Debt-Management Perspectives

Noel-Levitz and USA Funds Bring Strategic Student Retention Service to College Campuses
Noel-Levitz and USA Funds^® now provide retentionRT, a comprehensive service that increases student persistence and degree completion, factors that figure strongly in students’ ability to repay their education loans. Read more.

Operations Bulletin

Lender of Last Resort Explained
With some lenders having announced temporary suspension or permanent termination of loan originations under the Federal Family Education Loan Program, concerns about potential loan access problems have brought attention to a rarely used authority in the Higher Education Act dealing with lender of last resort. USA Funds offers answers to lender of last resort questions.

Reminder: Cohort Default Rate Appeals Due April 4
USA Funds reminds schools that appeals of draft 2006 cohort default rates must be postmarked no later than April 4, 2008. The USA Funds Web site offers resources to help schools with cohort default rate appeals. Among the resources is an updated list of common errors to avoid during the appeal process, as well as information about USA Funds Cohort Analysis Tool^SM, which helps simplify the process of reviewing loan data and identifying records that may prompt potential cohort rate challenges.

Policy Frequently Asked Question: Consolidation Loan Defaults and Cohort Default Rate
USA Funds’ policy experts provide guidance regarding how consolidation loan defaults affect cohort default rates. Read more.

USA Funds Update

USA Funds Awards $40,000 to Celebrate 40 Years of Tribal Colleges and Universities
At a USA Funds-sponsored event last week encouraging support of scholarships for American Indian students and celebrating the 40th anniversary of tribal colleges and universities, USA Funds announced it is awarding $40,000 in support of the American Indian College Fund. Learn more.

USA Funds Offers Webcasts on ‘Service Excellence Through Effective Communication’
Beginning in April USA Funds will offer a “Service Excellence Through Effective Communication” webcast series. Designed for financial aid professionals who have high interaction with customers, the series will provide you tools and resources to put your best foot forward in providing service to students. Learn more and register for the webcasts.

Tech Talk

Web Services Off-Line March 29-30, Due to Scheduled Maintenance
Scheduled enhancements to networks that support the USA Funds Connection^® portal and USA Funds Loan Counselor^® suite of counseling products will result in outages of some of the tools’ features for 17 hours this weekend. Read more.