ID Theft & Fraud Prevention on Campus

I must admit: this session really made me think. Peter Tetreault of Nellie Mae put into perspective how very carefully we must protect our identities. He told a disturbing story about how easily (and with common information like name, birth date, etc.) a criminal can pull up your whole life story in a matter of minutes. What I found slightly more disturbing is the fact that most fraud cases happen within families. After this session I realized that we really must be extremely careful about the confidential information that we have access to on a daily basis. In addition we should make our students aware of how careful they should be with their personal information. We all need to be extremely careful, both on the internet and in our homes, to ensure that our private information stays private.

Dealing with Difficult Students

Steve Podeszwa gave a helpful presentation with tips for dealing with challenging students and parents. He put into perspective the fact that, although we may hear the same questions over and over again, to the particular student asking, it’s their first time. As Financial Aid administrators, we can’t take our students' anger personally; 9 out of 10 times, it has absolutely nothing to do with us. Their attitudes can stem from many different things: a heavy workload, frustration with having to ask for help, or a run-of-the-mill "bad day." And while this is not necessarily our problem, it is part our responsibility as Financial Aid administrators to try to calm the students and do what we can to help them understand the process. Steve suggests a technique called "LEAPS": Listen, Empathize, Apologize when Appropriate, Positive Attitude, and Solve. Whether the student you are dealing with is calm or challenging, this technique will help you handle even the most difficult of situations and, in the end, help the student accomplish what needs to be done.