In the face of a staggering state deficit and a delay on essential Cal Grant payments, students can breathe a sigh of relief with confirmation that funding will be made available in early spring, with the university alleviating any immediate shortages through such solutions as advancing funds to students or allowing them to register without payment.
All state funding for Cal Grants planned for February ““ some $13 million to be paid to the California Student Aid Commission ““ will be delayed for 30 days, said Hallye Jordan, a spokeswoman for the State Controller’s Office.
“Right now the state controller is forced to withhold some payments in order to preserve cash in February for payments he has to make,” Jordan said.
However, the funding will be released to the commission, the organization that manages Cal Grants, in the spring, and IOUs will not be issued, Jordan said.
Cal Grants are California’s main student grant program, relied upon by 6,800 students at UCLA to pay for enrollment, said Ronald W. Johnson, the director of UCLA’s Financial Aid Office, in a transcript provided by UCLA spokeswoman Claudia Luther.
For now, it is up to individual university systems to supplement state funding for grants during the month of February.
“We have been talking with the Student Aid Commission and the UCs and CSUs to see if they will be able to provide assistance to students without state funding for 30 days,” Jordan said. “The commission is going school-to-school and system-to-system.”
To compensate for delayed funds, the UCLA Financial Aid Office has made clear their intention to address the shortage with minimal disruption to students.
“Among the possibilities are that the university could advance these funds to students or allow them to register without paying the fees until the state budget issue is resolved,” Johnson said.
Additional relief will come from the California Student Aid Commission, which will release $148.9 million in spring advance funding for Cal Grants, said spokeswoman Yvonne Stewart-Buchen.
The commission decides how much money will be available for student grants by reviewing the amount released the previous year. This year’s funding will drop by 15 percent.
“This amount represents 85 percent of past grant actuals that we paid to institutions in 2007 to 2008,” Stewart-Buchen said. “So it is less than what is typically disseminated.”
She added that she does not know if it will cover all of the Cal Grants. The difference must be made up by individual universities and university systems.
The controller’s funding freeze is only one in a sequence of grim projections regarding the affordability of California higher education. According to Johnson, next year’s Cal Grants are also in danger, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed a range of cuts to their funding for the 2009-2010 school year.
However, both the University of California system and UCLA specifically are stepping in to avert a potential drop in enrollment.
System-wide, University of California President Mark Yudof will advance a proposal to augment financial aid programs, according to the Los Angeles Times. His plan would cover academic fees for students from low-income families in addition to simplifying complex aid procedures to encourage more students to apply.
Here at UCLA, Chancellor Gene Block recently implemented the Bruin Scholars Initiative, a major fundraising effort aiming to raise $500 million for undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships by 2013.
Students and administrators hope that this coordinated effort within the institution will offset the consequences of the state’s cuts to higher education.