Become Responsible Borrowing Champions MASFAA, November 2018

Responsible Borrowing Champions Is your student population accustomed to receiving refund checks from their student loans? If so, there are several ways to impress upon students the long term consequences of borrowing above the cost of tuition. This session will examine how Southern New Hampshire University’s Student Financial Services department has educated and assisted thousands of students in decreasing their student loans by tens of millions of dollars in 2017 and 2018. Our approach includes counseling techniques as well as process and policy related changes. Presenters: Susan Nallan, Nina Kumpu, Liane Roberts

Responsible Borrowing Champions Agenda Our Story Who we are Affordability Counseling Tools Training Coaching Operational Support Analysis Strategy Policy

Our Story

Student Financial Services Our Story Student Financial Services SNHU’s Global Campus Over 100,000 online students (over 135k learners!) Undergraduate: Average # courses enrolled per term: 1.4 Undergraduate Tuition rate = $960 X 1.4 = $1,344 per term average Average refund: $871 Department Student Finance Services

Our Story ELF Our culture of borrowing champions kicked off on 7/1/15 by banning word “Refund” as it did not connect the money the student receives to their borrowing habits. By using these deliberate words: EXCESS LOAN FUNDING, it is reinforced over and over that their refund is a result of their student loans.

Counseling Tools

New hire Ongoing QA Training Counseling Tools Hiring focuses on customer service skills in addition to FA knowledge During training, emphasis is placed on the complete lifecycle of the student, from application to graduation and repayment New hire Build knowledge and skills to deliver the right information at the right time Provide SFCs with strategies that can be used in different conversations First annual FinLitCon 2018 Ongoing Measure delivery of information that has been trained Inform new training needs QA

Coaching Counseling Tools Call Reviews Metrics Game Fin Lit Focus Group Recognition

Operational Support Liane’s section

Financial Aid Risk Mitigation Dedicated Resources Key functions: Secondary Confirmation (identity verification requirement) SAP Appeal Committee involvement Analysis of risky students Loan decrease analysis

Policy Support Default C-flags Awarding methodology PLUS/Alternative Loan Applications when federal loans are still available Aggregate limits vs. credits earned used to assign outreach Financial Persistence Plans

Loan Decrease Analysis Criteria We tally loan decrease figures if: Interaction confirmed in CRM Conversation was initiated by Student Finance Counselor Loan decrease form was returned within 20 calendar days

Taking it to the next level Looking to the Future Taking it to the next level Electronic forms More dynamic award letters Different forms of communication

Questions?