A few of our recent ex-employees (and I'm talking managers, BAs, etc, not reps) have been approached to spill the beans on Socle. So, it looks like even with the ECMC deal, DOE wants to shut off our aid. What they're going to find is the exact same leadership and the exact same, flagrantly illegal operations. The storm's not over yet, folks. Hold on! Why the heck didn't Zenith at least address Socle? You don't have to be an expert in the industry to know that you don't mess with Title IV regs. Yeesh!
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Since the conversations are about companies that educate, here's a tip:
DOE = Department of Energy
ED = Department of Education
http://ucsd.libguides.com/c.php?g=90902&p=586348
990 -- and we can understand your frustration too, but if you haven't worked Student Finance at a campus you have no idea of the pressure we're under to make every potential student happy with their package. We are supposed to be independent of Admissions, but at both campuses I've worked at, Admissions Reps felt free to order us around, change our schedules, even cancel our lunch breaks when they felt like it. Going to our DSF made no difference, he/she was always overridden by the DOA. Our lives become very, very difficult when a student complains (and yes, we know that a lot of them are lying). We're caught between a rock and a hard place.
I can understand the frustration but let's be clear on one thing. Not everyone in SOCLE didn't follow the DOE rules. I followed the rules and asked for additional documentation And guess who I got the push back from. That's right, the campuses complained I was too rigid. Smh
I need some help from other student finance people. I'm going to give ECMC/Zenith the benefit of the doubt and fill them in on what's been going on at Socle. I already have a good list of human resource issues (a very impressive list thanks to DS and cronies). There are LOTs of things that bother me about how we process aid, and I know we have a lot of potential liability in a program review. I doubt that anyone at ECMC really understands F.A. though. What sorts of things would you tell them? How would you describe the issues? If I was at a financial aid conference I could cite all kinds of things that would shock people, but they know F.A. What do you think?
I think word's got out to the managers. We are definitely seeing increased scrutiny and secretiveness here.
Of course the DOE cares, they get a cut of the graft.
NOT Kim Dean: You should be on SNL -- perfect impression! I swear that woman's only management technique is self debasement.
Well, OP, I guess it's good to know that the DOE still cares at least a little. They should have shut us down, but instead let our T4 processing continue with zero changes. I'll send them documentation of what I've seen when I finally get to quit, hopefully very soon, but I won't hold my breath that they'll do anything with it.
Mmmghrfffmmjvsmm. Glorp! (heavy breathing) Droosfmmmmizirmmm. Doh! (panting) Duhwoooooohooo. BURGARS! BURGARS!
I love how DOE calls us "financial aid officers"! It always feels like they're turning the prison over to the inmates!
"NOT Dave Shuma" -- you forgot the rest of Socle's pillars! (4) LOTS of 20-year-old students are independent because they support "nieces" and "cousins." Even on $500 annual income. (5) Separated is separated...PERIOD! Your husband off to the grocery store for some milk? Hell, YEAH you're separated! (6) Every student deserves full Pell and we will find a way to MAKE IT HAPPEN! Woot woot!
Socle's Three Pillars: (1) Our students DO NOT lie, EVER. (2) We will NOT inconvenience a student by asking for documentation beyond the absolute minimum that we think we can get away with. (3) "Conflicting Information" is an imaginary concept and we will NOT acknowledge its existence. Go Socle! Yay team!
DOE, if you're reading this -- EVEYTHING about Socle is underhanded and designed to skirt the regs and efficiently pull in millions of dollars. In some cases we probably manage to skirt the regulation and may have a defense, but in others we are blatantly supporting fraud. You don't need ex-managers to tell you that. Just send in a team and comb through our files. Everything pushed through, no questions asked.