We've Lost so Much
Given the upheaval in the student loan industry over the past several months, it was expected that this year's NASFAA conference would have a certain awkwardness to it. As participants in the federal student loan programs, we had fallen into a certain pattern of doing business. "Shopping" the exhibit area had become a standard. Exhibitor fees had become a significant source of revenue to help NASFAA subsidize the conference. As someone who has attended more than twenty NASFAA conferences, I have often said that the NASFAA exhibit hall was the one place where you could see the entire industry laid out in one place.
It was sad, therefore, to see instead a ghost town. The buzz was that school attendees had been told by their administration not to even enter the exhibit hall. Other financial aid officers were fearful of the numerous reporters canvassing the conference. I was struck by the incredible waste of resources as exhibitors stood for hours with very little traffic. The irony, of course, is that financial aid officers have more reason than ever to be investigating lender or guarantor offerings. We all acknowledge that on some level we were due for a course correction. But in the balance, have we lost something important? The bottom line is that parents and students need our help to sort through the maze of financing options. Financial aid officers are in the best position to act as the trusted agent of the student and parent. To serve in this role, aid officers need to be informed and educated about the available options. And to do this, they need to build relationships with loan providers.
I recently had a parent call me. Her son is entering Hofstra in the fall. He had received his award letter, and even after a Stafford loan, had a $12,000 gap. Upon calling the school for financing advice, she was told they could not help her. We may have solved the problem of inducement abuse in the program, but have we lost something much more vital along the way?
Posted by Susan Nathan on July 31, 2007 at 03:38 PM EST
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Blog Author
Susan Nathan
Vice President, Lender and School Services
Biography
Susan Nathan is Vice President of Lender and School Services at American Student Assistance (ASA)®. She has held this position since October of 2002. Ms. Nathan joined ASA in February 1987 as supervisor of the external program review unit. She has held roles of increasing responsibility in product development, operations, client management and customer service, and marketing. She has been a member of the design teams for a number of ASA’s signature products, including FASTFUND, ASA’s disbursement product, and ASA Direct, ASA’s web processing tool. She was the manager of the business plan for ASA’s major system conversion in 1998.
She is credited with the development of ASA’s nationally recognized client management team. Ms. Nathan oversees the ASA Advisory Council, and is the staff liaison to the Marketing Planning Committee of ASA’s Board of Directors.
Prior to joining ASA, Ms. Nathan was a Financial Aid Officer for Lesley College. She is a graduate of Brown University and a fellow of the Institute for Educational Leadership. She is a member of state, regional and national financial aid associations and is routinely sought by the financial aid community as a professional development trainer.
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