Default Prevention Step 2: Organize Your Default Team

In Step 1, we talked about the importance of cross-institutional participation in understanding why default is an issue at your school. The perspective of various departments continues to play a key role throughout your default prevention efforts. When building a default prevention team, you should include key players from both the financial aid office and from other areas of your institution. Possible members may include:

• Financial aid office personnel
• Representatives from key student service offices
• Student affairs
• Academic faculty and academic advisors
• Enrollment management/admissions officers
• Student accounts staff
• Placement office representatives
• Students

Once you have formed a team, take steps to formulate an action plan, such as:

• Determine the source of your default risk
• Decide what steps your school will take to reduce default risk
• Recruit from all areas of the institution (including management and students) to help you create risk-reduction activities
• Allocate school resources toward default reduction activities
• Assess the effectiveness of default reduction activities over time

For more information about creating a plan for your school, visit our Default Prevention page or view Step 1.