As California lawmakers fight over a long-overdue budget, thousands of community-college students are caught in the crossfire. Many of the neediest students are left waiting for state Cal Grants that could make the difference between their paying their bills or dropping out.
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4 comments:
Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but from a structural viewpoint a community college would need to set up a new role or redefine the existing role to meet the students needs. Possibly a new system to identify the students that needs help and also
identify possible alternative sources for money for the students.
From a structural standpoint, the inability for students to get loans seems to touch just about every part of the community college: future classes are based on past enrollment figures, so, to begin with, the registrar, the individual departments, the fulltime faculty, facilities managers, etc. will be impacted if the student population suddenly drops.
Because there is less money coming in, the impact spreads to the HR view: faculty is laid off, facilities may be shut down,and the community itself will take a hit.
Politically, the repercussions are also important. All the constituents of southern California community colleges are at risk if the fundamental mission of these insitutions, serving the community, becomes moot because students cannot afford to attend.
Kathy and Tim,
Great job! Looking at alternative ways to meet student's financial needs is very important and a good way use of the structural frame. Yes, this does touch every aspect of the college. Many of the frames will help us look at this problem more efficiently.
In looking at this excerpt from the Chronicle I would hope that the students that are caught in this crossfire are not currently enrolled and awaiting to see if they receive aid mid semester.
The other course that I am enrolled in this semester is all about the community college and this past week we were talking about FTE numbers, enrollment numbers, and planning for the future. One of the take home messages that I took from class was that one of the driving features of community colleges was that they are convient and affordable. If you take financial aid away from students funding, enrollment, and faculty numbers will all decrease.
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