Bottleneck Reported on Student Grants

Officials at the Ventura County Community College District should hire more workers to process financial aid applications, making it easier for students to apply for grants, a task force has recommended.

A committee of the college district concludes in a report that drastic steps should be taken to overhaul the financial aid programs at Oxnard, Moorpark and Ventura colleges.

Each of the three campuses has reported serious backlogs in processing thousands of applications for federal grants this semester.

Oxnard College has more than 1,000 incomplete applications, officials there said.

College district trustees will be asked next month to approve a plan to remedy the bottleneck.

“I’m willing to put some money into financial aid,” said John Tallman, who defeated Trustee Karen M. Boone in the Nov. 8 election and will take a seat on the governing board next month.

“We’ve been underspending and it’s killing us,” Tallman said.

“We’re heading toward driving the poor kids out of school. We have to protect that access (to financial aid), and it’s also good business.”

The committee recommended that computer terminals be placed at locations throughout the district so students could check their applications without disturbing staff. It also recommends that seasonal help be brought in to speed up processing.

“I don’t disagree with any of those recommendations,” Trustee Timothy D. Hirschberg said Monday.

“Certainly there’s a cost factor, but we can work around those with existing staff and existing resources.”