Statutory Creation, Composition, and Powers of the Mississippi Postsecondary

Statutory Creation, Composition, and Powers of the Mississippi Postsecondary Education Financial Assistance Board. The Postsecondary Education Financial Assistance Board, hereafter referred to as the Board or the Postsecondary Board, was first created in 1975 to administer the state’s guaranteed student loan program. The Board was later given authority for the state’s primary grant programs. In 2014, all state student grant and forgivable loan programs were consolidated under the authority of the Board. I. The Board will consist of the following nine (9) voting members: A. Two (2) people to be appointed by the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning, one (1) from its membership and one (1) institutional representative; B. Two (2) people to be appointed by the Mississippi Community College Board, one (1) from its membership and one (1) institutional representative; C. Two (2) people to be appointed by the Governor; D. Two (2) people to be appointed by the Executive Director of the Mississippi Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, one (1) association representative and one (1) institutional representative; E. One (1) person to be appointed by the Lieutenant Governor. II. The following elected officials will serve as non-voting advisory members to the Board: A. The Chairman of the House Universities and Colleges Committee and B. The Chairman of the Senate Universities and Colleges Committee. III. The board shall elect from its membership a chairman. IV. The members of the board shall serve without pay. V. The board is vested with full and complete authority and power to sue in its own name any person for any balance, including principal, interest and reasonable collection costs or attorney's fees, due and owing the state on any uncompleted contract. VI. The board shall promulgate rules and regulations to govern the state grant and forgivable loan programs authorized in this chapter.