TG Update
By Cynthia Mayberry, TG

Summer is usually a good time to catch up on things in the financial aid office before the fall semester begins. To help you get ready for the new academic year, we would like to update you on some of TG’s events and our new solutions and tools that are available. Please share this information with your colleagues, and contact us if you need any assistance.

The 2005 TG Conference was a huge success
More than 640 financial aid professionals attended the 2005 TG Conference – Breakthrough! Higher Expectations in Higher Education – on April 11 to 13. From the response we’ve received, attendees not only were motivated by the inspirational opening and closing, but they also gained a wealth of knowledge from the conference sessions on industry trends, professional development topics and TG’s solutions and tools.

In fact, the conference survey resulted in a 4.72 customer satisfaction score on a 5-point scale.

Speaker Brian Biro opened the conference by encouraging attendees to take risks in order to achieve "breakthrough" experiences in their lives. The energy-building Drum Café ended the conference on a rousing call-and-response drumbeat of celebration.

Many of TG’s customers voiced their delight over the motivation and knowledge that this year's conference provided.

One school customer expressed satisfaction with the variety of session topics with this remark: "So many sessions, so many good choices. I at times wished I could clone myself and attend more than one session at a time. You have outdone yourselves again."

We want to thank everyone for attending this year’s conference and helping to make it a success. Mark your calendar now to join us at the 2006 TG Conference April 17 – 19 at the Hilton Austin.

Debt management and default aversion training now available through TG's POSITIVE+BALANCE™ Program
You can now take advantage of the latest tools to help your students successfully manage student loan repayment and learn responsible money management practices.

POSITIVE+BALANCE is TG’s new financial literacy and life success training program that helps to foster students' skills and knowledge in money management, academic success, and career development. POSITIVE+BALANCE consists of two tracks—one for students and one for professionals who interact with students. Each track has multiple modules that focus on a student's financial life, from entering college to exit counseling, graduation, and student loan repayment.

The program is fully customizable for both students and campus professionals and can be integrated with existing campus default aversion activities.

Interested schools begin by completing an online assessment. TG's default aversion team will then meet with campus financial aid professionals to help assess and determine individual needs. A customized program then is created and delivered by TG’s default aversion team, which will follow up with the school and monitor its results.

To learn more about POSITIVE+BALANCE or TG's other default prevention solutions, tools, and services, please contact your school consultant. You may also contact Joe Braxton or Clarissa Peereboom, TG's default aversion consultants, directly. Joe Braxton may be reached at (800) 252-9743, ext. 4696, or by sending an e-mail message to joe.braxton@tgslc.org. Clarissa Peereboom may be reached at (800) 252-9743, ext. 4765, or by sending an e-mail message to clarissa.peereboom@tgslc.org.

TG launches Center for Financial Aid Policy in Community Colleges
In response to the unprecedented growth in community college enrollment nationwide, TG has initiated a center focused on helping community colleges meet their enrollment and graduation goals.

The Center for Financial Aid Policy in Community Colleges' mission is to shape effective financial aid policy and practices that impact student enrollment, retention, and graduation rates at community colleges.

The center will collaborate with state and national education and legislative organizations to lead policy development, provide professional development programs and resources for financial aid administrators, and conduct research relevant to community colleges.

Vickie Murillo has been named director of the center. Vickie joined TG in 1999 as director of community and public affairs and provided leadership to the Council for the Management of Educational Finance. In 2003, she became the director of TG's national sales operations. Before joining TG, Vickie held various recruitment, counseling, advising, and financial aid positions at Austin Community College. Vickie holds a doctorate from the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas at Austin.

To find out more about the center, contact Vickie at (800) 252-9743, ext. 4549, or send an e-mail message to vickie.murillo@tgslc.org.

TG announces new training curriculum to help borrowers manage student loan debt
The Council for the Management of Educational Finance (Council), TG, and its industry partners are developing a new training curriculum to assist postsecondary institutions, lenders and servicers in training their staffs to effectively help borrowers manage their student loan debt.

The curriculum is designed for call center representatives, call center supervisors and managers, campus administrators, and lender marketing representatives in the financial aid community. The training is divided into the following four modules:

• Module 1: Call Center Telephone Representatives
• Module 2: Call Center Supervisors and Managers
• Module 3: Campus Administrators
• Module 4: Entrance and Exit Counseling

The material presented in each module is intended to complement existing training materials.

Additionally, the curriculum can be used either as a self-learning tool or for instructor-led training. Each module can be individually downloaded to train a specific audience. Modules can be downloaded at www.tgslc.org/council/training/index.cfm.

To learn more about this training curriculum or the Council, contact Maria Luna-Torres at (800) 252-9743, ext. 4632, or send an e-mail message to maria.luna-torres@tgslc.org.

AdvanTG Web™ enhancements now available
TG has updated AdvanTG Web™ with exciting new features. Many of these improvements are based on feedback from our customers.
The new features, which were implemented on May 1, include:

• enhancements to TG Loans By Web™ (LBW),
• a new Master Promissory Note (MPN) tracking report,
• more flexible change transaction reporting,
• simplified editing for your Electronic School Report (ESR) and Integrated Default Assistant (IDA) letters, and
• improved efficiencies to the AdvanTG Web message board.

A series of new features in TG Loans By Web
LBW allows schools to automatically send an e-mail to students and parents that notifies them when their loan certification has been posted and directs them to the LBW Web site to complete their loan award. LBW now offers schools the ability to send reminder e-mails—at intervals of one to 30 days—to students and parents who have not yet completed their LBW certification. Schools also can customize the text of each message that is sent, as well as create separate messages for students, parents, and school-certified or borrower-initiated processing flows.
Another new feature to the LBW automated e-mail process is the 'E-mail Notification Report' available through the 'Application/Loan' tab in the Reporting section of LBW. This report tracks e-mail notification receipts for students and parents. The report alerts you to students and parents who did not receive an e-mail notification, and who may require another means of notification to complete their LBW award.

Additionally, LBW schools now can control how often borrowers must complete online entrance counseling through the Mapping Your Future Web site. Schools can set a query range from one day to seven years. If the borrower has not completed online entrance counseling in Mapping Your Future within that date range, he or she will be required to complete entrance counseling requirements.
The new LBW electronic signature, or "e-sign" process, offers students and parents the flexibility to electronically sign a loan prior to guarantee—even through the borrower-initiated flow. Also new in the e-sign process is the display of the lender name and guarantee date on the e-sign reprint screen to help students and borrowers through the e-sign process.

Finally, you will no longer have to re-certify a loan because the student declined or reduced the award amount in LBW. Two LBW features have been added to address this specific issue. First, a pop-up box asking the borrower to affirm his or her change appears when a student or parent tries to reduce the school-certified amount. Second, schools now have the ability to re-post a declined LBW certification by going to the List Application screen in AdvanTG Web, selecting the declined application, and clicking the 'Save' button. This will re-post the certification in LBW for the student or parent to complete and accept.

Convenience of a Master Promissory Note (MPN) tracking report
The new MPN tracking report provides a concise, effective method of viewing whether a loan has a valid MPN. Schools now have the ability to view the lender status of a PLUS or Stafford MPN. This report includes all loans in AdvanTG Web, including those not guaranteed by TG.

Flexibility with Change Transaction Reports
AdvanTG Web offers two new options for generating Change Transaction reports. The first option allows schools to generate change transaction reports by 'loan type.' Reports that offer the new loan type option include:

• Change Transaction Detail Report
• Change Transaction Receive Report
• Change Transaction Response Summary
• Check Register (for schools)
• Pending/Non EFT Cancellation Report (for lenders)

The loan type selection will help you to manage and reconcile the change transaction processes by isolating FFELP and alternative loan transactions, and by providing additional reporting flexibility. For example, you could generate a change transaction report for alternative loans only to help reconcile the return of funds through TG's Central Disbursing Agent process.

The second reporting option now available for change transaction reports is the "Non TG" checkbox. This option provides a quick and easy way to isolate transactions that were submitted for processing to another guarantor and is useful for customers who process with multiple service providers.

Optimization of Application Information Report
The Application Information Report has been refined so that the borrower's first name, last name, and social security number are displayed on the header of the report. The report also will not display subsections when there is no data within that subsection. For example, the reference section will not display when there is no reference data on the application.

Flexibility of Print Note feature
The ‘Print Note’ feature in AdvanTG Web now has the capability to print Stafford and PLUS Master Promissory Notes regardless of guarantor. This also is true for common PLUS promissory notes, which may need to be printed for archive or historical review purposes. In addition, notes guaranteed through another guarantor are printed without the TG logo.

Enhancements to Message Board
AdvanTG Web now will determine if you have previously viewed a particular message and prevent that same message from auto-displaying on your next login. This eliminates the inconvenience of viewing the same message repeatedly when logging in to AdvanTG Web. The message will still be viewable through the 'Message Board' link or tab under the 'Application/Loans' and 'Reporting' menus.
In addition, TG now can post messages to specific audiences on the Message Board instead of distributing them to all AdvanTG Web users. This means that only messages directly applicable to your institution will be displayed when logging in to AdvanTG Web, or when viewing them through the 'Message Board' links.

New editing tools for IDA and ESR letters
Editing your IDA and ESR letter templates now is much easier. Schools can make formatting changes to templates in a more intuitive and user-friendly manner by using options similar to word processing program editing toolbars. Whether you are inserting your school logo or printing on letterhead, you can do so in a couple of simple, easy steps.

The new editing tool enables you to:

• Use your own letterhead or upload your logo;
• Modify left and right margins more easily;
• Upload logos from within the template;
• Use basic editing buttons, including bullets;
• Add additional lines in the letter template more easily; and,
• Preview your letters prior to printing.

To improve navigation, the 'Manage Letter Templates' link also has been added to the 'IDA Reporting' tab.

Relocation of AdvanTG Web Security Form
This security form is now available only within TG’s AdvanTG Web Institution Administration screen.

Enhanced School Fact Sheets now available on TG Online
TG’s recently enhanced the online version of the School Fact Sheets with the addition of an archive of the FY 2002 and 2003 editions. These documents, in portable document format (PDF), are identical to the printed versions. Using the electronic archive is a good way for schools to compare data from different years and to print individual Fact Sheets as needed. Also available on TG Online is a new School Fact Sheets survey. The survey will allow users to provide TG with useful information about who uses the Fact Sheets, what areas are being used most, and what areas need improvement.

More information
To learn more about POSITIVE+BALANCE, TG’s Center for Financial Aid Policy in Community Colleges, TG and the Council’s new curriculum, the latest AdvanTG Web updates, School Fact Sheets, or any of TG’s other solutions, tools, and services, please contact your TG school or lender consultant. You may also contact TG product support at (800) 332-1455, or by e-mail at product.support@tgslc.org.

Cynthia Mayberry is TG’s assistant manager for customer services. She can be reached at (800) 252-9743, ext. 4683, or by e-mail at cynthia.mayberry@tgslc.org.