Eugenia,
Your post brings a good point to mind. Many of the forum posts have discussed involving staff in a general way, but I like the idea of formalizing this process. In addition to simply asking faculty, admissions, etc. to assist with default prevention, we should remember to incorporate this into training materials for new hires, daily checklists and task-lists, etc. In this way, we keep our entire staff organized and our message clear.
Amanda,
Has this been an effective strategy for your school? Do you think your organization would be open to involving more than one individual in you default prevention efforts?
With this course, we hope to make positive suggestions for schools that might benefit from a change in strategy.
We have Default Management on staff, that sends letters and makes phone calls to deliquent students. Admissions should have this as part of their flip chart just to have the student aware of this from the beginning until the end of their schooling.
Our Faculty and Admissions Offices do not really contribute to our institution's default prevention efforts. We have a staff memeber that is responsible for looking over all of our defaulted students.
We have had workshops that included both faculty and admissions, dealing with default prevention. Both departments found it very interesting.
Linda,
Until this year, I got involved when the student was getting behind in their payments. Now, I am getting involved in the month or two prior to them graduating. The hope is that they will be more apt to be willing to work with me, if the need arises, if they can put a face to the name and job title.
Brenda
Brenda:
In your position of default management, at what point do you get involved with the student?
Linda
Michelle,
That is great that it is working for you. I am hoping that we may be able incorporate this type of involvement with the teachers one of these days. I think the tendency is to shy away if the financial aid officer wants to talk to you, because it may not be a good thing, but I think to involve the teacher would make a huge difference.
Brenda
This is a really good idea. Our students pick up their schedules from our main office...and it would be a perfect time to have them update address, phone numbers and refrences.
As far as our faculty being involved... our instructors in our Career Development classes allow us to come in for a class period and discuss with the students the benefits of repaying student loans (i.e. good credit,)and the consequences of not paying (i.e. bad credit, seizing tax refunds and garnishing wages). I've been fortunate that with the classes I've spoken to, the teachers will ask questions to get the ball rolling which in turn helps the students to open up with questions.
Kellee,
I am currently finishing up my accounting degree through online classes with my school and am finishing up my Payroll Accounting class right now. The subject of garnishment came up and our instructor pointed out to everyone that student loans would be one thing that a person's wages could be garnished for if they are not paying them back as they should. She asked how all of us were keeping track of any student loans that had been taken out. That was the first time I had seen anything like that in any of my classes and was happy that she was getting everyone to think about their student loans. A very good conversation was started because of this question and it gave me the perfect opportunity to bring up a few points about the topic.
Brenda
Brenda,
Your point about admissions and faculty involvement is important; it is a very new idea for many organizations, and we hope more schools will be able to start bridging that gap.
I also appreciate your comment on other departments' lack of awareness of your default prevention efforts. We have had this challenge over the years as well, and we make ongoing efforts to build relationships with school staff in the hopes that they will help familiarize borrowers with our company and the many ways we can assist them.
I hope this course provides you with the ideas and information you are looking for!
I am in an interesting position with my job because I do the default management part-time from my home. This does mean that at times I do not always know how they do things in the office and some people in departments other than financial aid do not even realize I work there. They are starting to include me a bit more in the process to get my name and face out there to the students so that they know who I am.
To answer the question, once admissions passes on the paperwork to financial aid, they are no longer involved unless the student wants to make a change in their major. This is not because they are unwilling to be more involved, it just has not asked of them to this point.
I think teachers would also be a good resource, but again they are not involved in default prevention because they have never been asked to do so.
Our hope in me taking this class is that maybe we can get some ideas so that we can start incorporating some changes that will help in default prevention.
Brenda McMiller
This is consistent with the theme of our course for "Default Prevention: A State of Mind." The importance of paying student loans is displayed whether it is "pay your loans - this is important" or no message at all (unimportant). Each message will lead to action, good and bad, on the part of the students in the future. This course offers meaningful suggestions to involve admissions, placement, teachers and support staff in your default prevention efforts - it is based on 20 years of experience in preventing student loan defaults.
Champion College Solutions, formerly "Hands On" Default Management, has provided professionally designed and printed posters for schools to hang throughout their campuses. These emphasize both good and bad consequences of loan repayment and debt obligation; building awareness of responsibilities, options, and who to contact for questions. Prominent display of this information throughout the school will send the message that paying student loans is important.
I believe that it is essential to have the entire school involved in default prevention. The more that students are made aware of their responsibilities, especially in this electronic age, the more likely they are to take ownership of their debt and to follow through on repaying the loans.
I have suggested that academics remind students of their fiscal responsibilties to the school in any counseling sessio, whether registration, ATB counseling or whatever. If a student doesn't pay the bill they won't be around to register and retention rates suffer.
In our institution reference information is collected by both the admissions and financial aid departments. In admissions the references exclude relatives which gives us another tool to locate students when they disappear.
In every office there are forms available to collect demographic information such as address and phone number changes. It is so important to involve the entire staff in default prevention habits because we all have different levels of contact with each student.
We require students to return on a separate visit after the enrollment process to go through an entrance counseling appointment one on one with a financial advisor. This alows the student to focus on the financial aspects of attending school without being flooded with information from multiple departments all at once.
I would like to develop a system to collect updated personal and reference information at regular intervals throughout the students enrollment. If a few minutes could be taken from a class during each term to accomplish this goal then students would begin to expect it and other staff members could make a positive impact of default prevention efforts.
That is an excellent idea! A course such as the one you describe is the perfect place to discuss student loan topics.
We have always been very fortunate to have good (low) default numbers, so the issue has not been of great concern. Thinking about it now though, I am going to suggest that we add information about it to our "Career Success" course. That would give us an opportunity to present loan repayment as one more part of being a successful, mature, responsible, independent, contributing member of society.
I suppose this question would have to be answered by each individual school, depending on your particular needs and the relationship between different departments.
With more cooperation between the financial aid and admissions staff, you can ensure a better outcome for your students. Also, if the admissions staff really understands the goals of the financial aid department and the importance of maintaining low cohort default rates, they may be more apt to welcome you into their space.
how much involevement is contributed other than poting signs without going into the financial aid/admisions red zone
