Colleges Seek to End Financial Aid Snags

A team of community college officials is trying to figure out how to solve the district’s continuing problems with its financial aid system.

Members meeting for the first time late Wednesday elected a chairman and laid out their goals: devising swift new methods of packaging and processing the thousands of applications the district receives annually.

The Ventura County Community College District, which runs campuses in Ventura, Oxnard and Moorpark, formed the panel late last year after trustees expressed concern over how long it takes students to receive a check.

Huge backlogs in processing applications came to the trustees’ attention last semester.

Moorpark College Vice President Raymond Di Guilio, named chairman of the financial aid subcommittee, said the schools need to incorporate new technology in processing applications.

“The length of time it takes for a student to receive financial aid is almost ridiculous,” he said.

Others suggested bringing in an outside consultant to review the systems and make recommendations for improvement. But three similar studies compiled in the last year have gone unimplemented due to a lack of funding, members said.

Trustee Pete E. Tafoya, the only board member on the panel, said he wants to review existing district policies that seem to weed out eligible students and make appeals difficult.

“We’re losing students who are in dire need of financial support,” he said.

The subcommittee plans to submit a series of recommendations to the governing board by April.