| Holiday
Schedule Reminder!
November 10-Closed at 11:30
ET for Employee Recognition Event
November
11-Veteran's Day
November
25 & 26-Thanksgiving
Our online systems
will be available during normally scheduled hours. |
Congress
Extends Higher Education Act Through FY 2005
As
published in last month’s Update, the Senate Appropriations
Committee approved a subcommittee decision to fund the Perkins
Loan Federal Capital Contribution and Loan Cancellations at FY
2004 levels. However, the House passed its FY 2005 Labor Health
and Human Services and Education bill without funding the Contribution.
Anticipating that they would be unable to finish their work before
the September 30 close, the House and Senate debated and adopted
Continuing Resolution (H.J. Res 107), which was signed by President
Bush on September 30. A Continuing Resolution allows the agencies
of the government to continue spending into the new fiscal year
at the same rate as the previous year.
As of the date of this article (October 20, 2004), the House and
Senate have passed legislation (H. R. 5185) to extend the Higher
Education Act until September 30, 2005. The passage of H. R. 5185
addresses concerns that the current extension of the HEA, included
as part of H. J. Res 107, would lapse. Under that legislation,
some higher education programs were set to expire on November
20, 2004. The president is expected to sign the year long extension
soon.
Requesting
and Using an ED-PIN
The Department of Education (ED)
has published Dear Partner Letter GEN-04-10 that clarifies the
requirements for requesting and using an ED-PIN for the federal
aid programs. It also states the actions ED will take when it
believes that the integrity of an ED-PIN has been compromised.
For more information, go to http://ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/GEN0410.html.
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SAIG Enrollment Document – Revision Notice
ED has proposed a revision of
the Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) Enrollment Document. Comments
on this action are due by November 18, 2004. For additional information,
you may review the supporting documents at
http://www.ifap.ed.gov/fregisters/FR10192004.html.
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2004-2005 Federal Student Aid Handbook Announcement
Although the most recent volumes
of the 2004-2005 Federal Student Aid Handbook contained no major
policy changes, they did substantially reorganize the way information
is presented to align it more closely with awarding and disbursement
activities at your school. In the course of reorganizing the material,
ED brought together guidance that had formerly appeared in different
chapters of the Handbook. This announcement discusses the changes
and provides links to several explanatory documents to ease the
transition.
To read
about this announcement, go to http://www.ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/1006FSAHB0405ann.html.To
view the 2004-2005 Federal Student Aid Handbook, go to the IFAP
Web site. Under “Publications,” select the Federal
Student Aid Handbook.
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Mandatory Date for New Master Promissory Note
Approaches
Most of you are already using
the new Master Prom Note, which must be used beginning November
1, 2004. If you have any questions about the MPN, you
may find our previously published Question and Answer Guide on
the MPN helpful. The Guide is available at www.campuspartners.com/documents/FAQonMPN.pdf.
If you
have additional questions, please contact us.
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New
Loans and Advances
During our busy new loans
and advances season, we receive hundreds of processing requests
in various media formats. We have updated our “How to”
on submitting new loans and advances and unpostable new loans
and advances for your review. To streamline the process, here
are a few reminders, which also are addressed in the attached
“How to:”
-
Use
the New Loan Batch Ticket to record common fields, such as loan
type, separation date, repayment frequency, and repayment plan,
once instead of entering the data on individual New Loan Input
Forms. You can record common information for up to 50 loans
on one New Loan Batch Ticket.
-
Consult our office before formatting an Excel spreadsheet for
new loan and advances data submission. Again, you can record
common fields once instead of entering information for each
loan. We can also advise you of other formatting issues before
you submit the information.
-
Again, please consult our office before submitting data via
FTP. By
submitting a test file in advance, we may be able to save you
time and resolve issues in advance.
-
We also have added a new subsystem edit on System III related
to borrower privacy. If you submit data on-line through our
processing system, you may encounter an error message related
to this edit. Our staff will monitor your submissions on a daily
basis to correct these errors in most cases.
We are also investigating how we can make forms related to new
loans and advances more user friendly without sacrificing the
ease of recognizing required fields. We will continue to keep
you informed on issues related to new loans and advances.
ATTACHMENT: How
to Submit New Loans and Advances and
Unpostable
New Loans and Advances
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New
Products Update
Under
our new ownership, it seems that we are releasing another new
product every month! We are trying hard to introduce you to all
the new products that can help you in performing your duties.
While we are releasing new products, our focus on enhancing existing
products has not wavered. Here is the latest news about our new
products and their enhancements. Please do not hesitate to call
us with your suggestions concerning our products and services.
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E-Bill
In June, we added E-Bill, our electronic
bill presentment service to our product line. Any borrower registered
to use www.mycampusloan.com can register to receive their bill
electronically through e-mail notification. The e-mail notification
will provide a link to a secure Web page, which displays the borrower’s
latest billing statement. Borrowers also can pay their bill on
the spot with E-Pay, our electronic bill payment service.
We are in the process of promoting this option with your borrowers
through inserts stuffed into their paper billing statements. The
inserts announcing the availability of E-Bill will continue for
the next few months. We will have additional promotions next year,
as well. Our goal is to move as many borrowers as possible to E-Bill
and to AutoDraft, our automatic debit product. By making bill paying
easy and convenient, we hope to ensure that more borrowers stay
out of default!
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myReports
We are pleased to announce
that myReports, our new reports on demand tool,
will be released as this Update goes to press. This product,
with its easy to use interface, will allow you to create customized
reports that fit your needs. After beta testing, myReports
will be available to all customers by the beginning of 2005 .
If you are interested in this product, please contact your School
Relations Coordinator for more details.
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DocumentDirect
to be Retired
As previously announced, access to DocumentDirect will
end soon. Although we originally planned to curtail access on October
15, we wanted to wait until our remaining DocumentDirect
customers felt comfortable with the transition. Almost all our customers
now use eXpressReports, our new report tool, which is very easy
to use.
If you already have a DocumentDirect ID and password, you
can get started using eXpressReports today. Just click on the eXpressReports
icon on the home page of campuspartners.com, and you are ready to
go. A link to eXpressReports documentation also is available
on the eXpressReports log in page. If you have questions about eXpressReports,
please contact our Help Desk at 1-800-458-4492 ext. 2111.
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eXpressReports
Enhancements
As we complete the
transition to eXpressReports, we are continuing to
enhance the product to better meet your needs. The following
items are already available or will be available in the next
60-90 days.
-
We
have added the NSLDS Error Report to the
reports currently available via eXpressReports. The first
report available is for the reporting period ending on July
31, 2004. Reports are also now available for August and
September. In the future, NSLDS Error Reports will be available
as soon as we receive them from NSLDS each month, which is
usually in the middle of the month following the release.
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eXpressReports Tips
Here are a few suggestions to help you maximize your eXpressReports
experience.
- Clearer Image--Because we load all reports
for immediate access, the resulting image of some reports may
not be as clear as you would like. To improve the image quality
of any report, “zoom” the report size to 120%. For
an even clearer version, open the report in Adobe Acrobat. You
can open Adobe by selecting the PRINT button, and then specifying
the page or range of pages that you want to open in Adobe. The
PDF image should be improved.
- Printing Reports--If you are experiencing
difficulty printing a specific report, ask your network administrator
to verify that you are running an updated version of Adobe Acrobat.
If you are attempting to print a large report, you again may
want to ask your network administrator if another printer on
your network is capable of handling higher capacity printing
needs. If you continue to experience printing issues, please
do not hesitate to contact our Help Desk.
- Search--If you experience problems searching
for specific items, try opening the report in Adobe Acrobat
and use the search features offered by Adobe. The icon for the
search feature is indicated by a pair of binoculars.
For your convenience, we have attached the previously published
“How to” on eXpressReports to this newsletter.
ATTACHMENT: How
to Use eXpressReports
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Customer
Service News
Our company celebrated National Customer Service Week
during the first week in October. It was started in 1988 by the
International Customer Service Association and proclaimed as a
national event by the U.S. Congress. The purpose of Customer Service
Week is to create a positive message and to provide opportunities
to generate a stronger commitment to excellent customer service.
Our Customer Service team works hard to exceed your expectations
all year, and their managers planned special events for them throughout
the week.
To better meet your needs, many of our operations staff have been
participating in a comprehensive training course during the past
couple of months. They are being crossed trained so each representative
will have the skills necessary to handle each function within
our customer service area. Each employee’s skill set was
analyzed to assess the specific training that was needed. Then,
employees transitioned in and out of the six week course, when
the appropriate subject was being addressed. The training was
coordinated by our Customer Service management team, who tapped
into the expertise of many of our student loan “experts”
on staff to provide the training. As the training course winds
up, we will send you a letter introducing additional contacts
on your Customer Service team.
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Customer
Satisfaction Survey
As part of our commitment to improve our products and services,
The Mattis Group, a nationally recognized marketing firm whose
customers include American Express and Fleet Credit Card Services,
recently conducted a customer satisfaction survey for our company.
Sixteen percent of our customers responded to the survey, which
will be used to fine-tune our approach to product development
and customer service. Initial results indicated that 90% of our
customers are very satisfied with our efforts. Although this is
very positive, we will not rest until all of our customers are
very satisfied with us. Our recent efforts have been noticed—35%
of customers report that their level of satisfaction with our
company has increased in the past year.
If you are asked to participate in future surveys by The Mattis
Group, we hope you will have time to provide your candid responses
to their questions. Thanks go to all the customers who participated
in the survey.
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Welcome
New Customers
Campus Partners welcomes South Carolina State University
and the University of Virginia Law School Foundation to our family
of customers. South Carolina State is a former customer, and the
University of Virginia Law School Foundation is
a new addition. We appreciate the opportunity to serve these new
customers.
According to its Web site, South Carolina State University “is
consistently among the national leaders in producing African-American
students with baccalaureate degrees in biology, education, business,
engineering technology, computer science/mathematics, and English
language/literature.” The university is also “one
of three universities in South Carolina to offer a doctoral program
in Educational Administration and one of two schools in the state
to offer an accredited master’s degree program in Speech-Language
Pathology.” More information about South Carolina State
University is available at www.scsu.edu.
The University of Virginia Law Foundation is associated with the
University of Virginia’s prestigious law school. The University
of Virginia has been a customer for over 35 years.
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Long-term
Customers
Campus Partners salutes customers reaching long-term anniversaries
with
us during October, November, and December. Special recognition
goes to Corning Community College, King College, Inc.,
Marymount College of Fordham University and North
Carolina Central University, which have been our customers
of 35 years. We also want to thank Lindsey Wilson College
for allowing us to service their loans for the past 30 years.
Names of all customers attaining 5, 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35-year
anniversaries with us during this quarter are attached. Customers
reaching anniversaries with us during the first quarter of 2005
will be listed in the January Update.
Attachment: Long-term
Customer Anniversaries
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Customer
Closeup
In this quarter’s “Customer Closeup,” we are
profiling Sandie Rosko, Manager of Receivables
and Compliance Advisor for Student Fiscal Services at
the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, WA. The university
currently enrolls over 42,000 students, which includes almost
31,000 undergraduate and almost 12,000 graduate students, on its
three campuses. The Seattle campus alone has over 39,000 students.
The university has 17 major schools and offers hundreds of majors
at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Attachment: Customer
Closeup
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Teleconference
Schedule
Thinking about participating in
one of our teleconferences, but don’t know how to sign up?
Just e-mail Debra Pitts at dpitts@campuspartners.com
at least three days before the scheduled teleconference to register.
She will notify you of the telephone number that you need to call
in a return e-mail. It’s free and is well worth your time
to learn more about different aspects of servicing student loans.
All of our sessions are important and informative, but you will
be especially interested in participating in the November 8 session
on E-Exit, our new on-line Exit Interview Counseling
product.
2004
Teleconference Training Schedule
| November 8, 2004 |
2:00 p.m. ET |
| E-Exit |
| |
| December 13, 2004 |
2:00 p.m. ET |
| What
are Perkins Loans and How Campus Partners Helps? |
Regional
Meetings
We just wrapped up our Regional Meetings for 2004 with a bang
by conducting meetings in Northern California, Southern California,
Arizona, and Nebraska in mid-October. Thanks go to Janice
Van Alstyne at CSU-Sacramento, Joyce
Cross at CSU-Fullerton, Ned
Vlach at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
and Sharon Green at Arizona State University
for hosting these meetings on their campuses.
We will publish a schedule for 2005 Regional Meetings as soon
as it is available. We enjoyed meeting with so many customers
this past year and hearing your ideas and suggestions for enhancing
our products and services.
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Conference
Schedule
Representatives
from Campus Partners will attend the conferences listed below.
The PDG West
Coast Conference will be held on November 7-10 at Harvey’s
Resort and Casino in Lake Tahoe, NV. More information about both
conferences is available at https://www.prodev.com.
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Cutoff
Dates
Cutoff
dates for November and December 2004 are presented below.
Transaction |
|
|
| Last day to receive collection payments |
11/19/04 |
12/28/04 |
| Last day to receive regular payments |
11/22/04 |
12/29/04 |
| Last day for online payments |
11/26/04 |
12/31/04 |
| Date final post begins |
11/26/04 |
12/31/04 |
| Report date used for final post |
11/30/04 |
12/31/04 |
| Last day deposits created for deposit to bank account |
11/26/04 |
12/30/04 |
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