SWASFAA Board Meeting
September 28 - 29, 2009

With NASFAA changes to the traditional decentralized training, NMASFAA board met to discuss training options for our members. Since SWASFAA will be held in New Mexico in December, the board decided not to offer fall training, but encourage our membership to attend the SWASFAA training opportunities at the conference.

Decentralized training also presented an opportunity to conduct the fall business meeting as NMASFAA does not have a fall conference. With this opportunity not available, this year's fall business meeting will occur during the SWASFAA conference.

A special session of the New Mexico legislature has been called by Governor Richardson. This session is to deal with the financial shortfall the state is expecting this year. Governor Richardson has stated that he does not want to cut educational spending. In FY10, funding for state financial aid programs was not drastically cut. In fact, some programs received a small increase. With budgets tight, we hope higher education funding remains level.

Colleges and universities, on the other hand are planning for budget cuts. Last year, many state schools cut 5% of budget during the middle of the fiscal year. Once again, some schools are planning for another 5% recession during mid-year.

The Governor's Higher Education Summit, September 30 - October 2, brings various facets of the field together to discuss the successes and issues along with future goals of higher education in New Mexico. During the summit a meeting for higher education financial aid administrators will be held to discuss funding of state programs.

2010 NMASFAA conference will be held in Roswell, NM, March 31 - April 2 at the Roswell Conference Center.