NASFAA's Off the Cuff Podcast NASFAA

This week on a special episode of "Off The Cuff," Justin, Karen, and Allie are joined by former OTC podcast hosts, Stephen Payne, executive director of external relations at Muhlenberg College, and Megan Coval, interim president of Butler County Community College. Karen kicks off the episode by debriefing listeners on several NASFAA letters. The first letter was sent to the Department of Education (ED) on the 2025-26 FAFSA cycle, and a second letter was  sent to Congressional leaders requesting their assistance in securing a delay until July 2025 of the GE/FVT institutional reporting requirements (5:27-14:02). After the policy team update, the whole group reminisces on the early days of the podcast and share special memories as Justin departs from his role next week. 

This week on "Off the Cuff," Hugh, Jill, and David discuss several regulatory changes that become effective on July 1, 2024. Jill begins by giving a deep dive on some of the confusing elements of transcript withholding and details the Department of Education's (ED) regulatory approach to the issue. David then provides a brief overview of additional regulations that will also be going into effect on July 1. These more wide-reaching regulations include administrative capability, institutional eligibility to participate in Title IV programs, gainful employment, and more.

This week, on the 300th episode of “Off the Cuff,” Justin, Karen, and Allie discuss the most up-to-date FAFSA news, and preview the unique sessions being offered at the NASFAA National and Virtual Conferences. Karen kicks things off with an update on the Department of Education’s (ED) FAFSA reprocessing work and outlines additional guidance that should be available in the days and weeks ahead. Justin then recaps a recent community letter that a number of higher education groups sent to Congress urging for policies that will strengthen the FAFSA process moving forward. Allie wraps things up with a preview of NASFAA’s conferences and covers a few sessions she is most looking forward to.

This week on “Off The Cuff,” Allie, Jill, and David talk about the latest news on school corrections and dive into a discussion on crossover periods. Jill kicks things off by recapping the most recent electronic announcement from the Department of Education concerning the timelines for school ISIR corrections and processing for paper FAFSA submissions. David then goes over some rules for crossover payment periods and highlights how FAFSA simplification has impacted the process.

This week on "Off The Cuff," Justin, Karen, and Rachel are joined by Jon Fansmith, the American Council on Education's senior vice president of government relations and national engagement, to recap a lengthy House hearing where Education Secretary Miguel Cardona sparred with Republicans over the department’s budget request and the secretary’s record. The team then recapped some exchanges centered on the 2024-25 FASFA and highlighted noteworthy student aid policies that came up during the hearing, which lasted over four hours. The conversation then turned to more updates on the ongoing FAFSA rollout and electronic announcements that could be delivered in the coming days.

This week on "Off The Cuff," Justin is joined by Jill and Rachel to discuss this week's announcement from the Department of Education (ED) of a temporary FAFSA filing fix for applicants and contributors without a Social Security number. From there, Rachel debriefs listeners on Education Secretary Miguel Cardona's testimony at a Senate appropriation subcommittee hearing this week. The group also discusses last week's announcement that FSA Chief Operating Officer Richard Cordray is stepping down from his position this summer.