SUNY Fredonia converts to new Stafford Loan system for students

The ink to the national Health Care Reconciliation Bill, which included reform of the federal student loan program, had scarcely time to dry in the U.S. Senate before SUNY Fredonia successfully completed its first Direct Stafford Loan origination under the new system.

Jeremy Corrente, assistant director of Financial Aid, processed the first of what are expected to be nearly 200 loan applications for the summer terms through SUNY Fredonia’s Banner Financial Aid system. And they’ll be followed later this spring, of course, by several thousand applications for the 2010-2011 academic year.

SUNY Fredonia had anticipated such a sea change in the federal student loan program that eliminates the Federal Family Education Loan Program, removes all commercial banks and credit unions from the federal Stafford Loan program, and assigns student loans to one provider, the federal government.

Mr. Corrente, assistant director of Financial Aid, was given the Herculean task of tackling this major change from two fronts: building a brand new platform to process Stafford loans that SUNY Fredonia students depend on to help meet their higher education costs, and then educating students and their parents about the new procedures now in place.

Under the former lender-based Federal Family Education Loan Program, which SUNY Fredonia had utilized since the 1960s, student and parent loans were obtained from private banks and credit unions.

“Jeremy had to build the Direct Loan program here at Fredonia from ground zero,” said Daniel Tramuta, associate vice president of Enrollment Services. In essence, Corrente developed an entirely new loan platform in the Banner data base, which encompassed setting up new tables and new fund codes compatible with the Direct Lending arm of the U.S. Department of Education. Trial runs were undertaken, extracting files and whisking them to the Department of Education and then returning that information to SUNY Fredonia to ensure that the process worked without a hitch. Corrente reviewed approaches that other colleges had taken to facilitate the transition.

Forging a whole new set of contact points with the Department of Education was also part of a very significant learning curve that SUNY Fredonia had to clear, Tramuta noted.

Corrente created the Federal Direct Stafford Loan Program page on the SUNY Fredonia Web site that features links to explain the changeover in great detail. Every student, even those with existing Stafford Loans, will be required to complete a new Federal Direct Electronic Master Promissory Note in order to receive a loan. SUNY Fredonia’s Financial Aid office has embarked on a major educational campaign on multiple fronts -- using emails, postcards, letters and even posters around campus.

“We remind all our currently enrolled students that if they are planning on borrowing a federal Direct Stanford Loan for the 2010-2011 academic year – summer 2010, fall 2010 or spring 2011 -- they must complete a new Master Promissory Note,” Tramuta noted.

“There will be a few rocks in the road, but we’ll clear out as many of those as possible to make sure the transition is as smooth as possible,” said Corrente, who has a master’s degree in Student Personnel Administration from Buffalo State and a bachelor’s degree in Communication from SUNY Fredonia.

Approximately 4,300 students – or 75 percent of SUNY Fredonia’s total enrollment – utilize federal student or parent loans valued at $30 million through the Stafford program.

“The Student Loan Program is a critical piece for our students in funding their higher education costs. Our students rely on this money, and it’s critical that we get it to them in a timely fashion. Our job is to get the loan funds back to Fredonia, so they can be applied to individual student accounts,” Tramuta said.

“The work that Jeremy has done will go a long way to insure that our students receive their loan funding in a timely manner,” Tramuta added.