Author name: Marlene Seeklander

By Marlene Seeklander Colleges and universities were reminded last week of their obligations to comply with nondiscrimination requirements as a part of receiving federal funding. In a February 14 Dear Colleague Letter, the Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights, stressed that discrimination based on race, color, or national origin has been and will continue to

By Marlene Seeklander A seven-month extension on required reporting could be a welcome relief for some schools. In a recent Electronic Announcement, the Department of Education announced the extension of the deadline for evaluating the Completers List and reporting Financial Value Transparency (FVT) and Gainful Employment (GE) data until September 30, 2025. The extension is to

By Marlene Seeklander The 2023-24 Campus-Based program awards will soon be “in the books.” An Electronic Announcement from the Department of Education stated that the 2023-24 Campus-Based program awards closeout will be completed by March 3. The Department uses data from a school’s Fiscal Operations Report for 2023-24 and Application to Participate for 2025-26 (FISAP) to

By Marlene Seeklander Electronic subscriptions are great…until they don’t work. Federal Student Aid (FSA) recently announced that they are trying to resolve an issue with their daily and weekly subscription emails through the Knowledge Center. Since January 18, the daily digest has not been sent, and the weekly digest is incorrectly defaulting to “no updates.” However,

By Marlene Seeklander Administrators at four-year public and private colleges with a commitment to community service may be interested in applying for the Work Colleges Program. The Department of Education recently published an Electronic Announcement outlining the application process for colleges interested participating in the Work Colleges Program for the 2025-26 award year. The Work Colleges

By Marlene Seeklander If you are working on February 17, don’t forget that federal offices will be closed to observe Washington’s Birthday. The Department of Education recently announced the processing schedule and customer service hours for the various Federal Student Aid centers. The FAFSA Processing System (FPS) will accept data on February 17 but will not

By Marlene Seeklander Financial aid professionals now have updated NSLDS tools available for their use. The National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) has announced the availability of the updated NSLDS Transfer Student Monitoring & Financial Aid History User Guide and Record Layouts. A PDF version of the document is also included in the announcement. The January