TG and the Council for the Management of Educational Finance recognize institutions with the Commitment to Student Success Award
By Maria Luna-Torres, TG

This year, the Council and TG created the Commitment to Student Success Awards to recognize institutions that have performed extraordinarily well in student loan management. Twenty-nine institutions received this award during the President's Award Reception at the TASFAA Conference on October 6, 2004.

Those in the financial aid industry understand that in addition to the many federal regulations that institutions must keep up with, they also are challenged every day with keeping their students well-informed of their responsibilities as borrowers to help prevent them from defaulting on their student loans. TG and the Council presented the awards to recognize those institutions that have dedicated their staff and time to ensure low student cohort default rates, as well as to those that have experienced a dramatic decrease in their cohort default rates.

Congratulations to the following institutions!

Category I: Maintaining low cohort default rate

• Baylor College of Medicine
• Baylor University
• Covenant School of Nursing and Allied Health
• Dallas Theological Seminary
• Parker College of Chiropractic
• Rice University
• South Texas College of Law
• Texas A&M University
• Texas A&M University System Health Science Center
• Texas A&M University - Texarkana
• Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
• Trinity University
• University of Houston - Clear Lake
• University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth
• University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
• University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
• University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
• University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas

Category 2: Most dramatic decrease in cohort default rate

• Arlington Medical Institute
• Computer Career Center
• Del Mar College
• Frank Phillips College
• Paul Quinn College
• Southwestern University
• Texas Woman's University
• University of Texas at Austin
• University of Texas at Dallas
• University of Texas – Pan American
• West Texas A&M University

In addition to the plaque that these campuses received at TASFAA, they will receive a congratulatory letter sent to the institution's president and to their US and state representatives. Award recipients also will be featured in an advertisement that will appear in the December issue of Texas Monthly.

Maria Luna-Torres is TG’s director for educational finance initiatives, and she serves as TG’s liaison to the Council for the Management of Educational Finance. You can reach Maria at (800) 252-9743, ext. 4632, or by e-mail at maria.luna-torres@tgslc.org. Additional information about the Council can be found at www.tgslc.org and selecting [ For Schools | Council for the Management of Educational Finance ]. Information about TG can be found online at www.tgslc.org.