicating to our Students. (Based on NASFAA materials)

An opportunity to network with conference session speakers or to participate in discussion groups on topics suggested by you or your peers. Contact TG via email at  tgconference@tgslc.org or at http://www.facebook.com/TexasGuaranteed to suggest a discussion group topic or to reserve a table for a private discussion group.

   

Topics will  include:  

Policy Session Speakers

Higher Education Session Speakers

A Banner System Scholarship Module

Federal Loan Servicers:  Great Lakes Servicing and Nelnet Education Loan Servicing

Social Media How To

TG Learning Center

Default Aversion Expert Consultations

A discussion of the Hazlewood Exemption Program as well as other waivers, exemptions, and residency requirements for the military.  

Take part in a discussion about current issues affecting student loan repayment. Faced with a slumping job market and debt loads exceeding credit card debt, students graduating from college are more than ever in need of debt education and repayment solutions to avoid falling into loan default. Be part of this important dialogue and explore and exchange best practices with your colleagues.

This session will provide information on admissions application and financial aid procedures for undocumented students in Texas colleges and universities, including the requirements and provisions of Texas Law S.B. 1528. The session will also provide some background on the U.S. immigration system and undocumented K–12 student population in Texas. To help with your outreach needs, handouts (some bilingual), will be provided.

Understanding the Train-the-Trainer Process is the first step toward eligibility to receive TG’s financial literacy materials to support financial education events you may offer in the future. To help you gather ideas for implementing financial literacy within your programs and processes, this session also reports lessons learned and best practices from a panel of experienced Train-the-Trainer graduates who have been creatively participating in the TG Financial Literacy Program during the past year.

 

In today’s challenging economy and evolving regulatory environment, default aversion is more important than ever. Campus-based default aversion activities are now vital for success in managing an institution's cohort default rate. As the newly appointed default manager, where do you start, what do you do, and what will be expected?

  

Join TG’s Default Aversion Consultants for a half day event intended to prepare those who are new to default aversion processes. Specifically designed for those with a year or less in default aversion, this boot camp will cover topics that include: life of the loan, default rate basics, counseling borrowers, and getting started. Participants will leave these sessions (Part 1 and Part 2) with a better understanding of methods for default aversion, some proven best practices, and a support system to help them succeed.

Be the first to learn about new findings which demonstrate that student’s choice of degree can seriously impact their ability to successfully repay their student loans. The amount a student borrows and the student’s degree choice are decisions that can gravely impact return on investment and ultimately shape a student’s perception about the value of a higher education. Preliminary findings of this report can help college administrators guide students and families in making informed decisions when considering student loans to pay for college.

In the postsecondary educational environment, institutional effectiveness, retention, and degree completion are receiving unprecedented attention. States are considering ways to base formula funding on degree completion. As a result, campuses are scrambling to improve retention and increase the rates at which students complete their intended degree — particularly institutions serving a large population of nontraditional students. To improve student outcomes, the entire campus community must be actively involved in the construction of a culture of completion and be aware of the strategies and effective practices that research has demonstrated are essential to certificate and degree completion.

In this session, presenters will share insights from the field for instigating campus-wide change, bring a heightened awareness to the unique role each campus member plays, focus on the collaborative culture required to improve degree completion rates, discuss evidence-based effective practices essential to degree completion, and provide a unique practitioner perspective enabling greater overall student and institutional success.

Everyone on your campus knows that it’s time to implement a strong financial literacy program, and they often look to the financial aid office to make that happen. But, but, but — obstacles abound, it seems. This session will help you outline a plan of action and suggest appropriate resources and alliances that will ease the transition to providing financial literacy services for your students. It’s often said, “it takes a village” — let TG’s experts assist your campus in making this service a reality now.

While students receive information during loan counseling, they often have questions about how loan repayment works. This session focuses on the repayment options available to students as they prepare to enter the workforce. Topics include: taking inventory of your student loans; understanding the available repayment plans — including Income Based Repayment (IBR) — and the advantages of each; reviewing the details of consolidation; deferment, forbearance, forgiveness, and cancellation options; and options for resolving a defaulted loan.

Many financial aid staffs are tasked with numerous responsibilities and are looking for “allies” in the default aversion challenge. Different departments have unique capabilities that can assist in default aversion. This session will look into how some schools have enlisted support from several key areas from within their campus to impact their cohort default rate (CDR). Why? It comes down to communication and engagement. The students most at risk of defaulting are those who withdraw without a credential. It stands to reason that instructors, staff, and counselors in other campus areas can play a key role in creating engagement while the student is still on campus, thus helping to impact the CDR in the longer term. Session attendees will learn about developing a plan for gaining buy-in from upper administration, focusing on goals that keep faculty and staff invested in the default aversion mission, and utilizing various campus departments to create a systemic approach to default aversion, whether by using in-house resources while the student is in school, out-sourcing activities for students who are no longer on campus, or a combination of both.  

Join TG's default aversion team for a fun interactive session on counseling students, families, and borrowers. The session will cover three stages of counseling — the good options available for students, and the sometimes bad or even ugly situations borrowers can find themselves in. Participants will discuss conversations that occur

• When students and families are looking for postsecondary education finance solutions,

• When students and borrowers do not complete their postsecondary education, and

• When borrowers are delinquent.  

 

Specifically designed for those with a year or less of experience in financial aid counseling or those who need a refresher, this session will offer:

• Foundational skills that will enhance the communication process with students, families, and       borrowers

• Communication skills that support discussions with delinquent students

• Communication strategies for lasting results

 

Participants will leave these sessions with a better understanding of the latest counseling methods, proven best practices, and a support system to help them succeed in guiding students, families, and borrowers through the good, the bad, and if necessary, the ugly.   

This training module focuses on teaching student borrowers about the importance of accounting for all their student loans and the negative implications associated with not managing them. Financial aid administrators can benefit from this module’s contents, which can serve to reinforce students' understanding of their loan rights and responsibilities.

This training module focuses on repayment options available to federal student loan borrowers and encourages timely repayment to avoid negative consequences. Financial aid administrators can benefit from this module’s content, as it can serve to educate student borrowers nearing graduation or at-risk of withdrawal about options that can help them avoid loan default.

Attending this session will train you to present the Needs and Wants: Prioritizing What Counts and Spending Plans: Meeting Goals the Simple Way mini-modules. The Needs and Wants mini-module distinguishes the differences between fundamental necessities and desires or preferences, and discusses how these things can vary across time and circumstance. Spending Plans explores strategic thinking as it relates to income and expenses. The mini-module includes information on reducing spending and planning ahead not only for monthly bills, but also for regular savings and expenses that aren't part of each month's budget, such as a quarterly car insurance payment.

 

Facilitation is a core competency for anyone who leads a team, presents training modules, chairs a committee, or manages a project. This fast-paced, experiential workshop provides an overview of the facilitator’s role, plus opportunities for practice using a wide range of tools and techniques.  Participants will address critical areas in facilitation, including learner preferences, use of learning activities, facilitation techniques, and strategies for reducing presentation anxiety.  Through small group activities and exercises, this interactive workshop focuses on observing, questioning, responding, handling resistance, and ensuring full participation of audience members. It provides participants with facilitation tools and a structured process that can be applied to any type of facilitated session, whether a staff meeting, a financial literacy session, planning meeting, community-based meeting, or a brainstorming session.  

Have you ever wondered why students seem to have the same misconceptions about loans, despite our efforts to get them better information? Sometimes it seems that students’ beliefs about student loans are as persistent and far-fetched as urban legends! In fact, many of their confused questions and misperceptions center on common and recurrent “myths” about federal student loans. Join us for a closer look at six of the most common myths we hear from our student borrowers (for example, “I did not qualify for financial aid, so I took out a loan”). This session will outline the myths and offer some tips and strategies to assist schools in addressing student borrower questions.  

Facilitation is a core competency for anyone who leads a team, presents training modules, chairs a committee, or manages a project. This fast-paced, experiential workshop provides an overview of the facilitator’s role, plus opportunities for practice using a wide range of tools and techniques.  Participants will address critical areas in facilitation, including learner preferences, use of learning activities, facilitation techniques, and strategies for reducing presentation anxiety.  Through small group activities and exercises, this interactive workshop focuses on observing, questioning, responding, handling resistance, and ensuring full participation of audience members. It provides participants with facilitation tools and a structured process that can be applied to any type of facilitated session, whether a staff meeting, a financial literacy session, planning meeting, community-based meeting, or a brainstorming session.  

Attending this session will train you to present the Credit Basics: How Money Works and Managing Credit: Priorities and Pitfalls mini-modules. The Credit Basics mini-module shows how borrowers can use future income to make large purchases, such as an education or a house. The mini-module also explores how lenders make money, the cost of borrowing, and tips for maintaining creditworthiness. Managing Credit covers the ways credit affects many parts of your life, what you need to know about your credit report and credit score, and some standard guidelines for keeping your credit in good shape, including how to avoid identity theft.

 

The time is now, and the 3-year cohort default rate (CDR) is here to stay. Please join us for an exploration of ways you can maximize your efforts in the area of default management. We will discuss a variety of methods for managing your 3-year CDR, the techniques for communicating with students while enrolled and after separation, and how your school can benefit by collaborating with industry organizations.

This session will provide an overview of IDA functionality and offer schools an opportunity to ask questions and share how they use IDA on their campus.

Some of the topics to be covered include:

• How to use IDA filters and reports to help schools focus on at-risk student borrowers

• How to use letter and email templates, along with a review of the communications tab

• How to format and successfully import delinquency files from NSLDS and the ED servicers

The basics of a healthy financial life are relatively simple to learn and understand, yet self-destructive financial behaviors, flying in the face of such basics, are too often the norm. This presentation will identify the source of  destructive financial behaviors and what we, as professionals, can do to help clients make better decisions.

Today more than 100 campuses statewide use the Texas Application for State Financial Aid (TASFA) to process state aid for undocumented students. Come learn how your campus can take advantage of this form to better serve this growing student population. In this session, participants will be guided through a walk-through of the form and learn established procedures and effective practices that can streamline financial aid processing for this very unique student loan population.

 Understanding the Train-the-Trainer (TT) Process is the first step toward eligibility to receive TG’s financial literacy materials to support financial education events that you may offer in the future. This session will explain the process of the TG Financial Literacy Program from beginning to end, how to order materials, and student session evaluations, as well as provide hints on scheduling your event. To receive full credit for the TG Financial Literacy Program training on any mini-module, you have to attend either this TT Overview session or the one on Wednesday, April 4th from 8:30 to 10:15 a.m.

In many cases, conflict in the workplace just seems to be a fact of life. We've all seen situations where different people with different goals and needs have come into conflict. Experts recognize five basic methods of dealing with conflict: competing, collaborating, compromising, accommodating, and avoiding. A brief assessment will be completed during the session that is designed to reveal your dominant conflict resolution style in your work environment. The attendees will participate in a discussion of appropriate and inappropriate uses of each style within the context of a professional work environment.

Participants will hear from the president of the National Scholarship Providers’ Association (NSPA) as well as aid program officers regarding starting new scholarship programs, seeking program improvements, or just looking for additional insight as to how private college aid programs operate.  This session is particularly for participants interested in learning about basic program considerations through the new NSPA Scholarship Program Toolkit, as well as those seeking to gain and give concrete advice regarding program design and decision making.

 

Although Texas was one of the first states to enact legislation allowing undocumented students to be eligible for in-state tuition and state financial aid, the state itself does not admit and register students, colleges and universities do. This session reviews a study supported by a TG grant and conducted by the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good at the University of Michigan. This research compares policy environments at the institutional and state levels with the actual practices that shape the postsecondary education access for undocumented students. This study systematically examines how institutional and state financial aid and admission policies and practices impact postsecondary education access for undocumented students and the significant role those policies and practices play in the midst of changing federal regulations.

Come to this session and ask all the questions you've wanted to ask experts in the financial industry. Train-the-Trainer Graduates, here is your chance to enhance your knowledge base and gain added insight that can assist you with your event.

In many cases, conflict in the workplace just seems to be a fact of life. We've all seen situations where different people with different goals and needs have come into conflict. Experts recognize five basic methods of dealing with conflict: competing, collaborating, compromising, accommodating, and avoiding. A brief assessment will be completed during the session that is designed to reveal your dominant conflict resolution style in your work environment. The attendees will participate in a discussion of appropriate and inappropriate uses of each style within the context of a professional work environment.

It is more important now than ever before for the United States to maintain and grow a well-educated citizenry and workforce.  But we are falling short on at least two important counts - the number of low and middle-income students who can afford the college that is the right fit for them, and the percentage of student who succeed (graduate from) college in a timely manner.  What can financial counselors, educators and planners do to help, and how should their role be structured?  Some thoughts from a financial aid administrator.

Attending this session will train you to present the College Costs: More Than Tuition mini-module. This mini-module provides an overview of the expenses and income that could be incorporated in a college student's spending plan. It also focuses on the expenses in an institution's cost of attendance, other expenses, and different sources of support, including financial aid.

 

To receive full credit for the TG Financial Literacy Program training on any mini-module, you also have to attend the TT Overview session either on Wednesday, April 4th from 8:30 to 10:15 a.m., or Thursday, April 5th from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m.

Your students are outstanding, but do their scholarship applications really convey their competitiveness to scholarship readers who review and rank hundreds of applications from high-ability students? This session focuses on the preparation of competitive scholarship applications and how to avoid the common mistakes that often eliminate students’ opportunities for scholarship consideration. The session will address developing resumes that really attest to a student’s accomplishments, writing essays that make a scholarship application stand out, and developing strategies for securing outstanding letters of recommendation. Applying for competitive scholarships is tough enough — make it easier on yourself and your students.

An opportunity to network with conference session speakers or to participate in discussion groups on topics suggested by you or your peers.  Contact TG via email at tgconference@tgslc.org or at http://www.facebook.com/TexasGuaranteed to suggest a discussion group topic or to reserve a table for a private discussion group.   

 

Topics to include:

Financial Literacy Session Speakers

College Access and Success Session Speakers

Default Aversion Expert Consultations

Social Media How To

TG Learning Center

This session will provide an overview of the free resources that TG provides to students and families to connect them to higher education. It will also review TG’s public service website, AIE, and the many tools available for students, parents, counselors, and service providers.

Attending this session will train you to present the Investing in Undergraduate Education: Costs and Resources mini-module. This mini-module provides key information to help parents and students understand the costs of attending college and the financial aid resources available to help cover the costs.

 

To receive full credit for the TG Financial Literacy Program training on any mini-module, you also have to attend the TT Overview session either on Wednesday, April 4th from 8:30 to 10:15 a.m., or Thursday, April 5th from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m.

Helping students stay on task and focused on their educational and career goals is no easy task! While addressing some of the latest research on human behavior, this interactive session will provide participants the opportunity to develop ideas and strategies for increasing student engagement and success.