|
Publication Date: October 22, 2007 Author: William Leith, Acting General Manager, Application, Operations and Delivery Services, Federal Student Aid Summary: Availability of EDExpress for Windows 2007-2008, Release 3.1 Posted on 10-22-2007 Federal Student Aid is pleased to announce the posting of EDExpress for Windows 2007-2008, Release 3.1, on the Department's Federal Student Aid Download (FSAdownload) Web site, located at http://fsadownload.ed.gov. Release 3.1 incorporates two major enhancements to EDExpress 2007-2008:
We also reposted versions of the following 2007-2008 EDESuite documentation to the FSAdownload Web site to address the TG number or Direct PLUS Loan MPN changes:
TG Number Enhancement In order to address the increased number of users requiring authentication for the SAIG, TG numbers can now contain alpha-numeric characters in the third position (after "TG"), such as TGA0001. TG numbers containing letters will be assigned by Federal Student Aid. After installing Release 3.1, you will be able to enter a TG number with a letter in the third position in the TG # field in FAA Setup (Tools, Setup, Global, FAA Access) and in the FAA Access Authentication and Automation Information dialog box that displays when you access the FAA Access to CPS Online Web site from within EDExpress. Note : Users with existing, all-numeric TG numbers, such as TG50001, are not affected by this change. Direct PLUS Loan MPN Enhancement The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved a revised Direct PLUS Loan MPN under OMB Control Number 1845-0068, with a new expiration date of 08/31/2010. The new revised Direct PLUS Loan MPN will be used for both parent borrowers and graduate and professional student borrowers. EDExpress 2007-2008 users must upgrade to Release 3.1 in order to print Direct PLUS Loan MPNs on the revised form. The new form is available for bulk ordering now and will be shipped after October 24, 2007. Once a school begins providing the revised Direct PLUS Loan MPN to borrowers, it must discontinue use of the current Direct PLUS Loan Borrower Rights and Responsibilities (BRR) and the addendum that accompanies the current Direct PLUS Loan MPN. When you select MPN-PLUS as the report type to print, the following statement prints in Section A: I am a Parent of a Dependent Undergraduate Student. When you select MPN-Grad PLUS as the report type to print, the following statement prints in Section A: I am a Graduate or Professional Student. During the period October 12-13, 2007, Federal Student Aid updated the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) System with functionality that supports the implementation of the revised Direct PLUS Loan MPN. You should note the following key implementation dates:
For complete Direct PLUS Loan MPN implementation information, see Direct Loan Bulletin (DLB) 07-20, available on the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site at http://ifap.ed.gov/dlbulletins/DLB0720.html. Important Note Regarding Tuition Sensitivity (Low Tuition) Changes As explained in Dear Colleague Letter P-07-02, the College Cost Reduction and Access Act (the CCRAA), Pub. L. 110-84, modifies the award rules for the Federal Pell Grant (Pell Grant) Program. Specifically, the "tuition sensitivity" provision of section 401(b)(3) of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA), is repealed, retroactively to the 2007-2008 Award Year. As a result, the "Alternate" Payment and Disbursement Schedules published in Dear Colleague Letter P-07-01 may no longer be used. All Pell Grant awards for the 2007-2008 Award Year must be determined using the "Regular" Payment and Disbursement Schedules. Users of 2007-2008 EDExpress Release 3.1 should refer to the electronic announcement posted to IFAP on October 12, 2007 for detailed guidance regarding how to identify and update all student records in EDExpress with 2007-2008 Pell Grant awards that were determined using the "Alternate" Payment and Disbursement Schedules. Before You Install Release 3.1 Before upgrading to Release 3.1 from an earlier EDExpress 2007-2008 release, ensure you have a valid, reliable backup copy of your current production EDExpress 2007-2008 database (expres78.mdb). You must also make sure there are no record locks on the database and that no user IDs are logged in by following the steps listed below: 1) To check for record locks, select Tools, Utilities, Clear Locks from the menu bar. If you receive the message “No records selected,” there are no record locks. If the Clear Locks dialog box appears, click Select All, then OK to clear any record locks. 2) To check for logged-in user IDs, select Tools, Setup, Global, Security Users from the menu bar, and then click Retrieve. The user ID you are currently using should be the only ID with a “Y” displayed in the Logged In column (you can disregard the Locked column). Select any user ID displayed as logged in and click OK. Clear the Logged In? checkbox and click OK. Repeat the process for each logged-in user ID except the one you are using. After clearing any record locks and logging out any user IDs, run the Compact and Repair Database and Verify Database utilities by selecting Tools, Utilities from the menu bar. You should run Compact and Repair Database first, then Verify Database, and lastly run Compact and Repair Database again. Release 3.1 Download/Installation Process Release 3.1 is available on the FSAdownload Web site in two formats. You can download the entire software in one file, called express78r31.exe, or you can download the software in separate “disk” installment files, which can be copied to a Local Area Network (LAN) drive or CDs. Review the download and installation instructions in the EDExpress for Windows 2007-2008 Installation Guide for further information. You are required to have Windows 2000 or Windows XP as your PC workstation operating system to run Release 3.1. Note: At this time, Federal Student Aid has not certified the Microsoft Corporation’s recently released Windows Vista as a supported operating system for EDExpress or its other PC software products. This guidance also applies to the Local Area Network (LAN) or “server” version of Windows, known as Windows Server 2008, which is due for release in 2008. We will provide additional information as it becomes available. Important Installation Note: You must be an Administrator on your workstation to install EDExpress 2007-2008 in the Windows 2000 or Windows XP operating systems. If you are not an Administrator, you will receive a warning when you try to install EDExpress. After an Administrator has installed EDExpress, you can run EDExpress as a member of the Power Users group. If your database is on a network server, you must be a Power User or higher on the network (or “domain”) as well as on your workstation. No workarounds exist for these Windows rights issues. Consult with your school’s technical department if you receive a warning that an Administrator must install the EDExpress software. Release 3.1 can be installed as an upgrade to any previous version of EDExpress 2007-2008: Release 1.0, Release 2.0, or Release 3.0. In order to run an upgrade (or “Custom”) installation of Release 3.1, you must have Release 1.0, Release 2.0, or Release 3.0 installed. To upgrade to Release 3.1, select either the Stand Alone Custom (for standalone PC environments) or Workstation Custom (for LAN environments) option during installation. The Workstation installation option should be run on all PCs in your office that currently access the EDExpress 2007-2008 database on your LAN. Note: If you have not installed EDExpress 2007-2008 on your system, you can proceed directly to a Stand Alone Full or Network Server/Workstation Full installation of Release 3.1. Remember, a Stand Alone Full or Network Server/Workstation Full installation will load a completely new, blank 2007-2008 EDExpress database to your system. If a database already exists for 2007-2008 on your system, a full installation of Release 3.1 will overwrite it and all data previously entered will be lost. If you receive any prompts during the Release 3.1 installation indicating an existing file was found and asking if you want to overwrite it, click Yes. After you upgrade to Release 3.1, reboot your PC, then log on to EDExpress 2007-2008 to allow the software to perform a one-time only database update. This update loads important changes to your database structure. If You Have Questions If you have any questions about downloading, installing, or using EDExpress 2007-2008, Release 3.1, contact CPS/SAIG Technical Support at 800/330-5947 (TDD/TTY 800/511-5806) or by e-mail at CPSSAIG@ed.gov. If you have technical questions about Federal Student Aid’s systems and software, you may want to subscribe to our e-mail listserv, FSATECH. For more information about FSATECH, including how to subscribe, go to http://FSA4Schools.ed.gov, click “Listserves/Mailing Lists” on the left menu, and click the “FSATech listserv” link. If you have questions regarding the COD System, contact the COD School Relations Center at 800/4PGRANT (800/474-7268) for ACG, National SMART Grant, and Pell Grant or 800/848-0978 for Direct Loan. You may also e-mail CODSupport@acs-inc.com. |