City College of San Francisco - California Competes

THEME IV
The College contacted the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) for
guidance in addressing the Financial Aid challenge in a systematic fashion. In 1999, NASFAA pulled
together a team of financial aid professionals from various colleges who spent a couple of weeks at CCSF,
doing a complete review of all aspects of the operation; essentially a performance audit. In 2000, goals
were identified in the Student Development Education Plan, effectively serving to operationalize
the decision to revamp Financial Aid services.
In 2000, when the current Dean of Financial Aid, Jorge Bell, came into his position, the improvement
process further accelerated. At that time, the backlog of financial aid paperwork was still considered to be
at unacceptable levels, with students having to wait practically all semester before their aid came through.
In July of 2001, administrators and staff came in evenings and weekends to get rid of the backlog of some
3,000 student applications, ensuring students would have their aid in place by the beginning of the semester.
The Dean of Financial Aid is emphatic in his characterization of that period: “We resolved never to go
through that again!”
In 2002, during the drafting of the Strategic Plan 2003-2008, expanding and promoting Financial Aid was
highlighted as the first plan under Strategic Objective 5. In the implementation of that Plan, references
to improving Financial Aid were transferred into several subsequent College Annual Plans. (Financial Aid
goes through an annual financial audit and a periodic CAL Grant audit, but these, although stringent,
are compliance-based rather than focused specifically on improving service.)
Implementation. Part of the strategy for turning that situation around in a lasting way was training.
Staff development activities began to take place as often as every week. The Office continued to seek
available outside advice. Reports the Dean, “The experts from Region 9 of the U.S. Department of
Education spent a whole day with us.” The Dean also coached a number of managers himself on an
ongoing basis. In addition, a branch of the California Student Aid Commission, the Ed Fund, has provided
staff with free customer service training. In 2001, a group of consultants was hired and a two-day staff
development retreat was held. Among other improvements, it was suggested that staff form internal
workgroups for addressing problems, such as the need that staff had identified for cross-training. 4 As a
means of implementing ongoing improvements, the Office later developed its own evaluation tool, which
it uses to assess the level of student satisfaction, determine work flow issues, and redeploy personnel
within the Office. With the aid of technology, processes were streamlined, so that instead of being
batched, data was entered with the student present at the counter. Also very importantly, the Financial
Aid Appeals Process is no longer carried out by staff, but by counselors who can advise students on ways
to stay in school without aid if need be, and who can set up an education plan with them.
Funding. Financial Aid, through the Student Development Division, received increased funding during
the years in question. From 2000 to the present, a high priority has been given to the improvement
of student services as a whole, and Financial Aid has been further emphasized as a high-impact service.
In addition, as California community college student fees have continued to rise, the state has diverted
former Partnership for Excellence funds into funding for increased financial aid outreach. The Office
began to work very closely with other departments in the Student Development Division, such as
Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS), Outreach and Recruitment, and the retention
programs. It also worked more closely with Public Information and Marketing. In 2004, state funding
for financial aid outreach financed bilingual marketing efforts to inform students of available financial
aid and included 1,200 cable and ethnic TV spots and the mailing of 380,000 postcards featuring
outstanding graduates of the College. Budgeting has been responsive to the Financial Aid case. Where
4 Other internal staff workgroups addressed flow processing, absenteeism, internal evaluation.
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