Wisconsin Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators
PRELIMINARY
AGENDA
FALL 2014 WASFAA CONFERENCE
Appleton, WI
|
November 12 – 14, 2014
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Executive Committee Meeting
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM New Member Gathering
Lunch
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM Welcome
Raffle Charity Presentation: Old Glory Honor Flight
Federal Update
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Kim Wells, Training Officer, U.S. Department of Education
2:30 PM - 2:45 PM
Break - Purchase Raffle Tickets
One on One
Student Workers
from the Employer's
Perspective
Kim Wells
Jennifer Holz and
Donna Freund
Advancing an Office
Director Reporting
Structures
2:45 PM - 3:45 PM
3:45 PM - 4:00 PM
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
6:00 PM
Financial Literacy
Programs on Our
Campuses
Loan and Financial
Awareness
Committee
Break - Purchase Raffle Tickets
R2T4
Give and Take
Working Your
Magic for
WASFAA
Heidi Johnson
Merging Money
with
Identity
Casey Calhoun
Amanda Fijal
Panel
John Whitt
Group Dinners (Good Company, The Bar, Frank's Pizza Palace, Victoria's Italian Cuisine)
Enjoy dinner with colleagues or explore Appleton on your own
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Breakfast Buffet
Updates: HEAB, College Goal, MASFAA
Fraud in the Student Financial Aid Programs
8:45 AM - 9:45 AM
Jessica Chapman, Special Agent, U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General
9:45 AM - 10:00 AM
Break - Purchase Raffle Tickets
The In’s and Out’s
Sector Meetings
of FAFSA
10:00 AM - 10:45 AM
Completion
Karla Weber
10:45 AM - 11:00 AM
Break - Purchase Raffle Tickets
8:00 AM - 8:45 AM
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
2:00 PM - 2:30 PM
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
150% SULA
Citizenship Status
and Title IV Aid
Power up with
PowerFAIDS
Don’t Just Blame
it on the FAFSA
Kim Wells
Keyimani Alford
Amy Hoss
Jennifer Weber
Lunch
Verbal Defense and Influence
Jill Weisensel, Lieutenant, Dept of Public Safety, Marquette University
Break - Purchase Raffle Tickets
The Degree
NASFAA Standards
Verbal Defense:
Project Students
of Excellence
Tactics and Practice
are Coming - Are
Review Program
You Ready
Jill Weisensel
3:30 PM - 3:45 PM
NASFAA
Presentation:
Advocacy and You
Tim Opgenorth
Ben Dobner
Break - Purchase Raffle Tickets
Verbal Defense:
Tactics and
Birds of a Feather:
Practice
Work-Study
3:45 PM - 4:45 PM
Jesse O'Connell
5:00 PM
6:00 PM
Julie WaldvogelLeitner
President's Reception
(Cash Bar)
Dinner and Magic/Hypnosis Show
Jill Weisensel
Undocumented
Students - What
Can Be Done
College Access
Committee
Professional
Judgment for
Beginners
Barb Cloutier,
Julie WaldvogelLeitner, Dave
Woodward
Friday, November 14, 2014
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
10:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Breakfast Buffet
SULA: System
Reporting Challenges
Serving Our
Veteran's
Positioning
Yourself On
Campus
Loan and Financial
Awareness
Committee
Jeremy Hanson,
Craig Mayer, Al Hess
Sara Beth Holman
Break/Check Out
NASFAA Update
10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Jesse O'Connell, Assistant Director for Federal Relations
Business Meeting
Crafting an
Effective Default
Prevention Plan
Debbie Murphy
and Bill
Henderson
Student Workers from the Employer’s Perspective
Jennifer Holz, HRIS Coordinator, and Donna Freund, Payroll Manager
Moraine Park Technical College
Join us for more information on forms and process, health insurance and any new regulations that may
impact student employees from the employer’s perspective. Sponsored by the WASFAA Student
Employment committee.
Financial Literacy Programs on Our Campuses
Jennifer Weber, Financial Aid Counselor (University of Wisconsin – LaCrosse), and Lindsey Thomas,
Financial Aid Advisor (Western Technical College), and Erin Bykowski, Student Life Officer (Edgewood
Collge), and Travis Guetche, Financial Coaching Student Manager (University of Wisconsin – Stevens
Point)
Learn from your colleagues what they are doing on their campuses to establish financial literacy
programs. They will share how they wrote grant requests, marketing strategies, what has worked and
what hasn’t and much more.
Working your Magic for WASFAA: Committee and Volunteer Opportunities
Heidi Johnson
University of Wisconsin - Madison
During this session, we will be discussing WASFAA’s committees and the work that they do. We will also
discuss other opportunities for volunteering within WASFAA and upcoming professional development
opportunities. All WASFAA members are welcome.
Advancing an Office
Amanda Fijal, Executive Director of University Financial Aid
University of Chicago
Becoming director of a financial aid office or leader of an existing team can be challenging. Being asked
to also change the office or team culture is an even bigger challenge. Participate in a discussion about
the steps University of Chicago took in refreshing a financial aid office.
R2T4 Give and Take
John Whitt, Student Services Coordinator
University of Wisconsin - Madison
A group discussion of the trials and tribulations of the Return of Title IV Funds process. Ask and answer
questions, share lessons learned, and find out how your colleagues deal with this complex and
sometimes confusing aspect of financial aid.
Merging Money with Identity: UWM’s LGBT Resource Center & Financial Aid Office
Collaboration
Casey Calhoun, Student Services Coordinator
University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Unlike more visible under-represented groups, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and similarly
identified (LGBT+) persons cannot be readily recognized. The goal of this session is to promote
inclusivity and advocacy for LGBT+ people and their allies, as well as lay out some basic foundational
knowledge for staff to more sensitively deal with issues faced by LGBT+ identified students and
families. In addition, we will facilitate discussion of some issues specific to Financial Aid, including
recent changes due to Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and other sensitive issues including name
changes, Dependency Overrides, and homelessness in the LGBT+ population.
The In’s and Out’s of FAFSA Completion
Karla Weber, Financial Aid Advisor
University of Wisconsin - Madison
This session will provide helpful tips from the college financial aid office perspective on completing the
FAFSA, insight into the IRS Data Retrieval Tool, and the verification process so that you will be able to
advise students and parents on how to make applying for financial aid smooth and less cumbersome.
150% SULA
Kimberly Wells, Training Officer
Department of Education
In 2013, Congress passed MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century) which instituted a
150% limit on how long first-time borrowers could borrow subsidized loans. In this session, we will
review basics of the 150% limit, discuss some of the special programs as well as talk about some of the
processing-related situations that have arisen since the implementation of this limit.
Citizenship Status and Title IV Aid: Confirming Eligibility and Ensuring Compliance
Keyimani Alford
Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation and Affiliates
Citizenship status confirmation can be time consuming and confusing. Do you know how to evaluate the
various ISIR comment codes and confirm eligibility by obtaining the correct documentation? This session
will provide guidance on how to understand the various ISIR citizenship comment codes, clarify which
citizenship status categories can result in Title IV aid eligibility, and show you how to obtain appropriate
documentation to ensure compliance before awarding and disbursing aid.
Don’t Just Blame it on the FAFSA
Jennifer Weber, Financial Aid Counselor
University of Wisconsin – La Crosse
This session will focus on conversations pre-collegiate advisors, high school counselors, or financial aid
counselors may have with prospective college students and their families once they have filed the
FAFSA. This session will address how to compare financial aid awards and how to address the “What
now?” questions that may come from high income/high achieving students, middle income families, and
low income/limited resource families once they have reviewed a possible award. Each group poses
unique challenges in terms of meeting individual financial needs.
Verbal Defense: Tactics and Practice
Jill Weisensel, Lieutenant, Department of Public Safety
Marquette University
Jill Weisensel is a consultant and instructor for Verbal defense and Influence and has campus law
enforcement experience working, in part, and directing and managing shift patrol operations within an
urban campus environment. She is a Defensive and Arrest Tactics instructor and a Tactical
Communication instructor, and has taught applications of Tactical Strength and Conditioning at
Marquette University, with a decade of experience. In her keynote address, Jill will discuss nonescalatory tactics and a more effective and professional way to relate with and manage people. She will
discuss how we, as financial aid professionals, can retain personal and professional credibility while also
maintaining personal safety in tense situations. During the breakout sessions Jill will dive deeper into
tactics, including role playing, of verbal defense.
NASFAA Standards of Excellence Review Program
Tim Opgenorth, Executive Director of Student Financial Aid
University of Illinois at Chicago
Can you serve your students better? Can you do this while ensuring regulatory compliance and limiting
the risk of liabilities? Do you need to prepare for or respond to an evaluation, compliance review or
effectiveness assessment?
The NASFAA Standards of Excellence Review is an objective, confidential peer review that will help your
school provide students and their families with quality customer service, deliver financial aid funds in a
cost-effective manner, maximize resources, and ensure regulatory compliance. This session will provide
you with insight on the NASFAA Standards of Excellence Review Program from a current reviewer to
include how review teams are selected, what the team looks at when on campus and the common
compliance exceptions that have been identified on recent reviews. The good thing with the NASFAA
Standards of Excellence Review is that compliance exceptions identified come with no penalties or fines,
but instead suggestions on how to address before that next audit or program review.
The Degree Project Students are Coming – Are you Ready?
Ben Dobner
Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation & Affiliates
Great Lakes launched The Degree Project in collaboration with Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) during
November of 2011 to motivate more Milwaukee high school students to get good grades, do well in
school, and continue their education in college. A single cohort of nearly 2,600 high school freshmen
were given the chance to earn a scholarship of up to $12,000 from The Degree Project to help pay for
college – and they will start appearing on your campus in the fall of 2015! Come to this session to learn
the scholarship requirements, how the scholarships should be packaged with other financial aid, how
the disbursement process will be handled, and other important scholarship logistics. Students are able
to use the scholarship at any nonprofit, public or private, 2 or 4 year college in Wisconsin. To earn the
scholarship, students must graduate from an eligible MPS high school by August 30, 2015, with a
cumulative grade point average of at least 2.5, and a cumulative attendance record of 90 percent or
higher.
Undocumented Students – What Can Be Done?
College Access Committee
This session will focus on working with undocumented students in terms of providing financial guidance
to the student and their families.
NASFAA Presentation: Advocacy and You
Jesse O’Connell, Assistant Director of Federal Regulations
NASFAA
This session will touch on the main principles of successful advocacy strategies. An overview will be
given of how NASFAA enacts those strategies at the Federal level though relationships with
Congressional staffers, the Department of Education, and the Administration. In addition to highlighting
useful NASFAA tools and resources, the session will also cover tips and strategies on how to successfully
advocate at the grassroots level, and outline how you can plan your own advocacy event!
Birds of a Feather: Work Study
Julie Waldvogel-Leitner
Moraine Park Technical College
If you process, manage, or work with work study at your institution, please join the Student Employment
Committee in a time to share ideas, resources, and best practices. Feel free to bring any questions or
resources to share!
Professional Judgment for Beginners
Dave Woodward, Director of Financial Aid (Ripon College); Barb Cloutier, Assistant Director (UWStout); Julie Waldvogel-Leitner, Financial Aid Manager (Moraine Park Technical College)
This session will focus on dealing with special circumstances in the family with an emphasis on
independent student overrides. Learn what information the financial aid office needs to make the
decision and learn how you as a pre-collegiate advisor or high school counselor can assist the financial
aid office to help the students you are working with.
SULA: System Reporting Challenges
Panel-Lead Discussion
Discuss with your loan specialist colleagues the various challenges that you have encountered with SULA
reporting. Groups will break out based on software system (i.e. PeopleSoft, Datatel, etc.) to discuss
what challenges you have seen & any possible workarounds to system or reporting issues.
Positioning Yourself On Campus
Sara Beth Holman, Director of Financial Aid
Lawrence University
By building the right relationships with key colleagues on campus as well as with financial aid
professionals at other institutions, you can ensure that your voice is heard before things happen . . .
rather than being the person who has to figure out how to adapt after they have happened. This
session will use the humor, eye rolling, and the occasional cringing we experience in financial aid to take
us through a “typical” day and show how we can use our knowledge and experiences to make the
connections that will move us to the next level.
Crafting an Effective Default Prevention Plan
Debbie Murphy and Bill Henderson
Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation and Affiliates
Cohort Default Rates are expected to rise at many schools. A comprehensive default prevention plan is
an essential starting point for improving student loan outcomes. This session will cover the basics,
including why your school needs a plan and the resources available to help you develop one.
See you in Appleton
at the Magic Show!