Submitted by DS (not verified) on June 14, 2008 - 7:01am.
State and regional financial aid associations are not "chapters" or "affiliates" of NASFAA in any way, shape or form, and NASFAA has no control over those individual groups' policies regarding how lender/guarantor membership or leadership is handled. In fact, if a regional President is not employed by a school, that person may not take his/her seat at NASFAA Board meetings because of NASFAA's rules regarding non-school members not serving in leadership roles with NASFAA. I happen to agree completely that lenders and guarantor employees should not serve in leadership capacities in any aid associations, but blaming NASFAA (with which this blog obviously has many an axe to grind) for policies in say, Rhode Island or Arizona, is like blaming the White House for something your town's mayor did. But even more disturbing is the obvious fact that you spoke to no one about this phenomenon. This topic has been discussed ad nauseum in aid associations for years. Many of us who work on campuses are very challenged to give the necessary time commitment to these associations to serve in leadership or even just active roles. Financial aid administration is becoming a more and more demanding profession all the time; there is no "down time" as there was years ago, the students and parents are understandably more confused and demanding, regulations pile up, what we do is a bigger part of the school's strategic enrollment and retention plans, etc, on top of the fact that we now have PR campaigns to mount just to prove that we're not all on the take. Lender reps, on the other hand, are told by their supervisors to get out there and make face time...and what better way than to volunteer for every committee they see? When I've served as an association president or committee chair, I had no trouble getting more volunteers than I needed for things...if you count the lender and guarantor reps. The real aid administrators are too busy holed up in their offices 50-60 hours a week to add a lot of volunteer work to their schedules. Many bloggers insist that they are journalists, and a good journalist would have gotten some more information for a story like this.
what "chapters" or "affiliates?"
State and regional financial aid associations are not "chapters" or "affiliates" of NASFAA in any way, shape or form, and NASFAA has no control over those individual groups' policies regarding how lender/guarantor membership or leadership is handled. In fact, if a regional President is not employed by a school, that person may not take his/her seat at NASFAA Board meetings because of NASFAA's rules regarding non-school members not serving in leadership roles with NASFAA. I happen to agree completely that lenders and guarantor employees should not serve in leadership capacities in any aid associations, but blaming NASFAA (with which this blog obviously has many an axe to grind) for policies in say, Rhode Island or Arizona, is like blaming the White House for something your town's mayor did. But even more disturbing is the obvious fact that you spoke to no one about this phenomenon. This topic has been discussed ad nauseum in aid associations for years. Many of us who work on campuses are very challenged to give the necessary time commitment to these associations to serve in leadership or even just active roles. Financial aid administration is becoming a more and more demanding profession all the time; there is no "down time" as there was years ago, the students and parents are understandably more confused and demanding, regulations pile up, what we do is a bigger part of the school's strategic enrollment and retention plans, etc, on top of the fact that we now have PR campaigns to mount just to prove that we're not all on the take. Lender reps, on the other hand, are told by their supervisors to get out there and make face time...and what better way than to volunteer for every committee they see? When I've served as an association president or committee chair, I had no trouble getting more volunteers than I needed for things...if you count the lender and guarantor reps. The real aid administrators are too busy holed up in their offices 50-60 hours a week to add a lot of volunteer work to their schedules. Many bloggers insist that they are journalists, and a good journalist would have gotten some more information for a story like this.