City College of San Francisco - California Competes

THEME IV
Many of the recommendations of the study are being implemented and will be documented in the End-of-
Year Assessment Report, Program Review, and the Self Study. The Admissions and Records Department has
achieved an impressive level of ongoing improvements, whether or not each of those resulted from the
re-engineering study, pre-dated it, or was associated with a series of discussions by A&R and the consultants.
The bottom line is that these improvements have facilitated student learning by stripping away
“red tape” and allowing students better access to all that the College has to offer.
Financial Aid: Focusing Institutional Attention. In the structure of the College, Financial Aid is part of
the Student Development Division. Financial Aid has an impact directly affecting over 10,000 students
per academic year. The Financial Aid story begins in the early 1990s with a department that by all
accounts was in a state of crisis.
That crisis had many dimensions. Without belaboring the negatives, suffice it to say that the Financial
Aid Office at that time fielded a constant litany of student complaints, suffered from extremely low staff
morale, was not making use of all available technologies, and experienced a very heavy backlog of cases.
The flexibility of the College Planning and Budgeting System, in putting outside resources to the service
of internal improvement, has been responsible for a considerable turnaround in this area. A complete
redesign of services was stimulated by student satisfaction survey data, followed by a performance audit
by an outside entity, all with the full support of the College Planning and Budgeting System. Improving
Financial Aid was a top priority.
The Chancellor describes Financial Aid as “a tangible and critical part of the City College welcome
mat—an essential element of the College’s role in access and equity in higher education.” There is data
to support that claim: ongoing surveys by CCSF of local high school juniors and seniors indicate that
about 25 percent of local students aspiring to college see finances as a significant barrier, one that actually
causes them not to enroll. Providing information about available financial aid greatly helps to level the
playing field for low-income students, including many in underrepresented groups.
In the early 1990s, CCSF was not succeeding in leveling the playing field as well as it hoped to. In fact,
as early as 1995, Financial Aid at the College was acknowledged as an office in deep trouble, although the
path to improvement was far from clear. Student and employee surveys showed low levels of satisfaction
with the Office, which had been put on Watch Status in its 1995 Program Review. There was concern
that students were not getting timely and complete information about the availability of financial aid,
and were not getting the high-quality service they had a right to expect when applying for aid. There
were unsuccessful attempts to improve the situation; these apparently did not address the multiple roots
of the dysfunction.
Planning. In 1998, under the Chancellor’s leadership, the College began to take a more systematic
approach to resolving the problems in the Office. While the 1997 Strategic Plan was still in force, a routine
review of the implementation status of the Plan resulted in a planning update document, including plans
for improvements to Financial Aid. Strategic planning seemed the best vehicle in terms of the internal
planning system for making key improvements in the Office, but it was felt that seeking outside advice
to inform strategic planning in this area would be the smart thing to do.
300 CITY COLLEGE OF SAN FRANCISCO