LAS VEGAS – While Las Vegas’ well-known tourism marketing phrase advocates to the contrary, financial aid administrators from Council for Christian Colleges & Universities campuses convened at the Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel December 1-3 to do anything but leave behind what they learned while in Vegas. The CCCU’s annual conference provided critical information and strategies for FAAs to take back to their campuses and also facilitated ongoing networking among CCCU colleagues.
In a bid to help member and affiliate colleges maximize budgets by attending two conferences for the travel cost of one, the CCCU’s FAA conference immediately followed the Federal Student Aid Conference.
On Thursday evening keynote speaker Lynn Reaser, chief economist for CCCU member Point Loma Nazarene University’s Fermanian Business & Economic Institute and former chief economist for three major banks, delivered the opening plenary presentation, “The Economic Landscape Facing Financial Aid and Strategies to Cope.” She discussed the 2012 economic outlook for global, American, and local economies. Then she described the resulting repercussions on student aid and implications for financial aid administrators, seeking to assist attendees with navigating the increasingly complex economic and financial climate. Reaser also offered strategies for helping financial aid administrators cope with the impending economic environment.
On Friday the conference included a Q&A with Reaser, which offered further opportunity for attendees to hear her thoughts on economic issues facing CCCU schools, such as the impact of tuition discounting, current attitudes toward indebtedness, and fears about how the current state of the economy is affecting families making college decisions.
“After the floods of crowds at the Federal Student Aid Conference, it was a pleasure to come to the smaller, more interactive CCCU sessions and be among friendly faces and peers with similar concerns and challenges,” noted Roger Wilson, director for financial aid services at Northwest University in Kirkland, Wash.
“This was my first year to attend the CCCU conference for financial aid administrators,” explained Kerrie Mitchell, director of financial aid at University of the Southwest in Hobbs, N.M. “The conference allowed me to put faces to names and make some new friends for networking. The opportunity to discuss hot topics with a small group of my peers was invaluable. I look forward to attending again next year.”
Among other sessions on Friday and Saturday was “Tough Times Call for Strategic Financial Aid Measures” led by Mary Piccioli, enrollment management consultant with Scannell & Kurz. The session described data-driven and operational elements that should be considered by institutions for effective financial aid strategy.
Kyle Wigboldy, financial aid coordinator at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Ill., presented “Development of Low-Socioeconomic Status Students,” describing what has been discovered about low-SES student development. Wigboldy discussed the challenges and opportunities low-SES students bring to campuses as well as what Christian financial aid administrators can do with information about the low-SES student population.
Bethel University Director of Financial Aid Jeff Olson moderated a CCCU Financial Aid Survey covering such topics as discount rates, aid for study abroad, employee tuition discount, office budgets, and the future of financial aid.
“The CCCU Financial Aid Administrator’s conference, held immediately after the Federal Student Aid Conference in Las Vegas, was the perfect way to end a long week of intense financial aid cogitation,” said Greg Gearhart, director of financial aid at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa. “I heard many comments from FAAs at the CCCU conference that meeting with their colleagues from other Christian colleges is what they really needed after spending the week with 7,500 of their closest friends in the financial aid world.”
“The fellowship of our intimate group of Christian colleagues was just the thing to end such an intense week,” he added. “That’s not to say that we didn’t get some real substance from our CCCU sessions. The attendees, who numbered almost double the attendance of our last conference, were totally engaged by topics such as the economic issues affecting our institutions, with Dr. Lynn Reaser; dealing with tough times, presented by Mary Piccioli of Scannell & Kurz; and strategies for understanding and helping our low socioeconomic status students, by Kyle Wigboldy. And running amongst all of this were the uplifting devotional periods that you are unlikely to get at any other financial aid conference.”
###
The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 184 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. The 115 member campuses in North America are all fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 69 affiliate campuses from 25 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council’s mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help its institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth. Visit www.cccu.org.