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The Financial Aid Operating Calendar – It’s a Date and More
By: Staff
Financial aid offices keep track of dozens, even hundreds, of important dates. These range from application processing cycles, regulatory reporting deadlines, and software updates to campus visitation events, staff meetings, and even personnel vacation requests. So, a financial aid operations calendar gives institutions a real advantage. It empowers the financial aid office to plan for important dates, complete tasks on time, and manage workloads effectively.
Getting started is easier than you think. Often a “low-tech” approach is helpful. This could be a paper calendar or a whiteboard positioned in a high-visibility spot. Start with the academic calendar on your school’s website or in the catalog. Overlay that with information on your financial aid processing cycle, and other key information. When you’re ready to move it online, most email systems provide a shared calendar option. Also, web applications such as Calendly and Monday.com have free and low-cost subscription services.
Once you create a calendar, make it a living document, and revisit it frequently. Ask for feedback from everyone in the office, and perhaps from stakeholders in other departments. Share your operating calendar with other departments and request a copy of theirs. Include a calendar review in staff meetings at least once a month. An update-to-date calendar can reveal things that otherwise might be overlooked. Some tasks may not require much lead time. Others could need more. Are there large projects which hinge on many small tasks being completed? Will too many people be out of the office at a busy time of year?
Near the end of the year, do a calendar self-assessment. Did you miss any deadlines? Did a project need more time than was planned? Was too much time allotted for another? What you learn about this year makes next year’s calendar even more effective.
An operating calendar is a powerful tool for planning and achieving the financial aid office’s goals. It keeps projects on track and even helps to ensure the staff maintains a healthy work-life balance. Need help creating an operating calendar? FAS can help! Reach out today for a no-obligation consultation.
Tips and Hacks for Effective Student Communication
By: David Glezerman, Executive Consultant
As we approach the new year and start thinking about personal and professional New Year’s resolutions, it’s a good time to think about how to optimize how we communicate and interact with our students, families, and other institutional stakeholders.
Too often, institutions have relied on a single contact method to deliver information to their students—usually a school-provided email address. But students report being overwhelmed with emails from the “.edu” address coming from multiple institutional offices with a variety of news and information. The result is that students tune out and ignore all school emails, regardless of the value or urgency of the message.
Thoughtful communicators have found that schools can coordinate their efforts through increased collaboration across departments to reduce and simplify information requests and messaging via email channels. Student service offices should regularly review the types and content of their written communications to students, both electronic and U.S. Mail, to simplify and improve how and what is being delivered and when. Seeking out options for sending fewer, but more focused, correspondence can improve mail opening rates and lead to more timely bill payment and responses to information requests.
Revising your messages to provide clear and concise language can help in setting expectations and achieving desired results. If your message sounds too robotic and bureaucratic, is peppered with acronyms, and fails to clearly spell out what you need or expect, your message likely will get little or no attention. Consider enlisting your institutional marketing department or working with student advisory groups to help rewrite messages that will lead to better response rates and generate fewer questions that lead to office visits, phone calls, or emails.
Using a multi-channel communications strategy not only will be more appealing to students’ varying preferences but will also most likely increase individual reads and actions. Whether using text messaging, portal checklists, or chat features, using different communication tools, both separately and in tandem, will help your institution reach students and also demonstrate your commitment to quality service delivery.
Let us review your institution’s current business practices and related communications. Together, we can develop a comprehensive program to help manage your student accounts receivables and communicate with your students in a service-friendly and compliant manner. Contact us today for a no-obligation consultation!
Administrative Capability, a Mammoth Challenge in Financial Aid’s Staffing Crisis
By: Bob Covey-Robbins, Consultant
What does it mean for an institution of higher education to be administratively capable? Why is it important? Whose job is it to ensure that a school complies with administrative capability requirements?
Administrative capability is carefully evaluated when a school’s application for certification or re-certification is reviewed by the Department of Education. The school must demonstrate administrative capability. 34CFR§668.16 extensively outlines the conditions for administrative capability. In short, it means that the institution has the people, expertise, systems, technology, policies, and procedures to effectively manage Federal Student Aid programs.
The institution must designate someone to be responsible for administering FSA programs, but it also must ensure that the person is supported by an adequate number of staff needed to effectively administer the programs. There is no specific formula for determining the number of staff needed. It must be determined by the number of students applying for financial aid, the various financial aid programs the school administers, the technology used, and how much administration is automated.
Many schools are currently struggling to maintain an adequate number of staff to remain in compliance with the daunting number of Title IV statutory and regulatory requirements. According to a US Chamber of Commerce article, today, there are 2.9 million fewer people in the workforce than there were in February 2020, and even if every unemployed person were to gain employment, there would still be a labor shortage (Ferguson, 2022).
Has the financial aid office workload lessened with declining enrollment? Many would say that it has actually increased since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Expanding the modality of financial aid counseling to include remote advising, administering HEERF funds with its frequent changes in federal guidance and reporting requirements, and more recently, the addition of Fresh Start student loan default relief. The number of students seeking a Fresh Start at a school can bring a significant increase to the financial aid office workload.
Declining enrollment has led to decreases in operating budgets, making it even more difficult to retain valuable staff as more attractive employment opportunities arise outside of higher education administration. Creating entry-level financial aid office positions may add staff, but those staff need extensive training, supervision, and coaching as they become proficient in their new role. For many schools, the cost of new aid officer training programs offered by state, regional, and national associations is out of reach.
The harsh reality for many financial aid offices is that they are facing the perfect storm of increased demand for services, staffing vacancies, continuous audit pressures, shrinking budgets, and, ultimately, concern about maintaining the school’s eligibility to participate in federal student aid programs.
To provide the needed services to help families with financing higher education, while maintaining legislative and regulatory compliance, more schools are seeking interim staffing solutions. Services can range from filling a financial aid director’s role to outsourcing daily financial aid processing tasks. For many schools, using a trusted partner for interim staffing and outsourcing processing tasks provides a more cost-effective means to providing quality student service, while maintaining compliance and making a valuable contribution to the school’s enrollment management efforts.
Working Well Together, Even When You’re Apart
By: Joyce Sonenberg, Senior Consultant
Monday morning, the start of a new workweek. Off goes the alarm, and off you go. Comb your hair, throw on some clothes, grab a coffee, check that all is right with the world, and head off to the office. The office? Wait a minute. Where is the office? The office may be in the corner of your bedroom, the empty spot in the basement, or the remains of what used to be the linen closet. The fact is the office can be anywhere. Because, in this world, you are a full-fledged remote worker.
If you are a remote employee, you are far from alone. If you currently are not working remotely, chances are that you may soon be. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates over 25 percent of all Americans will be working remotely by 2025, which translates to over 36 million people. That’s a whopping 87 percent increase compared to pre-pandemic figures. Other research suggests even higher increases as workplace dynamics continue to evolve. Regardless of the numbers, sooner or later you may find that your office is just down the hall—the hall in your home, that is. Working remotely can be chaotic, stressful, and frustrating. It can also be very satisfying, rewarding, and unleash a level of professional creativity that can change the trajectory of your career. Let’s aim for the latter. Here are a few tips to consider as you head to your office.
Maintain a professional workstation.
Be organized. Practice the time-honored cliché, “A place for everything, and everything in its place.” Run your home office just like you would your location office. Keep your stock of office supplies at an acceptable level. Have adequate amounts of printer ink, paper, notepads, pens, pencils, staples, and zip drives. Remember, you oversee the office supply department. Unnecessary trips to the office supply store are inefficient and waste time and money. Make sure you have up-to-date technology. Your home computer may be a bit less sophisticated than what you are accustomed to in the on-site office, but you should be able to come fairly close. If you need two monitors, then get two monitors. If you need a dependable audio headset, then get one. You can’t expect to work efficiently without the proper tools. Check with your internet provider to ensure your connection speed and capacity can handle your needs. Create a practical workstation or desk that provides ample elbow room for notepads, calendars, your keyboard, and your mouse. Don’t forget a comfortable office chair as you will be spending many hours in it. Choose your home office area to be in as distraction-free an environment as possible. Often easier said than done, but it will benefit both you and your family members in keeping the peace. Re-organize at the end of the day so you are ready to start fresh in the morning. You’ll thank yourself for it each day.
Present a professional image.
Okay, so you don’t have to dress like you are making a presentation to the Board of Directors. However, you are a professional, working with other professionals, from your professional office. True…a home office, but a professional one, nonetheless. So, business casual at the least? Yes. T-shirt and sweatpants? No. If you look and feel professional, you will demonstrate professional work behaviors which can directly impact your relationships with students, parents, and other staff. Remember, remote workers reside from coast-to-coast, time zone-to-time zone, and even globally. Look good and be at the top of your game.
Maintain your focus.
Treat remote work like a real job, because it is. When you are in your home office, you are at work so schedule your day appropriately. Use and pay attention to your calendar. Keep your supervisor informed of personal, sick, or vacation days. If you are a director, maintain a schedule for your staff and share it with them.
Even though you are working from home, you may still require daycare. We love the little ones, but we do not typically bring them to the office. Household chores like laundry, shopping, lawn care, and home maintenance are distractions that are not part of a normal workday, so schedule them for your off days. Sure, you can load the dishwasher, but accomplish this task during a scheduled coffee or lunch break. It’s easy to get bumped off task when working remotely from home.
Stay connected with your staff.
Staff can’t just pop into your office and “touch base” with you like in the past. Likewise, you can’t as easily provide directives or clarification face-to-face either. It’s more important than ever to stay connected with your staff. Reach out to them often. Keep them in the loop. It isn’t difficult to achieve this, you just need to use different methods or tools. Hold regularly scheduled brief daily check-up meetings at the beginning or end of each business day. Informal individual or group end-of-the-week chats can help to build both trust and teamwork and assist staff to become more comfortable and efficient with the remote environment. There are several reliable platforms available for use in this approach. ZOOM and Microsoft Teams are commonly found in most offices. Use them to share both your and the staff’s calendars, assignments, and directives. Email and conference calls are very useful and time-tested methods. Remember, you’re not functioning as a hermit. You are still working with your team. Engage them often and encourage them to do the same.
Stay connected with your students.
Students are the reason you are there. Providing quality service to students while working remotely often requires extra effort. Make sure you reach out to the students often and assure them they will receive the same level of attention as if they were standing at the front counter of the campus FA office. Develop staff schedules that clearly identify email and telephone response responsibilities, both for receiving and returning student and parent inquiries. It may be particularly important to monitor staff performance in this regard. Take the time to review the financial aid office portion of the school website and clarify any confusing instructions, confirm contact phone numbers, and email addresses, and important dates on the calendar.
Final Considerations. Whether you’ve elected, or have been directed, to work remotely, it doesn’t appear to be a work style that is on the decline. Regardless of which resource is cited, most indicate a steady growth in U.S and international remote workers. Is it right for you? Of course, only you can decide. There are many areas to consider when contemplating a remote employment position.
Control of your work schedule is a strong attraction for those considering a remote position. While it is convenient in some respects, that flexibility does not mean the remote workforce is made up of slackers. Remote workers say they often average 45 – 55+ hours on the clock per week. A significant number of remote workers reported they felt obliged to work more than 8 hours a day and often worked 10 to 12 hours a day, frequently putting extra time in on weekends. Many workers acknowledged that knowing when to shut down and disengage was one of the biggest challenges they encountered while working remotely. Scheduling breaks, taking a walk, eating properly, and prioritizing time with family are important considerations. On the flip side, workers generally stated they felt more focused on their responsibilities, experienced less job-related stress, and are 35 to 47 percent more productive. Remote workers often reported an increased sense of self-esteem and professionalism.
Would you like some help navigating the new realities of work? Perhaps it’s time to reevaluate how your staff and office are structured. Contact us for a no-obligation consultation.
Common Cybersecurity Mistakes and Easy Steps to Avoid Them
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Clicking on a link or attachments in emails from what appear to be known senders.
So much of our correspondence, business and personal, is by electronic means. A colleague may contact you about scheduling a meeting. Or, perhaps you receive an email alert from your bank about activity on your account. It includes a link and asks you to log in and confirm account information. In either of those cases, you have received an email from what appears to be a legitimate and familiar source. But is it real?
The best policy is to verify the content before trusting it. Did the language in that email from your colleague seem different than how they normally sound? Maybe the email from your bank had its logo, but the content was not as usual. Did it sound unprofessional or contain misspelled words? Think twice before you click on anything. Once you’ve clicked that link or attachment—it’s too late. Considering calling that colleague and asking this that email, about the meeting, was actually from them. If you’re concerned about the email from your bank, open a new browser and log on to the account directly. If there are any notifications about your account, you’ll see those once you’re logged in.
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Failing to report suspicious activity to your IT department.
If you are receiving suspicious phishing or spam emails, your coworkers are likely receiving them as well. Reporting this to your IT department or cybersecurity officer should be the first action you take to prevent a breach. Groups looking to hack into your institution’s systems are more likely to get through if they have targeted everyone in the company with a blast email. It only takes one person clicking on the wrong link for hackers to gain full access. This is powerful leverage against your institution, and they often demand ransom payments.
The sooner you report suspicious activity to your technology experts, the sooner they can take measures to both alert employees and prevent future content from reaching employee inboxes. It’s also important to note that while a specific attack may get addressed quickly and resolved, there will most certainly be another one down the road. Hackers understand there is tremendous financial value to acquiring your institution’s data, and they’re relentless in new ways of gaining access to confidential information. This is why staff must remain alert and vigilant at all times. It also emphasizes the importance of incorporating cybersecurity training and measures into your operations.
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Using the same password for your personal and work accounts.
It’s so easy to remember your pet’s name or the make of your first car. So, you may use that password for all your personal accounts, apps, and social media platforms. However, this may not be the best option for accessing accounts at work. It a good policy to keep work and personal separate. While you should also strongly consider using different passwords for each of your personal accounts, for business activity, you should always use completely different protocols for your logins and passwords. This is a must-do to protect against a data breach.
The media frequently reports on different customer platforms being breached and all user login and password data getting exposed on the dark web. Once hackers have your login and password, they can use bots to go from one website to the next, in seconds, trying your information to see if they can get into a valid account. If you’ve used the same password for all your accounts, you’re even more at risk. Now magnify that if you have used the same passwords for your business activity. It’s easy to see how quickly that can snowball. Now is the time to check all your online access and updates those usernames and passwords.
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Storing a list of your passwords in a document on your PC.
Websites continue to increase the complexity of username and password requirements. It’s not uncommon for a website to require 12+ characters, of varying types, and a combination of upper and lower letters. It’s tempting to create a list of them and save it on your computer. That way it’s handy when you can’t remember one of them. But what if hackers gain access to your computer, and you don’t know you’ve been breached? You’ve, essentially, handed them the playbook for retrieving all your information. They will access accounts and vanish before you even know what’s happened.
There is an easy way to avoid this scenario – don’t store your passwords on your computer. When creating passwords for your business accounts, consider utilizing a formula. This allows you to have a different password for each business account by applying a method to how you arrive at the password for each individual account. This is just one solution you can put in place – there are many other methods you can utilize to protect not only your passwords but also all your critical business data.
Welcome to FAS’ Consulting Corner
Welcome to FAS’ Consulting Corner! In conjunction with launching our new website, we want to use this space to share relevant information with financial aid and student business services practitioners. It’s a safe and reliable place to get the latest news on what’s happening in financial aid and student finance all around the country. We’ll tackle issues from maintaining rigorous compliance standards and leveraging technology, to giving your students the best possible experience. Our consultants are thought leaders with a combined 1,600 years of experience in their respective fields. Higher Education is an industry that’s always in motion. There is always something new to talk about, so check back often. We’re adding fresh content all the time. Whether you’re considering services, need guidance or resources, or just want to connect with FAS, we’ve got something for you.
Win-Win Approach to Dealing with Difficult Students
One size does not fit all when it comes to working with students and their needs surrounding how to finance and pay for their education. Every student interaction brings unique circumstances, capabilities, and concerns to the table. While in many cases questions are easily answered and issues resolved, other times students or parents are not able to meet institutional requirements or are dissatisfied with the answers they’ve received.
Dealing with difficult customers is not unexpected particularly at the start of a new academic year. Whether it’s financial aid packages that don’t meet expectations, not being allowed to register for classes because of an outstanding balance, getting conflicting information from different offices, or just not being able to reach institutional staff by phone or email, this stressful time of year can impact student retention, outstanding receivables, or just engender bad feelings about the institution.
At a time when quality service is more than an expectation, staff and supervisors face the wrath and ire of many customers. Depending on the time of year and institutional deadlines or organizational structures, these customers are not only students and their parents, but may extend to prospective students, alumni, faculty members, or even colleagues in other institutional offices. With enrollment, financial and workforce pressures on colleges and universities, maintaining service delivery standards and satisfaction can challenge both staff and senior leadership.
To maintain quality service standards, institutions now must also factor in needs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) that have moved into the forefront of the higher education experience. Treating your students and constituents with a consistent approach should not mean that every experience and interaction is similar. At the same time, it’s important to respect and note how differences in culture, knowledge, and experiences may require different styles and techniques in service delivery and counseling.
That’s why it is important that we “listen to hear” what our customers are saying and how we subsequently respond to their needs. Not only is it critical to be timely and accurate in responding, but it’s also vital that someone owns the customer’s issues and concerns. Too often, failures to listen, understand, and answer these concerns creates escalated conflicts and complaints.
Using every customer interaction to anticipate other questions/concerns and educate students on what to do (and how to do it) can lead to more on-time payments, higher satisfaction levels, reduced complaints, and increased student success.
Financial Literacy – An Essential Part of Student Success
Providing students and their families with the skills and tools to understand personal finance and money management has largely fallen to colleges and universities. While fourteen states have enacted legislation mandating personal finance training in high school, more than two-thirds of the country still lacks any formal training or education programs for students or parents.
Many people don’t know where to turn for guidance or direction when they need assistance in completing a FAFSA to apply for financial aid, how to save for college or use payment plans to help finance an education, or even how to create a budget. Both traditional students and older adults returning to school often seek out resources to figure out how to pay for college and, later, to repay their student loans.
By default, colleges have become the last resort for acquiring this knowledge. Identifying and managing financial issues has become a key element in the recruitment and retention of students. Admissions recruiters, financial aid counselors, and student account representatives often are thrust into roles as financial counselors, even if their own knowledge is lacking. With a glut of available information on how to pay for a college education and limited resources to digest and disseminate the data, staff may be ill-equipped to offer time-consuming counseling to students and families while trying to deal with the other aspects of onboarding and maintaining enrollments.
Best practice institutions have developed separate offices to assist students with financial wellness education or have partnered with firms that provide web-based programs and knowledge-driven modules to help them learn the various aspects of personal finance, from student loans and credit cards to budgeting and credit scores.
Institutions need to have an executive sponsor for these programs and place ownership under a single office or group of individuals who will prioritize providing access to personal finance programs and resources.
If an institution does not want to create a separate department, financial wellness programs could be hosted by numerous departments, including but are not limited to financial aid, bursar or student financial services, enrollment management, career services, housing, new student orientation, and dean of students. Admissions, alumni relations and development offices help maximize program exposure and provide a value-added service for prospective and former students and interested parties.
Because students often are more comfortable talking with their peers, a program that incorporates trained student employees to share financial information can help build trust and confidence while also building a triage process to determine when counselors or other full-time staff need to handle more complex issues.
Providing a well-rounded education for today’s students requires a holistic approach to helping them achieve personal success, both now and tomorrow. Offering financial wellness resources will not only help students reach their personal goals – it also may give them the tools to pay their bills in full and on time!
Have Administrative Holds Become a Hot Button Issue?
Institutions of higher education have traditionally used sanctions such as preventing future class registrations and withholding academic transcripts when students owe delinquent account balances. Depending on the schools’ policies, or sometimes state law or regulations, such sanctions may be triggered for any amount due or at a higher dollar threshold that is formula-driven or set arbitrarily.
Short of referring these debts to an outside collection agency or other entity to recover outstanding balances, these holds have provided colleges and universities with a low-cost and easy-to-implement remedy to force students to pay in full or reach out for assistance.
However, recent coverage in the media (for instance, Hechinger Report and Inside Higher Ed) focusing on the large number of students whose financial problems have forced them to delay completion of their educations has raised attention to use of these types of sanctions. A 2020 study by Ithaka S+R on impacted students with “stranded credits” portrayed a scenario where financially-challenged students had little, if any, opportunity to receive their degrees. They could not continue their educations or transfer credits because of outstanding student debt which, in some cases, amounted to only a few dollars.
The issues raised by transcript withholding led the California legislature to enact a law in 2020 prohibiting all institutions from blocking transcript requests because of outstanding balances owed. Washington and Louisiana have since enacted comparable legislation and a number of other states are considering doing so. At the same time a bill was proposed recently in New York, both the State University of New York (SUNY) and City University of New York (CUNY) systems stopped sanctions using transcripts.
In addition to complaints from current and former students, schools now may be subject to complying with new laws and regulations governing their internal operations. So, what should colleges and universities be doing today to mitigate the impact?
Some ideas to consider include:
- Review existing policies and procedures governing use of holds and restricting student services. Are you restricting transcripts or registration for any amount or reason (i.e., tuition vs. parking or library fines) that money is owed? Consider your current dollar threshold for service restrictions and determine how, or if, it has been reviewed or changed in recent years (besides pandemic management).
- Involve your institution’s attorney in the review process. Having counsel look at or help create an appeal process that is consistently managed can ensure a transparent and fair practice. Creating differing rules or interpretations for every student situation not only can lead to criticism, but could create the perception of a UDAAP, which refers to unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices by those offering financial services (including higher education), which is illegal under the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010.
- Weigh whether your state or district has implemented or is considering legislation or new rules. Work with your government affairs office or lobbyist to take the temperature on how institutional restrictions are viewed by legislators and regulators. Educate officials on what the impact of eliminating holds might be on the institution.
- Investigate opportunities to create and use debt reduction or forgiveness programs. Resolving small balance debts can be a “win-win,” eliminating minor amounts owed, while creating a positive experience for a student whose continued attendance results in additional revenues earned. Student success stories not only can breed positive press for an institution, but may even result in additional enrollments and donations.
At a time when colleges and universities are questioned as to whether they are sufficiently accessible or affordable, using service restrictions that block students from continuing or using their educations will remain under close scrutiny. How a school deals with this issue will not only impact collections but could also influence future revenue streams and enrollments.