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WASCUFA—A New Conference is Born

by Heidi Anderson

On Monday, March 21, 2005 more than 50 people gathered for the first annual Washington State Colleges and Universities Fiscal Association (WASCUFA) one-day Conference. The conference was hosted by the University of Washington Student Fiscal Services and was sponsored by UW vendors General Revenue Corp, Enterprise Recovery Systems and Campus Partners. It was held on the shores of Lake Union at the McCormick and Schmick’s Harborside restaurant. Sixteen colleges and universities across the state were represented. Schools from Eastern Washington – even as far as Vancouver, WA. -- were able to participate in sharing ideas, issues, concerns and thoughts for how to better our respective Fiscal Offices.

WASCUFA was a collaboration of ideas from Receivables Manager Sandie Rosko and SFS advisor Frannie Gladney who are both involved with the Washington State Financial Aid Association conference or WFAA. By their attendance at the WFAA conference they realized that there are unique challenges involved with fiscal activities and both felt a calling to reach out to colleges and universities with a conference of its own.

Participants were offered classes ranging from E-billing to Outsourcing collections. Linda Burkhardt from the Seattle office of the Department of Education office spoke in the morning. She addressed concerns schools had with Perkins lending and the President’s proposal that future funding cease.

Our own Outreach Unit from Student Fiscal Services had a booth open all day to showcase some of the ongoing efforts that SFS is committed to in the education and advising of students and departments within the UW community. In addition to the UW, there were presentations by collection agencies, Seattle University and Campus Partners (our billing servicer).

The day concluded with a talk by Financial Planner and CPA Susan Knox. Her topic included how to talk to students about financial matters and gave some great advice to those of us that deal daily with student financial issues.

Those in attendance hope this event will continue in the future as it is a way for schools to come together and talk, network, and face the challenge of an ever changing financial world for our student populations.