Student Financial Aid News
From Inside Higher Ed:
Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives on Wednesday formally introduced legislation to restructure the federal student aid programs and signaled their intention to move with lightning speed to pass it. The Committee on Education and Labor announced that it would take up the $87 billion legislation next Tuesday, and given the strong Democratic majority on the panel, as well as in Congress, passage is assured.
Commentary
Any changes made to the student loan program and federal student loans are expected to take effect July 1, …

Student Financial Aid News
More on the Perkins loan, from NASFAA:
“Speaking at the National Association for Student Financial Aid Administrators conference Monday, Education Department officials tried to persuade colleges that President Obama’s proposed new Perkins Loan program would resemble the existing one,” Chronicle of Higher Education reports. “But the student-aid administrators in the room weren’t buying it. Under the president’s proposal, colleges would no longer administer or collect on Perkins Loans. That responsibility would shift to the Education Department, which would also reclaim its share of the money now in colleges’ …

Financial Aid News 156: Perkins loans, swine flu, wool scholarship
From Inside Higher Ed:
Most of the attention surrounding the Obama administration’s plan to restructure the federal financial aid programs focuses on the fate of the guaranteed student loan program, but equally interesting — and perhaps more significant in the long term — is the Education Department’s vision of an altered Perkins Loan Program, about which administration officials offered a few more details during sessions at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators here Monday. The Perkins proposal is noteworthy because …

Financial Aid News 155: Amherst College faculty asking for financial aid reductions
Student Financial Aid News
An exclusive sent to us by a friend of a student at Amherst College:
This was my day: A letter was circulated on the Amherst website, accessible only to faculty, which stated that in an “informal meeting” 55 of the faculty members (the majority of them senior, tenured, and white) concluded that the college needs to 1) decrease its percentage of students on fin aid (which is somehow not supposed to be getting rid of need-blind admissions), …

Student Financial Aid News
From Inside Higher Ed:
U.S. Bank, the sixth largest provider of federally guaranteed student loans, has told its customers that it will stop doing so after this fall, Student Lending Analytics reported Wednesday. U.S. Bank told college officials that it would end its activities in the Federal Family Education Loan Program by September 25. U.S. Bank does not service the loans it makes, and so would have no role in the Obama administration’s proposed plan to end the guaranteed student loan program, and relatively little role even in …

Student Financial Aid News
From Inside Higher Ed:
On Tuesday, a broad array of companies and loan agencies (with some notable exceptions) offered an alternative to the Obama plan that departs in a few key ways — continuing to allow lenders to originate loans, and to let state and nonprofit lenders “service” loans in their regions — but endorses the administration’s overall goals of having the government own all federal loans and redirecting tens of billions of dollars in lender subsidies to increase aid to students.
Individual colleges could select to have …

Student Financial Aid News
From Inside HIgher Ed:
Ombudsman’s offices at federal agencies are designed to be honest brokers — places where members of the public or aggrieved parties can go to resolve disputes “from a neutral, independent viewpoint,” as the ombudsman’s office at the U.S. Education Department Federal Student Aid office describes itself.
But the student aid agency’s ombudsman’s office is staffed by a company, Vangent, that also helps the department collect on defaulted and other loans, and several of the company’s employees in the ombudsman’s office formerly worked on loan collections. …

Student Financial Aid News
From Inside Higher Ed:
California’s budget mess — already leading public colleges and universities to consider furloughs, enrollment limits and huge budget cuts — is now hitting low income students in an unusual way.
This month would normally be when those eligible for Cal Grants would receive official eligibility notification of their award sizes and money would start moving to the institutions the students will attend (in many cases only because the Cal Grant is part of the aid package). Cal Grants are need-based, and are a key tool …

Financial Aid News 150: Student credit card fees, student loan consolidation
Student Financial Aid News
From USA Today:
Across the nation, a growing number of universities are making it harder — and costlier — for students to use credit cards. Starting Wednesday, students at the University of Southern Maine who pay tuition using plastic will face a 2.75% processing fee. Other schools that have adopted, or are adopting, similar policies include George Mason University, Northwestern University, Wichita State and the University of Virginia.
Commentary
Student credit cards continue to take hit after hit. No surprise …

Student Financial Aid News
From the NY Times:
Students looking for college scholarships are going to have a harder time this year as providers, hammered by falling investment returns and declining philanthropic support, cut back. The recession has led foundations, corporations, state governments and colleges themselves to reduce their support of providers of scholarships, and in recent months programs have been reduced or canceled outright. The cuts come as economic conditions make it harder for families to pay for college and as more unemployed people look for financing for retraining. Peterson’s, an …