May 16, 2024
Introduction by Barbara K. Mistick
Dear Colleague:
As the FAFSA crisis continues and the reverberations mount in the homes of students who rely on federal student aid and on campuses around the country, I am pleased to inform you that NAICU has partnered with and is helping fund a campaign to encourage Pell Grant-eligible students to fill out the application.
The Do The FAFSA campaign, launched earlier this week by the National College Attainment Network (NCAN), is a national digital communication effort targeting young people, ages 17-20, with family incomes of $60,000 or less, with an emphasis on students of color. The campaign is using paid advertising and promotion on social media channels to directly appeal to students to complete the FAFSA.
According to NCAN, FAFSA completions among high school seniors are down nearly 25% compared to last year. Only about 36% of the class of 2024 has completed a FAFSA compared to 48% of the class of 2023 through the same date last year. If you’d like to amplify the campaign’s work, NCAN has created a social media toolkit that includes turnkey graphics, short videos, and messaging that can easily be incorporated into your social media and other communications targeted to students and families.
The Education Department continues to address challenges with implementation of the revised FAFSA process. Last week, the Department announced it will process paper filings and will make a manual process for institution-initiated corrections available by the end of June. (see our story below for more details).
In other news, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its cost estimate for implementing the College Cost Reduction Act (CCRA), Rep. Virginia Foxx’s (R-NC) rewrite of the Higher Education Act. The CBO predicts that some institutions would close or leave the federal student loan program if the CCRA were to be enacted. The release of the CBO estimate now allows the bill to come before the full House for consideration (See our story below for more details).
Meanwhile, four more states joined together to file a lawsuit challenging the Biden Administration’s new Title IX rules. The latest suit – filed by Kansas, Alaska, Utah and Wyoming – brings the total number of states challenging the regulations to at least 26.
In case you missed it last week, I am again including links to our tools and resources concerning the recent Title IX and overtime regulations:
Title IX
NAICU’s Title IX resource page, which includes:
Regards,
Barbara K. Mistick, D.B.A.
President
NAICU
As the FAFSA crisis continues and the reverberations mount in the homes of students who rely on federal student aid and on campuses around the country, I am pleased to inform you that NAICU has partnered with and is helping fund a campaign to encourage Pell Grant-eligible students to fill out the application.
The Do The FAFSA campaign, launched earlier this week by the National College Attainment Network (NCAN), is a national digital communication effort targeting young people, ages 17-20, with family incomes of $60,000 or less, with an emphasis on students of color. The campaign is using paid advertising and promotion on social media channels to directly appeal to students to complete the FAFSA.
According to NCAN, FAFSA completions among high school seniors are down nearly 25% compared to last year. Only about 36% of the class of 2024 has completed a FAFSA compared to 48% of the class of 2023 through the same date last year. If you’d like to amplify the campaign’s work, NCAN has created a social media toolkit that includes turnkey graphics, short videos, and messaging that can easily be incorporated into your social media and other communications targeted to students and families.
The Education Department continues to address challenges with implementation of the revised FAFSA process. Last week, the Department announced it will process paper filings and will make a manual process for institution-initiated corrections available by the end of June. (see our story below for more details).
In other news, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its cost estimate for implementing the College Cost Reduction Act (CCRA), Rep. Virginia Foxx’s (R-NC) rewrite of the Higher Education Act. The CBO predicts that some institutions would close or leave the federal student loan program if the CCRA were to be enacted. The release of the CBO estimate now allows the bill to come before the full House for consideration (See our story below for more details).
Meanwhile, four more states joined together to file a lawsuit challenging the Biden Administration’s new Title IX rules. The latest suit – filed by Kansas, Alaska, Utah and Wyoming – brings the total number of states challenging the regulations to at least 26.
In case you missed it last week, I am again including links to our tools and resources concerning the recent Title IX and overtime regulations:
Title IX
NAICU’s Title IX resource page, which includes:
- Presentation slides and a recording of the webinar
- Executive summary of the regulations
- Technical summary of the regulations
- CUPA-HR, which NAICU partnered with on the overtime rule webinar, created a dedicated page that includes access to this week’s webinar and other resources it has created on this issue.
- The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report examining the Department of Education’s oversight of women’s participation in college athletics. According to the GAO, men continue to participate in college athletics at disproportionately higher rates than women, but the Department’s Title IX enforcement efforts are lax. Rather than limiting oversight to investigating complaints the agency receives, the GAO report recommends that the Department make more proactive enforcement efforts, such as increasing its use of athletics data for oversight and conducting more aggressive monitoring of institutions that are out of compliance.
Regards,
Barbara K. Mistick, D.B.A.
President
NAICU
For more information, please contact:
Barbara K. Mistick, D.B.A.