Computerworld - The A-Z of Programming Languages: C#
Tags: jlearning, programming, C# on 2008-10-14 -All Annotations (2) -About
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To put this aim in context, we need to look back to the inception of .NET, which was in the late nineties or early 2000s. At that time, Microsoft’s primary developer offerings were fairly fragmented. For native code we had C++ with MFC, and ATL and so forth. And then for rapid application development we had Visual Basic, and for web development we had IIS and ASP.
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Each language was its own little silo with different solutions to all of the different programming problems. You couldn’t transfer your skills and your application model implicitly became your choice of programming language. We really wanted to unify these separate entities to better leverage our efforts.
Fresh Round of State Budget Cuts Hits Higher Education - Chronicle.com
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As in the previous fiscal year, when 29 states had to close budget gaps totaling $48-billion, public colleges and universities are sharing across-the-board budget cuts with the multiple agencies that compete for state funds, like prisons, elementary and secondary schools, and health care.
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Gov. Deval L. Patrick of Massachusetts, a Democrat, has told public colleges and universities they will lose 5.6 percent of their state funds to help cover a budget gap that has reached $143-million in the first quarter of the fiscal year.
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In Pennsylvania, tax revenue is nearly 5 percent below projections for the current fiscal year, and Gov. Edward G. Rendell, a Democrat, is proposing to cut more than $50-million, about 4.25 percent, from public college and university budgets.
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In Virginia, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a Democrat, has asked higher-education institutions to pare from 5 percent to 7 percent of their state funds as part of an effort to close an estimated $2.5-billion budget shortfall.
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In Utah, higher-education funds are being cut by about 4 percent, or $33-million, at a time when enrollment in the state's colleges and universities has risen nearly 9 percent.
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A report last week from the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public-policy research arm of the State University of New York, warns that tax collections in many states could fall even further this year, making a bad fiscal situation even worse for much of the nation. While state income-tax collections in the second quarter of 2008 were 6.6 percent higher than they were for the same period in 2007, state sales-tax revenue dropped 1.4 percent, corporate income-tax collections fell 8.3 percent, and motor-fuel taxes declined by 3.4 percent, according to the institute’s analysis.
Amazon turns Windows against Ballmer's cloud • The Register
needed
Tags: jlearning, cloud computing, saas, windows, microsoft on 2008-10-11 -All Annotations (2) -About
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Amazon's Elastic Computer Cloud (EC2) will let you run applications on Microsoft's Windows Server and SQL Server database from this autumn.
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Developers will be able to configure their instances to run on Windows and pick SQL Server as a relational database within EC2. So far, EC2 has used Unix as the operating system option.
Why Elite Colleges Have Sweetened Their Student-Aid Packages - Chronicle.com
Tags: retention, higher education, financial aid on 2008-10-08 -All Annotations (3) -About
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Selective colleges are undergoing intense scrutiny these days when it comes to student aid. The decisions of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, and other private institutions to expand our aid packages for students from less-affluent families have drawn both high praise and heavy fire: high praise for making ourselves more affordable to students from all economic backgrounds, and heavy fire for using aid to compete unfairly for middle-income students at the expense of more needy students and for widening the gap between the "have" and "have not" institutions.
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Far from neglecting the neediest students, we began our push to improve student aid at Penn two years ago by substituting grants for loans for low-income students. Starting this fall, a student from a typical family earning $40,000 will pay no tuition, room, or board to attend Penn; a student from a typical family earning $90,000 will pay no tuition. Having made Penn so affordable to the neediest students, we then will substitute grants for loans for all students from families with financial need, beginning in the fall of 2009. For the first time, all students with demonstrated financial needs will graduate from Penn debt-free.
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Declining government support has contributed significantly to the decreasing affordability of public higher education for less-affluent students, along with the growing disparity in affordability between the most selective private and public universities. Many well-qualified students from middle- and low-income families who are not admitted to places like Penn are being inordinately squeezed, graduating with great debt and limited career choices. Worse, many others find themselves priced out of college altogether.
PDF Generator Web Service using Apache FOP | Cape Clear Developer
Tags: jlearning, fop, xml, xsl, apache, opensource, conversion, PD on 2008-10-03 and saved by2 people -All Annotations (7) -About
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It takes an XML document containing some shipping information detailing items purchased by a customer and generates a corresponding invoice document in PDF format suitable for printing. The assembly highlights how easy it is to write custom assembly components that implement third party libraries – in this case Apache FOP is used to help generate the PDF output.
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- http-in transport – listens for incoming requests delivered to http://localhost:8080/ccx/FOPAssembly.
- xslt step component – transforms incoming XML documents to XSL-FO using an XSL script.
- custom step component – custom Java implementation of Apache FOP that processes XSL-FO to generate PDF output
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The PDF generation is performed within the assembly using Apache FOP (Formatting Objects Processor). FOP is basically a processor that takes XSL-FO (XSL formatting objects) documents and converts them to PDF and other printable outputs. In order to get the original XML document into XSL-FO it needs to be transformed. This is done using an XSLT script run against the XML using an XSLT processor.
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Since XML on its own does not contain any information relating to its presentation on paper it needs some additional format to help it do this (forget about CSS for now as it is really only concerned with rendering XML within a browser only). This is where XSL-FO comes into the picture. It describes what the printed pages look like and how the XML data should be presented.
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XSLT is another part of the set of the XSL toolset and is used as a method of changing the structure of XML documents. Transforming XML from one format to another requires an XSLT script that defines what parts of the XML are transformed and into what. In addition to the script, performing the actual transformation requires an XSLT processing engine.
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Once you've got your XSL-FO format, there's still one last step to go before it can become a readable document. This last step requires a "FO processor". This determines how to position the text within the boundaries described by the XSL-FO document. One of the most widely used open source FO processors is Apache FOP. It is a Java application that reads a formatting object (FO) tree and renders the resulting pages to PDF.
XML to PDF? Oh, FOP It. | O'Reilly Media
Tags: jlearning, xml, pdf, conversion, java, PD on 2008-10-03 and saved by2 people -All Annotations (2) -About
more fromwww.onjava.com
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Formatting Objects Processor (FOP) is an open source Java API that can convert your XML data into reports in PDF format, as well as such other relevant formats as TXT, SVG, AWT, MIF, and PS. The software is developed under the Apache XML project and is free to use.
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Although the main idea of FOP is to work on the FO document, it can take over the task of transforming the existing data (XML) using a stylesheet. Let's say you have your business data in XML format and stylesheet information in the form of an XSL file. If you supply these two to FOP, FOP will convert this information to a temporary FO document and render it to your desired output.
Spellings Sees Progress in Shrinking Financial-Aid Application - Chronicle.com
Tags: chronicle.com, jlearning, higher, education, financial, aid on 2008-10-02 -All Annotations (3) -About
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Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced this evening, as part of an
address at Harvard University, that she had been able to whittle the main
federal financial-aid application, known as the Fafsa, from 120 questions in six
pages down to just 27 questions. -
“It’s red tape like this that keeps 40 percent of college students from even
applying for federal aid,” the secretary said, according to a copy of her
prepared remarks. “That’s nearly eight million students. And we believe most
would have been eligible for assistance.” -
Such changes also have been urged by Congress, which included provisions in the
Higher Education Opportunity Act, enacted in August, that urged the secretary to
reduce the number of questions on the Fafsa, and to work with the Internal
Revenue Service to further simplify the process by automatically sharing data
provided by students and their families on tax forms.
The Education Trust - Closing the Achievement Gap
Tags: retention, glossary, research, higher education, jlearning on 2008-09-29 -All Annotations (4) -About
more fromwww.collegeresults.org
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To identify which institutions are most similar to a chosen institution,
College Results Online applies an algorithm in which every other four-year
institution in the country is compared to the chosen institution. Each
institution receives a “similarity score,” ranging from 0 (least similar) to
1000 (identical), based on the degree of similarity to the chosen institution
in terms of 11 selected institutional and student characteristics that are
statistically correlated with overall six-year graduation rates (see
below). -
Once
the baseline similarity score is calculated, College Results Online applies
additional “filters” to each institution, excluding an institution from
possible comparison if it greatly deviates from the chosen institution on any
one of a number of factors. This prevents, for example, an institution
with 2,500 undergraduates from being compared to an institution with 25,000
undergraduates, even if they are otherwise very similar -
There
are a few important things to keep in mind when looking at peer comparisons
in higher education. First, no automated peer group methodology is perfect
or incontrovertible. While College Results Online methodology is
based on the recommendations of an advisory panel of national experts and
incorporates a host of different data elements, its accuracy may vary from
institution to institution, and is subject to differing opinions about what
makes institutions “similar.” -
Second,
appropriate peer groupings can vary depending on their purpose. This
methodology was specifically designed for the purpose of comparing graduation
rates for first-time, full-time, degree-seeking undergraduate students at
four-year institutions. A different method might be appropriate for
comparing faculty salaries, funding levels, regional competitors, etc.
Colleges Mine Data to Predict Dropouts - Chronicle.com
Tags: higher education, retention, jlearning, article on 2008-09-29 -All Annotations (0) -About
in list: Retention
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Several colleges and universities like Purdue are mining data they have about students to try to improve retention. The institutions analyze years' worth of data on which students did well and which did poorly, and what variables — whether they be SAT scores, financial-aid status, or attendance at the dining halls — correlate with those successes or failures. Using those data, colleges try to predict which students are likely to drop out — and intervene before the students themselves even know they're in trouble.
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At Purdue the risk algorithm is based on academic variables like GPA's and standardized-test scores, as well as how often students log into the course site.
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Purdue researchers found that students in the moderate-risk (yellow light) group who received the e-mail messages did better in the course than did their counterparts in a control group.
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Thanks to the early-warning system, he says, more of those students are sliding into the B group.
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William G. Wild Jr., director of student-excellence initiatives at Buffalo's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has identified seven variables, including scores on standardized state math tests, that predict undergraduates' success in the highly demanding program.
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The at-risk students are not told that they have been identified as being underprepared in any way, Mr. Wild says, so that they won't feel stigmatized.
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At the University System of Georgia, administrators worry about the "locus of control," a common personality-test measure the system uses to determine whether students feel they have control over their fates.
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At South Texas College, a study of grade histories showed that students who enrolled late in courses frequently failed or dropped them. So, despite protests from students, officials did away with late registration.
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"The data gave us the backbone to make a decision which was not very popular," says Shirley A. Reed, the college's president.
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"These are not impersonal drill sergeants," he says. "It doesn't take long
for students to figure out that this school really cares about them."
O'Reilly - Safari Books Online - 1565926994 - Programming the Perl DBI
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The following script lists all the drivers and data sources for each
driver on your system:
O'Reilly - Safari Books Online - 1565926994 - Programming the Perl DBI
Tags: jlearning, sql, perl, dbi, PD on 2008-09-29 -All Annotations (1) -About
more fromsafari.oreilly.com
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#!/usr/bin/perl -w
#
# ch04/util/quote1: Demonstrates the use of the $dbh->quote() method
use DBI;
### The string to quote
my $string = "Don't view in monochrome (it looks 'fuzzy')!";
### Connect to the database
my $dbh = DBI->connect( "dbi:Oracle:archaeo", "username", "password" , {
RaiseError => 1
} );
### Escape the string quotes ...
my $quotedString = $dbh->quote( $string );
### Use quoted string as a string literal in a SQL statement
my $sth = $dbh->prepare( "
SELECT *
FROM media
WHERE description = $quotedString
" );
$sth->execute();
exit;
O'Reilly - Safari Books Online - 1565926994 - Programming the Perl DBI
Tags: jlearning, perl, dbi, sql, PD on 2008-09-29 -All Annotations (4) -About
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Providing the prepare stage has returned a valid statement handle,
the next stage is to execute that statement
within the database. This actually performs the query and begins to
populate data structures within the database with the queried data.
At this stage, however, your Perl program does not have access to the
queried data.The third stage is known as the fetch stage, in
which the actual data is fetched from the database using the
statement handle. The fetch stage pulls the queried data, row by row,
into Perl data structures, such as scalars or hashes, which can then
be manipulated and post-processed by your program.The fetch stage ends once all the data has been fetched, or it can be
terminated early using the finish() method.If you'll need to re-execute() your query
later, possibly with different parameters, then you can just keep
your statement handle, re-execute() it, and so
jump back to stage 2.The final stage in the data retrieval cycle is the
deallocation stage. This is essentially an
automatic internal cleanup exercise in which the DBI and driver
deallocate the statement handle and associated information. For some
drivers, that process may also involve talking to the database to
tell it to deallocate any information it may hold related to the
statement.All this is done for you automatically, triggered by Perl's own
garbage collection mechanism.
Retrieving data from a database using DBI
is essentially a four-stage cycle: -
### Prepare the SQL statement ( assuming $dbh exists )
$sth = $dbh->prepare( "
SELECT meg.name, st.site_type
FROM megaliths meg, site_types st
WHERE meg.site_type_id = st.id
" );
### Execute the SQL statement and generate a result set
$sth->execute();
### Fetch each row of result data from the database as a list
while ( ( $name, $type ) = $sth->fetchrow_array ) {
### Print out a wee message....
print "Megalithic site $name is a $type\n";
} -
You could also fetch the data via fetchrow_array()
into an array variable instead of a list of scalar variables by
writing:while ( @row = $sth->fetchrow_array ) {
### Print out a wee message
print "Megalith site $row[0] is a $row[1]\n";
} -
dump_results( ) internally uses the
neat_list( )
utility function (described in the
previous chapter) for the actual formatting operation. Because of
this, you should not use the output of dump_results(
) for any data transfer or data processing activity.
It's only meant for human consumption.
Maritz: VMware’s Virtual DataCenter OS, VMware View is better next gen operating system than Windows and Hyper-V | Virtually Speaking | ZDNet.com
Tags: jlearning, vmware, virtual, microsoft, PD on 2008-09-25 and saved by2 people -All Annotations (4) -About
more fromblogs.zdnet.com
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Forget about Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. VMware’s future ‘Virtual Datacenter
OS’ is a set of services that will allow customers to “pool all types of
hardware resources - servers, storage and network – into an aggregated
on-premise cloud – and, when needed, safely federate workloads to external
clouds for additional compute capacity, “according to a release issued today at
VMworld. -
“Unlike a traditional OS, which is optimized for a single server and supports
only those applications written to its interfaces, the VDC-OS serves as the OS
for the entire datacenter and supports the full diversity of any application
written to any OS, from legacy Windows applications to modern distributed
applications that run in mixed operating system environments.” -
Among the new application vServices: VMsafe, for security; the vApp solution
for creating self managing VMs, and vStudio tool for creating virtual
appliances. VMware also committed to supporting very large virtual machines with
up to 8 virtual CPUs and 256 GB of RAM and VMDirectpath, which
offers enhanced network and storage I/O performance. -
VMware also promises a set of infrastructure services including vStorage Thin
Provisioning and vStorage Linked Clones , which reportedly allows users to
reduce storage use by as much as 50 percent. The slated vNetwork
Distributed Switch, which enables a sort of network vMotion, ultimately enables
delivery of cluster wide virtual networking services.
VMware’s Datacenter OS: Windows isn’t the competition | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com
Tags: jlearning, vmware, microsoft, virtual, PD on 2008-09-25 -All Annotations (3) -About
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Microsoft archrival VMware announced this week a set of future technologies
called the
“Virtual Datacenter OS” that some are comparing with Windows Server 2008. -
At the next level, “Zurich” — which Microsoft also has described as the Live
Platform services layer — Microsoft will deliver federated identity, data
synchronization, workflow and “relay services.” I’ve been hearing a bit more
lately about Relay, which I believe Microsoft also has called “Overlay”
services. -
Overlay is a peer-to-peer network that will help bridge distributed, parallel
systems. Supposedly, Overlay will help Microsoft do everything from load
balancing and replication of application states across the network of machines,
to providing a discovery framework for Web services to make use of presence and
federation services. Elements of the overlay network are expected to be part of
.Net 4.0, the next version of Microsoft’s .Net Framework.
O'Reilly - Safari Books Online - 1565926994 - Programming the Perl DBI
$dbh = DBI->connect( $data_source, $username, $password, \%attr );
Tags: sql, perl, jlearning, dbi, PD on 2008-09-24 -All Annotations (1) -About
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$dbh = DBI->connect( $data_source, $username, $password, \%attr );
Athletics Raises a College From the Ground Up - Chronicle.com
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But in less than three years, the grassy expanse, like the college itself,
has undergone a transformation. The newly developed acreage — boasting an
ice arena, football and baseball stadiums, a track, and a dozen tennis
courts — is the cornerstone of a plan to raise enrollment through intense
athletics recruiting. -
Adrian College
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Adrian College
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Since 2005, enrollment has surged 57 percent, to 1,470 students, the highest
number in at least two decades. More than half of those students play varsity
sports. The college has also become more selective: Three years ago, Adrian
accepted 93 percent of the 1,200 students who applied. This year it accepted 72
percent of its 4,200 applicants. Faculty members, pleased with the trend, say
the caliber of students in their classrooms has improved. -
The use of athletics to drive enrollment, he says, could well be "the
fountain of youth for small liberal-arts colleges." -
But problems abounded, and the Board of Trustees was ready to try something
drastic. Enrollment had sunk to 935, well below the capacity of 1,400 students,
and showed no signs of rising. Three residence halls were shuttered, the ones
that remained open were falling apart, and retention rates were suffering. -
Persuading cash-strapped students to consider Adrian depended on offering
something they couldn't get elsewhere, Mr. Docking says. That "something" turned
out to be extracurricular activities — in particular, sports. -
The idea, Mr. Creehan recalls, was: "Spend money to make money."
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In three years, in addition to building the new facilities, Adrian has added
five varsity teams and six club teams. It has hired 11 new full-time head
coaches. The plan requires the 16 head coaches of varsity sports to bring in a
total of nearly 200 athletes each year. (Please see chart on Page A19.) -
"We say to these coaches, 'You have one job: Recruit,'" Mr. Docking says. "We've
had to let go of coaches who haven't made their numbers." (The staff members who
supervise the student newspaper, student government, cheerleading and dance
teams, and marching band are also required to collectively recruit an additional
40 or so students annually.) -
Athletes are now one of the largest groups on the campus. Last month the 300 or
so athletes who returned for preseason workouts far outnumbered the entire
freshman class from just three years ago. And nearly half of this year's
incoming class of 581 — the largest in Adrian's 149-year history — is
composed of varsity athletes. -
Ron Fogarty, coach of the men's hockey team, was given free rein to travel
wherever he felt necessary. He recruited all but three of his 25 players last
year from the junior hockey leagues that are popular in the upper Midwest, New
England, and Canada. Half of the squad is Canadian; outside the ice rink, the
Canadian flag flies next to those of the United States and Michigan. -
Still, Mr. Delfausse, the men's lacrosse coach, says he and other coaches
would like to see the athlete population decrease slightly. "The majority of us
would like to … have more of the student base be music or theater or the
academic side of things," he says. "I think the school wants it that way as well
in the long run.
What Microsoft didn't say at its virtualization event | Business Tech - CNET News
Tags: jlearning, virtual, vmware, microsoft on 2008-09-09 -All Annotations (2) -About
more fromnews.cnet.com
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According to Bowker, Microsoft hardly mentioned its recently released hypervisor (Hyper-V).
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The hypervisor wars are over now. The real virtualization winners will be those that provide the best supporting services and technologies. Microsoft is demonstrating that it gets this.
Chrome's JavaScript challenge to Silverlight | Business Tech - CNET News
Tags: jlearning, silverlight, flash, javascript, PD on 2008-09-09 -All Annotations (1) -About
more fromnews.cnet.com
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The biggest rival for Microsoft's next-generation Silverlight Web technology will be JavaScript, not Adobe Systems' ubiquitous Flash, according to experts speaking at Microsoft's Tech.Ed conference here.
Don't Get Distracted: Top Audit Issues in Financial Aid - Education Articles
Tags: jlearning, financial aid, Title IV Compliance on 2008-09-09 -All Annotations (4) -About
more fromwww.universitybusiness.com
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An institution's eligibility to participate in FSA programs does not automatically include separate locations and extensions.
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The Eligibility and Certification Approval Report (ECAR) that the U.S. Department of Education sends to the institution lists the locations that are approved under the Program Participation Agreement (PPA).
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At a minimum, institutions must separate the tasks of authorizing payment and disbursing funds so that no one person or office is responsible for both activities.
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Institutions are required to identify a person or people responsible for oversight of financial aid awarding as well as development of appropriate policies and procedures to coordinate all information received by any office (business office, dean's office, registrar's office, etc.) that bears on a student's eligibility for Title IV aid. Any conflicting information involved in the student's application, or suspicion of incorrect data, must be resolved before the disbursement of FSA funds.
Don't Get Distracted: Top Audit Issues in Financial Aid - Education Articles
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Developing an appropriate institutional policy is challenging, as it requires that academic leadership play a role in defining standards that are the same as or stricter than those applicable for students enrolled in the same educational programs who are not receiving Title IV assistance. The policy must also be consistent with other similar institutional policies, such as NCAA guidelines imposed on student athletes. Since SAP regulations are two-pronged- qualitative and quantitative-IHEs often make the mistake of strictly monitoring one element at the expense of the other.
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During the Title IV recertification process, there are certain changes that require written approval from the U.S. Department of Education before the disbursement of Title IV aid.
These include changes to the state authorizing agency or accrediting agency; changes to program offerings (including the addition of non-degree programs); and changes to institutional structure (nonprofit versus for-profit). These must be submitted, along with supporting documentation, to receive approval.
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Failure to reconcile Title IV accounts is a common compliance issue. Both the financial aid and business offices must work together to compare records of disbursed amounts for each federal program.
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These amounts must also be reconciled to the amounts drawn down and reported to the Grants Administration and Payment System (GAPS) for campus-based aid, and the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) system for Pell Grants and Direct Loans.
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To help schools comply, the U.S. Department of Education Federal Student Aid program provides monthly reconciliation worksheets for each program.
-
Instead of dictating an institutional policy, federal regulations require the institution to determine the earned and unearned Title IV aid as of the date enrollment ceases, up to the 60 percent point in each payment period.
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The most common compliance issue related to Title IV refunds involves late refunds made to FFEL lenders. Generally, schools must complete the refund calculation and return any unearned funds within 30 days of the student's official withdrawl.
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