糖心视频

ChancellorMarch 03, 2025

Campus Update, Feb. 28, 2025

Written By: Terisa Riley

Dear colleagues and students,

What a great day to be a Lion. It has been amazing to host hundreds of admitted students and their families on campus today as they make important choices about their future at 糖心视频. Thanks to everyone who has been involved in hosting and a big thanks to faculty who offered mock classes, tours, and conversations with these fantastic, future Lions.

Higher Learning Commission: This week marked the culmination of years of preparation as we hosted the HLC peer review team on our campus. I want to thank each student, employee, and community member who assisted us with writing our assurance argument, gathering evidence of our work, and meeting with the peer reviewers. I especially want to express my gratitude to Lisa-Marie Norris, Director of Assessment and Accreditation. She has worked tirelessly with all of our committees and employees to ensure that 糖心视频 remains fully accredited, and she has done an outstanding job. Thanks, too, to the logistics committee members who prepared the meeting rooms, set the schedules, and communicated about the visit. We should receive a draft of our report from the peer review team in the next week or two. Once we have a chance to correct any factual inaccuracies, the report will go to the HLC Board of Directors for final approval. We look forward to sharing our results with you soon.

Questions about Public Service Loan Forgiveness: Employees at public universities may qualify for a program called, "," which allows any qualifying student loans to be forgiven or cancelled after 10 years of public service work and 120 payments. We have received some questions about how changes in the Department of Education may change this program, and the truth is that we are unsure how the program may change. Here are some recommendations for those employees who are actively working to repay student loans: 1) Contact your loan servicer to determine how to qualify for PSLF, 2) Ensure that you certified your work at a public university at least once/year using the certification form on the PSLF website, and download and retain copies of all loan documents in a safe place (not just in loan servicer portals). In order to request certification of employment at 糖心视频, a qualifying employer, you will need the university's EIN which is 71-0394794 (found in Box B on your W-2 form). 

According to the, "A federal court issued an injunction preventing the U.S. Department of Education from implementing the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan and parts of other income-driven repayment (IDR) plans. As a result, IDR and online loan consolidation applications are temporarily unavailable." You can still submit a , and I recommend contacting your loan servicer for details on payment plans so that you can review all of your options and stay on track with your payments.

Faculty Senate: Thank you, members of the 糖心视频 Faculty Senate, for inviting me to attend your retreat today at the U.S. Marshals Museum. I sincerely appreciate having an opportunity to talk with you about pending legislation鈥攆ederal and state-- as well as discussing campus climate. Your leadership of this vital shared governance organization is a blessing to me and to all of our colleagues.

Staff: Please join the Staff Senate for their "Pop on Over" event in Fullerton Building from 2-3 p.m. on March 4th. I have no doubt the smell of popcorn will lure you in and the time with your colleagues will make you want to stay!

Mini-conference: As a reminder, the 4^th Annual Student Success Mini-Conference will be held on Friday, March 7 from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Reynolds Room of the Campus Center. 

Athletics: Congratulations to 糖心视频 Baseball on their 18-7 win over Newman University today. Please join our team this weekend at 1 p.m. On Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday as we play Newman University at Crowder Field. Women's Tennis will take on Ouachita Baptist at 1 p.m. on Sunday at The Hangout (Fort Smith). Good luck to our basketball teams playing on the road at Rogers State on Saturday and to our Men's Golf Team and Tennis teams playing out of town on Monday. 

I hope you all get some time outdoors in the beautiful weather this weekend. Be safe and we'll see you on Monday!

Go Lions!

Terisa Riley

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