FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CATHERINE GRAHAM KASAKOFF NAMED DIRECTOR OF FINANCIAL AID AT
LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY IN LOS ANGELES

Januaryary 29, 2004 -- Catherine Graham Kasakoff has been named director of financial aid at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, effective immediately. With 15 years experience in financial aid administration, Kasakoff has served both the lending industry and student financial assistance and admissions programs at three private Los Angeles institutions of higher education, including the University of Southern California.

"Catherine's professional experience has prepared her to bring unique benefits to LMU," said Joseph A. Merante, associate vice president for Academic Affairs at LMU. "She has worked at one of the largest private universities in the nation, balancing high volume and a large budget, and at a small institution where personal service to students is embedded in the daily activities of the financial aid staff. Add to this her strong financial background in the student lending industry, and it would be difficult to find a better fit. We look forward with great anticipation to the contributions she will make to LMU."

The LMU director of financial aid administers $95 million in undergraduate and graduate financial aid programs, maintains records pertinent to student awards, and coordinates these activities across the institution. At LMU, 70% percent of students receive some form of financial aid as an extension of the university's social justice mission. Improving the student financial aid experience, strategic financial aid planning and marketing, aid packaging, integrating admission and financial aid activities, debt management, and lender optimization are increasingly critical to LMU's success, Merante noted. The director's other duties include formulating student budgets, providing in-depth financial counseling and training to staff, maintaining accurate records, and disbursing financial aid.

Kasakoff will participate as a member of an enrollment management team including the associate vice president for academic affairs, faculty, the director of admissions, registrar, financial affairs, and other members of the LMU academic and student affairs community to address the university's strategic enrollment goals.

Kasakoff joins the university from Versura, Inc., Venture Think LLC, in Washington, D.C., a brokerage house in the education loan industry. As western regional account manager for Versura, she was responsible for providing services and introducing loan management paradigms to higher education institutions and the lending community for the Web-driven brokerage house. Her job included developing competitive RFPs to match lenders with students at higher education institutions.

Before that, she was financial aid director at Whittier College in Whittier, Calif., where she managed $35 million in financial aid grant, loan, and work programs for 1,500 students. There she integrated financial aid and admissions recruitment practices to streamline and support enrollment strategies to improve the quality of the student body. From 1999 to 2000, Princeton Review's annual college guidebook ranked Whittier in the Top 10 of institutions for which students were most satisfied with their financial aid experience.

Kasakoff previously served as assistant director of the financial aid office at the University of Southern California (USC), acting director of student financial assistance at Northrup University in Los Angeles, and assistant director in the office of admissions at Northrup. She has a Master's degree in public administration from USC and a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from the University of Redlands.

"As the face of higher education changes in America," said Kasakoff, "financial aid administration becomes the convergence point of key institutional issues of recruitment and retention, diversity, access, pricing and discounting, and generating revenue. I look forward to these opportunities and challenges at LMU."

About Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles
Founded in 1911, Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles is the eighth largest of the nation's 28 Jesuit colleges and universities. With a strong base in the liberal arts, LMU serves more than 5,300 undergraduates and nearly 3,000 graduate students. LMU includes four colleges: the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, the College of Business Administration, the College of Communication and Fine Arts, and the College of Science and Engineering, as well as the School of Education, the School of Film and Television, the Graduate Division, Continuing Education, and Loyola Law School. For more information, visit the LMU website at www.lmu.edu.