Washington Update

As the 2020 year-end legislative scramble heads into its final weeks, Congress passed the Johnny Isakson and David P. Rowe, M.D. Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2020, which includes provisions from the “Protect the GI Bill” legislation and provides extensions of COVID-19 relief measures. President Trump is expected to sign the bill into law. 
 

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which specifies the annual budget and expenditures of the Department of Defense, includes language limiting defense funds to colleges and universities that host a Confucius Institute.  An institution, however, can be exempt from a penalty if it is granted a waiver by the Secretary of Defense. 
 

The Trump Administration has published final regulations clarifying the rights and obligations of faith-based organizations to participate in and receive aid under federal programs and activities. 
 

After passing in the House of Representatives earlier this month, the Senate has also passed the HBCU Propelling Agency Relationships Towards a New Era of Results for Students (PARTNERS) Act, which seeks to enhance the relationship of HBCUs with various federal agencies. 
 

The Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal filed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in response to a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit holding that NCAA limits on player compensation violate antitrust laws.
 

While talks on a COVID relief bill continue to progress in Congress, the White House this week introduced its own relief package, adding another layer of uncertainty to the negotiations in Washington.  
 

The Department of Education announced it was extending student loan relief provisions included in the CARES Act until January 31, 2021.

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official said that existing guidance for international students studying at U.S. institutions will remain in place for the 2021 spring semester. The original guidance, announced in March, was issued as the pandemic was bearing down on the U.S.
 

The Department of Education announced the extension of modifications and waivers to current statutory and regulatory provisions granted to the higher education community in response to COVID-19. The length of the extra time is dependent upon the type of extensions mentioned in the guidance.  This announcement is a continuation of the guidance the Department announced earlier this year.  
 

A recent report on college completion from the National Student Clearinghouse shows that private, nonprofit four-year colleges and universities have the highest six-year completion rates among all higher education sectors. For students in the 2006-2014 entering cohort, the six-year completion rate at private, nonprofit four-year institutions stood at 76.7%, a slight increase over last year.

A recent survey conducted by NAICU shows the significant impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on college and university campuses across the country.  The results of the survey, which sought information from a limited array of member institutions to gain a more precise understanding of the financial magnitude and impact of the crisis on our college campuses, also demonstrate the need for additional federal relief for students and institutions. 
 

After many years of failed attempts, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) is making a last-ditch attempt to pass his student aid simplification bill, the FAFSA Simplification Act before he retires in early January.  This time, however, it seems that Democrats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate may be lending a sympathetic ear.  

After several weeks of stalled negotiations, serious talks have resumed between congressional leadership and White House negotiators to see whether a COVID relief funding package can be agreed to before the end of the year.  Congress is also working to avoid a government shutdown by seeking agreement on a FY 2021 omnibus spending bill.
 

For nearly a year, both the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees have been working on updating the “Protect the GI Bill Act,” and hope to include amendments in a year-end omnibus package addressing veterans’ health care and other issues. 
 

This week, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District in California decided that the interim final rules (IFRs) for the H-1B visa program issued by the Departments of Labor (DOL) and Homeland Security (DHS) in October are invalid. If upheld, the ruling would effectively render the DOL and DHS rules invalid nationwide.

The Department of Education recently released an updated version of the College Scorecard, adding program-level data on median earnings two years after students graduate to the consumer information tool for students and families.
 

The Department of Education published reporting requirements detailing how institutions must submit information about violations of new federal regulations addressing freedom of speech on college campuses. 
 

The Senate Banking Committee heard testimony this week from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell regarding the Trump Administration’s decision to wind down pandemic emergency lending programs authorized in the CARES Act.  The hearing comes as the lending programs are set to expire on December 31, 2020.
 

Chairman Roy Blunt (R-MO) includes no programmatic cuts to student aid funding in his Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee bill, which also increases the Pell Grant maximum by $150, to $6,495, and level funds all other student aid programs.

In its ruling, the court rejected allegations that Harvard’s policy unlawfully discriminates against Asian Americans, finding instead that “…Harvard's limited use of race in its admissions process in order to achieve diversity … is consistent with the requirements of Supreme Court precedent.”

The amicus briefs will underscore the harm that the rules will impose on colleges and universities. 

NAICU's comments were co-signed by 285 member institutions and associations.
 

Report shows an 81% increase (between 2006-07 and 2017-18, and adjusting for inflation) in the average institutional grant aid provided by private, nonprofit colleges and universities per first-time, full-time undergraduate student.  

According to the request for information, federal contractors and subcontractors may voluntarily submit copies of training programs on diversity and inclusion for federal review. Those who do voluntarily submit information will not be subject to enforcement action for non-compliant materials so long as they promptly come into compliance. 

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has recently increased oversight of how GI bill benefits are being used in higher edcuation, with a focus on institutional compliance with the 85/15 Rule. Under this rule, institutions must ensure, for each program of study, that no more than 85% of students enrolled in the progam are receiving GI bill benefits or any form of institutional support, defined as “supported students” by the VA.  

The agency’s investigation showed there is a “pervasive noncompliance and significant foreign connections and entanglements with American colleges and universities.” 

The case, which was brought by Know Your IX in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union and several other advocacy organizations, was dismissed based on the court’s ruling that the plaintiffs lacked the required standing to sue.

The Department of Education provided a series of new or updated resources to assist colleges and universities with the administration of the relief funds provided under the CARES Act, including a webinar on use of funds and reporting requirements, and updated materials and FAQs. 

The short guidance document that replaces the handbook makes clear that campuses now have greater flexibility with respect to compliance with Clery requirements.

As further indication of the Trump Administration’s concern about foreign influence on college campuses, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sent a joint letter to all college presidents and higher education association leaders stressing the severity of possible security threats related to Confucius Institutes. 

The Department of Education announced that it updated the Return to Title IV (R2T4) portion of its COVID-19-related Frequently Asked Questions webpage.  

Regardless of the media and political frenzy surrounding the negotiations, it is still very important for Congress to hear about the specific challenges colleges are facing in light of the pandemic and for college leaders to continue reinforcing the vital need for additional federal assistance. 

The Department is also hosting a webinar to provide further information on the FAQs and the reporting requirements under the CARES Act.

The interim final rule would narrow the definition of a “specialty occupation" and increase the required wage rates employers would have to pay to hire foreign skilled workers.

Specific concerns raised include the possible chilling effect of the Order, its ambiguous and burdensome nature, and its effect on freedom of speech. 

Students can fill out the application online at www.fafsa.gov or via the myStudentAid mobile app.  The form is available until June 30, 2022.

The FISAP must be submitted no later than Nov. 2, 2020. 
 
 

National effort resulted in an estimated 1.5 million new or updated voter registrations, a single-year record.  

A month out from the elections, Congress made a last ditch effort to negotiate another round of coronavirus relief funds before going home to campaign. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was in conversations throughout the week with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, the chief negotiator for the White House, while White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was in constant contact with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).  

Under the guidance, the Department of Education clarifies the specific regulations that protect religious liberty, including rules that ensure that religious organizations are equally eligible to participate in the agency’s grant programs as secular organizations. 

The hearings focused on the frustrations and complexities parties are having implementing the program.

The agreement, which includes several education-related provisions, comes after a long week of negotiations between Congressional Democrats and Republicans and the Administration.

Among the actions taken was an announcement by the Education Department that it has opened an investigation of Princeton University in response to the university’s recent declaration of steps it is taking to “combat systemic racism” on campus.

Specifically, the agency is reviewing the time period of admission and extension of stay procedures for nonimmigrant academic students, exchange visitors, and other foreign representatives, known as the “Duration of Status.”  

The good news amid the roller coaster of whether or not a deal is imminent is that funding for higher education remains a top priority for all sides, with at least $30 billion for institutions and students on the table. 

NAICU will be doing an assessment of the new rules as well as continue its efforts to see the tax repealed.
 

The new file recently appeared on the Department’s website with corrected institutional scores but no explanation of the nature of the mistakes that led to the revised figures.

As in previous hearings, the witnesses this week again articulated the need to simplify the FAFSA to better ensure that students have access to federal student aid. 

Three of the four witnesses who testified would like Congress to write legislation to address name, image, and likeness nationally rather than have schools deal with a hodge podge of state legislation. 

The Department of Education has published final regulations that are designed to implement President Trump’s Executive Order addressing freedom of speech on college campuses, as well as to facilitate faith-based institutions’ eligibility to participate in various grant programs under the Higher Education Act.

The failed attempt to negotiate a relief deal in August left House Democrats holding their ground on a $2.2 trillion total for the next spending package, Senate Republicans holding their ground on a much smaller proposal, and the White House threatening executive action if Congress cannot come to an agreement.
 

According to the VA, veteran students who are taking courses and attending a residential college or university that has converted its instruction to an online only environment because of the coronavirus will continue to receive the full amount of their housing allowance.

These new restrictions are being imposed in response to the unreciprocated access being denied by China.  

The move by the department signals that the agency may be giving special consideration to capacity building for remote learning in any future grant competitions.

The new deadline for transmittal of applications for all institutions eligible for funding is September 30, 2020. 

The Department of Education has made three changes to the reporting requirements colleges and universities must follow if they received student emergency grants under the Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds from the CARES Act.
 

Although the guidance addresses discrimination in the context of high school athletics, it represents “a formal statement of OCR’s (the Office of Civil Rights) interpretation of Title IX” and is therefore applicable to colleges and universities.

The Trump Administration issued guidance on the payroll tax deferral option announced last month that postpones the time for employers to withhold and pay employee Social Security taxes.  The deferral generally applies to wages paid starting Sept. 1, 2020 through Dec. 31, 2020.

According to the Department of Education, the guidance documents that have been rescinded have either been superseded by current law or are no longer in effect. 

The Department of Education has issued a notice to colleges and universities to help campuses respond to President Trump’s recent announcement extending the deferment of student loan payments.  The department’s notice will suspend interest and payments on those loans until December 31 or until the payment period that includes the last day of the national emergency, whichever is later.  

The application for CARES Act funds to help institutions with exceptional unmet need due to the coronavirus is now available online. The deadline for filing the required intent to apply is September 10, while the final application deadline is October 20, 2020. 

The Department of Education has published final regulations that are intended to facilitate distance learning and educational innovation. The regulations are the result of months of negotiated rulemaking in which a broad array of higher education stakeholders debated a massive package of Title IV regulatory changes sought by the department.  
 

The Department of Education has informed a court that the agency is considering making modifications to its interim final rule regarding student eligibility for emergency grants under the CARES Act. The department’s announcement came shortly after the Trump Administration appealed an earlier court ruling that blocked the agency from enforcing its guidance and interim final rule regarding CARES Act eligibility with respect to students at California community colleges.

The Department of Education has issued a notice establishing a 30-day comment period regarding an update to the universal borrower defense to repayment form.  An updated universal form is necessary due to the changes made to the current process in the borrower defense final rule released last September. This 30-day comment period will allow for feedback from the public on a list of proposed elements to be included in the revised borrower defense application.

Since the reauthorization the Higher Education Act in 1998, postsecondary institutions have been required to make a good-faith effort to distribute voter registration forms to students prior to the registration deadlines for presidential and gubernatorial elections.  

In response to the Trump administration’s changes to U. S. Postal Service (USPS) operations, and the president’s comments regarding fraudulent voting-by-mail in the November elections, Congress is poised to come back to Washington this weekend to take action to support the postal service, and possibly consider additional coronavirus relief.

 

Institutions particularly hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic are eligible to apply for $28 million in additional FIPSE funds provided under the CARES Act, the Department of Education has announced. 

Because of a series of mistakes in the 2017-18 Financial Responsibility Standards (FRS) composite scores posted on the Department of Education’s website,  the file has been pulled from public view as the Education Department attempts to find the source of the problem. 

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals are protected under a federal employment discrimination law, a federal district court has temporarily blocked an Idaho state law that prohibits transgender female students from participating on sports teams that match their gender identity.

In a letter sent to higher education leaders this week, Keith Krach, undersecretary for economic growth, energy and the environment at the Department of State, warned of the ongoing threat from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to the U.S., and colleges and universities in particular. The letter is intended to be shared with the members of college and university governing boards.
 

NAICU is launching its 2020 Your Vote, Your Voice, National Campus Voter Registration Project with the webinar Voter Registration & Civic Engagement 2020 on Tuesday, August 25, 2020 at 1:00 p.m. EDT.

 

The longer it takes congressional leadership to finalize a deal with the White House, the more entrenched each side will get into their political positions. 

Starting today, colleges and universities must adhere to the new Title IX regulations governing campus sexual harassment and assault after several attempts to block the rules in court failed.

The finding by the Department of Justice is the result of one of several investigations the agency has conducted into affirmative action programs at elite institutions of higher education.

Specifically, the Eleventh Circuit held that gender identity bias is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX.

The notice is not targeted at Confucius Institutes at individual colleges and universities across the country, but at the parent organization.  

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY), Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, the lead negotiators for Congress and the White House, have been in regular contact in recent days.  However, reports indicate that they are “trillions of dollars apart” on how much should be provided in this relief package.

The legislation, which is designed to allow employers to offer a temporary higher annual benefit to employees who are both working and continuing their education during the pandemic, would increase the annual amount of the benefit from $5,250, to $12,000 for two years. 
 

The announcement comes on the heels of President Trump’s request to the Treasury Department last month via Twitter to look into the tax-exempt status of colleges and universities.

Ranking Minority leaders of three House Committees – Education, Oversight, and Judiciary – sent a letter to six colleges and universities requesting five years’ worth of information on foreign gifts the institutions received, specifically gifts from China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Russia.  
 

Senate Republicans introduced a series of bills that collectively make up their proposals for the next coronavirus response package.  The measures were made public after a week’s delay due to intra-party disagreements on the elements that should be included in the bills. The proposals follow comprehensive bills proposed by House and Senate Democrats and mark the start of intense negotiations on a final package. Now that there are markers from the House and Senate, negotiators can begin to work out a deal before the August recess, scheduled to begin August 7.

The Washington Post is reporting that the White House is considering supporting a coronavirus relief package that does not include a liability shield for health providers, businesses, and schools. According to the report, the Trump Administration continues to favor inclusion of liability protections in the final package, but is willing to drop them in order to secure a deal.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division has issued updated FAQs on international students studying at U.S. colleges and universities in differing academic platforms for the fall 2020 semester. The FAQs follow a series of directives levied by the Trump Administration since the onset of the pandemic and seek to clarify confusion arising from the rescission of ICE guidance that would have prevented international students from remaining in the U.S. if their classes were held exclusively online.

As the clock ticks down to the August 14 implementation deadline for the new Title IX sexual harassment regulations, institutions of higher education are engaged in last-minute efforts to finalize sweeping changes to their campus sexual harassment and assault policies. Simultaneously, last-ditch attempts to block implementation of the regulations via litigation are also continuing to move forward. 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced this week that it will not process new applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program until a thorough program review can be conducted.  DHS also stated that it will limit renewals of current DACA recipients’ status to one year.  

The Department of Education issued a request for comments on the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) data collection process that institutions are required to fulfill as part of their annual reporting requirement under the CARES Act.  Posted in the Federal Register on July 29, the Department is asking stakeholders to review the form and instructions and provide answers to specific questions and overall feedback on the process in general.  The 60-day comment period closes September 28, 2020. 

With the clock ticking towards the August congressional recess, Senate Republicans worked diligently this week to craft stimulus legislation, dubbed “CARES 2.0,” but fell short of introducing legislation in the face of continued disagreements with the White House. 
 

As the August 1 deadline approaches for institutional applications for all Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds (HEERF) under the CARES Act, the Department of Education has recently posted updates to its website, and directly reached out to institutions to ensure they apply. 

The House of Representatives has approved an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to issue visas to international students attending U.S. institutions of higher education exclusively offering remote instruction in the coming academic year. 

The Federal Reserve announced this week that nonprofit organizations, including colleges and universities, are now eligible for the Main Street Lending Program (MSLP).  

The NCAA Sport Science Institute released a set of guidelines specifically to address health concerns and safety measures as they relate to sports that require close contact between athletes.

NAICU has launched a study to assess the impact of independent colleges and universities, and demonstrate how these institutions are major contributors to the vitality of local communities, states, regions and the nation. 

The Republican majority is working on a follow up to the CARES Act that will provide federal funding to address myriad societal needs due to the coronavirus. 

The government’s decision to revoke the controversial guidance came during a hearing in a lawsuit that was filed last week by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

The House Committee on Appropriations earlier approved the Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee bill which includes a $150 increase in the Pell Grant maximum, to $6,495, and increases in the other student aid programs, 

Attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia have filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s regulations on borrower defenses to repayment. The lawsuit claims that the Department of Education violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) when it developed the new rules 

The tool was developed to help students turn financial aid offers into step-by-step plans to pay for college. 

This week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued new guidance prohibiting international students from staying in the United States if they are enrolled in an American college or university that implements an online-only platform for instruction or if the student is enrolled in online courses only even while living on campus in a hybrid model. The following day, DHS also issued a series of FAQs related to the guidance.  
 

The House of Representatives and Senate have passed, and sent to President Trump for his signature, a bill reversing the ruling by the Department of Labor (DOL) that would have made non-profits that self-insure for unemployment benefits fully responsible for the reimbursement cost of those benefits before applying to their state for later reimbursement.

While the first quarterly report on the use of CARES Act funds is due July 10, the Department of Education’s electronic portal for posting such reports is not yet active.  As a result, institutions are expected to report information on a publicly available portion of their websites. 

As states have reopened this summer, pressure has increased for schools and colleges to also reopen in the fall.  In response, Congress and the Trump Administration have held a series of meetings and hearings during the past two weeks with public health officials, education officials, college presidents, parents, teachers and pediatricians to discuss the best practices for reopening schools.  Additionally, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics released a set of guidelines focused on restarting college athletics. 

The House of Representative’s Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee marked up its FY2021 spending bill, providing increases for all the student aid programs, anchored by a $150 increase in the Pell Grant award maximum, to $6,495. 

Despite the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Department of Education continues to pursue a jam-packed regulatory agenda affecting higher education.

In an effort to jumpstart the negotiations on the next coronavirus supplemental funding bill, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) introduced the Coronavirus Child Care and Education Relief Act (CCCER), to provide additional funding for child care facilities, K-12 schools, and colleges.

The National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) issued updated guidance on how auditors may account for loans received via the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).  

NAICU signed on to an amicus brief filed in support of 17 states and the District of Columbia in a case challenging the new regulations. This week, NAICU joined a similar amicus brief filed in support of New York, which is also suing to block the Title IX regulations. 

The Supreme Court has issued two recent rulings that may provide important protections for religious institutions of higher education. One case addresses the ability of state governments to restrict religious schools from participating in state-aided education programs, while the second case dealt with the scope of the ministerial exception that protects religious employers from job discrimination lawsuits. 

Last month, the Census Bureau sent a letter to college and university presidents seeking assistance in getting an accurate count of students living on- and off-campus.  To date, the agency has only received data from slightly more than half of student housing facilities, and is once again asking colleges and universities for help providing a more complete count of its students.

The August 1 deadline applies to all portions of the funding, including grants to students, institutions, Minority-Serving Institutions, the Strengthening Institutions Program, and the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE).

NAICU is among 25 higher education associations to join the brief, which focuses exclusively on seeking an injunction to delay the regulations’ August 14 implementation date.  

The order affects the issuance of new visas to individuals intending to enter the U.S. and those seeking renewal who may have left for the summer and will now be unable to return.  The order does not impact current visa holders already in the country. 

The proposed rules adopt changes to how unrelated business income (UBI) is reported to the IRS. The comments include suggestions on classifying activities, allocating expenses, and reporting investments. 
 

The Department of Educatio's new portal, which is ready for institutions to use to log foreign gifts from the first part of 2020 in time for the July 31 reporting deadline, replaces the eAPP electronic application process implemented in 2004. 
 

The Supreme Court has ruled against President Trump’s rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, citing the rescission as “arbitrary and capricious” and lacking a legal basis.  The 5-4 decision found the Department of Homeland Security failed to comply with the procedural requirement of considering hardships DACA participants might face if the program was rescinded. This ruling allows the DACA program to remain in place for now.

The Federal Reserve unveiled plans to offer loans to small- and mid-sized nonprofit organizations as part of its Main Street Lending Program which was established to help employers during the pandemic.

The Department of Education this week issued an interim final rule regarding student eligibility for CARES Act emergency grants.  The rule makes guidance issued by the department an enforceable regulation effective June 17.
 

The Department of Education issued a new set of ten Frequently Asked Questions related to the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) in the CARES Act.

With recent increased concern about foreign influence on college campuses from Congress and the Trump Administration, both have taken a closer look at how institutions are interacting with foreign entities. 
 

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act – which prohibits, among other things, employment discrimination on the basis of sex – protects lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals against bias in the workplace, according to a ruling this week from the Supreme Court. 

NAICU has learned that Census 2020 administrators are concerned about a lower than normal response from college towns, likely due to COVID-19.  In response, Census 2020 administrators have sent a letter to college and university presidents thanking them for their help in getting an accurate count of students, and then giving notice that Census 2020 will be asking for the administrative records of all students living off campus.

When the new Interim Final Rule is published in the Federal Register, it will clearly eliminate international and DACA students from receiving CARES emergency grants.

NAICU, along with forty-two independent college state associations and NAICU Secretariat members, urged the Small Business Administration to exclude all student workers in the employee count for eligibility in the Paycheck Protection Program.  

As a result of the decision, religiously affiliated nonprofit colleges and universities that hold themselves out as religious institutions are exempt from the agency’s jurisdiction over faculty. 

The MOE provision in the CARES Act requires states that receive federal funding under the Education Stabilization Fund to continue to provide state funding for elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education. 

The guidance relates to all Office of Postsecondary Education competitive grant programs, with a particular focus on TRIO, GEAR UP and GAANN.  

Excise tax only applies to nonprofit private and some 501(c)3 public employers.  

Nominations for one of the eight directly-elected regional seats on the Board should be sumbitted by Tuesday, June 30.
 

With many questions surrounding how colleges and universities can safely open, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a hearing with college presidents and leading health officials to discuss approaches in handling the fall 2020 semester.

Following passage in the U.S. House of Representatives last week, the Senate took quick action in passing the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Flexibility Act of 2020, which was signed into law by President Trump on June 5.

 

In a decision that could significantly expand procedural requirements for students accused of sexual misconduct at private colleges and universities, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that an institution’s contractual promise of “fair” treatment for such students must include a live hearing and an opportunity for cross-examination. The case is highly significant because it marks the first time that a federal appellate court has required private, nonprofit institutions to provide such procedures.

 

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs this week held a hearing to discuss the implementation status of the Federal Reserve lending programs. These programs are of particular interest to private colleges and advocacy efforts are underway by NAICU and others that would allow colleges and universities to be eligible to participate. While lending programs were the initial focus of the hearing, attention later shifted to the next stimulus bill that might emerge in the Senate, and the additional needs of state and local governments.
 

Despite the more than $3 trillion provided in emergency federal funding to address the coronavirus, Congress still needs to pass the FY 2021 appropriations bills before September 30.
 

The Department of Education posted two unusual updates on its higher education CARES Act guidance webpage that indicate changes in direction on the bill’s implementation.  The first was an update to the formula allocation and methodology for the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) grants and the second dealt with guidance on eligibility for the student emergency funds.

With a show of wide bipartisan support, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Flexibility Act of 2020 to make adjustments to the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) lending program for businesses and nonprofits with 500 or fewer employees that is part of the CARES Act.  


 

Today's NAICU Washington covers the following issues:

• Message from NAICU President Barbara K. Mistick on the HEROES Act
• CDC Issues Guiding Principles to Open Campuses
• Higher Education Community Weighs in on Optional Practical Training
• Administration Officials Testify on Economic Response to the Pandemic
• NAICU Joins Brief Supporting Harvard in Admissions Case
• Colleges and Universities Eligible for Worker Safety and Health Training Grants

In an effort to continue addressing the COVID-19 health and economic crisis, House Democrats released  the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act earlier this week. The $3 trillion relief package would provide $37 billion for higher education.  Of that total, private, nonprofit colleges and universities would receive $7 billion and $27 billion would go to public colleges.  This is roughly the same proportion as the sector shared under the CARES Act.

The Department of Education has issued guidance advising institutions of higher education how to comply with federal civil rights law during the coronavirus pandemic. The guidance primarily focuses on compliance with Title IX and with the disability laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing earlier this week to examine liability concerns arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the hearing primarily focused on liability for traditional businesses, the higher education perspective was also represented.

In a hearing held by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, senators and public health officials all emphasized the importance of access to testing as a key benchmark for students to go back to school in the fall.

While the Department of Education has not finalized the reporting portal for CARES Act funds, the clock is ticking towards the first deadline for reporting on those funds allocated to institutions. To meet the requirement in law to report regularly on the use of funds, the department issued guidance on the temporary reporting requirements that institutions must follow and that instructs institutions to make information public on an easily accessible portion of their websites.
 

In response to Sen. Charles Grassely’s March letter to all institutions of higher education with Confucius Institutes, the FBI held a webinar with institutional leaders to emphasize that while Confucius Institutes serve as language and cultural programs they are also an arm of the Chinese government.  As a result, the FBI considers the Institutes to be subtle agents of propaganda.

The Department of Education has released the long-anticipated final Title IX regulations on campus sexual assault.  Despite NAICU’s request that Secretary Betsy DeVos delay publication and implementation of the regulations until the COVID-19 crisis has passed, the effective date of the new rules is August 14, 2020.
 
 

The higher education community sent a letter to Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) thanking him for taking the lead on introducing the American Opportunity Student Tax Relief Act of 2020.  The legislation would expand certain student and family higher education tax benefits, both during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) is the lead Republican on the bill.

The National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA) Board voted unanimously during its recent spring 2020 meeting to continue its use of federal financial composite scores as a measure to evaluate institutional eligibility for SARA membership.

The Department of Labor (DOL) issued guidance this week on how states can implement a new federal law (Section 2103 of the CARES Act) intended to help minimize nonprofits’ liability for unemployment insurance (UI) claims related to COVID-19.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced that a new cohort of 67 institutions will participate in the Second Chance Pell program.  

This week the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) moved closer to allowing college athletes to cash in on their name, image and likeness (NIL). 

The Federal Reserve has published initial guidance outlining the parameters of the planned $2.3 trillion Main Street Lending Program.

Today's NAICU Washington covers the following issues:
Paycheck Protection Program
Clarity Sought on Main Street Lending Program Eligibility
President Issues Executive Order on Immigration
SCOTUS Grants Motion in DACA Case
Taxability of Student Emergency Grants
Court Approves Settlement Between DOJ and NACAC
Principles on Managing and Evaluating Credit
In the News
Editor’s Note: Changes Coming to Washington Update
 

Today's NAICU Washington covers the following issues:

• Department of Education to Release FAQs on CARES Act Funding
• $3B in Emergency Education Block Grants for Governors Available
• Higher Ed Associations Seek Tax Relief on Emergency Grant Aid
• Update on Sect. 117 Related to Foreign Gifts and Contracts
• Higher Ed Community Sends Joint Letter in Support of Veterans’ Education Benefits
• IPEDS Changes to the 2019-2020 Data Collection
• NAICU Webinars
• NAICU COVID-19 Resource Pages
• CNN Covers Impact of COVID-19 on Colleges and Universities
• Editor’s Note: Changes Coming to Washington Update

Today's NAICU Washington covers the following issues:

• Title IX Regulations Looming
• College Scorecard Updated
• New Financial Responsibility Standards Reporting Requirements Published
• NC-SARA Update
• Guidance Sought on International Students
• Private, Nonprofit Colleges & Universities may be Eligible for FEMA Funds
• Association Partnerships
• NAICU COVID-19 Resource Pages
• Editor’s Note: Changes Coming to Washington Update

Today's NAICU Washington covers the following issues:

• SBA Paycheck Protection Program
• NC-SARA Update
• Financial Responsibility Standards
• Proposed Rules on Distance Learning and Innovation Published
• NAICU COVID-19 Resource Page

Today’s edition of Washington Update is again an abbreviated version that provides updates on several key topics related to the COVID-19 pandemic and higher education. Today’s issue focuses on the $2 trillion emergency relief package, the CARES Act, to help in response to the COVID-19 national pandemic.  Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the measure, which also passed unanimously in the Senate on Wednesday, and is expected to be signed by the president.  

Today’s edition of Washington Update is an abbreviated version that provides brief updates on several key topics related to the COVID-19 pandemic and higher education. This issue also provides access to tools and resources that have been developed to help institutions through this unprecedented national emergency.

The general message to colleges and universities is to carefully document all actions and report as required.  

The comments focused on the reporting of anonymous donors and the definition of “institution,” which corresponds to which related entities must report foreign gifts.

The guidance is to remind colleges and universities of their obligation to safeguard the information of federal student aid applicants and recipients. 

Congress passed legislation terminating the Trump Administration’s borrower defenses to repayment rule; the president, however, is expected to veto the legislation.

The institutions were identified for their erroneous, deceptive, or misleading practices related to advertising, sales, or student enrollment practices.

The Department of Education’s proposed regulations require private institutions to certify that they have complied with their free expression policies as a material condition for receiving federal education or research grants

The announcement comes several months after the Department of Education published final regulations that removed restrictions on the geographic areas that regional accreditors may serve.
 

The Alliance’s proposal seeks to bring federal funding for Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, Federal Work-Study, TRIO, and GEAR UP back to their inflation-adjusted highest funding levels from before the 2008 recession.  

Sandy Baum provided an array of data to help higher education leaders discuss debt with students, parents, policy makers, and the media.

Budget request includes freezing the maximum Pell Grant award, eliminating Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, and slashing Federal Work Study.  

After considering over 40 public comments, the Department, among other changes, confirmed that the threshhold for reporting foreign gifts would be $250,000.

The so-called “Parking Tax” was repealed retroactively, so nonprofits who paid any amount since it was enacted are entitled to a refund.

A divided Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that Duquesne University, a Catholic institution in Pittsburgh, is not subject to the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board. 

Letter of inquiry cites concern about reports of the business practices that online program management companies use, “which appear to undermine the best interests of students.” 

The center will provide technical assistance to help educational institutions comply with federal civil rights laws. 

In the midst of a divisive impeachment trial, the key higher education staff for Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Patty Murray (D-WA) are once again working in earnest on a bi-partisan HEA bill. 

After a vetoing the Michigan Tuition Grant, Governor finally signed a new budget deal restoring 100 percent of the funding and increasing the individual grant by $400 per student over the previous year. 

The rules are designed to implement President Trump’s Executive Order addressing freedom of speech on college campuses, as well as to facilitate faith-based institutions’ eligibility to participate in various grant programs under the Higher Education Act. 

Based on the Congressional schedule and election-year campaigning, a heavy legislative and regulatory push is expected between now and July.

Due to the delay, it is unlikely the new information collection system will be ready for implementation on January 31 as originally planned.

NAICU’s comments support the NLRB’s position that such individuals are primarily students, not employees, for purposes of the Act.
 

According to the new rule, workers who earn less than $35,568 annually are now eligible for overtime pay.  

By striking the Trump Administration’s rule, Democrats hope to return to the more borrower-friendly rules published near the end of the Obama Administration.

Grants would go torward tools, resources, and programs to help institutions “expand educational opportunities for, and improve the academic attainment of, Hispanic students.” 

The meeting will celebrate the unique role private, nonprofit colleges and universities play in educating the next generation of Americans while exploring the myriad issues before our students, institutions and policymakers.

The repeal of the Parking Tax will be in effect retroactively to January 1, 2018. Amounts paid in 2018 will be refundable and amounts being scheduled for payment for 2019 will not be due.

The maximum Pell Grant award was increased by $150 to $6,345.  Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, Federal Work Study, TRIO and GEAR UP budgets were also increased.  

The Department of Education's request for emergency clearance for expedited implementation from the Office of Management and Budget is being met with concern and skepticism from the higher education community and represents a new round in the sparring that has taken place all fall between the Department and the college community.
 

Fairness for All Act would protect religious freedom and prohibit discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals. 

Although the executive order is intended to encourage the Department of Education to pursue more robust enforcement of anti-Semitic conduct, it does not represent a dramatic policy shift.

The DOJ investigation focused on several provisions in NACAC’s code of ethics that it alleges to be an unlawful restriction on competition in violation of federal antitrust laws. Under the terms of a proposed consent decree, NACAC has agreed to delete these provisions from its code of ethics and refrain from establishing or enforcing similar conditions in the future.

Now that the FUTURE Act has been dispatched, Congress may pivot back to negotiations on a comprehensive HEA reauthorization. 

The cost estimate shows the CAA increases mandatory (entitlement) spending by $332 billion over 10 years and increases the authorization appropriated (annual) funding by $150 billion over five years.

The Student Aid Alliance was created in 1994 as the Alliance to Save Student Aid when $20 billion in student aid cuts were proposed to help balance the federal budget.

The Department of Education has published proposed rules that would both facilitate faith-based institutions’ access to the Title IV programs and revise the TEACH Grant Program.

An allocation deal seems to have been struck that will allow final spending decisions to be made before December 20.  The White House has been part of the negotiations and it appears the president will sign the final spending bills.

The proposed methodology would rely on recently published program-level earnings data from the College Scorecard to compare the earnings of borrowers who have successfully filed a debt relief claim to the earnings of borrowers in unaffected programs.

The Trump Administration recently announced that it plans to issue two new proposed regulations that would impact institutions of higher education. The first is designed to implement President Trump’s executive order addressing freedom of speech on college campuses, as well as to make several changes to rules affecting religious institutions. The second would amend current regulations governing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

The Department of Education is planning to announce two new Experimental Sites Initiatives to allow institutions of higher education to receive waivers for their participation in experiments related to student borrowing and repayment.

The White House is seeking feedback on what federal agencies can do to maximize the quality and effectiveness of the American research environment.

Agreement gives House and Senate appropriators four more weeks to work out differences on the final FY 2020 spending bills.

This is the first time that program-level earnings information by institution has been published by the federal government.
 

The final decision is not expected until late spring or early summer next year, falling squarely in the middle of election season.
 

The increased oversight is to ensure the dollars are being spent appropriately and veteran students are getting a good education. 

The meeting is intended to be the first step in establishing a new information security compliance framework in collaboration with colleges and universities.

Census takers are expected to visit students living on college campuses during the month of April.  

The Committee hopes to bring the College Affordability Act for consideration by the full House of Representatives by the end of the year. 

Democrats in the Senate continue to apply pressure to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) to allow the passage of legislation to extend an annual $255 million funding stream to Historically Black Colleges and Universities. 

Like the proposed rules, the final regulations hew closely to the consensus agreement reached during negotiated rulemaking. 

Participants discussed improving the safety, integrity, productivity, and security in the nation’s research environments. 

UPDATE (November 8, 2019): The FBI produced several resources for universities, research institutions, and businesses that provide an overview of the risks partners face from China and the steps that can be taken to protect from counterintelligence threats.

The House Education and Labor Committee is slated to begin the mark-up of its HEA rewrite on October 29.   Chairman Scott has indicated that he wants to bring the bill to the full House before the end of the year.  

One legislative proposal includes a significant increase in the amount of assistance employers can provide, while another expands the benefit to allow employees to use the assistance for tuition or student loan repayment.
 

The Pell Plus Act would establish a partnership with colleges and universities to provide a Pell Grant bonus to low-income students in their third and fourth years who are on a path to on-time completion. 

The action taken byt the State Department would require Chinese government officials to notify the Department prior to visiting any U.S. college or university campus.  
 
 

Colleges are encouraged to develop relationships with FBI field offices so both entities can work together to protect academic assets while promoting academic freedom.

Yaffe & Company is seeking participation from presidents of independent colleges and universities for its annual executive compensation survey, which will remain open until January 10, 2020.

With the October 1 start to the 2020 fiscal year looming, Congress is working to finalize spending bills and keep the government open.
 

Currently, Senate Democrats are not responding positively to the proposal, and still seek a comprehensive reauthorization of HEA. It is rumored that House Democrats will be releasing their own version of HEA reauthorization legislation soon.
 

Colleges and universities will have to be in compliance by January 1, 2020.

Borrowers at independent colleges and universities have the lowest default rate of 6.6 percent, down from the previous year’s rate of 7.1 percent.

The National Labor Relations Board has issued a proposed rule that would deny students employed at private universities the right to unionize under the authority of the National Labor Relations Act.  

The decision to reimburse colleges and universities will likely result in hundreds of millions of dollars in reimbursements to colleges and universities that participated in the Perkins Loan program. 

Despite the bipartisan budget deal agreed to before the August recess, Senate appropriators were unable to continue their comity as they began mark ups of the largest spending bills this week. As a result, the markup was cancelled until further notice.

As proposed, the guidelines would result in an increased compliance burden on colleges that receive such gifts. 

The final regulations are scheduled to be implemented on July 1, 2020, and are unlikely to have a significant impact on private, nonprofit colleges and universities. 

A DOJ investigation has focused on several provisions in the National Association for College Admission Counseling's code of ethics that it believes constitute unlawful restrictions of competition in violation of federal antitrust laws.

The workshop, November 13-15 in Washington, DC, is directed to college and university counsel with responsibility for institutional compliance programs and issues.  Campus administrators such as compliance officers, risk managers, and others with significant responsibility for college and university compliance will also benefit from the program.

Colleges and universities located in Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi are required to distribute voter registration forms this fall in advance of gubernatorial elections in each state under regulations prescribed in the 1998 Higher Education Act. 

The Department granted conditional approval to plan that will allow thousands of students who live in California and attend online nonprofit colleges and universities to regain eligibility for federal aid.
 

The deal paves the way for Congress to pass annual spending bills when it returns in September.  

Several pieces of legislation have been introduced in Congress to provide the necessary student support and campus resources needed to help address these issues.

As a result, students who are located in California and who attend online nonprofit institutions of higher education located in other states will not be eligible for federal student aid.

The deal would suspend the debt ceiling and raise the annual spending caps for FY 2020 and FY 2021. Without this deal, the federal government would default on the publicly held debt in early September, and appropriated programs would face $75 billion in cuts across defense and nondefense programs in FY 2020.  

Because the new law is both unprecedented, in that it taxes one sector of the charitable and higher education communities, and it contains numerous undefined terms, it is nearly impossible for the affected institutions to assess its specific impact without further guidance.
 

The full repeal will be implemented on July 1, 2020.

The Court’s agreement to hear the case could put additional pressure on both parties in Congress to come to the table to negotiate a permanent solution for Dreamers.    
 

The bill, which includes significant increases in the federal student aid programs, provides over $1 trillion to fund most of the government for FY 2020. The White House has threatened to veto the bill because it technically triggers sequestration cuts with the funding levels above the current statutory limits.  

The House Ways and Means Committee passed the Economic Mobility Act, which includes language that repeals the new "parking tax" on nonprofit employers mandated in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.  The committee also voted to extend the tuition reduction through 2020.
 

In accordance with the recent addition of program-level debt data to the College Scorecard, colleges and universities are reminded to confirm the accuracy of program-level data reported to NSLDS by July 10, 2019.

Continuing its push for accreditation reform, the Trump Administration has published proposed regulations on accreditation and revised its handbook on the federal recognition process.

The Department of Education announced a new Experimental Sites Initiative to allow institutions participating in Federal Work-Study more flexibility to use that program to collaborate with industry partners. 

The House Committee on Education and Labor hearing, part of a coordinated legislative effort to lay the groundwork for HEA reauthorization, focused on the role of innovation in improving student outcomes and advancing equity.  
 

After months of wrangling, President Trump finally signed a disaster aid bill to assist recovery efforts in areas affected by wildfires, hurricanes and flooding. 

In his letter, NAICU President David Warren argues that the overwhelming majority of college borrowers have manageable student-loan debt and the value of a college degree remains strong.

Legislation would repeal the tax rates assigned to student scholarship and grant amounts used for room and board that were part of the 2017 tax reform overhaul.

The Education Department released preliminary data on student loan debt, by field of study, which is now included on the College Scorecard site. 

While the comments generally support the salary adjustment from the current level of $23,660 to $35,308, they also suggested changes to the proposed overtime rule that would help colleges and universities more easily implement any future adjustments.  

Title IV eligible institutions have been invited to participate in an expansion of the Second Chance Pell program, which targets incarcerated individuals. In the notice inviting applications, the Education Department requested institutions to submit letters of interest by September 17, 2019. Criteria for participation in Second Chance Pell can be found in the original 2015 notice.

Three hearings were recently held in the House of Representatives and one in the Senate.

The Trump Administration had hoped to revise the Obama regulations before they went into effect, but missed a publication deadline that was needed in order to override the original rule.  A federal court ruled that because the Department had missed the deadline, the Obama rules would have to go into effect until new ones are written.

VA has self-imposed a December 31, 2019 deadline to rectify the payment issues.

While the spending package includes substantial increases for student aid programs, it is likely these spending levels will be the high water mark for student aid this year. There is a long road ahead before enactment, as the House bill is only the first step in the multi-step appropriations process.

As Congress continues its quest to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, it is very possible that reforming financial aid award letters could be an area of bipartisan agreement.

After four months of deliberations, negotiators agreed on a broad array of regulatory changes to accreditation, distance learning, TEACH grants, Title IV eligibility of faith-based institutions, and more.  

The bipartisan hearing primarily focused on educational institutions’ legal obligations under Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education.

The hearing focused primarily on the “accountability triad” and how the states, Congress, and the accrediting community can better work together to protect students and taxpayers from bad actor institutions of higher education. 

President Trump signed a much anticipated Executive Order (EO) on March 21 to ensure institutions of higher education that receive federal research or education grants promote freedom of speech. 
 

The House Committee on Education and Labor held its first higher education-related hearing of the 116^th Congress on March 13^th, titled: The Cost of College: Student Centered Reforms to Bring Higher Education Within Reach. The panel was the first in a series of five announced hearings, covering a variety of topics related to a renewed effort to reauthorize the Higher Education Act.

The threshold for overtime pay would increase from $455 to $679 per week ($35,308 annually) under a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) published March 22 by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).  The DOL projects this adjustment will make more than one million additional U.S. workers eligible for overtime pay.

President Trump’s FY2020 budget proposes drastic cuts to the federal student aid programs, including: $207 billion from the student loan programs over 10 years and $1.8 billion in FY2020 appropriated funding for student aid.  It also includes a $2 billion rescission from the Pell Grant surplus. The FY2020 budget, submitted to Congress on March 11, mirrors the Trump Administration budgets from the last two years, which have been rejected by Congress, in favor of bipartisan support for funding student aid.

New guidance outlining plans to implement elements of the Obama-era borrower defenses to repayment regulations was recently issued by the Education Department.
 

Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act is kicking into gear as members in both the House and Senate are pledging bi-partisan cooperation.

The Department of Education's negotiated rulemaking committee has voted to add a fourth session to their deliberations in order to have sufficient time to address the multiple changes proposed by the Department.

President Trump announced his intention to issue an Executive Order prohibiting institutions of higher education from receiving federal research funding if they fail to protect freedom of speech.  Trump made his announcement in a public speech, but did not provide any details about the specific content or timing of his proposal. 

 

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report regarding the alleged impact that China's Confucius Institutes is having on US education.

In a letter to the Department of Education, the higher education community, including NAICU, reaffirms the responsibilities of colleges and universities to respond to allegations of sexual harassment, including assault; notes where the higher education community believes the proposed rule would help institutions better fulfill those responsibilities; and identifies and describes areas where changes in the rule are needed to achieve these objectives

In a federal negotiated rulemaking panel held in mid-January 2019, the Department, taking a rare step, revealed that instead of finalizing the currently proposed regulations it will, instead, issue a completely new NPRM. 

While the initial days of negotiations focused primarily on procedural protocols and laying the groundwork for future negotiations, some common policy themes emerged. 

The Department released new details about its plans for the upcoming negotiated rulemaking dedicated to revising regulations related to the Title IV student financial aid programs. NAICU’s Jody Feder has been selected to serve as a representative of the private, nonprofit sector on the distance education and educational innovation subcommittee.

After years of confusion, the Education Department has agreed to reimburse teachers whose TEACH grants were inadvertently turned into loans.

While a House bill included the repeal of the "parking tax," the Senate passed a stopgap funding bill without including tax provisions. However, repealing the tax remains a bipartisan priority.

Congress is requiring the VA to fix the problem by March 2019, and report to Congress on what happened and how the problem was solved by December 2019. 

This will be Giesecke's second tenure as CEF president; she previously served in the role in 2006.

The new rules appear to offer some additional flexibility and reduced liability for institutions of higher education, while also preserving supportive services for survivors of sexual assault and adding numerous procedural protections for accused students. 

Colleges and universities hoping the postponement will provide the Department with the time it needs to finalize a mechanism to repay institutions for unreimbursed Perkins Loan cancellations.

At issue is the updated GI Bill, enacted in 2017, that changes the calculation for the housing allowance to reflect where the student takes classes, rather than where the student lives. 
 

The Department of Education is moving forward in soliciting nominations for its negotiated rulemaking committee to revise regulations related to the Title IV student financial aid programs. 

The immediate futures of the Borrower Defenses to Repayment and Gainful Employment regulations are in doubt after the Department of Education revealed that it will likely miss a key publication deadline.

The latest update removes national comparison data that had the potential to provide consumers with a misleading or incomplete impression of an institution’s value, and includes new earnings information.

Last year’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act included language that allows families to use Sec. 529 savings for both higher education and K-12 private school expenses.  

The app features much of the functionality of the web-based FAFSA application, including usage of the IRS data retrieval tool. 

If Betsy DeVos accepts the recommendation, the Department’s approval would provide a temporary reprieve for the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools and the institutions it accredits.

Register today to join senior higher education leaders in Washington, DC February 3-6, 2019.

As the clock was ticking down to the beginning of the fiscal year on October 1, Congress finalized a combined Defense-Labor-HHS-Education-Continuing Resolution spending bill, which the President Trump signed on September 28.  Signifincant funding for student aid programs, including a $100 increase in the Pell Grant, were included in the bill.
 

The court is weighing what pieces of the Obama-era regulations will be implemented and has given the Trump Administration until October 12 to appeal the decision.  

In response to what it views as colleges and universities undermining freedom of expression on campuses, Congress continues to hold hearings on free speech and First Amendment rights.

The updates were intended to have schools report enrollment in classes by ZIP code of where the class takes place, so veteran students could receive the appropriate benefit amount based on the local cost of living. The VA has indicated the problem will be solved soon.

Five sessions to be held in locations around the country.

Two rulings, coming less than a month apart, support both fully restarting the DACA program, and questioning whether the program is ultimately even legal.

The proposed regulations are expected to provide additional flexibility for colleges and universities that handle allegations of sexual assault, as well as new protections for students accused of misconduct.

Testimony emphasized policy priorities regarding accreditation, deregulation, financial responsibility standards, and fraud and abuse in the for-profit sector. 

New legislation would now require students to annually participate in counseling as a prerequisite for receiving their next installment of federal student loans. 

Federal recognition for the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools has been temporarily restored pending a decision from the Department of Education.

Bill raises the Pell Grant maximum to $6,195.

Department of Education also proposed using the College Scorecard as a mechanism to publish earnings data for every program (i.e. major) at every college and university in the nation.

King would bring a combination of higher education and government experience to the position. 
 

The Title IV student financial aid programs are the subject of a new negotiated rulemaking committee planned by the Education Department. 

The Education Department has released new proposed regulations on borrower defenses to repayment.

The Accreditation Council is soliciting comments on proposed revisions to its recognition policy and procedures 

Campuses can find help with voter registration, education and get-out-the-vote activities at Washington Higher Education Secretariat's Your Vote, Your Voice campaign. 

Constitution Day is an opportunity for college campuses to conduct civic education programs.

House and Senate action would have significant impact on student aid funding.

Two separate bills that would have addressed the immigration status of DACA and Dreamers populations were voted down.

The delay means that nonprofit colleges and universities offering Title IV-eligible certificate programs will not need to publicly disclose debt-to-earnings or employment rates on their website or in promotional materials for the 2017-18 academic year. 

According to the Administration, the new agency would better meet the education and skills development needs of Americans, while eliminating duplicative programs and centralizing access.

Kenneth Marcus, who held the same position during the George W. Bush Administration, will replace Candice Jackson as the head of the office. Prior to his confirmation, Marcus was the president and general counsel of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-VA) is pushing the House leadership to schedule a vote later this month. 

Under the expanded program, borrowers enrolled in the Graduated Repayment Plan, Extended Repayment Plan, Consolidated Standard Repayment Plan, and Consolidated Graduated Repayment Plan will now qualify for loan forgiveness if they have met the monthly payment and public service employment criteria. The $350 million program will serve borrowers on a first-come, first-served basis and expire when the funds have been exhausted.

The delay is being sought to allow the Department of Education time to conduct negotiated rulemaking to revise the regulations. 

Upcoming webinar offered to help colleges determine the updates they may need to make to ensure their websites and online programs are more accessible to students with disabilities.

A series of meetings and conversations between House and Senate leadership and the White House indicate that if congressional action isn’t completed over the summer, Congress will likely be unable to address DACA prior to the November elections.

Topics included reducing the regulatory burden in accreditation and oversight of for-profit institutions looking to convert to non-profit entities. 

Representatives debated whether institutions of higher education are suppressing freedom of speech on campus. 

The Department of Education must resume full debt relief for students affected by the sudden closure of the Corinthian Colleges.

Dr. Mitchell (Mick) Zais, former Newberry College President, was confirmed by a 50-48 vote split across party lines.

The package proposes $15 billion in cuts only to past years’ unobligated funds.

While no formal timetable has yet been established, it is possible the PROSPER Act could be considered as early as June.

Timing of the bill is uncertain.  It has been indicated that work will continue on the bill through the month of May.  There is no current indication that the Senate is working on similar legislation, however, or if it plans to ultimately consider the House bill.

The Department is seeking to issue new or amended regulations affecting innovative postsecondary programs, religious schools, accreditation, state authorization, and state authorization of distance education.  

In the coming weeks, there are two webinars that will highlight sustainability efforts taking place at private, nonprofit colleges and universities

The Secretary has submitted to OMB a new proposed rule that would postpone implementation of the regulations beyond July 1, 2018, when the rules are currently scheduled to go into effect.

The rule appears to apply to colleges and universities that have E.U. residents enrolled in distance education programs, students studying abroad in E.U. countries, or applicants from within E.U. countries.

NACIQI’s decision appears to come in response to five Democratic Senators who wrote a letter to NACIQI urging it “to address at its upcoming meeting the recent troubling pattern of for-profit institutions converting to, or attempting to convert to, non-profit entities in order to avoid regulatory scrutiny.”

The temporary restoration comes in the wake of a federal court ruling that granted a partial victory to the accreditor in its dispute with the Department over its accreditation status. 

The new policy appears to be aimed at a limited number of individuals who repeatedly file complaints against multiple colleges and universities.

The Pell Grant maximum, SEOG, Federal Work Study, TRIO and GEAR UP, among others, saw significant increases in funding for FY 2018.

The Department of Education now has the authority to author regulations on its own without being bound by the consensus of the negotiating panel. Through a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the public will have an opportunity to offer comments on the draft regulations in the coming months. 

The Department of Education will reallocate an additional $22.9 million in unexpended funds to assist students at colleges and universities located in regions declared by President Trump to be major disaster areas after hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.

Both chambers are preparing to act quickly to move reauthorization forward in the coming weeks. 

For higher education, the deal targets an additional $4 billion over two years to be spent on “college affordability,” and an additional $2 billion for National Institutes of Health research.  

Failire to produce bipartisan legislation in the Senate that would protect DACA registrants leaves the fate of the program hanging in the balance.

Legislation would include bond advance refunding, which was eliminated in the recent tax bill.

Overall, the Administration’s proposal cuts $203 billion over 10 years from the student loan programs, and $1.6 billion in federal student aid in FY 2019.  

With no consensus, the Department of Education has full authority to write proposed rules regulating borrower defeneses to repayment, and may soon enjoy the same authority on gainful employment. 

The database now contains information about all civil rights complaints, not just sexual assault, and lists colleges and universities that have “pending cases under investigation.” 

According to media accounts, there could be a consolidation of more than six major offices in the Department of Education.

Attendees at NAICU’s 2018 Annual Meeting tweeted about many of the daily events.  Here is a recap of tweets and photos that tell part of the story of this year’s Annual Meeting.

In the final bill, all of the student and family benefits were retained, as were key charitable giving incentives and private activity bonds. However, the new endowment tax and the elimination of bond advance refunding were adopted.

The current funding bill expires at midnight on Friday, December 22.

The legislation is expected to be considered by the full House in early 2018 and could pass quickly; timetable for the Senate is uncertain.

$81 billion relief package introduced in the House of Representatives.

Regulations that required Internet providers to treat all web traffic equally have been repealed and replaced.

The meeting will also tackle other national higher education issues important to private college campuses and students.

While the House bill eliminated almost all of the current student and family benefits, the Senate bill does not.  In addition, the Senate bill would not eliminate Private Activity Bonds.  Unfortunately, the Senate bill proposes a similar excise tax on private college endowments as the House version.

Committee mark up for the bill could be as soon as December 12.

The roll-back of net neutrality rules is likely to have a negative affect on colleges and universities, which rely on a free and open Internet to fulfill their educational and research missions. 

Certain U.S. colleges and universities, with operations in the European Union, may be subject to a new data protection regulation.

Action on tax reform expected in both the House and Senate week of November 13.

Many issues to address in very little time.

Financial responsibility standards, borrower defense to repayment, and gainful employment to be discussed in panels.

Examples of higher education documents that were removed include guidance related to now-closed invitations for Experimental Site Initiatives or historical occurrences such as natural disasters.

Committee examined the prevalence and severity of anti-Semitic incidents at colleges and universities.

Lawsuits are part of a larger trend in which Members of Congress and the Trump Administration have condemned colleges and universities, including private institutions, for how they have handled high-profile free speech conflicts on campus. 

Net price to attend a private, nonprofit college or university is lower today than it was ten years ago.

Two nationally-known speakers set to address attendees; details of Congressional Independent Colleges Caucus reception announced.

National effort looks to find a solution for undocumented immigrants that entered the United States as children and wish to stay here to work, attend college, or serve in the military

Department sought feedback on higher education regulations that may be appropriate for repeal, replacement, or modification.

If enacted, the new accounting rules will make the student loan programs look like they cost more to the federal government than they currently do. 

Absent congressional action, no Perkins Loans disbursements are permitted after June 30, 2018.

The enforcement sweep is targeting scammers who are making false promises to borrowers, and have charged illegal upfront fees of nearly $100 million.

Components include a new Outcome Measures survey and the addition of Pell Grant and Stafford Loan recipients to the Graduation Rates survey.

Meeting to be held February 4-7, 2018 in Washington, DC.

Outcome of budget reconciliation process could have a profound impact on higher education.

Critical student aid resource blocked in the Senate.

The restoration of the IRS DRT allows students to once again use the online tool to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). 

Resource now allows students to create their own customzied comparison groups of colleges and universities. 

Legislation requires the Department of Education to reallocate excess liquid capital collections to institutions affected by the storms, and waives certain institutional eligibility requirements. 

Plan proposes to keep benefits that encourage "work, higher education, and retirement savings."

Comments focus on how the overtime rule could be updated to work effectively for colleges and universities and their employees. 

Private, nonprofit colleges and universities again had the lowest default rates. 

Issues such as Title IX and Clery Act compliance, labor law, and immigration will be covered.

Interim guidance provides additional flexibility to institutions and protections for students accused of sexual misconduct.

GAO report sheds light on the flaws and deficiencies of the federal financial responsibility standards.

Legislation would extend the Perkins Loan program, set to expire on September 30, 2017, by two years.

Most of the guidance focuses on how institutions can properly comply with existing federal student aid requirements, and the flexibility offered to those institutions.

NAICU has joined with 29 other higher education associations in an amicus curie brief to the Supreme Court in the case challenging the Trump Administration's "travel ban" executive order.

The National Student Legal Defense Network plans to work with state attorneys general and consumer advocacy groups to pursue legal action to prevent the Trump Administration from overturning consumer protection rules and regulations.

University reprimanded for failure to meet certain eligibility requirements to participate in the federal student aid programs and could have to repay over $700 million.

Secretary Betsy DeVos announced that the Department of Education plans to replace its current Title IX guidance on campus sexual assault with new regulations developed through the notice-and-comment rulemaking process.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $100 increase in the Pell Grant maximum for the 2018-19 award year, taking it to $6,020.

Following Hurricane Harvey, Congress and the White House approved emergency funding and a deal to avoid a government shutdown.

Citing the proposed salary increase as too high, a federal judge in Texas has struck down the Obama overtime rule that would hvae more than doubled the salary threshold for overtime pay. 

The Trump Administration has rescinded the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals program in the midst of legal challenges questioning its constitutionality.

Democrats on the House Education and the Workforce and Judiciary Committees convened to discuss race discrimination on college campuses. 

Colleges and universities receive guidance from the Department of Education on regulatory flexibility and campus administration following Hurricane Harvey.

Responding to input from NAICU, among others, the Department has created a subcommittee to make recommendations to modify the financial responsibility ratios.

The comment period for input on suggesting regulations that may be appropriate for repeal, replacement, or modification has been extended to September 20.

New Jersey and Virginia colleges are required to conduct voter registration drives this fall in advance of gubernatorial elections on November 7.

Colleges and universities receiving federal funds are reminded about planning an educational program on September 17, the anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution.

Public comments sought on the overtime regulations set forth under the Obama Administration.

Brief states that bankruptcy trustees cannot reclaim tuition payments made by parents for their children.

State leaders are threatening to sue the Trump Administration if it does not rescind the DACA program.

Decision is important for colleges and universities that rely on international faculty, staff, and researchers.

Comments emphasize that institutions of higher education rely on a free and open Internet to fulfill their educational and research missions, including providing Internet services to underserved populations.

Student aid funding at risk as two House committees take very different paths on funding.

House committee votes to expand educational benefits to veterans and their families.

The Department of Ed solicited feedback on its plans to renegotiate the Gainful Employment and Borrower Defense regulations. In testimony, NAICU states opposition to using the faulty financial responsibility standards as a proxy for financial stability.

Potential changes could rescind the 2011 and 2014 Title IX sexual assault guidance.

Hearing comes in the wake of several high-profile cases of students protesting against speakers invited to college campuses. 

Bills target both illegal immigrants and cities that do not comply with immigration law.

The Trump Administration's modified travel ban went in to effect on June 29, and states that affected travelers must have a “bona fide” relationship with a person or entity in the U.S. in order to travel to America. 

The Department of Education issued a request for applications for the Title VI International Research and Studies program.

The Department of Homeland Security announced that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program established during the Obama Administration will remain in place for the time being. 

Legislation allows a student to receive Pell Grant funds for up to 150 percent of the student’s Pell Grant Scheduled Award for an award year, beginning in the 2017-18 academic year.

Regulatory Reform Task Force seeks to streamline and eliminate overly burdensome regulations. 

The Department of Education announced it will renegotiate the Gainful Employment and Borrower Defense regulations.

Thomas Moore Colleges sets inaugural conference on higher education compliance issues for July 18, 2017.

Department of Education cuts come from trimming or eliminating 30 programs.

Administration’s proposed FY 2018 budget would cut education spending by $9 billion.

The House Subcommittee on Higher Education and the Workforce hearing focused on how to collect data to make colleges and universities more accountable.

Rates on federally-issued Direct Loans to increase by 69 basis points.

An estimated 200 undergrads set to take part in the election, scheduled to take place between June 2-8.

Year-Round Pell reinstated while other core student aid programs were level-funded or received increases.

Plan would retain the charitable giving deduction, it’s assumed all other benefits would be eliminated – including the higher education tax benefits that help students and families save for college, pay tuition, and repay student loans.

The House passed a bill allowing private sector employers to offer the option of comp time or overtime to non-exempt employees who work over 40 hours per week. 

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency announced it was suspending expedited processing of all H-1B visas as part of a continuing effort to curb “fraud and abuse.” 

Two recent actions highlight issues in academic labor-employer relations.

Institutions currently accredited by ACICS have about 13 months to seek a new accreditor.

NAICU is partnering with a coalition of organizations to support federal funding for student aid programs. The group sent an open letter to Congress on April 5 urging Congress to support these programs.

Proposed budget includes approximately $6 billion in cuts to student aid programs.

Regulations will never take effect, and similar regulations will be prohibited from future publication.

More than 560 institutions sign letter to President Trump asking to protect DACA students.

A federal judge ruled that Northwest Christian University's firing of a pregnant and unmarried faculty member was illegal discrimination.

Held April 21-22, conferred is expected to bring together higher education leaders to discuss social mobility.

As Congress looks toward possible tax reform options, many higher education benefits could be at risk.

Institutions are given more time to comply with two Gainful Employment requirements.

Online data retrieval tool temporarily taken down “to protect the security of the data.”

Scores determine financial responsibility necessary for institutions to participate in the Title IV programs.

Ruling upholds Graduate Assistants’ vote to unionize.

Resolution is expected to be signed by President Trump soon.

Order bans new visas from 6 countries for 90 days and suspends the refugee program.

House subcommittee holds hearing on "Restoring Balance and Fairness" to the NLRB.

Congress takes swift action on deregulation, including a move to block implementation of teacher preparation regulations.

Federal judge upholds Department of Education’s decision to deny for-profit accreditor’s federal recognition. The case will now move to a trial.

The newly-formed 115th Congress recently held its first higher education hearing of the new Congress.

The House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections held a hearing to address federal wage and hour issues in the current economy and focused on the Obama Administration’s proposed Rule on Overtime Pay.

The Department of Defense plans to increase institutional oversight of schools participating in the Military Tuition Assistance program.

NAICU, along with two dozen Members of Congress, helps launch the Congressional Independent Colleges Caucus.

Homeland Security Secretary issues memorandum implementing President's executive order on immigration; DACA individuals and Dreamers receive exemption.

The Obama Administration published "due process" procedures for colleges facing borrower defense to loan repayment claims.

Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos faced an unusually contentious confirmation hearing in the Senate HELP Committee.

The Education Department announced on January 19 that many of the loan repayment rates on the College Scorecard were over-stated.

The Education Department released final regulations regarding the state authorization of distance education programs.

Bipartisan legislation to protect Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals students from deportation for three years has been introduced in Congress.

NAICU has joined with CUPA-HR to sponsor a free webinar on issues relating to graduate student unionization. 

114th Congress adjourns after passing continuing resolution to fund the federal government through April 28, 2017.

Following the November elections, preparations for the start of the 115th Congress in January 2017 continue to move forward with the leadership roster nearly complete.

With the future of the Overtime Rule uncertain, colleges should weigh their options carefully.

Final regulations have been published on how students who have been defrauded by institutions of higher education can have their loans forgiven.

For-profit accreditor ACICS denied appeal of decision terminating federal recognition.

Education Department issues guidance on teacher prep regulations “strongly encouraging” the use of value added metrics and student learning outcomes.

With a new Administration and a new Congress convening in January, it is important for NAICU members to join together to discuss current and emerging public policy questions during the 2017 NAICU Annual Meeting & Advocacy Day.

The Department of Education released its teacher preparation regulations which maintain the flawed construct of rating programs based on federally defined criteria for the purposes of TEACH Grant eligibility.

Due to the earlier availability of the FAFSA, the Department of Education has moved up the release of its Pell payment and disbursement schedules for the 2017-18 award year.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is suspending the publication of graduation rates of veterans who received benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill as the rates were not accurate indicators of success.

The Department of Education announced $71 million in new and non-competing continuation grants under the Fulbright-Hays Act.

Congress passed a continuing resolution two days before the end of the fiscal year in order to avoid a government shutdown.

The Internal Revenue Service has proposed changes to the Form 1098-T that will require separate tracking and reporting of information by colleges and universities.

The House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee held its second hearing in less than a year on college and university endowments.

The overall student loan cohort default rate dropped from 11.8 percent to 11.3 percent.

The NLRB ruled that graduate student teaching assistants and undergraduate students employed by their college are employees eligible to form or join unions.

NAICU joined the 5 other presidential higher education associations to jointly submit comments to the Department of Education on the proposed state authorization of distance education regulations.

Public comment on proposed regulations concerning the state authorization of distance education programs and foreign branch campuses are due to the Education Department by August 24, 2016.  The proposed regulations, announced July 25, seem to be less complicated and prescriptive than the last proposal discussed during a 2014 negotiated rulemaking session on this topic.

Proposed new rules outlining borrower defenses to loan repayment obligations of students defrauded by colleges resulted in a flood of more than 10,000 comments into the Education Department by August 1.  The Education Department issued the Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) on borrower defenses in mid-June, following inconclusive negotiated rule-making sessions conducted last spring.

While the 2017-18 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) will be available on October 1, 2016, Department of Education Under Secretary Ted Mitchell has urged institutions not to move priority institutional financial aid deadlines forward while also encouraging institutions to process financial aid awards, if only estimates, as soon as possible. 

Colleges and universities receiving federal funds are required to annually conduct an educational program related to the United States Constitution on September 17.

While Congress is in recess (July 18-Sept. 6), the Department of Education may still act on several proposed or pending regulations.

The Pell Grant, TRIO, and GEAR UP programs all increased, while SEOG and Federal Work Study were level-funded.

The Department of Education's action on Borrower Defense may prove problematic for many institutions.

Hillary Clinton and the National Democratic Party highlight their priorities for higher education.

The Department of Education extended the deadline for institutions to submit corrections to the lists of students who had completed gainful employment programs. 

The handbook serves as a compilation of guidelines and incorporates scenarios, examples, and issues discussed by multiple stakeholders involved in campus safety compliance and enforcement.  

Contradictory advice leads to confusion in timing of aid awards.

A provision that would reinstate the year-round Pell Grant was included in the education funding bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The Department of Education provided an unofficial preview of the forthcoming Borrower Defense to Repayment rule, which will be released on June 16.

The Department of Education posted an announcement providing important information on the process for the calculation and release of Gainful Employment Debt-to-Earning rates.

The IRS has recognized that foreign students were being improperly denied income tax refunds for their income earned and reported on tax Form 1042-S. The IRS is now taking steps to resolve this issue for all affected students.

College and university leaders are being asked to eliminate unnecessary barriers for those with a criminal record.

The Department of Justice is soliciting additional comments on the 2010 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding nondiscrimination on the basis of disability and accessibility of web information.

The final rule on overtime pay was announced on May 17, and increases the amount employees can earn and be considered for an exemption from overtime pay to $47,476.

The Department of Education provided clarity on two issues related to differentiated accreditation.

The maximum tuition and fees paid by the Post-9/11 GI Bill will increase by 4.2 percent for 2016-17. 

Interest rates for PLUS loans, Stafford undergraduate loans and Stafford graduate loans will drop by .53% for the 2016-17 academic year.

On April 22, NAICU submitted comments to the Department of Education on the supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking regarding teacher preparation.

The Departments of Education and Justice jointly issued guidance regarding transgender students.

On May 9, Education Secretary John King issued a letter to colleges and universities urging them to reconsider questions about applicants' criminal histories.

On May 11, a Regional Director for the NLRB denied a request by Marywood University faculty to form a union as it was upheld that the faculty played a managerial role in the operation of the school.

The U.S. Department of Education invited 44 postsecondary institutions across 23 states to participate in an experiment to allow high school students to use Pell Grants for college-credit courses.

Your Vote, Your Voice is set to launch at the end of May to help educate and register voters.

The Department of Education signaled its renewed effort to move forward on the controversial teacher preparation regulations that were proposed in 2014. The proposed regulations clarify state reporting responsibilities as well as TEACH Grant eligibility.

The Department of Education is soliciting public comment on a draft letter it intends to send to all federally recognized accrediting agencies clarifying terminology used by accreditors.

The NLRB ruled that Columbia College Chicago violated federal labor law when it did not negotiate with its adjunct faculty union before reducing the credit hours assigned to several courses.

The U.S. Department of Labor sent its final rule on overtime pay to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review and approval. There is currently no information on the content of the final rule, or when it will go into effect.

On March 15, the U. S. Senate confirmed John King as the next Secretary of Education.

The negotiators on borrower defenses failed to reach consensus on proposed regulations during the final negotiated rule-making sessions. The Department of Education is now free to write a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making as it sees fit.

The American Council on Education recently updated its memorandum on political campaign activities to presidents, providing compliance guidelines for 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt institutions.

The Jandris Center at the University of Minnesota is offering $2,500 awards for research focusing on innovation, leadership, and change in the small, private college sector.

NAICU is seeking comments on several unresolved issues relating to borrower defenses which were raised during a recent negotiated rule-making session.

Acting Secretary of Education John King testified before congressional education committees in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives the week of February 22. The Senate committee appears likely to vote in favor of his nomination for Secretary.

The House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee held a hearing titled “Protecting the Free Exchange of Ideas on College Campuses,” on March 2, to examine if tax-exempt colleges and universities are suppressing the free exchange of ideas on campus.

Fifty-six private colleges and universities with endowments over $1 billion receive inquiry from Congressional Subcommittee.

President Obama released the administration’s FY 2017 Budget Request on February 9, which for higher education, builds on the themes of access, success, affordability, and completion that have driven his higher education policy directions.

President Obama’s budget includes several proposals that would significantly impact decision-making for students and families, as well as prospective donors to colleges and universities. 

As part of the his budget proposal, President Obama announced plans to establish an Enforcement Office at the Department of Education to provide increased vigilance and quicker action in fighting fraud in the student aid programs.

In early February, the Department of Education publicly released a series of reforms aimed at further strengthening the accreditation process. The changes build off the previously outlined mandates released in November 2015.  

The U.S. Department of Education is moving forward on a plan to create a centralized database to collect complaints and feedback from students and borrowers.

In his final State of the Union address, President Obama highlighted three priorities in higher education that his administration will continue to focus on in his last year in office: making community college free for responsible students; making student loans more affordable; and simplifying the financial aid process to improve college choice.

The Department of Education recently held the first of three sessions of negotiated rule-making which focused on the borrower defense to repayment of student loans. The first session reviewed and brain-stormed the set of issues presented by the Department. Language developed from these discussions will be provided at the next neg-reg session, February 17-19.

On January 7, the Internal Revenue Service announced that it withdrew its much-maligned proposal for an alternative way of substantiating charitable donations.

There is a provision in the tax portion of the Omnibus law that has a potentially problematic change for 1098-T reporting for colleges and universities. 

In January, the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and a group of national accreditors filed a legal brief seeking to submit an amicus brief in support of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools in its upcoming case against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

A regional office of the NRLB recently ruled in favor of Carroll College and against its faculty's attempt to unionize. The decision represents the first time, the NLRB standards from the Pacific Lutheran decision have been applied.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education announced its upcoming 2016 grant competitions. The department also put out a call for peer reviewers to read and evaluate its entries.

The Service Year Alliance recently announced their second Service Year + Higher Ed Innovation Challenge. The challenge is to innovate and create new opportunities for students to have a “service year,” akin to Peace Corps or AmeriCorps, connected to academic credit.

Congress and the White House passed the $1.1 trillion omnibus tax and spending bill. Of note, the Charitable IRA Rollover and American Opportunity Tax Credit were both made permanent. There were also no cuts to student aid programs.

On December 17, Congress passed legislation extending the Perkins Loan program through September 30, 2017. The program had previously expired on October 1, 2015. NAICU appreciates the bipartisan commitment to extending the Perkins Loan program, however, NAICU does not endorse the final legislation.

NAICU has joined ACE and four other higher education associations in an amicus brief to the National Labor Relations Board concerning recent efforts to unionize graduate assistants at The New School.

President Obama signed into law the Every Student Succeeds Act on December 10. It is the first reauthorization of the nation's major K-12 education law since NCLB.

The Department of Education revealed a package of proposals to make college accreditation a more transparent and accountable process. The proposals include five executive actions to be taken immediately and four legislative actions which Congress will be asked to make.

NAICU joined many other higher education associations and nonprofits in signing comments drafted by the National Council of Nonprofits, stating our concern with the Treasury Department and IRS's proposed regulation to permit nonprofits to collect taxpayer identification information from donors.

The Department of Education continues to provide notices to institutions about regulatory requirements that must be met for Gainful Employment programs. Two new notices: Announcement 70: Transitional Certification and Announcement 71: Reviewing and Correcting GE Completers Lists were recently published. The regulations and myriad updates are provided together through “Information for Aid Professionals” (IFAP).

The National Association of College and University Business Officers completed an analysis of recent cash management rules. Their analysis is broken down in two parts: institutional management of Title IV funds, and relationships between institutions and third-party servicers.

The Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) Repayment Plan was made available this week with new Department of Education resources.

Two-year budget deal expected to be a win for student aid programs.

A group of 54 senators is calling for immediate consideration of legislation to extend the Perkins Loan program for one year.

The Department of Education published two sets of regulations to ensure students have better access to their student aid funds, and that all students have access to a new income based repayment plan.

The Department of Education announced it will test the idea of giving Pell Grants to high school students who are dually enrolled in college.

NAICU joined 37 other higher education organizations in an amicus brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Fisher v. University of Texas.

The NLRB will reconsider its 2004 decision which ruled graduate teaching assistants are primarily students and not employees.

The Higher Education Act will celebrate its 50th anniversary on November 8. Since it was signed in to law, more than 53 million bachelor's degrees and 24 million associate's degrees have been awarded.

Leveraging Senate procedural rules, HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) blocked legislation, which had bi-partisan support, to reauthorize the Perkins Loan program beyond its October 1, 2015 sunset date.

Teacher preparation regulations from the Department of Education were originally expected to be published by November 1 and to go in to effect on July 1, 2016. Now the Department has indicated the regulations will not be published by the November 1 deadline and as a result, the earliest the regulations could potentially go in to effect is July 1, 2017.

Congress passed a continuing resolution which will keep the government running at current funding levels until December 11, 2015.

The House Ways and Means Oversight subcommittee held a hearing to explore whether federal tax benefits and other subsidies contribute to rising tuition, the role endowments play in college costs, as well as executive compensation and campus amenities.

The Department of Education clarified earlier answers on whether, and how often, data included in institutional profiles will be updated.

Congress did not include funding for the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance in the recently passed Continuing Resolution that kept the government from closing. However, they did extend authorization for the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity which advises the Secretary on accreditation.

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, which has no higher education jurisdiction, held a hearing focused on student achievement and outcomes.

A recent congressional hearing explored Income Share Agreements as a potential alternative for students to finance their higher education.

For the third consecutive year, overall student loan cohort default rates have dropped, according to the Department of Education. Private 4-year schools had the lowest rates compared to public and proprietary schools.

Absent congressional action, the Higher Education Act will expire on September 30; three key programs with sunset dates in jeopardy.

New College Scorecard aimed at helping in the college selection process launched by the Department of Education.

President announced on September 14, that the federal government will use “prior, prior” year income data to determine federal financial aid eligibility.

During a recent House Subcommittee on Higher Education hearing about “Preventing and Responding to Sexual Assault on College Campuses,” committee members heard in-depth testimony highlighting the complexities of addressing sexual assault on college campuses.

While supportive of an increase in the minimum salary thresholds and periodic updates to the federal labor standards, the higher education community expressed concern that the “proposed minimum salary threshold is simply too high,” in a 25-page comment letter to the U.S. Department of Labor.

How will your campus observe Constitution Day this year?

Colleges in Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi are required to distribute voter registration forms to their students this fall in advance of their November gubernatorial elections.

NAICU's 2016 Annual Meeting is scheduled for January 31-February 3, 2016 in Washington, DC.  Circle the date on your calendar and register today on the NAICU website.

The Senate plans to adjourn August 7 (the House recessed July 31) with big budget deadlines looming in the fall that will impact many core issues, including student aid funding. Congress reconvenes September 8. 

Combatting sexual assault was the focus of a recent Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing.

The National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity accepted a staff report from the Department of Education recommending that the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing’s status as a federally-recognized programmatic accreditor be stripped for not being "separate and independent" from the National League of Nursing trade association.

The Department of Education announced a pilot program to enable certain incarcerated Americans to receive Pell Grants in order to pursue postsecondary education.

There are two bipartisan efforts underway in Congress to help save the Perkins Loan program, which is set to expire September 30.

Congress has approved legislation to extend the current anti-trust exemption provided to institutions that practice need-blind admissions.

Education Secretary outlines higher education priorities, and offers comments on college affordability during speech at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

In a recent hearing on reauthorization, the Senate HELP committee focused on "Exploring Barriers and Opportunities within Innovation" and ways institutions can innovate in how they offer courses to students.

Earlier this month, the Department of Education reminded colleges of the impending July 31, 2015 deadline for gainful employment programs.

Vonda Dickson has been named Director for Finance and Administration at NAICU, replacing Linda Allison, who is retiring after nearly 13 years with the association. Dickson, who joined NAICU in June, comes to the association after sixteen years as Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration/CFO for the District of Columbia Hospital Association.

The U.S. Department of Education announced that it no longer plans to develop a federal postsecondary institutional ratings system. Instead, the Education Department will implement a “consumer-facing tool” designed to help students, families, and school counselors identify and select colleges.

Increase to Pell Grant maximum award survives, but SEOG and Federal Work Study programs cut by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division announced its proposal to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act, including the regulations governing the “white collar” exemption for executive, administrative, and professional employees. While the proposed rule will mean higher salaries for exempt employees, nothing goes into effect immediately, and there will be a comment period, as well as expected legal challenges before anything becomes final.

Progress on the controversial rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is slowing down summer work on the Higher Education Act reauthorization.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in a recent decision, upheld the Department of Education’s gainful employment rule, denying a suit filed by the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, which sought to label any employment after college as gainful.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review again the use of race in college admissions.

A trade bill approved by President Obama includes language easing IRS penalties on 1098-T reporting. The penalties affected many institutions for failing to provide adequate student tax identifiers like Taxpayer Identification Numbers or Social Security Numbers.

Electronically-filed Form 990s to be made available to the public by the IRS.

New proposed cash management rules issued by the Education Department are the subject of comment letters from the higher education community, which NAICU helped to develop and has endorsed.

Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE) introduced a bill to count payments from military and veteran education programs toward the limit on federal revenues that for-profit higher education institutions are allowed to receive under the 90/10 rule.

The House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee wrote its bill June 17, with $3.7 billion less than last year to work with, it made federal student aid funding a priority amongst competing worthy programs. It also included language prohibiting the Department of Education from implementing regulations that overreach into academic freedom.

On June 19, the U.S. Department of Education published a Dear Colleague letter reminding institutions about the impending July 1 implementation date for the state authorization regulations.

In a series of June announcements, the Department of Education provided additional information and updates on gainful employment, the loan repayment campaign, and enforcement of the statutory prohibition on payment of incentive compensation by postsecondary institutions.

On June 8, the Department of Education announced it will provide relief for many students left holding student loan debt when Corinthian College abruptly closed last year.

The Department of Education published a Questions and Answers document concerning the wind-down of the Federal Perkins Loan program.

Congress is considering pushing colleges to have skin in the game on student loan defaults.

The Education Department’s second try at writing a Gainful Employment regulation survived a legal challenge from the New York Association of Proprietary Colleges in a judicial decision handed down by the U.S. District Court in New York on May 27, 2015.

The Department of Education issued long-awaited guidance on changes made by the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015 to Title IV eligibility for certain students who are not high school graduates.

The Education Department has issued proposed new rules regarding refunds of Title IV funds to students and the use of debit and prepaid cards.

Banned since 1994, efforts are underway in Washington to restore Pell Grant eligibility to incarcerated students.

NAICU seeks to compile a list of any additions or modifications that would make the Department of Education's long awaited "compliance calendar" more complete.

After several years of delay, the Department of Education appears set to implement state authorization regulations effective on July 1, 2015. The provisions that will be implemented are those requiring an institution to be authorized by the state in which it has its main location, or in which it has an additional physical location offering at least half of an educational program.

In April, NAICU submitted responses to three white papers released by Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) on accreditation, institutional risk sharing, and data transparency and consumer information. In responding, NAICU highlighted risks and opportunities within each white paper.

The Department of Education recently sent letters to all college presidents and Title IX Coordinators explaining the roles and responsibilities of their institutions in prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs and activities. Along with the letters, the Department issued an updated Title IX Resource Guide providing further detail on the role and authority of Title IX Coordinators. 

The House Budget Committee filed their FY 2016 budget resolution calling for extensive cuts to student aid.

On April 30, the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training held a hearing focused on improving college access and completion for low-income and first-generation students.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a hearing focused on the role of consumer information in college choice as it continues to work towards reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

The federal regulatory negotiating panel assigned to review President Obama’s new income-driven repayment plan came to a last-minute compromise on the loan-forgiveness proposal of the repayment plan that allowed the team to reach an agreement on proposed regulations.

The U.S. Department of Education announced that it will award up to $60 million to innovative colleges and universities through a second round of grants in the First in the World program. According to the Department, the program seeks to spur the development of innovations that improve educational outcomes, and make higher education more affordable for students.

In an effort to increase student mobility between Mexico and the United States, the University of Guadalajara is offering 15 full scholarships for its summer study abroad program. The scholarships cover the costs of the month-long program and room and board. Students would only need to pay for their airfare and health insurance.

The recently passed FY 2016 Congressional budget resolution intends to freeze the Pell maximum and eliminate $90 billion in mandatory funding from Pell. The budget resolution passed both the House and Senate and will now go to a budget conference committee to work out the differences between each version and then pass a final resolution.

Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) released three white papers for public comment on March 23. The topics, as well as the papers’ contents, give more insight into the key issues he wishes to address in HEA reauthorization. Taken as a whole, the papers indicate that Sen. Alexander is seeking a new way to approach institutional accountability that balances deregulation with some sort of financial “skin in the game” for colleges.

In March, the Senate Finance Committee solicited comments and proposals for specific areas of tax reform from interested groups and individuals. NAICU submitted a proposal which supports the current structure of tax benefits for students and families that help them save for college, pay tuition, and repay student loans.

A top official at the U.S. Department of Education recently hinted that the Administration is considering creating two separate institutional ratings systems for colleges and universities. One system would be consumer-focused for use by students and families in helping choose a college, while the second would be for use by researchers and policymakers.

A recent hearing held by the House Higher Education and Workforce Training Subcommittee covered several topics that are likely to be debated during reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, including year-round Pell, FAFSA simplification, deregulation, and measuring the success of graduates.

The Department of Education is considering how it might implement Pay As Your Earn 2. Generally, nonfederal negotiators support expansion of income-driven repayment, but are concerned with a few of the conditions. They are also worried about confusion due to the other options borrowers already have.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is making available to NAICU members the ability to participate in a virtual training program to help colleges and universities in emergency preparedness and response planning.

The Aspiring to the Presidency executive leadership symposium will be held at St. Anselm College in Manchester, NH on June 24-26. The three-day program is designed to help mid- and senior-level college and university administrators explore a career path to a college presidency.

NAICU welcomed new staff members this winter. Tim Powers started as the Director of Accountability and Regulatory Affairs in January, and Jason Ramirez began as the Director of Research and Policy Analysis in March.

The 114th Congress started on January 6 with Republicans in control of both the House and Senate. As a result, colleges can expect to see a lot of activity on issues that will directly affect them.

Findings from the Senate Task Force on Federal Regulation of Higher Education were released on February 12. The report looks at the ever-increasing burden of federal regulations as well as the structural break-downs in the regulatory process.

The Pell Grant maximum for the 2015-16 award year will be $5,775, not $5,830 as previously reported. The reduced amount is due to a lower than expected rate of inflation, not because of any Congressional action.

The Department of Education has established the parameters that colleges and universities must follow to “wind-down” their Federal Perkins Loan disbursements, and defined the conditions in which schools may continue to make certain student loans.

Realigning tax priorities and the proposal for free community college highlighted the higher education portion of President Obama's State of the Union Address.

The release of the president’s budget on February 2 kicked off the FY 2016 budget and appropriations process for the year. For education, the budget includes $3.6 billion more than last year, and proposes some new ideas for student aid, including Pay As You Earn, and FAFSA simplification as well as changes to Pell Grants and Campus-based aid.

NAICU responds to proposed federal rating system for colleges and universities. In its comments to the Department of Education, NAICU expressed support for providing as much consumer information as needed for students and families to make an informed decision on where to attend college. Yet NAICU also strongly voiced its position that the federal government should in no way substitute a federal rating for an individual’s judgment about what is important and valuable in an educational experience.

On January 30, NAICU submitted comments to the Department of Education on the proposed regulations for teacher preparation programs. NAICU’s comments reflect its concerns about federal over-reach into state and institutional responsibilities to prepare, certify, and license teachers for our nation’s K-12 schools.

On February 4, the House Ways and Means Committee approved seven bills that would make permanent several temporary charitable tax benefits, including the IRA charitable rollover. The IRA rollover last expired at the end of 2014, after only being renewed briefly at the end of the year. Making this benefit permanent is a top NAICU tax priority.

On February 3, the Department of Education posted the first in a series of announcements providing operational information about changes to the Direct PLUS Loan adverse credit history provisions contained in the October 23, 2014 final regulations.

The Department of Education recently issued guidance to clarify the reporting responsibilities institutions have when using outside servicers. The Department delineated which activities performed by a third-party servicer fall under the reporting requirements.

The association representing for-profit institutions filed a motion for summary judgment in its November 2014 suit challenging the Department of Education’s gainful employment regulations.

Get a recap of the 2015 NAICU Annual Meeting through photos and the tweets sent by meeting attendees.

The 114th Congress adjourned sine die on Tuesday, December 16. Additionally, President Obama signed the “CRomnibus” spending package that covered several areas of interest to NAICU members, including funding for the key Federal student aid programs.

The House and Senate approved an extension of expired tax benefits before adjourning for the year. Included in the benefits are the IRA Charitable Rollover and the above-the-line Tuition Deduction benefits, however these will expire on December 31, 2014.

The Department of Education issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) to provide increased Title II accountability for all teacher preparation programs and to link program quality to Title IV TEACH Grant eligibility. Comments on the proposed regulations are due February 2, 2015. Included in the regulations is an additional request for comments (due Jan. 2, 2015) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on the cost and burden of implementing teacher preparation regulations.

The White House held their 2nd Summit on College Opportunity on December 4. The summit focused on 4 areas: College Completion Collaboration, K-16 Collaboration, K-12/Postsecondary Counseling and Advising, and STEM Degree Production.

Since its establishment in August 2013, State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA) officials have continued to promote membership in the agreement and to refine its operations and requirements. SARA's use of the Department of Education’s financial responsibility composite scores to assess the financial soundness of private institutions continues to be a concern.

Addressing sexual assault on campus continues to be a high-profile issue for campus officials, policy makers, and the media. Most recently, the November 19 Rolling Stone article regarding the University of Virginia and its attendant controversy has generated even more intense interest in identifying fair and effective means of addressing the issue. Several recent events underscore just how complex that task is for policy makers, institutions, law enforcement, and students and families.

The Department of Education has again published a final gainful employment rule and has again been sued by the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU).

The National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) held its semi-annual meeting on December 11. The committee had a relatively light agenda in terms of accreditation agency reviews, in that its scheduled review of the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) was delayed until next spring.

The Department of Education published guidance to address questions regarding incarcerated students and their eligibility for Federal financial aid. The clarification reiterates earlier guidance on the definition of “incarcerated,” provides distinctions on eligibility of individuals at various types of correctional facilities, and defines the differences between eligibility for Pell Grants and for Title IV student loans.

The Department of Education has issued final regulations implementing changes made by the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) to the Clery campus safety provisions of the Higher Education Act.

Helping more students prepare for and graduate from college is the focus of a second White House higher education summit on College Opportunity set for December 4, 2014.

In a letter to the Department of Education, NAICU President David Warren expressed support for a newly revised definition of "adverse credit history." The new definition is estimated to make an additional 370,000 individuals eligible for PLUS loans.

The Department of Education released the institutional student loan cohort default rates in September. The overall private nonprofit sector rates dropped from 8.2 to 7.2 percent. The rate for 4-year private nonprofit colleges declined from 8 to 7 percent (the FY 2009 percentage for nonprofits was 7.5 percent).

Earlier this month, Culture of Respect, a nonprofit established to help colleges and universities strengthen their prevention efforts related to sexual assault on campus, launched with the introduction of a new website: CultureofRespect.org.

Hold the dates February 1-4, 2015 on your calendar for the 2015 NAICU Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.

As Congress adjourns to go home for the midterm election cycle, it passed a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown. The continuing resolution funds programs at FY 2014 levels, and runs from September 30, the last day of FY 2014, until December 11, the last day the House is scheduled to be in session.

This summer, NAICU, both individually and with others in the higher education community, responded to requests for feedback from Senate education committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) on a number of pressing issues related to the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

NAICU briefed the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance on both the support and concerns the Association and its members have with the possibility of a federal rating metric.

The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, co-chaired by NAICU member president R. Gerald Turner of Southern Methodist University, met in Washington D.C. on September 8 to hear practitioners and experts share policy updates on new health and safety initiatives for student-athletes. 

Federal law requires colleges and universities to distribute voter registration forms to all of their on-campus degree or certificate-seeking students. Your Vote, Your Voice 2014 is a web-based resource to help campuses engage their students, faculty and staff in the election process.

September 17 is Constitution Day, how will your campus observe this historic event?

Hold the dates February 1-4, 2015 on your calendar for the 2015 NAICU Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.

The Department of Education is seeking comments on recommended changes to eligibility standards for PLUS Loans by September 8. The proposed regulations, published on August 8, would update the criteria for determining if a potential PLUS Loan parent or student borrower has an “adverse credit history” that prevents the applicant from getting the loan. The quick turn-around enables the Department to publish final regulations by November 1, 2014, so that they can take effect by July 1, 2015.

The fall Congressional calendar is set to include several issues critical to higher education, including annual funding bills for student aid and work on the rewrite of the Higher Education Act.  Prior to adjourning for its summer recess, the House did vote to make permanent the IRA charitable rollover and the American Opportunity Tax Credit, although Senate action is less clear.

The "Campus Accountability and Safety Act" was introduced in the U.S. Senate on July 30 by a bipartisan group of 10 senators and has a growing list of consponsors.  The act aims to make changes to the Higher Education Act, Title IX and the Violence Against Women Act and will require colleges to act more aggressively in identifying, preventing, and addressing sexual misconduct on their campuses.

The House of Representatives recently approved several bills dealing with higher education tax policy and the Higher Education Act. While action is unlikely in the Senate, the bills offer a glimpse of how future tax and HEA proposals may take shape.

The Secretary of Education has invited institutions that participate in Title IV programs to apply to participate in a new Experimental Sites Initiative (ESI). Letters of application must be received by the Department of Education no later than September 29, 2014. Institutions chosen for the sites will be expected to provide significant information about their experiments, including, in some cases, control groups of students.

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved three bills today intended to serve as building blocks towards the comprehensive reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA).  Despite a September 30 expiration date, work on a comprehensive HEA bill is unlikely to be completed before Congress adjourns this fall.

The Department of Defense has informed institutions in the Tuition Assistance (TA) program of an update to the previous Memorandum of Understanding issued in May 2014.  Institutions wishing to participate in the TA program after September 5, 2014, must sign a certification statement—even if they have already signed the revised Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) published in May of this year.

The findings of the campus sexual violence survey, released by Senator Claire McCaskill on July 9, assess how institutions report, investigate, and adjudicate sexual violence. Overall, the findings are critical of every aspect of how campuses are handling sexual assaults on campus.

NAICU has joined ACE and three other higher education associations in an amicus brief to the National Labor Relations Board on the question of whether student-athletes (in this case, football players) are eligible to form a union and bargain collectively about the terms of their participation in their sport. The brief argues that, as a matter of both law and fact, these athletes are students and not employees, and therefore not subject to the National Labor Relations Act.

While there’s no appetite in Congress for a government shutdown, the bipartisan congressional appropriators’ attempt at regular order for passing the FY 2015 spending bills has stalled.  Completion of the spending bills, including student aid funding, will most likely be delayed until a post-election lame duck session.

NAICU joined ten other higher education and library associations this week in a statement of net neutrality principles as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prepares to reconsider the issue.

Former Colby College President William D. “Bro” Adams was confirmed Wednesday by the United States Senate as the 10th chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Adams is expected to begin as chairman in the coming days.

As part of the Obama Administration’s effort to promote college affordability, the Treasury Department posted a fact sheet on its website in mid-June to help taxpayers claim college benefits, particularly Pell Grant recipients eligible for the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC).

Legislation making the American Opportunity Tax Credit permanent was passed this week by the House Ways and Means Committee. The legislation was revised significantly following advocacy efforts by the NAICU membership.

Preliminary ideas for rewriting the Higher Education Act are starting to emerge from both the House and Senate Education Committees. Here is an initial overview of the plans released this week by Congressional leaders.

Implementation of state authorization regulations, which require an institution to be authorized to operate in the state in which it is located, have been delayed for another year by the Department of Education.

NAICU advocates for a strong and independent accreditation system in testimony before NACIQI.

Comment period opens for Department of Education’s new regulations on sexual assaults on campus. Deadline is July 21, 2014.

A Senate hearing, a roundtable discussion, and the recent publishing of new regulations illustrate Washington’s focus on changing how campuses handle sexual assaults on campus.

The Senate Finance Committee examined student debt through the lens of the tax code at a hearing this week. Senators and witnesses discussed many ideas to ensure federal tax dollars “spent” on higher education through the tax code were being used effectively.

Some higher education decisions could be slowed following the Supreme Court’s ruling this week on the president’s authority to make recess appointments. More than 400 recent NLRB cases must be reviewed and reissued.

As part of the Obama Administration’s effort to promote college affordability, the Treasury Department posted a fact sheet on its website in mid-June to help taxpayers claim college benefits, particularly Pell Grant recipients eligible for the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC).

The Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee FY 2015 spending bill provides increases for all student aid programs over last year’s levels. Despite a flat allocation, and two new major obligations, Senators made increases in student aid a top funding priority.

As the election year gears up, Democrats are once again putting the terms and conditions of student loans front and center with action coming from both the White House and the Senate. With control of the Senate, but not the House, legislative action is uncertain, but the White House is using its executive authority to ease the cost for borrowers with significant debt burden.

Representatives Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Michael Capuano (D-MA) joined together and introduced a resolution opposing President Obama’s plan to rate colleges and universities.

Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) held the first two of three campus sexual assault roundtables. The roundtables have included survivors, administrators, law enforcement, and advocates, and focused on the Clery Act, Campus SaVE, and Title IX.

During its second meeting, the Task Force on Government Regulation of Higher Education discussed regulatory requirements in the areas of student financial aid, campus security, data collection, disclosures, and accreditation and identified a number of specific requirements that are particularly problematic for institutions.

A new report from the National Center for Education Statistics, in partnership with the Bureau of Justice Statistics, on school crime and safety across the entire U.S. education system found that, in higher education, overall campus crime is down; however, drug violations and forcible crimes have increased.

The Federal Appeals Court in New York ruled that the HathiTrust Digital Library’s effort to provide a digital archive of books and other materials from libraries all over the world does not violate copyright law.

According to the Department of Education, the release of President Obama’s college rating proposal will be pushed back to this fall, with implementation in place for the 2015-2016 school year. In a blog posted to the Department’s website, D eputy Undersecretary Jamienne Studley confirmed their commitment to developing the rating tool.

The Program Integrity and Improvement Negotiated Rulemaking Committee reached agreements on several key issues but failed to achieve consensus on proposed regulations dealing with state authorization of distance education programs and with cash management programs. The committee reached “tentative” agreement on PLUS Loans, state authorization of the foreign locations of U.S. institutions, clock to credit hour conversion, and retaking coursework.

The IRS has decided to rewrite draft regulations on what political activity nonprofit organizations can participate in under their 501(c)(4) status.

The U. S. Department of Education announced in the Federal Register that $35 million will be available for Teacher Quality Partnership Grants focused on STEM educator preparation. An estimated 20 grants will be awarded between $1 and $2 million each. There is a 100% match expected from the partnership.

Decreasing sexual assaults on campus will remain a top issue during the near term. Institutions can expect additional regulatory requirements regarding campus policies dealing with sexual violence and Title IX enforcement.

Institutions whose students receive assistance from the Department of Defense’s Tuition Assistance program will need to sign a new Memorandum of Understanding after July 14 in order to continue participating in the program.

As a result of the recent NLRB ruling in the Northwestern University case, the House Education and the Workforce Committee held a hearing examining the consequences of unionizing student athletes. Several NAICU members testified during the hearing which covered a diverse array of positions on this complex issue.

Interest rates on new federal student loans are set to increase for the 2014-15 school year. Students can expect to pay an additional $5 for every $1,000 in loans. 

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a hearing about completion and retention rates of low-income and minority students. Innovative efforts to help the students were also addressed during the hearing.

House Subcommittee explored the effectiveness of initiatives focused on promoting educational attainment among veterans. Witnesses offered a positive assessment of the post 9/11 GI Bill.

The Department of Education announced on May 13 that it would not reimburse colleges which provided loan forgiveness for Perkins Loan borrowers who completed public service jobs.

The Department of Education announced that $75 million will be available for the developmental stage of “First in the World” (FITW) grants for innovations at colleges and universities that result in more students graduating from college by 2020, especially low-income, traditionally under-represented, and minority students. The Department is providing technical assistance and webinars to help campuses apply.

Violence Against Women Act leads to proposed regulatory changes to crime reporting, disciplinary hearings and efforts to educate students about sexual assault prevention.

Tough new teacher preparation standards from the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) demand a strategic approach from campuses. Congress holds hearings on teacher preparation programs while new federal regulations remain stalled.

Education Department proposes new regulations requiring each state to authorize by name all institutions offering distance education services to state residents.

New rules for determining PLUS Loan limits and policies for using debit cards to issue refunds to students provoke lively discussion at rulemaking session.

Gainful employment programs targeted again by Education Department regulation proposal seeking to provide new structure for program approvals and monitoring.

On the two year anniversary of the executive order establishing the “Principles of Excellence” for institutions enrolling service members and veterans, the Obama administration continues to make steady progress in implementing initiatives regarding program integrity, consumer information, and complaint resolution issues.

The House approved a budget blueprint on April 10 along party lines, but the nonbinding resolution is not expected to be taken up by the Senate.

Senate HELP Committee hearing explores the issues surrounding the $1.2 trillion in student loan debt in preparation of reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

Got a particular federal regulation or legal requirement you’d like to see revised or eliminated? The Task Force on Government Regulation of Higher Education wants to hear about it.

The president’s FY 2015 budget request to Congress proposes $29 billion to fully fund the scheduled $100 increase in the Pell Grant maximum and level funds the other student aid programs. The budget also proposes reform programs to implement the College Value and Affordability agenda he has been advocating for since August, including a proposal to provide $10 million for his controversial college rating metric. NAICU expects to see education funding bills sometime in the summer.

Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) introduced legislation that would overhaul the current Internal Revenue Code by lowering tax rates and eliminating popular tax breaks. The bill would also create a new excise tax on excess endowment funds at private colleges and universities only – not public colleges. While the bill is not expected to be considered in the House or Senate this year, it does reflect Rep. Camp’s commitment to introducing fundamental reform measures during his tenure as Ways and Means Chairman.

Shortly after the first negotiated rulemaking session dealing with the changes made to campus safety requirements by the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), President Obama announced the formation of a White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. NAICU has joined the American Council on Education and several other higher education associations in submitting written comments to the Task Force, which is scheduled to release its final recommendations in mid- to late-April.

The Department of Education is reminding institutions that the 2010 program integrity regulations require states to have student complaint processes covering all institutions. Issuance of this letter signals that the Department is preparing to enforce this portion of the regulation.

Financial responsibility scores for private (nonprofit and for-profit) institutions released by the Department of Education.

House and Senate Budget Committee Chairmen Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) have released reports outlining their approaches to this year’s budget process.

The Program Integrity and Improvement Negotiated Rulemaking Committee has convened. The first session of this round of negotiations provided an overview of the half-dozen diverse issues for which additional regulations are to be developed. These include state authorization for distance education programs and for the foreign locations of U.S. institutions, PLUS loan eligibility, debit card restrictions, the clock to credit hour conversion formula, and aid for repeated course work.

NAICU worked with the American Council on Education to submit comments to the IRS on the question of whether proposed limitations on the political activity of 501 (c)(4) nonprofit organizations should also be applied to 501 (c)(3) organizations, such as private nonprofit colleges and universities. The comments focused on the role colleges and universities play in civic education, democratic participation and political discourse, and how that role could be stifled if the proposed regulations were applied to 501 (c)(3) organizations.

The Student Achievement Measure (SAM), launched last year, continues to accept college and university registrations. To date, the initiative, which is working to identify more comprehensive ways to measure student progress and completion, has more than 400 colleges and universities participating and recently announced the support of several higher education organizations.

The Obama Administration is continuing its efforts to develop a college ratings system, including providing two recent public opportunities to garner feedback from colleges and universities, and others within higher education. Recent activities have focused on the metric or metrics that might be used in such a system and how the components of any rating might be weighted. NAICU was among the 125 organizations and individuals that submitted comments to the Department of Education. In its comments, NAICU suggested that a single rating metric would be harmful to U.S. higher education and that consumers would be better served by having a sufficient range of both quantitative and qualitative information to allow them to find their “best-fit” institution.

Earlier this month, the IRS provided guidance for colleges and universities on defining the workload for adjunct faculty and student employees for purposes of health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). While the information will help colleges account for workload hours, it is less clear that the guidance will answer all questions on when adjuncts are required to have health insurance under the ACA. The IRS rules clarify ways to tally hours on tasks such as lecture preparation, teaching, grading assignments, as well as office hours. They also indicate that other acceptable accounting methods may be developed by institutions, and that additional guidance may be announced in the future.

The Task Force on Government Regulation of Higher Education kicked off its work at a February 12 meeting held at the American Council on Education (ACE) headquarters in Washington, DC. The group, which includes six NAICU members, is charged with: (1) making specific recommendations regarding ways in which requirements administered by the Department of Education might be streamlined or eliminated; (2) quantifying the impact of all federal regulatory requirements impacting colleges; and (3) recommending ways in which the costs and benefits of future regulatory activity can be accurately assessed.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued a notice and invitation for briefs to respond to a series of questions relating to unionization of college faculty. The specific case before the board involves an effort to unionize non-tenure track faculty at Pacific Lutheran University.

On January 30, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to amend its Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations to incorporate the statutory changes in the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. The DOJ is proposing to add new sections to its Title II and Title III ADA regulations to provide more detailed definitions of “disability” and to make consistent changes in other sections of the regulations. Institutions have until March 31, 2014, to submit comments.

The Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium (HEASC), of which NAICU is a member, is hosting a webinar, DOE + Campus Microgrids, on February 19, 2014, from 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Eastern, in conjunction with the Department of Energy. HEASC is an informal network of higher education associations committed to advancing sustainability within their membership and within the higher education system overall.

More than 400 private, nonprofit college and university leaders gathered in Washington, DC, for the 2014 NAICU Annual Meeting and Advocacy Day. Find out more about the speakers, sessions, and annual award winners.

See what participants at the 2014 NAICU Annual Meeting were Tweeting … the big issues, the key statistics, the news you can use, and photos from Advocacy Day and more.

With strong bipartisan support, Congress sent a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending package to the president for signature on Thursday, January 16. The measure restores sequestration cuts for all student aid programs, and funds Pell Grants for its scheduled increase to $5,730. The president has pledged to sign the bill.

The White House Summit on College Opportunity created buzz at the highest levels in Washington and beyond January 16, as more than 140 college presidents, philanthropists and business leaders were asked to an exclusive White House conversation featuring the President and First Lady.  The focus of the meeting was how to increase college attainment among low-income students, while acquiring and promoting commitments for new programmatic efforts from colleges and others groups.

The first of three scheduled negotiated rulemaking sessions dealing with the changes made to the Clery Act campus safety requirements by the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was held on January 13-14. Negotiators expressed a strong interest in bringing clarity and consistency to regulations governing campus safety issues.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau steps up its role in overseeing student loans.

After additional negotiations, representatives of consumer advocate groups and for-profit schools were unable to reach agreement on gainful employment regulations.

Having already passed the U.S. House, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 is set to be taken up and approved by the Senate. The deal restores some of the sequestration cuts from last year, and avoids government shutdown politics in early January. .

Department of Education provided guidance in a Dear Colleague Letter on how the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in United States v. Windsor overturning the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) will be considered in determining federal student financial aid.

After more than 20 years, the U.S. Agency for International Development announced it is ending its contractual funding arrangement for HED by September 30, 2015.

Both supporters and opponents of the new health care law continue to press for colleges and universities to weigh in on the Affordable Care Act. Previously, the White House and Department of Health and Human Services asked for help from the higher education community on enrolling students in the state exchanges. Now, the House Education and Workforce Committee is seeking its own feedback from colleges and universities on the impacts of the new law.

Accreditation was the focus of two important committees in December. In the Senate, the HELP Committee held a hearing on accreditation while, simultaneously, the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity was hearing testimony about an institution’s accreditation being withdrawn.

A Department of Education rulemaking panel convened to consider new proposals regarding eligibility of college-based career-training programs to participate in the federal student aid programs was unable to reach consensus last week. A further session is likely in December.

Student aid related topics will be the focus of an  Program Improvement and Integrity negotiated rulemaking committee planned for February 2014, according to an Education Deparmtent notice in the Federal Register on November 20.

A Congressional conference committee on the FY 2014 federal budget has made little movement forward on setting the top line spending amount, replacing the sequester, or deciding what role entitlement changes will play in a final agreement, despite conducting two public meetings since its creation in the October 17 deal to reopen the government.

NAICU members continue to offer the Obama Administration feedback on the President's call to make higher education more affordable for the middle class through a number of initiatives including a new national rating system for colleges and universities.

On October 30, Reps. Diane Black (R-TN) and Danny Davis (D-IL) introduced the Student and Family Tax Simplification Act which would make the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) permanent (it is currently set to expire at the end of 2017), but also eliminate the Hope and Lifetime Learning credits and the tuition deduction without allowing a benefit beyond the first four years of college. While any significant movement on tax reform measures is unlikely this year, NAICU continues to advocate for modifications that would prevent any current students or families from losing their tax benefits.

On September 20, NAICU provided a summary and preliminary guidance for institutions who have received penalty notices from the IRS for failing to provide adequate student tax identifiers like Taxpayer Identification Numbers or Social Security Numbers. We want to clarify that the regulations implementing the higher education tax credits do contain language requiring this information to be furnished by the student or family to the institution. In our alert, we inadvertently said that students cannot be required to provide the information.

The Department of Education has announced its plans to establish a negotiated rulemaking committee to develop regulations dealing with the changes made by the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA) to the campus safety and security reporting requirements of the Higher Education Act.

While the government shut down has not resulted in much disruption on college campuses – yet, the looming debt crisis could have a serious impact on funds for student loans. A majority of Pell Grant and student loan funds were drawn down by institutions in August and September, and the Department of Education deemed the student aid programs as essential in its contingency plan.

NAICU joined ACE, NACUBO, and several other higher education associations in submitting comments about proposed revisions in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) governing the Department of Defense’s Tuition Assistance (TA) program that called for an alternate approach consistent with the Title IV requirement, while being simpler both for servicemembers to understand and for institutions to implement.

The newest effort in the push by the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services to get information on the Affordable Care Act and the new Health Insurance Marketplace out to college campuses is a Toolkit that has been made available in conjunction with the October 1 launch of the new health insurance marketplace open enrollment season.

On September 30, 2013, the Department of Education released the most recent two-year (FY 2011) and three-year (FY 2010) cohort default rates. According to the Department, private nonprofit institutions had the lowest average cohort default rates for both the FY 2011 two-year rate and the FY2010 three-year rate - 5.2 percent and 8.2 percent - compared to public and for-profit institutions.

Innovations at independent colleges were front and center as the House Committee on Education and the Workforce continued its busy hearing schedule on September 18, with a look at how partnerships among businesses and colleges are helping transform higher education. In the hearing, Adrian president Jeff Docking told the committee about its efforts to develop a unique business model that relies on strategic investments, measurable results, and accountability that has helped the college grow from less than 900 students in 2005 with an annual operating deficit of $1.3 million to an institution of more than 1,700 students and an operating budget that has more than doubled.

Institutions are receiving penalty notices and possible stiff fines for not properly reporting student Taxpayer Identification Numbers(TINs) or Social Security Numbers (SSNs) when submitting the IRS-required Form 1098-T. Form 1098-T is the Tuition Payments Statement that colleges and universities are required to issue for the purpose of determining a student’s eligibility for the American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning tax credits. However, via the IRS there are steps colleges can take to demonstrate that they have made a good-faith effort to collect the required information and possibly avoid the fines.

Updated September 20, 2013, 1:00 p.m.

As the clock ticks down to the beginning of Fiscal Year 2014 on October 1, Congress needs to pass a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the federal government temporarily funded, in the absence of finalized appropriations bills. On September 20, the House passed (230-189) a resolution that would provide continuing FY 2013 funding for the government until December 15, and include language to defund the Affordable Care Act. Action now moves to the Senate.

In the latest round of changes, the Department proposes to take non-Title IV recipients out of the data collected on gainful employment programs and proposes to eliminate low loan repayment rates as an indicator of a failing program, although programs would still have to disclose their repayment rates. The Department is also proposing significant changes to the way it calculates annual and discretionary debt-to-earnings ratios used to judge the quality of gainful employment programs. Overall the changes increase substantially the number of programs covered by the gainful employment rules and likely the number of programs that will fail.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in a recent announcement of its final rules establishing a permanent process for registering municipal advisors, exempts college and university board members acting in their official capacity from having to register as municipal advisors.

Momentum is building towards the on-time renewal of the Higher Education Act, with the formal announcement of the hearing topics and procedures planned by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP). Rather than setting a single deadline for receipt of all recommendations, the HELP Committee is asking that interested parties submit at any one time only those recommendations related to an announced hearing topic. Following closely on the heels the of the committee’s announcement of its general reauthorization plans, the first hearing was held on September 19, focused on the respective roles of the higher education “triad” of accreditors, states, and the federal Department of Education.

In a September 11 hearing focused on the work colleges are doing to help servicemembers and veterans succeed, Saint Leo University President Arthur Kirk highlighted the University’s 40-year history of providing student success initiatives designed to provide a proactive veteran-supported environment. A testament to their success is that the University awarded 311 associate degrees, 884 bachelors, and 290 graduate degrees to veterans in 2012.

In 2005, Congress passed legislation mandating that educational institutions receiving federal funds (including federal student aid) are to hold an educational program on the U.S. Constitution on September 17 each year. This day commemorates the 1787 signing of the Constitution. The federal provision does not define "educational program." This means that colleges and universities have a great deal of latitude in exactly how they choose to recognize the day.

The Department of Education issued additional guidance on August 9 intended to clarify how institutions can document they are properly authorized by a state.  Institutions named in a state charter, statute, or constitution clearly meet the requirement, but other colleges face a bit more daunting challenge.

The Department of Defense is soliciting public comment on proposed revisions in the Memorandum of Understanding governing its Tuition Assistance (TA) programs.  The comment period is open until September 30.  All institutions participating in the Tuition Assistance program will be required to sign the revised MOU once it is in place.

The National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA) will offer a Symposium & Continuing Legal Education Workshop:  Higher Education Compliance Programs and Obligations, to be held in Washington, D.C., November 6-8.  NAICU has joined several other higher education organizations in co-sponsoring the symposium.

Details are still sketchy, but President Obama’s college affordability plan, which he announced August 22, has triggered an ongoing discussion in the media.  Congressional reaction has been cautious on both sides of aisle.  Meanwhile, many NAICU members have issued public statements on the possible effects - both positive and negative - that they see in the President’s proposals.

The Student Achievement Measure (SAM), the new project to measure student progress and completion launched by the six national higher education associations, continues to accept college and university registrations.  Participation in SAM is voluntary, and also requires joining and paying the membership fees for the National Student Clearinghouse.  Institutions electing to participate in SAM will post their own student achievement data on the SAM website after the 2012-13 academic year data become available.

The stricter enforcement of Parent PLUS loan eligibility requirements has most impacted institutions serving large numbers of low-income students.  The Department has not changed its criteria, though, despite calls for it to relax the requirements, but has said it will reconsider denials upon appeal, and has issued guidance about an expedited appeals process.  The topic, which drew testimony from many colleges at regional hearings this spring, could be considered in negotiated rulemaking sessions planned for this fall.

The Department of Education's long-overdue financial responsibility scores for FY 2011 were released July 23, with the Department claiming that more than 150 private nonprofit and for-profit institutions had failed the test.  The scores are intended to measure the fiscal health of private colleges, but NAICU has cited problems with the process that can result in fiscally-stable institutions receiving a low score.

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce has approved legislation that would repeal the state authorization, credit hour definition, and gainful employment regulations.  Those regulations, issued in 2010, were targeted for repeal in the Supporting Academic Freedom through Regulatory Relief Act, which the committee approved on July 24.  NAICU and other higher education organizations recently filed a letter supporting the act.

On July 24, NAICU submitted its recommendations on reauthorization of the Higher Education Act to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.  The association's proposals address the six areas designated for input by the committee, plus a seventh subject, improving teacher preparation programs.  NAICU members have until August 2 to individually submit recommendations.

A bill that would change how student loan interest rates are set was approved by the Senate on July 24.  The bill would tie all student loan rates to the 10-year Treasury note rate plus an add-on, with specific rate caps.  Under that formula, interest on undergraduate loans for the upcoming school year would be 3.9 percent, a rollback from the 6.8 percent for subsidized loans that went into effect on July 1.  The bill is expected to be passed by the House, and signed into law by President Obama.

The Senate Appropriations Committee offered strong support for student aid programs through increased funding in its Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill approved July 11. It also advanced two major policy proposals aimed at college persistence and completion reform, and gave a hint of what may be addressed in the upcoming Higher Education Act reauthorization bill. Still, without a big budget deal, the appropriations process is likely headed for gridlock in September.

Three new guides on emergency operations plans for schools, colleges, and houses of worship were released by the Obama administration on June 18. The guides incorporate lessons learned from the recent shootings in Newtown and Oak Creek, and the tornadoes in Oklahoma. They can be customized for each type of community, and applied to revising and updating existing plans, as well as creating new ones.

Last week, the Senate approved a sweeping immigration reform measure that would expand the paths to citizenship for undocumented and legal immigrants, including undocumented students, and increase border security. The bill, S. 744, includes DREAM Act language that would extend benefits to undocumented students who attend college. House leaders have indicated they will not take up the Senate bill in its entirety, but will meet to discuss strategy in early July.

The efforts of private colleges and NAICU to reform the Department of Education’s Financial Responsibility Standards (FRS) have been rejected. The Department’s dismissal apparently means it will continue with its seriously flawed financial responsibility ratios test, which has created unnecessary burdens on financially sound colleges. In light of that, NAICU will include its FRS proposals with its preliminary recommendations on reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. NAICU members, who should have those preliminary recommendations by mid-July, are encouraged to also contact their congressional representatives about any FRS concerns.

After concluding its June 4 negotiated rulemaking hearing in Atlanta, the Department of Education announced it will form a separate negotiated rulemaking committee to establish standards for gainful employment programs.  The Department indicated it would not rule out establishing additional committees to consider other issues covered in recent hearings, as well as debit card and campus-based aid program issues addressed in hearings last year.

On behalf of NAICU, Edgewood College President Dan Carey testified about his college’s successful veteran students programs at a June 20 House subcommittee hearing on the use and impact of GI Bill benefits. Representatives of other colleges and organizations highlighted their efforts, as well as the development of a veteran students’ performance database. The VA outlined its work in implementing the “principles of excellence,” and the new veterans’ information requirements enacted late last year.

With the July 1 effective date for state authorization regulations having arrived amidst continued confusion about what is required to meet them, the Department of Education has once again offered a one-year delay in implementation under certain circumstances. To qualify for the delay, an institution must demonstrate that an extension of time will allow it to come into compliance with the regulation by July 1, 2014. The extension process requires an institution to obtain an explanation from its state of “how an additional one-year extension will permit the state to modify its procedures to comply.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently launched an Academia & Resilience web portal which contains emergency management and homeland security tools and training, preparedness campaigns, and other resources targeted to the higher education community. FEMA also has developed programs to train students, faculty, and staff in emergency preparedness, and to allow members of the private sector to hold seats on its National Response Coordination Center, where strategic decisions are made during emergencies.

A report highly critical of the quality of teacher education programs by the National Council on Teacher Quality, released June 18, immediately generated national media coverage. The data and methodology NCTQ used, which found 164 programs so lacking that they received a “Consumer Alert,” has been deemed unscientific and invalid by some experts. Further, the group used questionable tactics to obtain data from private colleges, relatively few of which participated in the review.

The interest rate for subsidized student loans doubled to 6.8 percent on July 1, after Congress failed to work out a deal that would keep the rate at 3.4 percent. However, Congress continues to work on proposals to lower rates on subsidized loans, with the Senate scheduled to vote on several rate proposals on July 10. While the proposals would lower rates on loans for upcoming students, interest rates likely would be tied to market rates in order to remain budget neutral, and that could mean higher rates in the future.

“Simplify…simplify…simplify federal financial aid” was the message delivered by Trinity University Washington President Patricia McGuire to members of the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce during a hearing today on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

The IRS has now published its final report on a compliance project that began in 2008 with questionnaires to 400 colleges and universities, leading to audits of 34. Findings included discrepancies on unrelated business income and reasonable compensation to campus executives, which has spurred the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight to schedule a May 8 hearing to review those findings.

As part of its tax reform efforts, the House Ways and Means Committee has designated 11 working groups to consider different aspects of the tax code. Those groups have solicited public comments on a variety of tax issues. In response, NAICU –both individually and jointly with other groups-- has submitted statements on several important areas, including continuation of tax-exempt bond funding; simplifying tax credits and deductions with an expanded and permanent credit; and maintaining a three-tiered systems of benefits for families that are saving for college, applying for college, or repaying student loans. NAICU has also advocated for keeping the charitable tax deduction and making the IRA charitable rollover permanent.

In a continuation and expansion of negotiated rulemaking proceedings that it started last May, the Department of Education has announced its intention to hold rulemaking sessions on a variety of regulatory topics related to program integrity. In addition to issues examined in 2012 hearings, the Department will review new subjects, including the gainful employment and state authorization regulations recently struck down in court. Several House members, including two key committee chairs, have urged the Department to abandon efforts to pursue regulations in those two areas.

Six NAICU members -- Carleton College, Chatham University, Goddard College, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Middlebury College, and Oberlin College – were chosen as finalists for SecondNature’s 2013 Climate Leadership Awards. They were among the 20 cited as exemplifying the mission of the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment to re-stabilize the earth’s climate through education, research, and community engagement.

With less than 60 days left until the July 1 hike on interest rates for subsidized student loans, stakeholders and members of both political parties remain divided on how best to move forward. No congressional action can occur until the Congressional Budget Office completes its scoring of the President’s budget -- likely in mid-to-late May. That means Congress is unlikely to take action until June. Meantime, NAICU’s board recently met and gave staff guidance on how to engage in the upcoming debate on reforming the student loan program.

Both Bill Gates and nationally recognized education writer, Jay Mathews, have recently announced new positions on utilizing testing and value-added scores for assessing teachers. Will the new positions of those education leaders, combined with criticism of test-based evaluations from states across the country, lead to a broader, multi-pronged test for teacher performance? Could that, in turn, lead to a more nuanced approach in the Department of Education’s anticipated regulations on teacher preparation programs?

The higher education tax benefits were discussed at a House Ways and Means Committee working group roundtable held April 9. Jason Rogers of Belmont University, one of the roundtable speakers, urged that the current three-tiered system of benefits be maintained, and that the American Opportunity Tax Credit be expanded and made permanent. In addition to the roundtable discussion, the House working group has held other meetings addressing higher education tax reform, including one with higher education community representatives, including NAICU.

The Commission on the Regulation of Postsecondary Distance Education released its final report on April 11, bolstering efforts to develop interstate reciprocity agreements that would simplify the approval process for institutions offering distance education programs. The report includes recommended terms for reciprocity agreements, including provisions that an institution would require approval only from its home state.

President Obama’s FY 2014 budget proposal includes a new, market-based approach to setting student loan interest rates that is based primarily on the rates of 10-year Treasury bills. The plan, submitted to Congress on April 10, does not include a cap on how high those rates could be, and it eliminates the current cap for consolidated student loans. The President also proposes to limit tax deductions, including those for charitable contributions, but continues to fund the projected Pell increase and boosts spending on Federal Work Study. 

The Education Department’s efforts to revive the gainful employment (GE) regulations struck down last June were rejected in a U.S. District Court decision on March 19. The ruling, which was based partly upon the student unit records ban, denied the Department’s motion to modify the June 2012 decision that found several aspects of the GE regulations were unlawful. The decision does not impact the disclosure requirements currently in effect.

Congress sent to the President a continuing resolution that heads off a government shutdown and funds all agencies through September 30. The bill also overrides decisions by the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps to suspend the DOD Tuition Assistance programs, although there will be program cuts. While Pell Grants will be protected from sequestration cuts, other student aid programs will take a hit, with funding cut back to FY 2012 levels minus five percent.

The most recent round of budgetary political football began on March 13, as both the House and Senate Budget Committees released their plans for the Fiscal Year 2014 budget.  The House vision includes significant modifications to the Pell Grant program, an end to in-school interest subsidy for undergraduate loans, and a change in how the government calculates the cost of student loans - for a potentially serious impact on future student aid programs. The kinder, gentler Senate plan is light on details, but “seeks to expand access to college for all Americans,” while retaining loan subsidies and Pell Grants. 

A recently well-attended hearing of the House Education and the Workforce Committee covered a wide range of student loan issues, from returning to variable-rate interest loans and expanding income-based repayment plans, to limiting the amounts certain students can borrow in an effort to reduce defaults. Add to that a lively discussion on the methodology for determining the cost of student loan subsidies, and there was something for just about everyone to debate.

Efforts to link assessment of a college program’s value to the amount of money its graduates make gained momentum last month. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), in an address to the American Enterprise Institute, lauded legislative efforts by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to collect and publish information about the average earnings of college graduates. Cantor’s endorsement adds a new sense of urgency to the legislation, suggesting it could move through Congress more quickly than expected -- perhaps as soon as this spring. NAICU members with concerns about the concept should express those concerns to their senators and representatives.

After nearly a year of silence on assessment of teacher education programs by the federal government, rumors suggest that efforts to measure teacher education program quality by unproven yardsticks – such as the value-added testing systems of K-12 schools – may emerge on several fronts this spring. Colleges with teacher preparation programs will need to carefully track and quickly react to these initiatives, coming from both within and outside the administration, if they want to influence the movement. 

Although no specific tax legislation affecting charitable giving incentives is being planned, more than 40 witnesses representing a variety of non-profits - including NAICU - testified about tax incentives for charitable giving at the February 14 hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee. The hearing was the latest in a series that began last year to examine the possible impacts of any major tax reform.

Colleges must rewrite their sexual assault policies and procedures under provisions of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013, signed into law on March 7. That law, which amends the campus crime provisions of the Higher Education Act, also expands the information colleges must incorporate into their annual crime reports.

The deadline for complying with state authorization regulations is July 1, 2013. The regulations require that a college or university be "established by name" as a postsecondary educational institution by a state. Each state must have a process to review and appropriately act upon any complaints about such an institution. Also, each institution must disclose to students and prospective students the procedures for filing complaints with an accreditor, a state approval or licensing agency, and any other appropriate state agency.

In February, the White House unveiled its new College Scorecard website, the administration’s effort to provide more targeted and streamlined one-stop consumer information to aid in choosing a college. Better college-choice information for students and parents is welcome. However, the College Scorecard has drawn some criticism and concern from NAICU members because of its overemphasis on narrow return-on-investment measures that ignore the role of these institutions in shaping leaders, building an informed citizenry, and fostering service to society.

President Obama gave his State of the Union Address on February 12, but we have heard little additional the details on his proposals. That may most likely come when the President’s FY 2014 budget is released around April 8. Of those proposals affecting higher education, the one considered most controversial by the higher education community would be a new role for the federal government as an alternate accreditor – a move that would upend the traditional relationship between the federal government, curriculum control, and the independence of colleges.

Last fall, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded grants commissioning papers on rethinking federal student aid in anticipation of a congressional rewrite of the Higher Education Act. Those papers are now being submitted. While most are unlikely to gain serious consideration, a few are likely to impact the HEA reauthorization discussions. NAICU welcomes members’ comments on the papers, along with other ideas on reauthorization.

The higher education community expressed concerns late last year that new market rules under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would significantly raise student health insurance premiums. Now the Department of Health and Human Services has responded to these concerns with final regulations that reflect the issues raised by NAICU and others in the higher education community, and should lessen anticipated premium increases.

Sequestration – that unthinkable last resort passed by Congress in August 2011 – took effect on March 1. But the sky didn’t fall, and the government didn’t shut down. Yet. Federal agencies are just now releasing information about how the across-the-board cut will be implemented – ultimately entailing decisions affecting real people and programs. Now in early March, some real-world specifics on student aid are emerging, with much more to come.

President Obama has signed the fiscal cliff agreement approved by the Senate and House earlier this week. There are some extraordinary tax victories for higher education in this deal, as well as some overall limits on deductions that NAICU will be studying more closely. But the agreement leaves unresolved the broader federal budget cuts which were set to go into effect January 3, reducing and delaying them until March. And more drama lies ahead, as conservatives upset with the deal now threaten a federal government shutdown if further spending cuts aren't made.

Recent weeks have seen a number of developments relating to veteran students, including a new law that will require colleges to provide additional consumer information, guidance for colleges on dealing with recent delays in veterans' benefits payments, and the announcement of maximum tuition and fees to be paid to private colleges for the coming academic year.

Congress and the White House continue to play out the theatrics of exchanging offers to avoid the year-end “fiscal cliff,” then publicly rejecting them. Meanwhile off stage, President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner carry on private conversations and continue to seek common ground. What’s at stake for higher education?  Expiration of many significant higher education tax benefits; cuts to student aid funding; and cuts to research funding are all at risk.  And while Pell Grants would be unaffected, all other student aid would be cut by eight percent, and loans would cost more.

The Department of Defense has issued the final version of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) institutions must sign in order to participate in the DOD’s Tuition Assistance program. The Department revised the original version of the MOU after a number of institutions raised both administrative and academic concerns about it - especially provisions that were inconsistent with the established academic practices of many institutions. The much-improved final version was released on December 7.

The Department of Education has confirmed that, even though court action this summer vacated some gainful employment provisions, colleges still must update their gainful employment annual disclosures.  Here's some guidance on navigating the confusing gainful employment path.

Enrollment at private nonprofit colleges and universities increased 1.9 percent last year (from 3.88 million in 2010 to 3.95 million in 2011), while total postsecondary enrollment in the United States declined slightly for the first time in 15 years, by 0.2 percent (from 21.59 million to 21.54 million), according to new preliminary data released this month by the U.S. Department of Education. The number of students attending public institutions dipped 0.3 percent, while enrollment at for-profit colleges dropped 2.9 percent.

The IRS has clarified new requirements for issuing Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs), following several productive conference calls between the agency, NAICU, and several NAICU member institutions. The IRS requirements, published in June, would have been extremely problematic for colleges and universities with large international populations. The IRS’s new notice effectively allows students already studying in the U.S. under the SEVIS system to obtain an ITIN through a streamlined process.

The official overall two-year student loan default rate rose to 9.1 percent for the FY 2010 cohort, up from 8.8 percent for FY 2009, according to data released by the Department of Education in September.

Published tuition and fees at the nation’s private nonprofit colleges and universities rose 3.9 percent for the 2012-13 academic year, the lowest rate in at least four decades, according to a new NAICU survey. At the same time, institutional student aid budgets at private colleges increased an average of 6.2 percent for 2012-13.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) have introduced the Educator Preparation Reform Act of 2012 to improve quality and accountability for educator preparation programs. NAICU supports the legislation, and has worked closely with Reed to ensure that colleges' teacher preparation experts will have a voice in teacher education reform conversations likely to take place next year, as part of the Higher Education Act reauthorization.

A recent House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training hearing looked at college data issues, and began laying the groundwork for the Higher Education Act reauthorization slated for the next Congress. Speaking on NAICU's behalf, Tracy Fitzsimmons, president of Shenandoah University and NAICU board member, called the subcommittee's attention to the extensive data that colleges already provide, and cautioned against using just a few data points to evaluate an institution's effectiveness.

Back in town for two weeks after its summer break, Congress has taken an early adjournment to get home for campaigning.  Before leaving September 22, though, they passed a continuing resolution to keep the federal government funded to March 27, averting a possible government shutdown.  Now the Department of Education has 30 days to decide spending levels under the six-month CR, and that spending plan will establish student aid funding levels for the 2013-14 award year.

An August 30 Department of Education "Dear Colleague" letter reminds colleges of “their commitment to use the Financial Aid Shopping Sheet” if they had agreed to comply with the principles of excellence in serving service members, veterans, and their families, contained in Executive Order 13607. The letter also appears to serve as encouragement for colleges generally to use the Shopping Sheet, which was designed to allow comparison of financial aid offers through standardized information.

The Department of Education has reopened a request for information on promising and practical strategies to increase postsecondary success. In the first round, which began last January, the Department received responses from 75 organizations, and now wants to build on that base with a second round of submittals to be gathered through November.  NAICU encourages members to participate in the effort, which closely parallels the association's Building Blocks to 2020 initiative.

A new restriction on Pell Grant time limits - now 12 semesters instead of the previous 18, is causing problems for some students.  A NASFAA poll shows that a majority of institutions aren't offering additional aid to those students who have reach the new Pell "Lifetime Eligibility Used" limit. And an update of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureaus first report on private student loans raises some red flags.

A September 12 joint subcommittee hearing to examine the role of the National Labor Relations Board in academe predictably broke along party lines - with Democrats defending the right to unionize, and Republicans questioning the NLRB's overreach.  While the NLRB hasn't issued any new rulings on graduate students' rights to organize at private colleges, there are hints that they might revise past rulings, making this once again a timely topic.

The recent hearing on college affordability by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee featured panelists from state higher education organizations, and the discussion focused on issues in state funding of higher education. Still, the reforms suggested would have implications for private nonprofit colleges as well -- and offered an early hint at what could be in store for all colleges in the next reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

The IRS has announced rules for more rigorous documentation before issuing Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, required for taxpayers not eligible for a Social Security Number - a change affecting many international students.  NAICU and member institutions have been working with the IRS on instead accepting the already existing records on these students in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System.  NAICU now is awaiting word as to whether the IRS will make an exception for international students already enrolled in the SEVIS system.

Congress has gone home for six weeks of campaigning, but the spectre of sequestration looms large.  As January 3 – the sequestration trigger day - draws closer, the hand-wringing continues in all quarters of the nation's capital.  The heart of the problem is, though, that all parties agreed to the measure a year ago, but now see how damaging the dramatic cuts would be to defense and nondefense programs alike.  So everyone wants to figure out a way to undo it.  But they can’t.

Amid concerns that veteran students don't have the information they need to make the most of their GI Bill benefits, both the House and Senate are working on proposals that would require additional consumer disclosures to these students. It's a worthy objective. Unfortunately, because of the level of detail the Senate bill calls for, the additional disclosures are more likely to overwhelm than help veterans in making their college decisions. The House bill avoids many of the Senate excesses, but still is not without its problems.

Higher Education for Development is issuing a request for applications for the South Sudan Higher Education Initiative for Equity and Leadership Development (SSHIELD) Program.  HED expects to make one award of up to $ 4,275,000, for two and a half years for a higher education partnership to support South Sudanese national and local development goals that promote gender equality and female empowerment within the education sector. The application deadline is October 15.

A new requirement for students whose application for federal student aid is tagged for verification was meant to make for a more efficient process, but is causing problems instead - particularly for low-income students who have inconsistent access to the Internet.  NAICU is asking for feedback from its members if their students are facing issues with the new process.

A recent conference call for educators by the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services, and information on the USCIS website offer guidance on the new deferred action process for those who arrived in the U.S. illegally as children. Officials expect that many candidates for the process are likely to approach colleges for the documentation they will need as a part of their application.

In each federal election since 1996, Your Vote, Your Voice has been spearheaded by NAICU on behalf of 50 higher education associations.  This year's effort features an enhanced website for state-specific online voter registration and requests for absentee ballots.  Members are encouraged to plan, and then report on National Voter Registration Day activities September 25.  And we salute the five NAICU member institutions involved in this year's presidential debates.

This year, Constitution Day, September 17, falls on Rosh Hashanah. While no official statement has been made, sources at the Department of Education have informally indicated that the "holiday" exception would be applicable pursuant to the federal requirement that educational institutions recognize this day.  Accordingly, Constitution Day observances can occur during either the weeks of September 10 or September 17 and be compliant with the law.

In a “Dear Colleague” letter issued July 27, the Department of Education provided additional clarification of several aspects of the state authorization regulations published on October 29, 2010.  The most significant news in the letter is that the Department plans to not enforce the distance education provisions of the regulation. This news, while welcome, doesn't put the issue entirely to rest.

The past couple weeks saw a flurry of House and Senate activity on bills that would temporarily extend a host of already-expired or expiring tax benefits - including many important to college students and their families. However, when the dust settled and Congress adjourned for its August recess, no final agreement had been reached. More work on the tax extenders will likely occur in the "lame duck" session following the November elections.

Shortly before their August recess began, congressional leaders reached agreement on a $1.047 trillion, six-month continuing resolution to avoid government shutdown politics this fall going into the elections.  Staff will work on the details over the August recess so that members can vote on the agreement when they return in early September. As details of the final CR emerge, it will be important to watch how Pell Grant funding is handled to avoid a shortfall for the 2013-14 award year - and also keep in mind the possibility of game-changing cuts under sequestration.

The Department of Education and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have released their “Shopping Sheet,” a form intended to give prospective students and their families standardized information on colleges’ student financial aid awards. While adoption of the form is voluntary, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has sent an open letter urging college presidents to use the new form for the 2013-14 academic year. Also, institutions signing the Veterans Administration “Principles of Excellence” will have committed to using the form with their military and veteran students.

Last week, committees in both the House and Senate held hearings on college costs. The July 18 hearing of the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training focused on state efforts to control rising costs. A day later, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions heard from witnesses regarding “promising policies and practices” for promoting college affordability.

The Department of Education has published proposed rules intended to “clean up” out-of-date FFELP regulations, and at the same time standardize the regulations for various Title IV loan programs, expanding and improving low-income borrowers' repayment options.  Notice of the proposed rule-making was published on July 17, and comments are due by August 16.

The Department of Education has issued guidance on the “Principles of Excellence” it is asking institutions to agree to as part of serving military service members and veterans. Meanwhile, the Department of Veterans Affairs has posted the names of the institutions agreeing to the principles on its website.

The Department of Education published clarification on colleges’ regulatory requirements following the June 30 decision of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. While the court upheld the Department’s authority to regulate in this area, the decision vacates most of the provisions of the gainful employment regulations, several of which were to go into effect on July 1. Basically, institutions should follow guidance in the relevant regulations as they were in effect prior to July 1, 2012.

As Congress winds down its last two weeks of work before a five-week break, the inside-the-Beltway media are cranking out stories about the looming “fiscal cliff.”  That's the point at the end of this year when the Bush-era tax cuts expire, sequestration  automatically cuts $1.2 trillion from the budget, and the FY 2013 spending bills are expected to be done.  For months the assumption was that this would be classic political brinksmanship.  But what if Congress actually does go off that cliff?

Your Vote, Your Voice has now been launched for the 2012 presidential and congressional elections. The campaign - coordinated by NAICU on behalf of all of U.S. higher education - encourages campuses across the nation to engage in voter education, registration, and get-out-the-vote activities this election year - primarily during the fall semester, leading up to Election Day, November 6.  Visit the Your Vote, Your Voice website for resources and information on planning campus activities. 

September 17, 2012, will mark the 225^th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution. This is a mid-summer reminder to make plans to recognize Constitution Day on your campus. Federal legislation mandates that educational institutions receiving federal funds must hold an educational program on the U.S. Constitution on Sept 17 each year.  The federal provision doesn't define "educational program," meaning that colleges and universities have latitude in how they recognize the day.

Just before exiting for the July 4 recess, Congress finalized a one-year extension of the 3.4 percent interest rate for subsidized student loans, as well as flood insurance provisions, by rolling them into the highway bill.  The legislation benefits about 7 million students.

The U. S. District Court in Washington, D.C., ruled against key portions of the Department of Education's Gainful Employment regulation, only hours before its July 1 effective date.  While the for-profit colleges - which brought the case to court - were gleeful in victory, it's not clear that the court ruling will help them in the long run.  Much will depend on what next steps the Department chooses to pursue.

The submissions for two of Higher Education for Development's requests for applications are rapidly approaching. Details on both projects are available on the HED website. Applications are due Monday, July 9, for the Rwanda: Women's Leadership Program in Education (2012). The deadline for the Colombia-U.S. Human Rights Law School Partnership Program (2012) applications is Monday, July 23.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has extended to August 1 the deadline for institutions to indicate their acceptance of the VA’s Principles of Excellence outlined in Executive Order 13607.  The VA has sent a letter to institutions informing them of the delay.  In the meantime, the VA is working with the Departments of Education and Defense to develop and disseminate guidance on complying with the principles.

In early 2011 the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rules that would require broadly-defined "municipal advisors" to register with the SEC and comply with new record-keeping requirements. At the time, the Association of Governing Boards and others in the higher education community strongly opposed including college and university trustees and others under that definition.  Now it appears the SEC may issue final rules later this year, and the AGB is asking individual institutions to restate their concerns - both to the SEC directly, and to their members of Congress.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved its 2013 fiscal year education funding bill (which covers the 2013-14 academic year) on June 14. The bill provides funding for a Pell Grant maximum of $5,635 (maintaining a commitment to a scheduled $85 increase, through three significant student aid program changes that save money), while continuing current spending levels for all other student aid programs.  The bill also includes several provisions aimed at tackling abuse in the student aid programs, and provides some long-awaited funding for a study on deregulation of colleges.

Today, NAICU has joined others in the Washington higher education community in requesting clarification of several aspects of the “principles of excellence” that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has asked institutions to endorse by June 30.

In its continuing effort to provide students with comparable student aid information, the White House recently held a meeting with leaders of ten colleges and university systems to explore standardizing the information they provide to students in their financial award letters. This emphasis on transparency and disclosure grows out of the administration's concerns about college cost and student debt, plus the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 mandated that the Department of Education review the issue.

Developments in distance education include an appeals court upholding a district court ruling in 2011 that had struck down, on procedural grounds, the Department of Education's  distance education portion of its state authorization regulations; the recent release of a draft State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement, now open for public comment; and a newly-formed Commission on Regulation of Postsecondary Distance Education.

For several months now, it's been clear that that the approaching interest rate jump on subsidized student loans was going to be a major election year issue. Both President Obama and presumptive Republican party nominee Mitt Romney agree that the rate increase should not go into effect as scheduled on July 1. This has moved the debate to how to pay for continuing the current rate, and after trading shots, the House and Senate may be inching toward a bipartisan solution before the end of the month.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has requested that institutions offering VA educational benefits commit, by June 30, to the principles of excellence outlined in a recent executive order.  However, beyond the general language of the executive order, the VA hasn't provided a detailed explanation of its expectations for institutions agreeing to the principles. And it now looks like many of those details won't be available until after the June 30 deadline.  NAICU has concerns.

Under a Department of Education announcement issued last August, preparatory programs were exempted from gainful employment eligibility requirements for Title IV student aid - whether or not a credential was awarded under such programs.  Now, in a new announcement, the Department is making a distinction.   If no credential is awarded for completion of a preparatory program, it remains exempt from gainful employment, but if a credential is awarded the preparatory program then is considered a gainful employment program.

Updates on Higher Education for Development's requests for grant proposals to promote education and leadership activities for women in developing countries have recently been posted on the HED website. Applications for previously announced grants in Rwanda, Paraguay, and Armenia are due in June. The requirements for the Rwanda and Paraguay grants have been modified slightly. No request for application has been posted for South Sudan, the fourth country included in the overall program.

A final reminder, following up on our message to all NAICU member presidents last week:  the deadline for submitting Yellow Ribbon program agreements for participation in the program during the 2012-13 academic is this Tuesday, May 15.  In the past, some institutions lost eligibility for the program because they didn't realize they had to submit a new agreement each year.  

President Obama has issued an executive order outlining several steps the administration will take to help assure that educational institutions appropriately serve veterans and other military-related college students. A major focus of the order is combatting fraudulent and deceptive recruitment practices targeted to these students. It also focuses on the need for all institutions serving GI-Bill and other military-related education benefit recipients to provide appropriate information and support. The House Committee on Veterans Affairs will hold a hearing on the executive order on May 16.

Senate Democrats attempted on May 8 to gain floor consideration of a bill extending the 3.4 percent interest rate on subsidized student loans for one year, but they were unable to get Republicans to consider their version of the bill.  Leaders of both parties agree that the interest rate should not revert to 6.8 percent on July 1, as will happen automatically if no action is taken to prevent it.  But a bi-partisan approach on funding the extension of the reduced rate will have to be reached before the end of June.

Consumer information is the newest frontier in the national conversation on college affordability. Recently the administration has offered beta versions of three new tools.  While more and better information on choosing a college is a worthy goal, these new efforts are seriously flawed, in NAICU's view.

A new bill introduced by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) would require colleges to provide additional counseling to students on terms and conditions of private student loans, and also would require colleges to confirm the student's enrollment status, cost of attendance, and estimated federal financial aid before a private loan would be approved. Private lending institutions would likewise be required to obtain such information.

Higher Education for Development has announced a competition for a grant to fund a partnership between a U.S. college, or consortium of colleges, and the Faculty of Agriculture at the National University of Rwanda, in Butare. The grant seeks to increase Rwandan women's access to advanced degrees in agricultural sciences, and to improve their role and influence in the agriculture sector. HED is conducting an online information session 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EDT on April 17.

The Department of Education has announced that this spring it will publicly release the 2011 institutional Gainful Employment Informational Rates. The 2011 rates will not, however, result in any sanctions. Institutions can directly receive GE notification packages that include GE rates and back-up data by having their "primary destination point administrator" sign up via the SAIG Enrollment Web site by April 27. Most, but not all, of an institution's GE information will be available on-line later.

The Department of Education's negotiated rule-making panel on student loans completed its work in late March, and agreed upon enhanced consumer protections in the income-based repayment plan (IBR), as well as changes to the current and more flexible income-contingent repayment plan (ICR).  The changes to the ICR plan would enable borrowers to receive more generous benefits a year earlier - July 2013 - than they could under the IBR plan.

Disagreements, simmering since negotiated rulemaking on teacher education began in January, led to a stalemate at the final scheduled session at the U. S. Department of Education last week. The uncertainty forced the Department to schedule an additional conference with the negotiators via webinar later this week.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has now released the program agreement that must be signed by institutions wishing to participate in the Yellow Ribbon Program during the 2012-13 academic year. The signed agreements are due no later than May 15, 2012.  The Yellow Ribbon Program provides a dollar-for-dollar match of funds an institution provides to cover all or a portion of the difference between the institution's tuition and fees and the amount covered by the GI Bill.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan had a rough go of it yesterday at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on the administration's higher education budget proposals. Duncan was criticized by Democrats for not providing enough support for existing programs, and by Republicans for proposing too much new spending.

Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL) held a Senate judiciary subcommittee hearing on March 20 to consider changing the law that prohibits private student loans from being discharged through bankruptcy. While federal student loans have been restricted from discharge for more than 20 years, private loans have been excluded only since 2005.

Title IV-eligible institutions with gainful employment programs must report information for their 2011-12 award year programs by October 15 (but no earlier than September 30), according to a March 15 announcement by the Education Department.

The Department of Health and Human Services recently published final regulations clarifying how student health insurance plans (SHIPs) will be affected by provisions in President Obama's Affordable Care Act's Patient's Bill of Rights. The majority of these regulations will take effect on April 21.

Higher Education for Development (HED) may soon be announcing grant possibilities for women's education in several developing countries served by the U.S. Agency for International Development. HED has done considerable "spade" work on this, and is very interested in the participation of women's colleges. More information is provided in the HED press announcement.

As the March 30 deadline approaches for implementation of new requirements for institutional participation in the Department of Defense's Tuition Assistance (TA) program, work continues on final revisions to the agreement.

H.R. 4137, introduced in the House on March 5, would make the important Sec. 127 tax benefit for working students a permanent part of law. This benefit has been a temporary expiring provision since 1978.  Under current law, Sec. 127 is set to expire on December 31, 2012. The Sec. 127 Coalition is advocating that the provision be made permanent rather than merely extended.

By a wide bipartisan margin, the House of Representatives approved legislation to repeal the state authorization (including distance education provisions) and federal credit-hour definition regulations issued by the Department of Education in October 2010.  NAICU strongly and actively supported this legislation, and many NAICU members offered support by calling their representatives.  The measure now goes to the Senate, where its passage is less certain.

Out of concerns about incentive compensation for recruiters of international students, the National Association for College Admission Counseling recently convened a commission of college admissions and international education experts to consider its current position on the issue. The association now bans incentive compensation, but with growing interesting in international recruitment, some NACAC members sought clarification on whether this ban applied to international recruitment. Until the commission completes its work late next year, NACAC will keep the ban in place, but will not sanction any violators.

Compliance efforts tax the resources of all institutions as they seek to manage their ever growing regulatory workload.  Help may now be a click away with the March 1 announcement by the National Association of College and University Attorneys of the Higher Education Compliance Alliance. The alliance is a new online resource to assist institutions in finding their way through the terrain of federal laws and regulations. NAICU is among the nearly two dozen higher education organizations participating in this effort.

The first meeting of the Department of Education rulemaking panel on teacher education in January was largely characterized by negotiators holding their cards. In February's second session, though, deliberations got much more serious as the "neg reg" negotiators began to address issues with potentially major implications. Much is at stake for colleges with teacher education programs, and for classroom teachers as the final rules could define how states will be required to evaluate their performance.

An early-February hearing on college affordability offered an opportunity for Davidson College's president to take Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions members under the hood of The Davidson Trust, which offers "no-loans" financial aid packages in meeting students' demonstrated need.

After the roll-out of the administration's college affordability proposal on January 27, there were no big surprises in the President's FY 2013 budget, released February 13.  In general, the President's budget slightly increases or level funds the core student aid programs.  At the same time, it lays out some broader reform ideas for higher education that are more likely to be addressed in the next reauthorization of the Higher Education Act - rather than be implemented in an election year by a Congress in virtual stalemate.

In the administration and on the Hill, there are lots of moving parts on teacher education. Congress is currently working on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Across town, the Department of Education is trying to promulgate regulations on teacher quality. And now out of the White House comes the President's FY 2013 budget, which proposes to reform teacher preparation through billions of dollars in K-12 and higher education funds.

The tentative deal between House and Senate leaders to extend the payroll tax break is getting major media coverage.  Less often mentioned, however, is that the anticipated bill doesn't appear to roll in the extension of a set of expired tax breaks important to higher education - including the IRA charitable rollover and tuition deduction.  The best guess is that addressing the already expired 2011 tax benefits will be shelved until late this year, to be considered when Congress looks at a larger list of expiring 2012 provisions.

Once again, federal policymakers are searching for a simple consumer information tool to assist students and parents in selecting a college.  This time it's a "College Scorecard" with information on a college's costs, graduation rate, student loan repayment and debt, and graduates' earnings potential - as well as comparative graphs on how the college compares to its peers in each area.   A page on the White House website displays a preliminary prototype for the scorecard, and invites comments and suggestions.

January 17 certain Federal Student Loan servicers began contacting borrowers eligible to consolidate their loans under a Special Direct Consolidation Loan program. This new, short-term opportunity is part of President Obama's initiative to reduce borrowers' cost of repaying student loans. The program is available to borrowers who meet certain conditions, and they must apply by June 30.

NAICU is working with NAFSA: Association of International Educators, to spread the word about the importance of knowing the details of the bi-annual recertification process each college and university must complete to protect the international students enrolled at your institution.  We encourage you to review products offered by NAFSA like the NAFSA Adviser's Manual that describes and explains the immigration rules and procedures that affect your ability to enroll international students, faculty, and researchers at your institution.

A number of tax extenders - some of major importance to higher education - were considered during negotiations on the year-end bill extending the payroll tax cut, but ultimately weren't added to the final agreement.  Now in the new session of Congress, the provisions - which include the IRA charitable rollover and deduction for higher education expenses - could be added to the next extension of the payroll tax cut, if Congress is able to agree to a one year extension, and if both the House and Senate agree on expanding the scope of the bill.

The Department of Education has now published the 2012-13 Federal Pell Grant Payment and Disbursement Schedules. The maximum Pell Grant for the 2012-13 award year remains $5,550, and in most cases, a student's Expected Family Contribution will be unchanged.  However, modification of the way minimum Pell Grants are determined will mean that students with eligibility below 10 percent of the maximum grant will now receive no award at all.

It's back!!  Since we last reported in the fall of 2011, the Department has issued several more electronic announcements and a correction to the final regulations on "gainful employment." Largely, the announcements have dealt with reporting data to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) and making corrections to that data.

The first of three Department of Education sessions to develop student loan regulations was largely devoted to technical issues. Still the early-January sessions did address the Department's intent to make regulatory changes to the income-contingent repayment (ICR) and the income-based repayment (IBR) plans.  Additional meetings are scheduled for February and March.

The first session of the rulemaking panel on teacher preparation programs under the Higher Education Act took place in at the U. S. Department of Education offices last week.  Negotiators questioned whether, in fact, the Department had the authority to dictate states' oversight of their teacher education programs.

Some of President Obama's talking points were affirming news for higher education, while others were a stern lecture. While he highlighted the administration's commitment to student aid funding, and praised the affordability efforts of some institutions, he also offered an ominous warning:  "If you can't stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down."  Exactly how the rhetoric will translate into action is anyone's guess.  But there are clues.

Institutions with a particular interest in the Amazon can sign up to be notified by Higher Education for Development about an Andean Amazon request for applications anticipated later this year.  Meanwhile, updates are now available on the HED website for projects in the West Indies, Philippines, and Tunisia.

Given the growing number of foreign students attending U.S. colleges in recent years, the National Association for College Admissions Counseling will convene a Commission on International Student Recruitment in 2012 to consider issues relating to their recruitment.  NAICU will participate in the commission, and welcomes members' input on the issue.

Driven by stories of large student debt burden and worries about paying for the rapid growth in Pell Grant spending, Congress and the administration have once again set their sights on college affordability.  Policymakers continue to support programs that help students pay for college. At the same time, though, they are likely to up the ante on expectations for the institutions serving those students. Two emerging themes in recent weeks are that colleges, first, must become more "efficient" by fundamentally rethinking how they deliver education; and, second, must offer "proof" of their success in terms of student retention, graduation, and job placement.

The Department of Education has issued final regulations on the Family Education and Rights and Privacy Act.  Proponents of robust longitudinal data systems have lauded the FERPA expansion as facilitating the tracking of a student's progress from pre-school through college - and perhaps beyond.  Others see the expansion as reducing student privacy, increasing the risk of data breaches, and lessening the control individuals have over their education records.

Because of budget cuts, the Department of Education staff will be reduced considerably. That was the message from the Department to the higher education community at a recent meeting. Although there were no total numbers given, it's expected that the Office of Postsecondary Education - the unit responsible for higher education policy - would probably take a 15-percent hit.

Higher Education for Development (HED), founded through an agreement with USAID and the six presidential associations which includes NAICU, has recently posted several requests for applications for grants. The grants would fund partnerships between U.S. colleges and universities and those in certain developing countries. Complete application information is available on the HED website.

At its semi-annual meeting, the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity divided its time between review of accreditation agencies and discussion of recommendations to Education Secretary Duncan regarding reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.  A clear NACIQI majority supports retaining accreditation as a requirement for federal student aid eligibility, but the committee hasn't yet reached consensus on specific changes that they would like to see made within this framework.

Despite months of behind-the-scenes work by House education staff, and the Senate committee mark up of a draft bill, there will be no reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind/Elementary and Secondary Education Act (NCLB/ESEA) this year.  As a result, the full focus for reforming teacher education will now fall on the upcoming Department of Education negotiated rulemaking sessions.  Nonprofit colleges will have representatives at the table, and NAICU is surveying members for guidance on teacher education policy issues.

There was the hope across Washington that last week's budget deal on spending would mean Congress would adjourn a full week before Christmas. That hope faded, though, when the House reconvened to reject the Senate-passed payroll tax relief extension bill. Earlier, a frenzied week of activity saw student aid spending levels being set, and the Department of Defense offering to revise a controversial new Memorandum of Understanding on higher education benefits for active duty military personnel. Unfortunately, less progress was made on expiring tax provisions also important to higher education.  (Since we initially posted this story on December 20, the House and Senate approved a two month extension of the tax relief provisions on Friday, December 23.)

As Congress cuts deals to avoid a government shutdown and go home for the holidays, conferees on student aid spending have agreed to maintain the Pell Grant maximum at $5,550 for the 2012-13 academic year.  To do that, though, has meant some tough choices on Pell eligibility.  Here's a summary of the changes effective next July, as well as a look at some possible further cuts as Congress moves toward adjournment.

The Department of Defense has announced a delay until March 30, 2012, for implementation of new requirements for participation in its Tuition Assistance program, originally set to become effective January 1.  Many institutions have been reluctant to sign the new agreement, given that some of its terms are inconsistent with their academic practices - particularly regarding decisions on the award of academic credit. The delay provides an opportunity to consider ways to resolve these concerns.

While the budget-cutting possibilities of the Super Committee held promise for weeks, in the end the 12 members threw in the towel and headed for the airport on Monday.  Where does federal budget-cutting - and its potential impact on federal funding for higher education - go from here? There will be more questions than answers when Congress reconvenes after the Thanksgiving break, but here's our best guess as what to expect as Congress hurtles toward the end of an especially dysfunctional session.

Applications for the 2012-13 David L. Boren Scholarships and Fellowships, as well as the Language Flagship Fellowships, are now available.  Boren Awards provide unique funding opportunities for U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to study in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East.  Deadlines are January 31 for the Boren fellowships and February 9 for the scholarships, and January 12 for the Language Flagship fellowships.

The Department of Education has published a notice inviting institutions to apply to participate in one or more of its experimental sites initiative.  This announcement marks the first time in nearly a decade that the administration has sought to use its authority to grant waivers from specific statutory or regulatory requirements in the administration of Title IV, Higher Education Act programs.  Applications to participate are due by December 12.

The Department of Education has announced the creation of a committee for negotiated rulemaking on elements of Title II of the Higher Education Act, covering such topics as requirements for institutional and state report cards and criteria for state assessment of teacher preparation programs. As part of the announcement, the Department issued a call for nominations of neg-reg panel members - ideally from a wide range of backgrounds.  The nomination deadline is November 25. 

NAICU has submitted comments in response to a Department of Education notice making extension of a state data reporting deadline contingent on states' reporting of apparently unrelated data on their private colleges. The NAICU letter notes that, under the plan, "the Department is requiring the collection of even more data . . . in effect negating the extension by requiring additional work in exchange for additional time."

Recently, the Department of Education published a "Dear Colleague Letter" to "address potential fraud in the Federal student aid programs at institutions of higher education that offer distance education programs." The letter was in response to the Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) report of September 26, 2011, outlining the results of investigations into fraud in distance education programs.

Beginning in January 2012, colleges will need to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Defense in order to receive tuition assistance payments on behalf of service members.  The new requirement grows out of broad congressional concerns about the integrity of federal student aid programs. And in a related development, the DoD has at least temporarily backed away from plans to reduce service members' tuition assistance benefit amounts.

A late October hearing by a House Education and the Workforce subcommittee looked at the effectiveness and efficiency of the Federal Direct Loan Program. Despite some glitches,  the witnesses - who included representatives from two NAICU institutions - seemed generally satisfied with the transition.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education Labor and Pensions has passed its reauthorization of the bill formerly known as No Child Left Behind Act with bipartisan support. However, it wasn't smooth sailing through the committee, and it looks like more heavy weather ahead as the reauthorization moves to the Senate floor. Higher education groups are watching closely as the machinations on teacher education unfold.

HED (Higher Education for Development), an effort of the six presidential associations including NAICU, has announced plans to make an award of up to $759,000 for three years, to support a regional higher education partnership between one U.S. institution and three to four Latin American universities.  Detailed information is available on the HED website.

By November 15, colleges must report information on their gainful employment programs (2006-07 through 2009-10) to the Department of Education.  Schools that don't have gainful employment programs were supposed to inform the Department of that fact by October 1.

A Senate Finance Committee hearing on incentives for charitable giving took a hard look at the Obama administration's proposal to limit the charitable deduction to 28 percent. The deduction cap was soundly opposed by all participants - the nonprofit executives and think tank representatives who testified, as well as Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and other members of the committee.

President Obama has announced both a plan to reduce the cost of repaying some federal student loans for some borrowers, and a proposal for a model student aid award form to be used by all colleges. The loan plan is complex and likely to generate a great deal of confusion for many students, though it's estimated that as many as 7 million of the federal student loan program's 36 million borrowers could benefit.  The new model financial aid form is a joint effort of the Department of Education and the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is seeking comment.

An ambitious Student Aid Alliance campaign to "Save Student Aid," launched October 24, is mobilizing all sectors of higher education in an effort to ensure that the student aid programs remain strong for both current and future students. In under two weeks, more than 50,000 members of campus communities along with concerned citizens had signed the campaign's "Statement of Support."

There have been developments on a number of fronts in recent weeks on the Department of Education's confusing gainful-employment regulations:  a need to report non-existent programs, a reminder of a reporting deadline extension, and some possible relief (eventually) for gainful-employment reporting by most private, nonprofit institutions.

A September 30 hearing of the federal Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance on the need for the federal government to deregulate higher education featured Goucher College President Sanford Ungar as the lead witness.  Ungar also submitted written testimony by NAICU President David Warren for an Advisory Committee session later that day on underserved populations in higher education.

Preliminary proposals for next year's student aid funding levels have emerged from both the House and Senate, while the "Super Committee" will be looking at both the Pell Grant and student loan programs. Then, in the middle of all this hustle and bustle, comes a surprise announcement from the administration that the Pell Grant program may now be running a surplus. Despite - or maybe as a result of - all this activity, it's still a long road before the ultimate fate of the student aid programs is decided.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently unveiled a proposal to reform colleges' teacher education programs.  Under the proposal, states would evaluate and act on their teacher preparation programs by rewarding those schools identified as "high-performing"; helping to improve those in the middle; and closing down under-performing programs.  Another troubling feature of the proposal is an attempt to evaluate colleges' programs through the standardized test scores of K-12 students taught by the colleges' graduates.

The Department of Education has formally added "P-20W" to its lexicon of longitudinal data collection - signaling the inevitable growth path that already has taken us from K-12 to P-16 to P-20.

The Department of Education held a public meeting on Sept. 13, on plans for developing a model financial aid award letter for colleges to use, as mandated in the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008. The meeting included a background presentation by the Department of Education, comments by a panel of experts, and small group discussions.

Last week, the IRS issued guidance on the tax treatment of business-issued cell phones and other electronic devices, formally clarifying they are nontaxable to employees, and that no recordkeeping is required by employers.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved its FY 2012 Labor-HHS-Education spending bill on Sept. 21, maintaining the SEOG and Federal Work-Study student aid programs at last year's levels. The committee also funded a maximum Pell Grant of $5,500.

The American Council on Education has released an updated guide to campaign-related "do's" and "don'ts" for colleges and universities.

The nation's continuing economic problems pushed student loan default rates higher in fiscal year 2009, according to new data from the Department of Education. The overall two-year cohort default rate (CDR) rose to 8.8 percent in FY 2009, up from 7.0 percent in FY 2008.

Congress came back from its summer break to an agenda full of budget issues, and a partisan environment anticipating the 2012 elections. NAICU priorities for student aid funding and higher education tax provisions are in the mix for the major action going into the fall.  Here's an early-September overview of the state of play - in a game that's sure to be fast-changing.

One thing is for sure . . . the Department of Education's new regulations on state authorization, credit hour, gainful employment, and other rules are keeping a lot of federal workers busy.  New information resources include a Q&A website on program integrity regulations, and the 19th (yes, 19th) clarification on the complex gainful-employment rules.

The virtually unlimited expansion of web top-level domains - previously confined to a handful of designations such as .com or .edu - presents colleges with more choices and challenges than they may have initially imagined.  Colleges now have the opportunity not only to consider adopting web addresses that better define themselves, but also to consider pre-emptive action blocking those that don't - notably the new .xxx domain designation for "adult" sites.

Three states will have gubernatorial elections this fall:  Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi.  Federal law requires the colleges in these states to make a good-faith effort to distribute state voter registration forms to each degree or certificate-seeking student who attends classes on campus.  Under changes to the law in 2008, e-mail messages with links to the state forms are acceptable in meeting the requirement.

Since 2005, all colleges and universities receiving federal funds have been required to hold an educational "Constitution Day" program on September 17 each year, commemorating the signing of the Constitution on that date in 1787.  The federal provision doesn't define "educational program," meaning that there is a great deal of latitude in exactly how they choose to recognize the day.  Planning resources are available on line.

Continuing his series of public inquiries into the growth and poor student results of for-profit colleges, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, presided over a roundtable of witnesses with various view points on the issue on July 21.  The bottom line:  Harkin intends to make meaningful changes.

As Washington hurtles toward August 2, the House and Senate leadership continues to work on a debt ceiling and deficit reduction deal to avert a domestic and global economic crisis.  A key pawn in the negotiations is Pell Grant funding. Plans from both House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Harry Reid include funding for the Pell Grant program for the 2012-13 award year - but no one can be certain how this will all play out as negotiations continue.

The Department of Education has issued a document, Addressing Emergencies on Campus, providing guidance to campuses regarding their campus safety policies. The 16-page publication discusses the application of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) in emergency situations.   It also includes information about a number of campus security provisions added as part of the Higher Education Act reauthorization in 2008. 

Last week, the National Council on Teacher Quality released its most recent study on student teaching, which will feed into NCTQ's bigger rankings project. Few of the programs examined received a passing grade, which has fueled criticism of the group's methodology.  The NCTQ assessment, which looked at the student teacher component across 134 teacher education programs, will be used to determine letter grades to appear in U.S. News and World Report rankings.

Following Senate approval, the House has voted unanimously to approve the "Restoring GI Bill Fairness Act of 2011."  The legislation provides a "hold-harmless" for veterans who would otherwise see their Post-9/11 GI Bill tuition-and-fee benefits reduced under legislation enacted last December.  While most veterans will receive increased benefits as a result of the December changes, those in seven states would have faced reduced benefits without this new legislation. 

This is a town that abhors a vacuum, and tends to fill one with news conferences and media interviews. But as the federal budget and debt ceiling debate plays out through dueling sound bites, the fact is there is little substance to be had. No details are being released on specific program changes across the government. We do know this, though: The student aid programs are still in jeopardy.

In connection with a late June Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the DREAM Act, NAICU submitted a statement for the record in support of this important legislation. NAICU has long supported passage of the DREAM Act. Providing citizenship to the undocumented youth in our country who have served in the armed forces or became educated in our colleges and universities should be a priority.

Members of two House subcommittees joined forces in the most recent debate over the merits of the Department of Education's recent gainful employment regulations on July 8. These regulations have gained the most attention of the 14 regulations being implemented by the Department of Education to gain greater control of for-profit colleges.  The "spirited debate" brought into sharp focus the poles-apart positions of the various committee members, with their views largely splitting along party lines.

On Tuesday, a U.S. District Court vacated a Department of Education regulation, effective July 1, requiring any institution of higher education offering distance education to students outside its home state to obtain authorization from any state regulating distance education offered to its residents.  Many news reports are viewing the decision as a for-profit victory, but other key elements of the regulation were not affected.  And even if it stands on appeal, it won't negate existing state laws and regulations on distance education. 

Arthur F. Kirk, Jr., president of Saint Leo University, testified on behalf of NAICU at the recent hearing of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. The hearing was to consider a proposal to delay payment of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits until after the student completed a term. Nearly 2,800 students at Saint Leo are Post-9/11 GI Bill recipients. Kirk's testimony described the variety of administrative difficulties this change would pose for both institutions and veteran students. The subcommittee also heard from witnesses representing public colleges, veterans, and the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) have introduced legislation (S. 1297) to repeal the state authorization and credit hour definition provisions - part of the program integrity regulations that went into effect July 1. To date, 11 members of the Senate have signed on to the bill.   NAICU strongly supports this legislation and has asked member presidents to encourage their senators and representatives to cosponsor it.

Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.) has introduced the Growing Education Achievement Training Academies for Teachers and Principals Act (GREAT), which would reform teacher preparation programs by allowing states to apply for grants to set up "Teacher and Principal Preparation Academies" - essentially, charter colleges of education.  The higher education community has a number of concerns, with the most basic one being that, in essence, the bill gives states the authority to create an academic credential.

Yet another "clarification" from the Department of Education on July 8, has caused new head-scratching about the already complex and confusing gainful employment regulations. The final regulations themselves were issued in three parts, with the most recent being the metrics or "penalty" rules, coming months after the earlier parts.  But wait . . . there's still more "clarification" on the way.

Likening it to the sub-prime mortgage crisis, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), recently held a hearing in which he grilled witnesses on the disproportionate student loan debt proprietary school students face. Harkin, along with witnesses and the other Democratic members of the committee, acknowledged the key role of the for-profit sector. However, the data presented in the course of the hearing documented the for-profits as the most costly sector for tax-payers and students alike.

In her June 9 testimony before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Under Secretary of Education Martha Kantor announced that the Department will soon launch a pilot program allowing institutions to experiment with ways to limit student borrowing. Institutions will have to apply to participate, and efforts to reduce students' debt will be carefully monitored for their effect on student access and success.

The Department of Education is now accepting application for new GEAR UP awards for FY 2011, to aid low-income students in graduating from high school and preparing for success in college.  The awards are for partnerships consisting of one or more local educational agencies, and one or more degree-granting institutions of higher education. An estimated 88 awards will be made, with individual awards expected to range from  $100,000 to $7 million.  Applications must be submitted by July 14.

The "metrics" portion of the gainful employment rule has now been published in the Federal Register.  But the rule carries an effective date of July 1, 2012 - with full implementation delayed years beyond that.  The final rule is viewed by many as a step-back from the rule as originally proposed, and a win for the for-profit sector.  The disclosure, reporting, and new program portions of the rules - which also apply to credential programs at non-profit colleges - are effective next month, when institutions must have the required disclosures posted on their websites.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), chair of the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training, has introduced legislation to repeal state authorization and credit hour definition provisions slated to go into effect July 1, saying "this heavy-handed regulation threatens to crush the very innovative new programs we need to make education more affordable and efficient."  NAICU applauds this effort, and has asked member presidents to encourage their elected representatives to join as cosponsors of H.R. 2117.

The House of Representatives has approved a bill providing a "hold-harmless" for veterans who would otherwise see their post-9/11 GI Bill tuition-and-fee benefits reduced under legislation enacted last December.  Under the bill, students currently enrolled in private institutions in seven states would be protected from a reduction in their tuition-and-fee benefits over the next three years.  Related legislation has been introduced in the Senate.

The IRS is starting to explore how well colleges and universities are complying with federal rules on tax-deferred 403(b) retirement plans, using questionnaires sent to a random sampling of 300 institutions nationally.  The concern behind the investigation is that 403(b) plans could inappropriately benefit highly compensated employees.  NAICU is encouraging the selected institutions to respond to the survey, and to let us know that they've been included in the sampling.

The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics has issued a request for proposals to fund research in three areas of intercollegiate athletics for the 2011-12 academic year:  academic integrity and valuable educational experiences for college athletes; fiscal integrity of athletics programs; and presidential and academic authority over the operations of intercollegiate athletics.  Proposals will be funded up to $25,000.  The deadline for submitting proposals is August 5.

NAICU has submitted comments on proposed changes to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act regulations, noting the association's historical support of FERPA and its objective of protecting student privacy, and detailing the reasons NAICU believes student privacy protections will be eroded if the proposals are adopted.  The Department of Education is expected to publish final regulations later this year.

With just a few weeks notice, the Department of Education held roundtable discussions and negotiated rulemaking hearings in four cities around the country in May. Despite the last-minute nature of the meetings, NAICU was represented at all but one of the 15 sessions, thanks to the strong support of the NAICUSE state executive network.

The House Appropriations Committee has released drafts of its FY 2012 allocations for the 12 funding subcommittees in Congress, cutting the Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee - which funds all education programs - by $18 billion. Next, the Education Subcommittee is to write its FY 2012 appropriations bill on July 26, with full committee consideration slated for August 2.  Meanwhile, action in the Senate isn't expected until September.

Some non-profit colleges have been misled into believing that the controversial Gainful Employment regulations don't apply to them.  The fact is, however, that all colleges offering credential programs of at least one year in length must have the required disclosures on their website by July 1, and must submit their first report on these programs by October 1.  The Department of Education will offer a 90-minute webinar on the disclosure and reporting requirements on Wednesday, May 25, with a repeat of the webinar on May 26.

The Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) announced on Thursday that it is canceling the 2011 comprehensive grant competition because of federal budget cutbacks. The application notice for new awards had been posted on line and published in the Federal Register on March 22, but noted that funding for the estimated $20,347,000 in awards was contingent on final congressional action on the federal budget. 

The House Veterans' Affairs Committee has approved a bill providing a "hold-harmless" for veterans who would otherwise see their post-9/11 GI Bill tuition-and-fee benefits reduced under legislation enacted last December.  That earlier legislation established a $17,500 annual cap on the tuition-and-fee benefits provided to veterans attending private colleges.  While the cap means higher benefits for veterans in many states, veterans in some states will see a reduction without further legislative action.  Parallel legislation is pending in the Senate.

A number of institutions received alarming information recently, when they found that a Department of Education website showed that they had no Perkins allocation for the coming academic year.  Apparently, a glitch in the system erroneously displayed "0" in the institutional "level of expenditure" box on line, leading to the confusion.  The Department has confirmed that the error resulted from some kind of technical malfunction, and that they are looking into it.

In an April 20 Dear Colleague letter, the Department of Education provides guidance on its new - and controversial - gainful employment requirement. This is part of the final regulations on new fraud and abuse rules issued last October, and it's been mistakenly viewed as largely a for-profit issue. However, the Department estimates that over 80 percent of all institutions have programs falling under the gainful employment regulations - and the regs are effective July 1.

Responding to growing concerns about state authorization of distance education programs effective July 1, the Department of Education has issued a second "Dear Colleague" letter on the topic. While the new letter improves upon the earlier version, it fails to dispel concerns about - nor does it justify - federal involvement in this area of state law. NAICU has prepared a background paper to assist institutions in understanding and meeting the requirements of the new regulation.

The Department of Education has issued detailed new guidance regarding Title IX requirements related to the prevention of sexual harassment on college campuses. The 19-page guidance letter offers detailed instructions to colleges regarding enforcement procedures. It also discusses education and prevention efforts.

The higher education community is still reeling from two recent negotiated rulemaking sessions - one on implementing the 2008 HEA reauthorization and another on limiting student aid fraud and abuse. But the Department had another surprise on April 29: they're planning yet another higher education negotiated rulemaking session in the near future. The subject and purpose of the new neg-reg session? Well, that's a mystery.

In mid-April Congress passed a final FY 2011 budget deal, resolving student aid funding for the 2011-12 academic year. Now the budget action on the Hill moves to the much tougher lift of reaching agreement on a FY 2012 budget in the face of intense debt-reduction pressures and federal spending constraints. How student aid will fare in those political negotiations should become clear over the summer.

The Department of Education recently published proposed regulations for the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), intended to facilitate sharing of individual students' data far more widely than current law allows.  NAICU is concerned about this ongoing erosion of student data protection, and the direct effects of the proposed regs on private colleges' rights to protect their students' privacy. Comments on the proposal will be accepted by the Department until May 23.

The recent Senate HELP Committee hearing on problems in for-profit education clearly put a target on accreditation, and spotlighted for-profit Ashford University as a noteworthy example of the sector's abuses. In a tense exchange with the chair of the Higher Learning Commission, Committee Chair Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) even drew parallels between accreditors' role in higher education, and that of bond evaluators during the recent subprime crisis in housing.

The Department of Education has released two "Dear Colleague" letters providing further guidance on regulations issued last October.  The first letter deals with state authorization, incentive compensation, and misrepresentation.  The second letter addresses credit hour issues.

Testifying before the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training, Huntington University President Blair Dowden noted that a major problem with a federal definition of a credit hour is that it "inserts the federal government squarely into one of the most sacrosanct elements of higher education."  Dowden also expressed strong concern about the new state authorization requirements, particularly as they might be applied to institutions like Huntington, with a religious mission. 

At two recent House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee hearings, the administration defended its Pell Grant Protection Act, submitted to Congress as part of its FY 2012 budget request.  The proposal would maintain the maximum grant at $5,550.  To do that, though, the plan calls for a number of cutbacks in other Pell provisions to rein in the exploding costs of the program, and cut out the in-school interest subsidy on graduate loans.

NAICU is among the 60 higher education associations and accrediting organizations urging Education Secretary Arne Duncan to rescind a regulation, to be effective July 1, that expands federal requirements on state authorization.  While the Department has made changes in response to earlier comments by the group, concerns remain about the application of the provisions in general, and their specific application to institutions offering distance education.  The provisions also could be used inappropriately to set up new state oversight of private, not-for-profit colleges.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed rules that would require individuals who fit the broad definition of "municipal advisor" to register with the SEC, and to comply with new record-keeping requirements. During the brief comment period, NAICU joined both the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities and the American Council on Education in submitting letters to the SEC contending that Congress never intended to regulate college and university officials as part of the underlying legislation.

Colleges participating in the Perkins Loan Program received some welcome news when the Department of Education recently announced a liberal interpretation of when the program would terminate if Congress doesn't take action. Under the Department's ruling, the program can continue until as late as September 30, 2015 - the same as for all other student aid programs under the normal reauthorization cycle.  The published interpretation is a welcome relief for institutions that participate in the program.

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing March 1 to examine the regulatory burden placed on educational institutions. Christopher Nelson, president of St. John's College, Annapolis, testified on behalf of NAICU, addressing the full range of regulatory challenges facing colleges and universities.  A consistent theme among the witnesses was the extent to which the accumulation of regulatory and reporting requirements diverts attention and resources from the primary mission of educating students.

Congress has passed, and the president has signed a two-week continuing resolution that will keep the federal government running until March 18.  However, the CR also kills funding for the LEAP state grant program for FY 2011, meaning that LEAP funds won't be available to students at public and private colleges for the 2011-12 academic year.  This modest federal grant funding helps generate over $1 billion in need-based aid nationwide. NAICU and the Student Aid Alliance have asked presidents to activate their campus communities in opposition to the cut. 

NAICU joined more than 70 higher education associations and accrediting organizations in a February 16 letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, urging that he rescind a regulation that provides a federal definition of "credit hour." Included in regulations issued last October, the definition is scheduled to take effect July 1. The higher education and accreditation communities weighed in strongly against the definition during the public comment period, but the Department still chose to go forward with a definition.

After three days of debate, at 4:40 Saturday morning the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1, the FY 2011 Continuing Resolution.  The bill makes drastic cuts to the core student aid programs, reducing the Pell Grant maximum by $845 and eliminating all funding for SEOG and LEAP.  If enacted, the provisions would be effective this July 1, resulting in a $4,705 Pell Grant maximum and no SEOG or LEAP funding for the 2011-12 academic year. Following a congressional recess next week, the bill will go to the Senate, where anything could happen.

The FY 2012 budget plan that President Obama sent to Congress February 14 highlights the core student aid programs as a top priority for the nation. In it, he proposes to maintain a Pell Grant maximum of $5,550, as well as current funding levels for the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant and Federal Work Study programs. The plan also calls for creation of a new Perkins Loan program to provide additional loans to high performing, low-income students. LEAP state grant funding, however, would be eliminated.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has announced proposed regulations for student health plans. The proposals are extensive, and exact implications may require additional conversations with the White House and HHS officials.  An early read indicates that the regulations do provide additional guidance on classifications of types of student health plans, and how President Obama's new health law might affect them. However, the effect on self-regulated student health insurance plans is less clear.

Next week the budget cutting will begin at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. The president's budget will be released Monday, highlighting a freeze for the next five years that will save $40 billion. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives will be preparing to vote on its first set of cuts.  Now all the campaign promises are being drafted into legislation, and action is being scheduled in Congress on the first of many spending reduction bills expected this year. Everything is on the table, and student aid funding is not exempt.

The National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) began its year-long review of accreditation practices and policies with a two-day forum in early February.  The overall picture that emerged was that there are a number of problems with the current demands on accreditation, but no clear-cut means for resolving them. Pressure to "do something" will remain, given that accreditors are now pulled between concerns that they are not doing enough to protect taxpayer dollars, and concerns that they are being asked to do too much in the way of federal enforcement.

NAICU has recently launched two separate task forces - one to review and develop recommendations on the federal financial responsibility test all colleges must undergo annually to remain eligible for federal student aid participation, and the other to look at enhanced coordination between NAICU staff and the National Association of Independent College and University State Executives (NAICUSE) on common issues.  Both first met formally in January, and will continue their work throughout the year.

The program integrity regulations issued by the Department of Education last October continue to generate questions and concerns, and the Department has promised additional guidance.  However, institutions do need to be aware that the October regulations do include a number of new data collection provisions that become effective July 1.  NAICU has prepared a chart summarizing some of the key requirements, and the actions institutions should be taking now to be in compliance.

Last December, the Red Flag Clarification Act of 2010 was enacted, in an attempt to limit the entities required to develop and implement written identity theft prevention programs. Some college officials thought they might be excused from the Red Flag rules, which are primarily targeted to financial institutions and creditors. However, it now appears unlikely that most colleges will be excused after all.

In January, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rules that, among other things, would require people who fit the broad definition of "municipal advisor" to register with the SEC, and comply with new record-keeping requirements.  Certain employees, board members, and trustees of both private and public colleges may be subject to this new requirement, if the rules are implemented.

The November elections bordered on seismic in shaking up the congressional committees. The major shifts in committee composition, combined with the plethora of new members, will present opportunities and challenges for our priority issues in the 112th Congress.  Here's a Cliffs Notes version of committees that are key to NAICU, as well as a list of the full committee assignments for each.

The Department of Education has released three-year student loan cohort default rates, and the numbers are troubling. Although high default rates will not carry penalties until 2014, the report released February 3 - like those in 2010 and 2009 - show that rates will increase. In fact, the 2008 three-year student loan cohort default rate (CDR) for loans going into repayment in 2008 is nearly double the 2008 two-year CDR for all sectors.

After months of negotiating and a few days of stand-off, the 111th Congress finalized the FY 2011 spending bills by passing a continuing resolution keeping the government open until March 4, 2011.  The final bill includes mostly good news for student aid, as Congress once again came up with funds to make up for a new $5.7 billion Pell Shortfall.  But student aid programs could well be on the chopping block again in the coming months, as the new Congress looks for cuts to bring federal spending down to FY 2008 levels.

Just days before adjourning for the year, both the House and Senate finally agreed to a contentious package of tax and unemployment benefits extensions. The "Tax Relief, Unemployment Benefits Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010," now signed into law, extends every priority higher education tax benefit that either already expired or was set to expire at the end of this year. None of the items important to our students, families, and institutions were left out of the final package.

Over the past couple of months, the House and Senate have attempted to move the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) through Congress and deliver it to the president. While the House was able to approve the bill earlier this month, two attempts to move the bill in the Senate were both unsuccessful. Any further activity on the DREAM Act will now have to wait until the next session of Congress.

The applications for the 2011-12 National Security Education Program's David L. Boren Scholarships for undergraduate students and Fellowships for graduate students are now available.  The awards provide unique funding opportunities for U.S. students to study in Africa, Asia, Central & Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East.The application deadline for the Boren Fellowship is February 1, and the deadline for the Boren Scholarship is February 10.

The Department of Education has now issued most of its final regulations to curb fraud and abuse in the student aid programs. The regulations are lengthy, complex, and controversial. The formula for gainful employment - the most contentious of all the rules - won't be issued until early 2011. However, most other rules will go into effect on July 1, 2011.  (Note:  the rule on validating high school diplomas affects the current admissions process, so make sure you are in compliance now.)  Most controversial for NAICU member institutions are the regulations that establish a federal definition of credit hour and a new state authorization requirement.

In its first meeting, the reconstituted National Advisory Council on Institutional Quality and Integrity began tackling a backlog of work that has been accumulating since Congress dismantled the body in 2008. An early action was to establish a subcommittee to recommend changes to next Higher Education Act, and addressing a wide range of questions such as the appropriate interaction between accreditation and the federal government, acceptable measures of quality, and additional measures in accreditation reviews.

Among the measures that moved through the "lame-duck" session of Congress was the "Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvements Act of 2010," which enhances education benefits to veterans, and expands eligibility under the program to more National Guard members. The measure also establishes a single national figure of $17,500 as the cap for tuition and fee payments to veterans attending non-public institutions, replacing the current state-by-state caps.

The deadline for conforming with the Federal Trade Commission's "red flag" rule is December 31, 2010. The red flag rule requires financial institutions and creditors, including colleges, to develop and implement a written identity theft prevention program to detect, prevent, and mitigate identity theft in connection with certain financial accounts.

Ever since President Obama signed sweeping health reform legislation into law, higher education associations, college representatives, insurance providers, and others have been attempting to clarify how the new law will apply to student health plans and services.

Congress scooted out of town on time for one of the very few times in recent history, indicating that there is one thing both parties can agree on: that being an incumbent is not a good thing this election cycle, and members need to be back home defending their seats.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chair of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, held the third in a series of hearings on for-profit higher education, a system he describes as preying on low-income students to profit from tax-payer subsidized student aid.

NAICU and CIC unveiled a new website on Sept. 23 designed to highlight and support efforts by nonprofit private colleges and universities to increase the number of at-risk students they enroll, and to boost the retention and graduation rates of various student populations.

Conducted every October since 2001, National Cyber Security Awareness Month is a national campaign to encourage everyone to protect their computers and our nation's critical cyber infrastructure. 

Although the debate over proposed changes to the Perkins student loan program has been off the radar screens of many outside of the nation's capital, it continues to be a hot topic in the Washington student aid world. NAICU is seeking members' views on the desirability and shape of a major rewrite of the program.

As the campaign season heats up, congressional Republicans are receiving considerable attention for their "Pledge to America" proposal. The six-point plan does not mention education, but makes specific proposals to shrink the size of federal spending that would put education programs in the bull’s eye.

The Senate failed to bring legislation to the floor that would have included a controversial vote on the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said he plans a vote in the Senate early next week to add the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act as an amendment to the Department of Defense FY11 authorization bill.  NAICU members who want to register their views on the DREAM Act should contact their senators via the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 by noon on Tuesday, September 21.

In a September 16 hearing, the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee heard from colleges and student veteran representatives on the implementation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill.  While they cited a number of operational problems in the program's first year, there also was discussion of the potential program changes in new legislation currently moving through Congress.

NAICU and other associations representing nonprofit higher education have submitted joint comments to the Department of Education in response to the most recent set of proposed regulations aimed to curb fraud and abuse in the for-profit sector.  Of particular concern are "gainful employment" requirements that - contrary to common belief - would affect short-term certificate programs at all higher education institutions, not just the programs at for-profit institutions.

The recent Department of Education release of institutional cohort default rates on federal student loans generated lots of media attention, given that - for the second year in a row - the overall average rose.  Default rates were up for all sectors, with the overall rate going from 6.7 in FY 2007 to 7.0 in FY 2008.  Meanwhile, the Department has created a new "loan repayment" indicator that offers a clearer - if even more negative - picture of student loan defaults.

It appears that higher education tax extenders are increasingly likely to be pushed to the post-election "lame-duck" session of Congress, along with funding for the student aid programs.   Senate staff remain unconvinced that the Senate will be able to pass a retroactive extension of the already-expired 2009 tax extenders prior to the November elections. However, the Senate Finance Committee is moving forward with plans to address extending a multitude of 2010 expiring provisions before the end of 2010.

President Obama has announced plans for comprehensive changes in the current export control system. The announcement followed a year-long review of the system that concluded the current system is "overly complicated, contains too many redundancies, and, in trying to protect too much, diminishes our ability to focus our efforts on the most critical national security priorities."  Given the implications for campus research, colleges and universities have been particularly interested in addressing the ambiguities and inconsistencies in the system.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has launched the Blue Campaign, a department-wide initiative to combat human trafficking through public awareness, victim assistance programs, and law enforcement training initiatives.  DHS hopes their efforts will help end modern day slavery, and has asked for NAICU's help in getting the word out about the new campaign.

A new Government Accountability Office report has shown that the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Systems collection burden for institutions is much higher than Department of Education estimates.  In responding to the study, the Department of Education has proposed a revised burden estimate for the completion of IPEDS, and is now soliciting comments from institutions on the new estimates by October 1.  NAICU encourages all member institutions to respond to this request.

The Internal Revenue Service has expanded its free face-to-face tax assistance efforts by partnering with local businesses and other organizations in each state to offer additional services to taxpayers. Colleges and universities may be interested in establishing such a partnership and offering these services to students, who might need help in preparing their tax returns, and the local community.

The news media continue to turn out stories and commentaries in the wake of the Department of Education's proposed "gainful employment" rules and Sen. Tom Harkin's August 4 hearing that scalded the for-profit sector.  Lost in all the media frenzy, though, are the implications of the proposed regulations on non-profit and public colleges. The department has estimated that 2,139 public institutions - many of them community colleges - and nearly 250 private, non-profit colleges would have credential programs falling under the rules.

Recently, 150 non-profit, private colleges were the subject of unexpected, and often unfairly negative, media coverage of their financial situations when the Chronicle of Higher Education published an unofficial list from the Department of Education purporting to measure institutions' basic fiscal health.  NAICU has been working, with two other associations, in encouraging the Department of Education to review and update their current assessment formula which has not kept pace with today's economic world.

Under legislation enacted in 2005, educational institutions receiving federal funds are required to hold an educational program relating to the U.S. Constitution on Sept 17 - the day the Constitution was signed in 1787.  NAICU encourages all of our members to embrace this opportunity to advance civic education.  The federal provision doesn't define "educational program," so institutions have a great deal of latitude - and there are resources and idea-starters available on line. 

The $26 billion education jobs and state Medicaid funding bill passed by Congress in early August included a "maintenance of effort" (MOE) requirement for states to keep up their funding for public K-12 and public higher education - but fails to similarly protect state funding for student aid programs or funds for private colleges. It is critically important for NAICU, the state executives, and member presidents to continue to work with congressional and state representatives on the issue - educating them about the MOE's unintended consequences for students.

On August 30, the Department of Veterans Affairs published the state-by-state maximum tuition and fee levels to be used for the calculation of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits for the 2010-11 academic year. With a few exceptions, the maximum payment per credit hour increased modestly. 

NAICU is proud to announce the return of Your Vote, Your Voice - a voter education, registration and get-out-the -vote project supported by the Washington Higher Education Secretariat in every federal election since 1996.  The Your Vote, Your Voice launch later this month also coincides with the National Association of Secretaries of State's designation of September as National Voter Registration Month, with a focus on campus activities in support of voter education, registration, and civic engagement.

As part of tightening fraud and abuse rules, the Department of Education has published the second part of proposed "gainful employment" regulations.   While the proposal primarily applies to for-profit and community college programs, the Department estimates that over 200 private non-profit colleges have programs that would fall under the regulations.  The Department is accepting public comments on the proposal until September 9.

Before taking its traditional late-summer break from Washington, Congress took steps toward writing the FY 2011 appropriations bills, and extending higher ed tax benefits. Still, members of the House and Senate left plenty of loose ends to be wrapped up later -- for the most part, after the November elections.

August 2 marked the deadline for submitting comments on proposed regulations to address fraud and abuse in federal student aid programs.  NAICU submitted its own comments, as well joining over 70 other associations on a higher education community letter.  In addition, many NAICU members submitted individual comments, in response to a NAICU action alert that outlined the key issues of interest to private, non-profit higher education.  The Department now begins to wade through the approximately 1,800 comments submitted, against a November 1 deadline.

A bill approved August 5 by the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee would establish a national $20,000 cap on annual tuition and fee payments to veterans attending non-public institutions, replacing the current state-by-state tuition and fee caps set by the Department of Veterans Affairs.  The VA also has announced that the 2010-11 Yellow Ribbon program will have approximately the same number of participating institutions as last year, and has posted the list of participants on the VA website. 

A Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing on for-profit colleges August 4 offered an eye-popping look at for-profit recruitment practices - including video from a Government Accountability Office "secret shopper" investigation that documented abuses at all 15 for-profit schools the team visited in a half-dozen states.  Additional HELP Committee hearings on for-profits are planned for this fall.

In an ongoing ping-pong match, the House and Senate are bouncing proposals for the FY 2010 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill back and forth.  While the House version of the bill includes much-needed additional Pell funding, it also contains a problematic "maintenance of effort" provision that could allow states to cut their student aid funding.  We need NAICU members to help support the Pell Grant funding, while also working to improve the MOE.

The Department of Education has announced the creation of the position of Chief Privacy Officer. The Chief Privacy Officer will head up the Family Policy Compliance Office, which is responsible for the administration of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). This individual will also be responsible for advising and coordinating other departmental activities related to privacy and data security issues.

The Department of Education has issued a Request for Proposals for the "Teachers for a Competitive Tomorrow" program.  The program supports partnerships to develop master's degree programs for teachers in STEM subject areas, plus critical foreign languages.  Applications are due by July 30, 2010.

A bill to make employer-provided education assistance permanent has been introduced in the House.  The legislation would make the Internal Revenue Code Sec. 127 - employer-provided education assistance - permanent for both graduate and undergraduate course work.  Meanwhile, NAICU has been a moving force in reactivating the coalition of more than 100 organizations that will continue to advocate for extension of the tax provisions expiring this year.

NAICU has sent an action alert to its membership outlining the key issues of interest to private, non-profit higher education in proposed regulations intended to stem concerns about growing federal student aid fraud and abuse.  Most concerns addressed in the proposed Department of Education regulations center on the for-profit sector of higher education, but the new rules would impact all of higher education.

June saw both the House and Senate education committees putting higher education fraud and abuse under the microscope.  Both committees held oversight hearings on program integrity issues raised in the proposed rulemaking now underway by the Department of Education.  Interest in the issue has also been spurred by a rising tide of media reports on the growth and activities of proprietary schools.  And certainly, still more congressional scrutiny lies ahead.

In the next several weeks some of you may be asked to participate in a randomly selected sample of institutions that aims to evaluate students' need for developmental or remedial courses. The survey is being sponsored by the National Assessment Governing Board, created by Congress in 1988 to oversee the National Assessment of Student Progress, also known as The Nation's Report Card.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced that, beginning March 15, it will be accepting Yellow Ribbon Program Agreements for the 2010-11 academic year.  Completed applications are due no later than May 21.  The new agreement form and instructions are not yet available, but will be posted on the GI Bill Web site by March 15.  Additional information about the Yellow Ribbon program is also available on the site. 

NAICU and the Council of Independent Colleges have unveiled the framework by which we hope to collect, share, and illustrate private colleges and universities collective efforts to help the nation lead the world in college completion by the year 2020.  The launch  of the new Building Blocks to 2020 Website on June 1 marks NAICU's first membership-wide appeal to our members to "Answer the Call."

The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers have released their final standards in English language arts and mathematics, developed through the Common Core Standards Initiative. In general, the standards seek to ensure that all high school graduates are ready for college level work - a positive move.  But the standards also need to be more fully vetted by college educators.

Now that the House of Representatives has made its appointments to the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, the membership of the panel is complete.  The new NACIQI, which advises the Secretary of Education on accreditation matters, won't meet until fall.  However, given the mix of members, its deliberations are likely to be as contentious as the former body which last met two years ago.

The Federal Trade Commission has extended the enforcement deadline for the identity theft "Red Flag Rule" from June 1, 2010 until December 31, 2010. The delay is in response to a request from Congress. Several members feel that the scope of the rule which was developed under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act passed in 2007 may be too broad.

The House has approved a bill to extend dozens of tax provisions that expired Dec. 31, 2009, including the charitable IRA rollover and tuition deduction. All of the expired provisions would be retroactively extended for one year and would expire at the end of 2010. The measure also extends unemployment insurance benefits.  The Senate is expected to consider its version of the bill the week of June 7.

Beginning with its 2010-11 membership dues invoices, NAICU is adding its projection of the portion of dues that go to direct lobbying expenses, to ease member colleges' compliance efforts.  Until now, NAICU has provided that number to member institutions on an as-requested basis.

The Institute of Education Sciences of the Department of Education recently announced the latest set of grant awards to state educational agencies for the design and implementation of statewide longitudinal data systems. Twenty states will receive three-year awards of amounts ranging from $5.1 to $19.7 million.  These most recent awards are the fourth set of longitudinal data system grants issued by IES since November 2005.

After weeks of political infighting over what domestic funding should be included in the war supplemental, House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) has proposed an emergency spending package that includes $5.7 billion to cover the funding shortfall in the Pell Grant program. The machinations aren't over yet, though.

The first year under the new Post-9/11 GI Bill has enabled hundreds of thousands of military-related students to go to the college of their choice with little or no debt. But complex rules have been a nightmare for colleges, veterans, and the Department of Veterans Affairs alike.  Now the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee has introduced discussion legislation to start what he describes as a process of reform and amendment.

The Congressional Budget Office released a report examining tax-exempt bond financing by colleges and universities on April 30.  Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) had requested the report, which looks at the practice of many colleges and universities to use tax-exempt debt to finance investments in buildings and equipment, while simultaneously holding investment assets giving a higher rate of return.  While the report makes no specific recommendations, the issue bears careful watching.

The Council for Higher Education Accreditation is proposing to expand the public disclosure requirements of accreditation results - long a point of contention between NAICU and CHEA.  Many NAICU members believe such disclosures would weaken the rigor of the accreditation process, and are subject to misinterpretation by local news media.  CHEA is accepting comments on the proposed changes until May 31.

The House and Senate education committees have been holding hearings related to the upcoming reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also known as "No Child Left Behind."  While higher education is not directly involved in the ESEA reauthorization, there are three main areas with higher ed implications that NAICU is keeping an eye on:  teacher preparation, the common core standards movement, and high school reform.

Late last month, the Department of Education announced its intentions to make further regulatory changes in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, given that FERPA has been seen by proponents of statewide longitudinal data systems as an obstacle to use and expansion of those systems.  And data issues also were at the center of a House Education and Labor Committee hearing earlier in April. 

Introduced with bi-partisan support last week, H.R. 5078 would extend and improve certain expiring higher education tax provisions, and provide additional tax relief for scholarship and grant recipients.  The bill complements legislation introduced in December by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), that would make permanent a host of higher ed-related tax provisions set to expire at the end of 2010.

The newly constituted National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) is expected to meet on September 14-16.  NACIQI is the body that advises the Secretary of Education regarding the recognition of accreditation agencies.  When it meets, the group is scheduled to review seven compliance reports and consider 11 petitions for renewal of recognition.  Written comments on any of the agencies under review are due no later than May 23.

The Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs explored implementation of the post-9/11 GI Bill in an oversight hearing held April 21.  To date, over $2.7 billion in payments have been made on behalf of approximately 246,000 individuals.  Witnesses generally spoke positively about the new bill, but also addressed problems over the first year of its implementation, some of which still persist.

The recently introduced S. 3206, the Education Jobs Fund bill, like the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, intends to protect state funds for public education.  However, like ARRA, the new bill requires states to maintain education funding levels, but fails to include state student aid funding under that "maintenance of effort."  NAICU is concerned that this could squeeze student aid programs and state institutional support to private colleges.

NAICU, along with about a dozen other higher education organizations, have established a Web site to provide resources for campuses that wish to "internationalize" their campuses. The site offers a trove of material on various aspects of international education, including study abroad, partnerships and collaborations, and institutional and cultural change.

If your institution have not yet begun the direct loan conversion process, you might want to get underway as soon as possible.  Start by going to the Department of Education's "Direct Loans - Getting Started" page.

EducationUSA will offer its first-ever "Connecting You to the World" forum in Washington, D.C., June 28-29.  The forum is designed for international admission and enrollment management professionals at U.S. colleges and universities who are seeking to enhance their international student recruitment.  For details and registration information, visit the EducationUSA Web site.

The Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) has announced a grant program to encourage and develop educational opportunities between U.S. and Russian colleges. The arrangements provided by the grants would encourage language learning, cultural appreciation, sharing knowledge and forming long-term relationships between the two countries.

The passage of the student loan reform bill was made possible by two intersecting circumstances:  the 2008 credit crisis and the 2008 election which gave Democrats control of the White House, the House, and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.  For a retrospective view of the twists and turns, see this NAICU chronology, summarizing the most significant events of the past two years that helped shape the legislation's final form.

The final student loan reform bill that Congress approved on March 25 is dramatically scaled back from earlier versions of the legislation.  But even the simpler legislation that ultimately emerged still stands as a historic change in federal student aid and health care policy for colleges - one that will have profound effects in the months and years ahead.  Here are some of the bill's highlights.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching have launched the nomination period for the 2010 U.S. Professors of the Year awards.  The annual program honors U.S. professors who excel as educators and influence the lives and careers of their students, and is open to faculty at all four- and two-year institutions.  The nomination deadline is April 16.

The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has published a Request for Grant Proposals on "Capacity Building for Undergraduate Study Abroad."  The purpose is "to build the capacity of U.S. institutions of higher education and of potential host institutions abroad to provide study abroad opportunities for U.S. undergraduate students."  Deadline for submissions is April 12.

The initial review of the president's FY 2011 budget by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), released on March 5, is sure to add more fuel to the fire on congressional student aid reform.  Pell Grants now cost more because of increased eligibility due to the economic downturn, plus the conversion to direct loans now entails slightly lower savings because so many institutions have already switched.  So what happens when new CBO numbers are released?

The Environmental Protection Agency will be offer free training May 18 on new alternative hazardous waste generator regulations that apply to colleges and universities with science laboratories, engineering and/or technology laboratories, art studios, and those with an associated teaching hospital or non-profit research institution. Campus representatives may attend in person at the EPA's conference facility in Alexandria, Va., or via live Webcast.

The U. S. Election Assistance Commission has announced the availability of $750,000 in grant funds for three-year awards to recruit, train and support college poll workers.  The Help America Vote College Program will award grants worth up to $65,000 to recruit students to serve as poll workers during the 2010 mid-term elections. The application deadline is March 31.

While a switch to Direct Loans is not yet a done deal, congressional leaders have repeatedly said that if legislation is enacted even in the coming weeks, the conversion will still be effective this July 1.  NAICU has been working with Department of Education staff and member colleges to make sure that smaller institutions get the help they need to prepare for the possible change-over.

Lost in the frenzy is the fact that the student loan and health care reform bill now being considered by Congress will also have a profound effect on funding for the Pell Grant program, the foundation student aid program that helps millions of low-income students pay for college.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has announced that his department is "going to reinvigorate civil rights enforcement."  Part of that will entail 36 compliance reviews in the next few months - most focused on K-12, but also including six institutions of higher education.  Beyond the traditional areas of civil rights concerns, the higher education reviews are likely to look at athletics, sexual violence, and treatment of people with disabilities. 

When Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) resigned as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee last week, it put into play one of the most powerful committee chairmanships in the House.  After a false start and some musical chairs, Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) was named to head Ways and Means - a move that has generally pleased higher education advocates as they they look ahead to the expiration of key tax provisions this year.

Recent congressional action has increased the federal debt ceiling, and has reinstated statutory pay-as-you-go requirements on entitlement spending.  But through the process, student aid funding was protected -- a clear indicator of just how important student aid has become in the eyes of Congress.

The President's budget kicked off the process for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), with the outline of proposed consolidation of programs to focus on "competitiveness, flexibility, and accountability," according to the department's press release on the budget.  A particular concern of NAICU and other higher ed associations is the role institutions of higher education will play in teacher preparation.

Second Nature, a national nonprofit organization advancing sustainability in the higher education sector, is seeking applications for the 2010 Kresge Fellowship Program created to address some of the challenges faced by under-resourced schools to "build green" on their campuses.  Fellowships will be awarded to 25 under-resourced institutions.  The application deadline is March 15.  Final decisions will be announced on April 15.

The IRA charitable rollover and the tuition deduction, two very important provisions, have now expired with the rest of the 2009 expiring tax provisions. However, both the House and Senate intend to retroactively extend these provisions for one additional year.  Even if extended, though, the end of 2010 will see the expiration of these two along with a host of other tax provisions important to colleges and universities.

Federal Work Study funds provided through the stimulus bill) last year have proven effective in providing jobs for students in college -- to help them not only pay for college, but to stay in college and graduate. Almost 90 percent of the FWS stimulus funds had been distributed by the end of 2009, underlining the program's efficiency.  At the same time, though the $500 increase in the Pell Grant included in the ARRA last year has resulted in some states cutting state financial aid programs, and undercutting the intent of Congress to help students pay for college.

Over the past three months, negotiators spent weeks in tough debate over new integrity rules for the federal student aid programs.  Still, the end result was a lack of consensus.  No surprise there, though, given that the focus of the proposed new rules was on the for-profit sector, and their representatives were part of the negotiated rulemaking sessions, along with their longtime adversaries such as consumer watchdog groups.

The Association for Institutional Research (AIR) and the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) are making available a Net Price Calculator Webinar the two associations co-hosted --after having received nearly 2,000 requests for it.

President Obama sent his FY 2011 budget to Congress on February 1, and made education funding a top priority in a tight budget, providing a 7.5 percent increase in discretionary funds. That's in contrast to an overall three-year freeze on non-security discretionary programs, which would hold spending at $447 billion for programs outside of Homeland Security, Defense, Veterans, and Intelligence.

Word is that the Senate education committee has the student aid reconciliation bill ready to go, but is waiting for a decision on how to move forward with the health care reform legislation before taking action. The bill would convert all student loans to direct loans and use the savings to increase the Pell Grant maximum.  But the sticking point centers on the Senate's reconciliation process.  Like many things in the upper chamber, it's complicated.

January 1 saw the unveiling of a new, more streamlined Federal Application for Financial Student Aid.  Still further FAFSA changes may lie ahead.  However, there are some concerns that too much simplification could actually undermine the value of this critically important gateway to federal student aid.

The Community-Campus Partnerships for Health is seeking nominees for its annual award.  The CCPH Award recognizes exemplary partnerships between communities and higher educational institutions focused on overcoming root causes of health, social, and economic inequalities.  Nominations are due by February 1, and will the chosen awardee will be recognized at CCPH's conference May 12-15.

The National Endowment for the Humanities invites proposals for challenge grants designed to help institutions and organizations secure long-term improvements in and support for humanities activities that advance knowledge of the American experience in both national and international contexts. The application deadline is February 3.

The Peace Corps has issued a request for proposals for new colleges and universities in their Master's International (MI) program, integrating graduate study with Peace Corps service.  Courses of study included are agriculture, education, business development, environment/natural resources, and youth development.  The closing date for proposals is March 15, 2010.  Visit the Peace Corps Web site for details, or contact mastersinternational@peacecorps.gov, (800) 424-8580, ext.1812.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has initiated a "Project on Sex Discrimination in Higher Education Admissions." The project will focus on whether selective coeducational institutions give special preference to male applicants. As an initial step, the commission identified 19 public and private institutions within 100 miles of Washington, DC, and has issued subpoenas for their admission records. The commission indicates that they were chosen to provide information about a cross section of institutions, and not because of any complaints or suspicion about their specific admissions practices.  For more on this developing story, see the links to media coverage on the NAICU Web site.

That giant legislative sack, the FY 2010 omnibus appropriations bill that Congress sent to the president last weekend, contained some early presents for higher education -- most notably, additional Pell Grant funding that will take the maximum student grant to $5,550 for 2010-11, a $200 increase. The bill also increases funding for TRIO, GEAR UP, Strengthening Institutions Grants, and international education.

The Department of Education has given a first glimpse of the new three-year cohort default rate for institutions.  As expected, the extra year, combined with the souring economy, caused most colleges' default rates to rise.  While all sectors' default rates increased, the change was most dramatic among for-profits.

Buried in the 1,700-pages of the financial sector reform bill now moving through Congress are several provisions with implications for colleges.  While the Senate has yet to introduce companion legislation, the House bill passed on December 10 would explicitly regulate some kinds of loans made by colleges and their related organizations. 

The changing landscape on the president's student aid initiative, and concerns about the shape of the emerging legislation were the dominant policy conversations during November's NAICU board and committee meetings.  Ultimately, the board chose to continue to support the bill, but not without some serious reservations.

In supporting President Obama's goal of the world's highest proportion of college graduates by 2020, America's private colleges have much to offer - and a powerful story to tell about their efforts to enroll, support, and graduate all students, but especially underserved students. To get that story in front of policy makers and the public, NAICU has launched an ongoing survey to gather the innovative, ambitious ways our institutions are reaching out and helping. NAICU members that have not yet responded - or would like to expand on responses already submitted - are invited to complete the survey on line.

The House has approved the Tax Extenders Act of 2009, extending for one year 49 expiring tax provisions at a cost of $31 billion. The bill passed on December 9 includes one-year extensions of the IRA charitable rollover and the above-the-line tuition deduction, currently set to expire on December 31. A year from now, however, there will be even more intense action, as myriad tax breaks enacted in 2001 will be set to expire.

The Department of Education's negotiated rule-making committee on proposed changes to program integrity regulations spent a week wrestling with over a dozen separate issues . . . with only very limited agreement.  Here's a summary of some of the more contentious issues, and what lies ahead.

The leading Republican lawmaker on the House Education and Labor Committee has sent a detailed request to Education Secretary Arnie Duncan regarding the administration's efforts to ensure that colleges are ready to convert to direct lending.  As the student loan reform bill continues to lag in Congress there is growing concern about whether colleges will have enough time to convert to direct lending if a mandate is passed only months before the deadline.

In a flurry of activity in late October, the Department of Education issued final regulations implementing Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) provisions dealing with accreditation, student loans, and general and non-loan programmatic issues. Under the master calendar provisions of the Higher Education Act, final regulations must be issued by November 1 in order to take effect the following July 1.

A report released in late October by the Fordham University Center on Law and Information Policy paints a disturbing picture of the back-seat consideration given to privacy and security issues in state elementary and secondary school reporting systems. In their review of data collection activities in all 50 states, the Fordham researchers concluded that basic privacy protections were lacking in the majority of states. The report makes eight specific recommendations designed to improve the privacy and accountability of these databases.

Even with the House of Representatives passing its version of health reform this past weekend, the outlook for student health coverage remains unclear. Last month, House Democratic leaders held a press conference announcing that essential health provisions for young Americans would be a key component of any final health care reform package. The House bill includes language providing coverage until age 27. Many young adults lose coverage at age 19, or upon completing college a few years later. The language would bridge any gaps in insurance and allow continuing coverage.

A Department of Education negotiating panel has started work on program integrity issues. This process is of significant interest to the private, nonprofit higher education sector, which is represented on the panel by Todd Jones, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio, as primary negotiator, and Maureen Budetti of NAICU as the alternate. The first of the panel's three week-long sessions, held earlier this month, focused on exploring 14 issues put forth by the Department for consideration.

The National Postsecondary Education Cooperative (NPEC) Working Group on the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008 has issued a guide to help institutions navigate through the ever expanding list of disclosures required by the law. These disclosures range from financial aid to fire safety-with varying requirements on the means of disclosure and the individuals to whom the disclosures are directed.

A key factor in NAICU's ability to support the House student aid reform bill was the inclusion of a rule that made it possible for the private college sector to participate in the president's 2020 graduation initiative without inappropriate government intrusion. However, because the Senate is using the "budget reconciliation" process, that Rule of Construction won't be included in the Senate version.  NAICU is now trying to find an alternate approach to carve the private sector out of the state program mandates.

NAICU has joined several other associations in a letter to the IRS, asking for clarification on the agency's stance on international investments. Recently, IRS officials have indicated that foreign investments - including endowment fund investments in offshore hedge funds, private equity funds and venture capital funds - would be subject to sudden and unexpected changes in IRS reporting requirements.

After a fast-paced few months of developments on implementing of the president's student aid proposals, the action has slowed dramatically in Washington, as everyone awaits the outcome of health care debates - and the possible use of the student aid bill as a vehicle for passing health care legislation.

The Senate Finance Committee completed consideration of amendments to health care reform legislation without adopting several amendments that would have affected both nonprofit governance and the charitable deduction.  The bill now awaits final approval from the committee before moving to consideration on the Senate floor.

Colleges learned late last month that they had to submit reports if they received more than $25,000 in Federal Work Study through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  Now the Department of Education has said they must register by October 10, but have until October 21 to submit the reports on the FWS funds.  The deadline for reporting on other ARRA funds remains October 10.

Every September, the Department of Education publishes its final student loan cohort default rates (CDR). This September marks the second year in a row that the rates have risen - even for four-year private colleges, which traditionally have lowest default rate of all the sectors.

The president's student aid proposal, as passed by the House on September 17, includes a number of moving parts - including a special provision making it possible for the private college sector to participate in the President's 2020 graduation initiative without the threat of inappropriate government intrusion. Action now moves to the Senate over the next couple weeks.

New Jersey and Virginia will hold gubernatorial elections this fall, plus California and Massachusetts will be holding special elections to fill open congressional seats.  Under federal law, colleges in those states are required to provide access to voter registration forms for their students.  Here are details on what's required.

The Department of Education has issued proposed regulations dealing with various general, non-loan issues. Among these new requirements are disclosures about the employment of an institution's graduates. NAICU objected to an expanded interpretation of the statute during the negotiated rulemaking process. We're now asking members' views on whether the proposed regulatory language in this area is manageable or an unreasonable burden.

It seemed simple last winter:  the president's budget proposal would require all colleges to convert to direct lending, and the savings would then be used to expand the Pell Grant and Perkins Loan programs, and create a state-based Access and Completion Fund.  Since then, it's all gotten very complicated.  Here's a look at the many moving parts as this important piece of legislation moves through Congress.

Here's a summary of proposed and final regulatory notices that have been published recently by the Department of Education and other agencies.  And we'll give you a heads-up on two forthcoming Notices of Proposed Rule-making - one on the TRIO and GEAR-UP programs, and another on a basket of student aid and institutional compliance directives.

President Obama's proposal to fund additional student aid by restructuring the federal student aid programs is now taking shape in the form of H.R. 3221, approved by the House Education and Labor Committee on July 21.  The complex bill is a mixed bag, with more than a few surprises inside.

Disbanded and now being reconstituted, the new National Advisory Council on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) will be composed of those appointed by the Secretary of Education and Congress.  The department is seeking nominations, to be submitted by July 22.

Last week the Department of Education wrapped up its latest round of public hearings to look at college completion and persistence issues -- and to prepare for a new round of negotiated rulemaking that will address both foreign schools and academic program integrity.

Major changes are afoot in finally simplifying the application process for federal student aid -- especially the FAFSA.

A nearly-final Department of Veterans Affairs listing of Yellow Ribbon participating institutions includes over 725 private, nonprofit colleges and universities.  The number is expected to grow a bit more when the VA posts its final list of 2009-10 Yellow Ribbon participants on June 30.

The House and Senate have passed a non-controversial technical amendments bill to last year's new Higher Education Act, and while the bill cleaned up a lot of proofreading kinds of problems, it also contains many more important changes recommended by the Department of Education and the higher education community.

The credit card law signed on May 22 is intended to protect consumers from ramped-up interest rates and fees. But buried in the bill are several provisions that will limit access to credit cards by minors - especially college students - and will make public details of colleges' agreements with credit card companies.

Under current Veterans Administration rules, a veteran hoping to attend a California private college walks onto campus without a dollar to help offset tuition before any Yellow Ribbon Program funds are applied.  That's because of word games that get the state's public institutions around a law prohibiting them from charging tuition.  Now the disparity has come to the attention of Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), and he's not happy.

Back-to-back days of hearings by the House Education and Labor Committee looked at the administration's "cradle to career" plan for education, and showcased divergent views on the administration's proposal to eliminate the Federal Family Education Loan Program in favor of the Federal Direct Loan Program.

The five negotiated rule-making teams that have been meeting since February to craft regulations for a number of provisions in the new Higher Education Opportunity Act wrapped up their work in May.  Of the five, three were able to reach consensus while two were not.  Now the Department of Education moves the process forward, with final regulations to go into effect in a year.

As the Senate Finance Committee considers health care reform this summer, one proposal is to fund some of those costs by imposing FICA taxes on college students earning as little as $1,090 a year on campus.  At this point it's no more than a preliminary concept, but bears close watching. 

President Obama submitted the long-awaited details of his FY 2010 budget to Congress on Thursday. The fine print confirms what administration officials had been telling NAICU for months - the president advocates continuation of both the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG) and LEAP state grant programs.

The Department of Veteran's Affairs issued a list of FAQs on the Yellow Ribbon Program on May 7.  The 13-page document is full of useful clarifications on such diverse topic as how to calculate the match and certain deadlines.  We also bring you up to date on some other important developments.

It's two years away, but Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) will step down as ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee to become ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2011.  There are implications for higher education with the forthcoming change, given that Grassley has been both a critic and supporter of the non-profit sector - especially colleges and universities.

The House and Senate budget resolution conference report approved on April 29 sets the stage for restructuring the federal student loan programs, with the savings used to increase Pell Grant funding.  A difficult and winding path still lies ahead, though.

Plans are changing and procedures are being refined as the new GI Bill Yellow Ribbon program approaches the June 15 cutoff for private colleges to participate in 2009-10.  Here is a summary of recent developments.

Accreditation proved to be the hot-button issue in Round Two.  Now the negotiated rulemaking teams are reconvening for their last set of meetings, as the process moves toward final regs by November, and implementation a year from this July.

To comply with the Higher Education Act, colleges in these two states may want to have their student activities or registrar's office e-mail all students the link to the state voter registration form this fall.  Please allow enough time for students to complete and return their forms to the state prior to the registration deadline.

A newly-released U.S. Census Bureau report shows that those age 25 or older with a bachelor's degree, and working full time year-round, earn an average of $29,000 more annually than do those with only a high-school education.  A master's degree adds nearly $12,000, and a doctorate adds $38,000 to average annual earnings for those with bachelor's degrees only.  See NAICU's chart analyzing the Census Bureau report.

Here's a quick summary of recent Department of Education announcements on final funding authorizations for the campus-based programs, TEACH Grant eligible institutions, and the use of professional judgment by financial aid administrators that may be of interest, with links to the Department Web site for more details.

Higher Education for Development (HED) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), anticipate making one award of up to $600,000 for a three-year partnership with Mentouri University in Algeria to strengthen the Algerian workforce. Elements will be enhanced English language studies, a strengthened business curricula, and establishment of a career development center. Application deadline is June 15.

An ongoing survey of private colleges and universities is finding that next year's tuition increases are at historical lows, and are being outpaced by increases in institutional student aid.  The average increase in tuition and fees across the 280 institutions reporting so far is 4.2 percent - the lowest annual increase in at least 37 years, and close to the 2008 Consumer Price Index rate of 3.8 percent. 

Last week, higher education's commitment and ability to serve students from all background was criticized in the opinion pages of USA Today and the Wall Street Journal.  In both cases, NAICU President David L. Warren responded with letters to the editor, emphasizing the extraordinary steps private colleges and universities are taking to stay affordable in tough economic times.

The Department of Veterans Affairs today issued its formal Yellow Ribbon program agreement form. The agreement form, letter with more details, and additional information is now posted on the VA Web site.  Colleges intending to participate in the program must submit a hard copy of the completed form to the VA by May 15, in order to offer a Yellow Ribbon program for the 2009-10 academic year. 

The Department of Veterans Affairs has issued final regulations on the new GI Bill, including guidance on the Yellow Ribbon Program.  While the regulations answer some of the major questions posed by private colleges, they also raise new questions.  NAICU staff will meet with the VA later this week to explore the new questions, so expect more clarifications in the near future.  Meanwhile, here is a preliminary NAICU overview of the new regulations.

The Federal Reserve System has issued a notice of proposed rule-making  on student loan sunshine provisions for private student loans.  The notice deals with the conflict-of-interest provisions of private student loans in the Higher Education Opportunity Act, passed last August, growing out of then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's focus on the relationship between colleges and lenders two years ago.

The Senate has passed a bill reauthorizing the 1990 National and Community Service Act, and renaming it in honor of its original co-sponsor, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).  The House is scheduled to reconsider and pass the Senate version of the bill on Monday, March 30, so that President Obama can sign the bill before traveling overseas.

Although technical amendments are supposed to be just that - "technical" - the economic downturn is already forcing Congress to make some major changes to the Higher Education Act reauthorization bill passed last August. 

Both the House and Senate Budget Committees wrote their draft FY 2010 budget resolutions this week -- each with a different nod toward President Obama's plan for restructuring student aid.  Neither plan goes as far as the president might ideally like, but both plans provide mechanisms congressional committees need to work toward his proposals.

It's been 16 years since newly-elected President Bill Clinton tried to restructure student aid. Now, President Obama is proposing an even more ambitious plan -- a transition to direct lending for all student loans, with the savings used to fund a Pell Grant entitlement, a six-fold expansion in Perkins loans, plus $500 million per year for governors to improve college completion by at-risk students. And now, some of the procedural and policy hurdles that stood in Clinton's way could complicate Obama's efforts as well.

Last week President Obama signed the FY 2009 Omnibus Appropriations bill which makes funding for student aid programs for academic year 2009-10 complete.  Under the bill, the Pell Grant maximum goes to an all-time high of $5,350; campus-based programs are level funded; and TRIO and GEAR UP early intervention and support programs are increased.

The negotiated rule-making has completed its first phase of negotiations as it works toward consensus regulations in certain areas of the new Higher Education Act.  With five negotiating teams having convened over three weeks, the process now adjourns until April while the Department of Education develops draft regulations out of the preliminary negotiations.

President Obama's budget contains a proposal to cap the rate of the charitable deduction to 28 percent for individuals making over $200,000 and joint filers making over $250,000.  There is widespread concern throughout the nonprofit community that, if enacted, this proposal could severely limit charitable donations.

In addition to the obvious higher education provisions in the recently signed economic stimulus law, an additional small-issue bonding provision could also help colleges renovate and repair facilities.  Specifically, the provision will increase the availability of bank funds to colleges for building projects by raising the annual limit on borrowing from $10 million to $30 million - and this limit will now apply to the borrower, not to the issuer.

National service is back.  A number of proposals in the House, Senate, and the Obama FY 2010 budget would increase the number of national service participants of all ages. The proposals also create a number of new national service programs, and would reauthorize the National and Community Service Act for the first time in a decade.

The Obama budget proposes major restructuring of the Pell Grant and Perkins Loan programs, and also calls for all federal student loans to be made through the Direct Loan program.  The administration is approaching the set of budget proposals as an interlocking unit.  This means that getting this complex and controversial a package through Congress will be like taking on another major reauthorization of the Higher Education Act this year.

Department of Veterans Affairs officials have assured Congress that they are on track to implement the new GI Bill -- including the new Yellow Ribbon Program, of particular interest to private colleges.  However, it's clear from recent testimony that questions remain to be answered, and the VA's to-do list between now and August 1 is daunting.

The Department of Education has now started the lengthy negotiated rulemaking (or "neg reg") process that will be used to implement provisions of the new Higher Education Act. The formal meetings began in Washington, D.C., on February 18, and will continue until the end of May. The proposed regulations developed through this process should be available for public review and comment this summer.

In the end, private colleges fared very well in the legislation, considering the convoluted and contentious negotiations to get to the final bill.  Though some provisions of interest to private colleges weren't included in the final bill, major wins included a $500 Pell Grant increase, a new $2,500 tax credit, and at least the potential for some funding of higher education modernization projects.  Plus we summarize other higher-ed provisions.

Here's a brief recap of developments on the Veterans Administration (V.A.) implementation of the new GI Bill and Yellow Ribbon Program since our last report on both in January.  Most pressing is the fact that the V.A. has posted a preliminary cutoff of Friday, February 27, for institutions to express interest in participating in the Yellow Ribbon program by completing a brief questionnaire (this is not a formal participation agreement).

With the election of Barack Obama and solid Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, we expect labor issues to have a prominent place on the agenda of the 111th Congress. Certainly, they have received early attention.

The Department of Education has released the much-anticipated "Dear Colleague Letter" and the announcement of the structure and planned schedule for negotiated rule-making of the Higher Education Opportunity Act. The 220-page document provides a detailed table of contents helpful in locating the many new provisions, and coordinates the section references in HEOA with the Higher Education Act (HEA).

The Department of Education has yet again taken steps to provide capital for federal student loans. Acting under authority of legislation passed last spring and extended last October, the department plans to purchase additional loans. Both the initial Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act and its extension were influenced by NAICU's first two surveys on the economy.

NAICU recently released the results of its third survey for 2008 of the impact of the economic downturn on private colleges, and for the third time in a row, the survey results have impacted significant legislation before Congress.

President-elect Barack Obama has named Arne Duncan, CEO of Chicago Public Schools, to be the next Secretary of Education. He comes to Washington with a strong background in public elementary and secondary education, but very little professional experience in higher education.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the House proposal for an economic stimulus package released January 15, would provide the largest boost to student grant aid in history.  At least $200 billion of the spending is dedicated to education, broadly defined. The entire package was carefully negotiated between House and Senate leadership and the Obama transition team, so we expect it may move quickly through Congress.

The Department of Veteran Affairs has begun laying out the ground rules for the new Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits enacted by Congress last year.  The department published proposed regulations on December 23, and is accepting public comments until January 22.  Of particular interest to independent colleges are the proposals relating to the Yellow Ribbon program.

The Department of Education has issued a number of proposed changes in the regulations governing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).  The public comment period on the proposed changes will close on May 8, 2008.

Is the never-ending saga of the Higher Education Act (HEA) bill about to end? Or are current rumors merely more of the same stuff that have trailed the beleaguered process in the past? This past week in Washington, at least three versions of the "almost done" rumor circulated through lobbyist circles.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has released a proposal that would increase Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) fees by up to $200 per application.  Comments on the proposal, released April 21, are due by June 30, 2008.

Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and other proponents of improved educational opportunities for veterans have stepped up efforts to provide more generous benefits under the GI Bill.  The prospects for enactment of the legislation are unclear, largely due to its substantial price tag, but this past February Webb unveiled a revised bill with a number of changes to reduce its cost.  The revised bill is now attracting attention on the Hill.

Proposed legislation would specify that graduate teaching and research assistants at private colleges and universities are employees under the terms of the National Labor Relations Act.  If passed, the bill would effectively overturn the 2004 National Labor Relations Board ruling that graduate teaching and research assistants are students, not employees.

So far, colleges losing lenders have been able to find alternate sources of funding, and no one yet knows of any students unable to get loan funding. So, is this just a case of frantic banks, or is a real problem at hand?  A NAICU overview and analysis of the student loan situation.

Since last winter, colleges have been nervously awaiting August to see if students have access to the loan money they need to pay their fall tuition bills. So far, the ongoing scrambling by banks and colleges to find alternative sources of loan capital seems to have paid off, and no crisis has yet emerged.

The Senate failed to renew a host of popular expiring tax provisions prior to adjourning for August recess, including the IRA charitable rollover and tuition deduction for higher education expenses. Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has indicated that further action on the tax extenders will have to wait until September.

The new Higher Education Act reauthorization, passed by Congress just before the August congressional recess, was signed into law by the president on August 14.  The legislation received strong bipartisan support, and was approved by large majorities of both the House and Senate.

NAICU’s voluntary consumer information initiative, the University & College Accountability Network (U-CAN, www.ucan-network.org), has reached a milestone in campus participation. Nearly 11 months after the free, consumer-focused website was launched, the roster of private colleges and universities signed up to participate has grown to 711 institutions.

The Higher Education Act reauthorization bill is finally headed to conference after the House approved its version by a margin of 354-58 on Thursday, February 7.  It is expected that conference will begin very quickly, and that a final bill will be completed before the current HEA extension expires on March 31.  The bill is a mixed bag for independent colleges.

President Bush submitted his last budget to Congress on February 4, but there's not much to celebrate on the student aid funding when you look at the final figures.

The report follows recent media coverage of study-abroad programs raising questions about some institutional practices in this area, and includes a study on effective institutional management of study-abroad programs.

Last month, the accreditors agreed upon language on measures of success in student achievement. A key component of the agreement among all parties was the assurance that the Secretary of Education would be restricted from prescribing standards and otherwise regulating measures of student achievement success, and lawmakers seem receptive to the request.

Congress has begun the second session of the 110th Congress, and the House has announced that it will take up the Higher Education Act (HEA) reauthorization bill on Thursday, February 7 (immediately following the NAICU Annual Meeting). Education leaders in the House and Senate intend to complete all work on the reauthorization bill and send it to the president before March 31, when the current extension of the act expires.

The Department of Education has two negotiated rule-making panels working to formulate regulations based on changes in the Higher Education Act made in the recently-passed reconciliation bill, the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. One panel is focused exclusively on the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) grants. The other is looking at a number of changes to the loan programs, including the new income-based repayment plan and the question of a federal preemption of state law when state law conflicts with provisions of the Higher Education Act.

National focus groups conducted last fall by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) showed that college students were deeply concerned about issues, involved personally as volunteers, and ready to consider voting. Youth turnout in the Iowa caucuses tripled compared to 2004. More than 84,000 18- to 29-year-olds voted in the New Hampshire primary, according to estimates by CIRCLE. That is a 271 percent increase over 2004 levels.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has acknowledged that its contention that college students are responsible for 44% of the total revenue loss from the illegal downloading of movies is based on a math error in a 2005 study. It remains to be seen if this revelation affects the ongoing congressional debate on requirements on disclosures to students about institutional copyright infringement policies and sanctions.

The chairman and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee have sent a detailed letter to 136 institutions with endowments over $500 million. The January 24 letter asks institutions to respond in 30 days about endowment spending, tuition increases, and more. It's unclear whether the committee will continue to pursue endowment payout legislation. Much will depend on what they hear from responding institutions – and if they continue to feel pressure to address college costs via the tax committees.

Congress has passed a trillion dollar spending blueprint on mostly party line votes, and has laid out plans to write the FY 2009 appropriations bills this summer. The budget plan allows Congress to spend $24.5 billion more than the president requested on the 12 annual appropriations bills, including $8.4 billion more than the president's budget for the education category.

The Department of Homeland Security has announced plans to overhaul the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System.  SEVIS, which was created after the September 11 terrorist attacks to better track international students, has been controversial and burdensome throughout its development.

Peace Corps officials are encouraging campus leaders to explore partnership opportunities that allow students to integrate corps service with their studies.  Officials are interested in expanding the four programs described below.

Legislators see a need for clarification in a number of areas because of conflicting court opinions regarding congressional intent and an excessively narrow Supreme Court interpretation of who is protected by the ADA. The ADA applies to colleges both as employers and as providers of educational services.

A key factor in U-CAN's success is that the data displayed is consistent across all institutions, making it possible for students and their parents to compare profiles.  To keep the data as current as possible, we've established a regular update schedule. The spring update period began on Tuesday, June 10 and will last until July 23.  During this time, all participating institutions are asked to bring their U-CAN profile information up to date. 

Among other provisions, veterans with three years of service since September 11, 2001, would be eligible for a tuition benefit up to the cost of in-state tuition at the most expensive public college in a state. The in-state tuition figure is simply a cap on the tuition benefit; the same amount would be available to a veteran who chooses to attend a private institution.

After several years of start-again, stop-again wrestling, the Higher Education Act finally stands poised for formal reauthorization.  While NAICU would prefer to continue current law over a new bill, a new bill is going to pass, and it will contain many improvements over previous versions close to enactment during the past several years.

The House Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education appropriations has written a FY 2009 funding bill that, if enacted, would take the total 2009-10 Pell Grant maximum to $4,900 -- $100 over the president's budget request.  How the administration reacts to the bill will determine how much further into the process Congress ventures this year.

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the Department of Education is inviting state educational agencies to apply for grant support "to enable them to design, develop, and implement statewide, longitudinal data systems to manage, analyze, disaggregate, and use individual student data."

The Department of Education has made public, and has sent for publication in the Federal Register, its "Notice of terms and conditions of purchase of loans under the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act [ECASLA] of 2008." It goes into effect as soon as it is published.

The measure, approved June 26, includes the provisions of the "Post-9/11 Veterans Education Assistance Act," expanding GI Bill benefits.

The final rule for the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) grant program was published in the Federal Register on June 23.  The $4,000-per-year TEACH grants are awarded to students, based on academic merit, who agree to teach for four years in a low-income school, and to do so within eight years of graduation.

Information is available directly from the Department of Education. In addition, though, the National Direct Student Loan Coalition (NDSLC) is offering peer-to-peer help for colleges unfamiliar with the Direct Loan Program.

The Americans with Disabilities Act Restoration Act of 2007 passed with strong bipartisan support, and clarifies the definition of disability -- reversing several U. S. Supreme Court rulings that disability advocates claim have left some with disabilities unprotected.  While ADA is considered an employment and civil rights law, colleges and universities must comply with it not only in their role as employers, but as providers of education as well.

The State Department has announced a proposed change to its J-1 exchange visitor regulations creating a new subcategory specifically for student interns.

The Veterans' Affairs Committees of both the House and Senate are considering a series of legislative proposals dealing with veterans' benefits - including measures on how to address the interruption of a student's education due to military service.

House and Senate higher education committee staff have been meeting furiously for weeks to iron out differences on the House and Senate versions of the Higher Education Act (HEA) reauthorization bills.

The House and Senate budget committees have tackled the annual task of creating a congressional budget resolution – a non-binding budget plan – for Fiscal Year 2009.  Both budget plans, presented March 5 and 6,  reject the president's proposal to cut spending and eliminate programs, and propose substantial increases in discretionary spending, especially education.

The House Education and Labor Committee held a full committee hearing on March 7 to explore the ramifications for students and academic institutions of the current crisis in the financial markets.  Democrats and Republicans alike expressed concern that the Department of Education had yet to assess and prepare adequately for a credit crisis that could affect access to student loans.

The negotiated rule-making team charged with crafting regulations for recent changes to loan provisions has scheduled a fourth session for April. The additional session was necessitated by the group’s inability to reach consensus on certain payments to lenders as calculated under the new income-based repayment plan. 

A majority of members in both the House and Senate have endorsed bills. However, plans to include the GI Bill increases in the supplemental appropriations bill are being resisted by the fiscally conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats in the House, who argue that the cost of the measure must be offset under budget "pay-as-you-go" rules.  (NAICU staff members participate in rally on Capitol Hill.)

The anti-trust exemption that allows colleges practicing need-blind admissions to develop common practices for assessing need was approved for a permanent extension by the House of Representatives on April 30. The bill now is before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Desperate to fill a budget gap, the Massachusetts legislature is considering a college endowment tax. The proposal, believed to be unprecedented in the United States, would apply to institutions with endowments larger than $1 billion.

Both Congress and the administration took significant steps in the past 10 days to help avert a credit crisis in the student loan programs. In stark contrast to progress on the Higher Education Act, Congress acted with unusual alacrity to pass legislation designed to avoid a potential breakdown of the student loan system.

Tagged onto the end of last week's student loan liquidity legislation were amendments to Academic Competitiveness and SMART grant programs. Many of these changes are important to private colleges.

Legislation expanding GI Bill benefits continues to make its way through Congress as part of the Iran-Afghanistan supplemental appropriations bill.  The House has approved an amendment under which veterans with three years of service since September 11, 2001, would be eligible for a tuition benefit up to the cost of in-state tuition at the most expensive public college in a state.  Further battles and a possible veto lie ahead, though.

The news of Sen. Edward Kennedy's brain tumor sent shock-waves throughout Washington.  But no one who has been around the Hill would presume that his prognosis would slow down his legislative agenda. Fighter that he is, Kennedy is just as likely to be motivated to work even harder to get passage of legislation he cares about, such as reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

The House has now passed legislation affecting renewable energy, and extending tax provisions that expired at the end of 2007. H.R. 6049, passed on May 21, includes a one-year extension of both the IRA charitable rollover and the above-the-line tuition deduction.  The Senate outlook remains uncertain, though.

The IRS recently announced that they will be looking at public and private four-year colleges and universities to ensure the institutions are fulfilling their charitable missions. As many as 400 to 500 colleges and universities will receive a questionnaire from the IRS in the near future.

The Department of Education and Department of the Treasury appear to have helped ease fears of an immediate crisis around the availability of federal student loans though a deal on implementing the newly passed emergency legislation on student loans.  This positive move by the federal government is an encouraging sign, after the grave concerns about student access to FFELP loans this past winter and spring.

Under the 1998 Higher Education Act, all postsecondary institutions have to make a good-faith effort to distribute state voter registration forms to each degree- or certificate-seeking student who attends classes on campus.  Colleges must request state voter registration forms 120 days prior to their state's voter registration deadline -- which is in June for most states.  For the specific deadline for your state, go to the state map on the Your Vote, Your Voice Web site.

Important college tax provisions that expired at the end of 2007 were finally extended last week, when the provisions caught a ride as "sweeteners" on the multi-billion dollar rescue bill for at-risk financial services institutions.  The bill also gives authority to the Treasury Secretary to secure both private and federal student loans in the case of an emergency.

The overall cohort default rate (CDR) - the government measure of the rate at which college students default on their federal student loans - has crept up about half a point.  The overall private college sector rate for FY 2006 is 2.5 percent, again the lowest for any sector.

The new bill is essentially an extension of the law passed seven years ago, clarifying that it is not an anti-trust violation for schools that are need-blind in the admissions process to meet collaboratively to discuss ways to assess need.

Late last year, the Federal Trade Commission issued a regulation known as the "Red Flags Rule" to reduce identity theft. While the FTC generally does not have jurisdiction over not-for-profit entities, parts of the rule seem to apply to a variety of college and university activities.

Through $1 million from USAID, the Africa-U.S. Higher Education Initiative will be making 20 grants available to U.S. colleges that have relationships with colleges or universities in Africa.

Congress acted with record speed to extend the Secretary of Education's authority to purchase federal student loans for an extra year. The bill, however, is still sitting on the president's desk.

The FY 2009 Continuing Resolution includes $2.5 billion to help pay down the Pell Grant shortfall.  The resolution keeps all government agencies open and running until March 6, 2009.

While the discussion took place in the Senate Finance Committee hearing room, it was not an official committee function, and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) were the only congressional participants.  Grassley made no commitments on future legislation, but seemed to lean toward self-regulation, instead of a mandated endowment payout.  Welch, however, remains skeptical of the self-regulatory approach.

Kick-off of the public hearings to shape HEA regulations will be at Texas Christian University on September 19, with TCU Chancellor and NAICU Board Chair Victor Boschini opening the session. The Department of Education will conduct the hearing as a first-come, first-served open-mike opportunity for interested parties to comment on the legislation.

A senior Internal Revenue Service official has announced that the IRS will soon mail out a questionnaire to colleges and universities as part of its review of the charitable activities of these institutions.  The questionnaire will be sent to approximately 400 public and private four-year colleges and universities, and institutions will have 90 days to respond.

NAICU rolled out its second student loan survey on September 10 to assess the effects of the capital crisis on student loan availability.  Congress is already using early responses to the new survey in shaping a one-year extension of the emergency student loan provisions approved last May.  NAICU encourages all member institutions to complete the survey as soon as possible.

The Senate has passed reauthorization of the Americans with Disabilities Act by voice vote, clarifying the definition of disability.  The new version that has passed the Senate now will be sent back to the House for passage under suspension of the rules on September 17, and then will then go to the White House for signature.

President Bush has signed into law amendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act, which his father originally approved in 1990.  Private colleges and universities must comply with the law as employers and as providers of educational instruction.

Recent weeks have brought accounts of students being given conflicting advice on how best to cast their ballot. The news media have detailed how the confusion is playing out in Virginia - but Virginia is not alone. Barriers to student voting have been raised in states across the country - from Maine to Tennessee, from North Carolina to Michigan.

The IRA charitable rollover and the tuition deduction remain in limbo as Congress once again failed to agree on an extension of a host of tax breaks that expired last year. Members in both chambers continue to disagree over the cost of the bill, and how or if that cost must be offset.

Despite days of bitter and tumultuous activity on overall economic recovery legislation still to be resolved, Congress found the resources to infuse the Pell Grant program with an unprecedented $2.5 billion in extra funding this past weekend. The funding is to help pay down a massive program shortfall that only became public knowledge last week. With this new funding, Congress has given an enormous vote of confidence to the program.

Leading off with a meeting at Texas Christian University, the Department of Education has conducted the first two of six regional meetings to seek the public's views on how it should proceed with negotiated rulemaking on the new Higher Education Act.

Findings of a recent survey by NAICU show the IRA charitable rollover provision enacted in August, 2006, has had a significant impact on charitable giving at private institutions in its first five months, with respondents documenting more than $70 million in new contributions. The survey results were released on April 12, and are based on nearly 700 responses from private, non-profit colleges and universities.

The second session of accreditation negotiated rulemaking didn’t settle any major issues, but it did confirm the Department of Education’s intent to use accreditation agencies to measure college and university performance.

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has begun an examination of the role of higher education and U.S. competitiveness in a global economy, and NAICU has submitted a statement on the issue that also touches on the role of tax policy on competitiveness.

If there's a front burner issue in higher education in early April, it's the relationship of colleges and universities to firms making student loans -- especially their preferred providers.  Like shoes being dropped by a centipede, the story takes new twists and turns virtually daily.  See our posted news links for the latest developments.  This story, from April 4, will provide brief context.

As if in the eye of a hurricane, Washington swelters in the quiet of another August, when everyone but the tourists are out of town.  However, the September storm clouds for higher education are clearly visible on the horizon.

The Senate Banking Committee has marked up a bill imposing new federal regulations on the private student loan industry.  The bill is intended to protect student borrowers and sever special relationships between lenders and institutions of higher education.

The IRA charitable rollover and the tuition deduction, along with all the other tax provisions set to expire on December 31, were dropped from tax legislation considered by the House and Senate this week. Unfortunately, this means that Congress will not extend these important provisions this year.   However, House and Senate staff say they fully intend to extend the provisions early next year, making them retroactive to January 1.

After a veto of the education appropriations bill, and negotiations on two omnibus bills that never saw the light of day, Congress finally passed H. R. 2764, the FY 2008 omnibus appropriations bill, before adjourning the first session of the 110th Congress, on Wednesday, December 19. President Bush has indicated he will sign the bill.

Accreditation has become one of the great sideshows of the protracted HEA reauthorization process. Even as Washington finally starts to slow down for the holidays, there has been a hopeful turn in accreditation news this week.

NAICU presidents contacted their representatives in Congress during late November and early December in a successful attempt to assure careful consideration of the Higher Education Act reauthorization.  The effort was prompted by indications that the legislation was on a very fast track, and might be passed in the House without sufficient time for constituents to analyze and react to the 800-plus page bill.

For student aid, the education appropriations bill represents the high water mark for FY 2008, and NAICU is asking all representatives to vote for the bill.

H.R. 2669 makes a number of important changes in the financing of a college education. However, it also has repercussions for colleges and lenders, and could even affect the buy-out of Sallie Mae by a private equity fund.  NAICU has supported the bill, despite lingering concerns about some aspects.

While failing to obtain congressional approval and funding to create a national student record database, advocates are now hoping to arrive at the same place by going through the states.  Recent efforts have focused on establishing longitudinal data systems at the state level that might ultimately be linked to one another, creating a comprehensive national system.

In a major victory for the higher education community, the Higher Education Act (HEA) reauthorization bill approved by the Senate on July 26 strikes provisions of the bill that would have imposed rigid measures of student learning through the accreditation system.

The Senate's completed higher eduction reconciliation bill cuts funding from lenders and loan guarantors to fund student aid increases; expands Pell Grant programs; caps loan payments; and, provides students with more flexibility in earnings and repayments.

The FY 2008 education appropriations bill passed by the House of Representatives increases the Pell Grant maximum and restores or increases funding to other important programs.

College students and members of Congress lauded the positive impact of federal student aid funding on the lives of individuals and the well being of the nation, at the Student Aid Alliance's annual breakfast on June 28.

Working with an allocation of $2 billion less than the House education subcommittee, the Senate Appropriations Committee’s spending bill does no more than maintain funding for the student aid programs, with increases for TRIO and GEAR UP.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee quickly approved key legislation, but controversial language lingers.

While examination of student loan improprieties has largely centered in the education committees, the Senate Banking Committee has jurisdiction over private student loans.  And in his return engagement on the Hill, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo was the star witness before Sen. Christopher Dodd's (D-Conn.) committee on June 6.

The proposals that the higher education community viewed as the most egregious have been withdrawn from consideration - among them, a new "accountability" section and additional collection items in the financial aid survey.

The House has approved a bill that would create a foundation with the goal of sending one million American students abroad each year within the next ten years. Currently, only about 20 percent of that number - one percent of all college students - study abroad.

It was an anti-climactic ending to a highly contentious process that began in February.

The House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee has unanimously approved its FY 2008 spending bill, which made student aid funding a top priority.