Colleges to Offer Phone Registration

A long-awaited plan to provide Ventura County’s community college students with telephone registration is finally within reach, according to officials from the Ventura County Community College District.

Although the district has been discussing the program for six years, officials said Tuesday that the new service--allowing students to register and drop classes from any touch-tone phone--will be in place by the 1996 fall semester.

The system will be fully funded by a user fee of $3, which will be charged each time a student registers or drops classes using touch-tone registration.

But those funds will not be harnessed until next fall, so on Tuesday the district approved a $235,000 loan from the general fund to pay for start-up costs, such as software and hardware upgrades.

“We are getting on the bandwagon now,” Trustee Allan Jacobs said. “Other districts have done it and they say it saves money and time.”

Although some students objected to the $3 user fee when it was approved last year, Shawn Brennan, the board’s student representative for Oxnard College, said most students are anxiously awaiting the new service. In addition to calling, students will still be able to register in person.

“In terms of convenience, it is a tremendous advantage versus standing in line,” he said. “I think students would gladly trade standing in line for the $3.”

But Lance Lewis, the district’s student trustee from Moorpark College, said he plans to propose that the board roll back the $3 fee to $2 once start-up costs have been paid.

“There is no reason they have to keep [the fee] in place from now until the end of time,” he said. “If you nickel and dime the students to death, you are going to drive them right out of school.”