FA PAG Quarterly Report - March 2010 to June 2010

By Jennifer Hulvey posted 06-30-2010 01:59 PM

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Goals – Progress Made:
Constituent Communication Efforts

·        Continue high-quality newsletter

The FA PAG continues to publish a monthly newsletter. Mary Walters, our current newsletter editor, is doing a fantastic job and since assuming the responsibility following this year’s Alliance Conference, published the April, May and June editions with new features and formatting.

·        Conduct meaningful webinars for the FA community

Webinars have been a major effort for the FA PAG this year, led by Jessica Holler and focused on the transition to Direct Lending. All US schools must transition to the Federal Direct Loan program by July 1, 2010, and the PAG has dedicated a significant amount of time and energy to providing resources to aid this change.

·        Solicit content from International FA community

The FA PAG is working to broaden its outreach to the international community. Federal and/or national financial aid policies and procedures can vary widely between countries, challenging the FA user group to be proactive in reaching across international lines to develop mutual understanding and an overall sense of community. The PAG has developed a list of international HEUG members, identified which of those member institutions are using the financial aid module and attempted to get a contact at each of those schools. We plan to reach out to constituents in each country, and gain their assistance as we work to set up our first international conference call and/or webinar for financial aid users. The PAG is also actively reaching out to international members who have been active in the FA user community and may be interested in serving on the PAG in future years.

·        Develop leadership within the PeopleSoft FA community

Through the FA listserv and personal contact, the FA PAG is working to identify thought leaders and subject matter experts who are willing to serve as resources to the larger financial aid community. It is our hope that this effort will expand well beyond the PAG, but might also be a way to involve future PAG members.
Articulate a Strategic Vision

·        Provide an overall framework for messages, ideas and vision to be transmitted to Oracle.
The FA user community is diverse, active and subject to frequent external changes legislated by federal and state governments.
The FA PAG has eight members and one alternate member, representing …
·        1 country, the United States
·        2 Private Institutions and 7 Public institutions
·        1 Two Year Institution, 6 Four Year Institutions, 1 Multi-institution System with both 2- and 4-year programs
·        8 Institutions’ academic years are divided into semesters (sometimes with sessions within the semesters)
·        1 Institution’s academic years are divided into quarters for some careers and semesters for others
·        231,100 students are enrolled at our institutions; 122,035 of those students receive financial aid
·        1999 was the first year one of our campuses went live with PeopleSoft
·        157 is the number of years we’ve worked in Higher Education
·        88 of those have been directly in a financial aid office
·        1998 was the first year one of the current FA-PAG members presented at an Alliance Conference (then called the SIG)
·        24 presentations have been made over those years at our conferences by current PAG members
We are making active use of the FA listserv, issue tracker, work groups, conference feedback and monthly calls with Oracle to represent the needs of the entire financial aid PeopleSoft community, drawing on the diversity represented within the PAG and the larger FA user community. We work each year to maintain or broaden the PAG’s diversity, with a new emphasis this year on reaching out to our international constituents.
The FA PAG listserv is very active. Statistics for this quarter are as follows:
April 2010: 91 threads, 264 replies
May 2010: 97 threads, 278 replies
June 2010: 76 threads, 167 replies
·        Actively work with issue tracker to solicit feedback from the FA community as a tool to set priorities.

Dennis Junk is our current Issue Tracker coordinator. We discussed at the PAG Summit strategies for encouraging the FA user community to utilize the Issue Tracker to let us know which issues are of highest priority to them. We promoted the Issue Tracker at the Alliance Conference “Birds of a Feather” session and feature it in each newsletter.

Education of the PeopleSoft Financial Aid Community

·        Continue Direct Lending mentoring and webinars.

As mentioned above, the transition to Direct Lending has been a major focus for the FA PAG. Tom Johnson led the creation of a “Direct Lending” listserv on the HEUG website, and since December of 2009, it has had 706 replies in 232 threads. The listserv brings together experienced and new users, and also helps the community identify issues and priorities in the software.
Jessica Holler has organized and led four Direct Lending webinars: Drawing Down Funds, Importing Files and Related Reports, Working with CRECMYOP files and Reconciliation. These have been well attended by the financial aid community.

·        Conduct webinar and conference call on use of Issue Tracker.

As part of our effort to encourage members to make better use of the Issue Tracker, a webinar on using it is planned for later this year.

·        Conduct webinar on best practices for cross-over Pell.

We are currently collecting “best practices” documentation from various schools, in preparation for more coordination with our users and Oracle on facilitating cross-over Pell functionality.

Top FA Issues 2010-2011 and Actions Taken:
Cross-over Pell: The FA PAG has gathered 'best practice' documents from schools that have been testing and/or have already been successful in processing cross-over Pell and we are collecting functionality suggestions. Current strategy is to have added functionality in place prior to when most ‘trailer schools' would need to process the additional Pell for the cross-over term (which for most, would be towards the end of the 2011 aid year). Target time period is February of 2011.
FA Term: The FA Term Working Group, led by Mary Walters and Chris Johnson, is creating a white paper that summarizes the conclusions to date related to improvements to FA Term. This is a strategic initiative that supports the use of web services within Financial Aid and introduces greater flexibility in processing.
Direct Lending entrance/exit counseling: Phase One has been delivered where we are able to load the new common record entrance interview format into the COD tables with the Critical Fix. However, further requirements are needed for Phase Two.
Alliance Track: The PAG has reviewed the survey results for the 2010 Alliance track and begun the planning process for next year. Chris Johnson is serving as our Conference Track Chair, and Vic Goldberg as co-chair.
Cross-PAG Coordination: The FA PAG met with the SR PAG during the PAG Summit to review our work on FA Term, and will continue to coordinate our efforts as we move forward with the FA Term white paper. Adelaide Kuzmack serves as the FA liaison to the SF PAG.

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