"The annual meeting of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, held in Milwaukee earlier this week, took on an urgent tone this year. The disastrous rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, has put aid officers in a challenging spot," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

"They typically see themselves as both providers of college access and stewards of taxpayer money. Most students need to know their aid offers to enroll; most colleges rely on enrollment to pay the bills. Aid officers can give students estimated awards — but they need to plan for cases where students get less aid than they’d expected.

The FAFSA fiasco could erode the already-fragile trust many students and families — especially the most vulnerable ones — have in higher education. Our Eric Hoover, who has been reporting on the implications of the FAFSA rollout, shared these observations from the conference:

This isn’t a meeting you usually attend, but you felt it was important to go this year. Why?

I wanted to better understand the nuances of the continuing FAFSA crisis and its ripple effects. This large gathering, with folks from all kinds of colleges, provided a rare opportunity for me to shut up and listen to revealing conversations about the complexities of financial-aid work."

NASFAA's "Notable Headlines" section highlights media coverage of financial aid to help members stay up to date with the latest news. Articles included under the notable headlines section are not written by NASFAA, but rather by external sources. Inclusion in Today's News does not imply endorsement of the material or guarantee the accuracy of information presented.

Publication Date: 6/21/2024