HESC Update

Elsa Magee

I am pleased to share with you several updates on activities of the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation which have occurred since our last correspondence.

Proposed Federal Student Loan Reforms

As the Senate considers federal student loan reform legislation, HESC continues to focus on ensuring that New York State students receive uninterrupted access to their federal student loans throughout 2010-11. HESC is engaged in an ongoing dialogue with the U.S. Department of Education, the Governor’s Office and members of our Congressional Delegation to ensure that New York’s students are not adversely impacted by enacted reforms. As we look ahead to 2010 and beyond, HESC looks forward to supporting and servicing you and your students, who will be able to select from a broad range of education loan financing options, whether FFELP, Federal Direct, NYHELPs or other private education loans.

What HESC Does for New York State Students

HESC is New York’s student financial aid agency. While guaranteeing and processing FFEL Program loans is a significant part of our work, it is not our only responsibility. HESC staff provides many valuable services that will continue for years to come. As one of our core responsibilities, HESC administers the New York State Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) as well as various other scholarship programs, and provides financial literacy training at high schools and colleges across the State.

For the past few years, the HESC mission “we help people pay for college” has guided management in diversifying our products and services. The HESC Student Loan Marketplace launched this year is now a gold standard for transparency in student loan shopping that, along with Alt Loan Connection, provides colleges with a centralized site for alternative loan processing. HESC was designated the lead administering agency for New York State’s $8 million College Access Challenge Grant, expanding our pre-college outreach to at risk students, and is also the administrator of the new NYHELPs loan initiative.

New York State Student Financial Aid Awareness Month

After a hiatus, HESC is working with Governor Paterson to reinstitute and designate January 25, 2010 – February 25, 2010 as Student Financial Aid Awareness Month (SFAAM) in New York State. The primary objective of SFAAM is to inform and educate students and families across the State about all the financial aid opportunities available to them, and to promote the completion of the most important tool in securing financial aid, the FAFSA.

HESC will be partnering with organizations such as Intuit, the State Employees Federal Credit Union, area YMCAs and Boys and Girls Clubs, NYSFAAA volunteers and others to provide a number of events in all regions of the State during the designated month. As we reach out to you as financial aid administrators, we encourage you to lend your support to making SFAAM 2010 a success.

Other HESC Organizational Changes

HESC has made a number of recent organizational changes, designed to help accomplish goals that will benefit those we serve – students, families and schools.

New executive level appointments were made over the past several months, including the appointment of Victor Stucchi as Senior Vice President for Corporate Operations and Information Technology, and the appointments of Matthew Downey to the position of Chief Financial Officer, Frank Ballmann as HESC’s federal Legislative Liaison, and Christine Konsistorum as HESC’s Director of Audit and Quality Assurance.

Victor Stucchi has 17 years of State service with HESC, including the last seven as HESC’s Chief Information Officer. Matt Downey has worked with HESC for 15 years, most recently as the Director of Audit and Quality Assurance, while both Frank and Christine come to us from the private sector. Frank Ballmann has over 25 years experience working in FFELP, FDLP, private loan, college savings and borrower advocacy roles, while Christine brings to HESC her broad-based auditing and management experience with Fortune 500 companies in the financial services and healthcare industries. We are both fortunate and pleased to bring on board such qualified colleagues.

For many years, HESC’s Grants and Scholarship Bureau has been guided by HESC Assistant Vice President, Brian Matthews. Beginning December 17, Brian will utilize his 32 years of experience to develop and publish standardized financial aid data on the HESC website, allowing for enhanced transparency of HESC-administered financial aid programs to the public, other governmental entities and advocacy groups. As Brian moves into his new role, Norene Grose, a 35-year veteran of HESC’s Grants and Scholarship Bureau, will take leadership responsibility for TAP and all HESC-administered grant and scholarship programs.

HESC’s Default Aversion staff has joined our Customer Relations Division in order to bolster the agency’s non-default outreach efforts to students attending college in New York State.

To more clearly distinguish HESC’s work with pre-college students, including pre-college activities administered through GEAR UP and the College Access Challenge Grant (CACG), all pre-college services and federal grants administration will be managed by HESC’s new Deputy Counsel, Dwight Flynn. HESC veteran Patricia Ronan-Thompson will serve as HESC’s new CACG Director.

These changes to the HESC organization, coupled with the continued support of many unnamed, qualified staff who work behind the scenes on a daily basis, will strengthen our agency and enable us to better serve your students.

NYHELPs

I recently shared with you the final NYHELPs interest rates that will be offered to New York State students attending participating NYHELPs institutions for the spring term of the 2009-10 academic year.

These fixed-rate loans with interest rates of 7.55%, 8.25%, or 8.75%, depending on their selection of an immediate, interest-only or fully deferred repayment option, rival rates offered by long-standing state programs from neighboring Northeast states, including Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey, which offer payment options with interest rates ranging from 7.62 percent to 8.89 percent. Students and families will be able to apply for their first NYHELPs loans beginning December 21, 2009.

NYHELPs is a welcome addition to the vast array of grant, scholarship and loan forgiveness programs HESC administers. It is a tribute to the hard work of each and every staff member that we are able to offer this low-cost alternative to New York’s students and families in time to help students meet their education expenses for the spring 2010 semester. Overseeing the Program’s administration is Aaron Pisacane, who was recently appointed as HESC Chief Credit Officer for NYHELPs. Aaron has 15 years of credit experience working with consumer loan portfolios, and will provide policy direction for the administration and management of the program. HESC’s former Senior Policy Advisor, Chas (Charles) Treadwell, was also recently appointed to serve as the Program’s Executive Director. Chas has been involved in higher education and student financial aid for the past 35 years and has most recently played a leadership role in researching and analyzing various state-sponsored and private student loan programs, ultimately leading to the development of NYHELPs.

Please join me in welcoming these staff members to their new roles. I wish you a happy holiday season and look forward to working with you in 2010 to help New York’s students successfully achieve their college education goals.