Soon there are going to be district-wide changes for all the Metropolitan Community College campuses regarding the distribution of financial aid checks and the current tuition payment plan.

"The enrollment management areas at the college [admissions, access, advising, financial aid, bookstore, payment services, orientation, registration and testing] have been reevaluated over the past year and processes are changing to align better with student need," said Tuesday Stanley, Vice Chancellor of Student Development and Enrollment Management.

The recommendation to look at better technology for students to make payments online came from this process review study.

The decision has been made to adopt the Touch Net system, which requires all students who use the payment plan to have a bank account. There are no options being given to students regarding this plan. This new system will require a student to have all of his or her tuition available up front at the time of payment, if they do not have a bank account.

Are students going to be denied access to college?

Once a student has filled out paper work giving their bank account information, the Touch Net system is set up to debit one's account every month. If the student does not have a bank account, they cannot use the payment plan.

For students receiving financial aid, there is good news. Because of anticipated problems with "one size fits all," there are some options that the administration is going to implement.

The first option will be the direct deposit of financial aid checks into one's bank account. If a student does not have a bank account or does not want their check direct deposited, the checks can be mailed or arrangements will be made for students to pick up their checks.

The problem some of the financial aid recipients will have is if their check has not arrived and they sign up for the payment plan while waiting for their check. These individuals would have to have a bank account as well.

When asked about what prompted these changes, Penn Valley's Dean of Students, Lisa Minis, stated, "These kinds of decisions are made at a completely different level than on the campus. With regard to some of the changes that are happening, regardless of the fact that I don't support them and don't think they're good for our students, that's not always taken into consideration. [That is the case for] any of the deans from any of the campuses."

Minis also said that, in the past, there have been problems with how financial aid checks were distributed. Staff from every area of student services would be pulled from their departments for two or three hours to help hand out checks to approximately 1200 students in one day. The process was cumbersome, with students arriving hours ahead of time and standing in long lines - fights were even breaking out.

It is still being debated whether the new process will be implemented as early as this summer semester or if it will be implemented for the fall semester. Efforts to inform students about the upcoming changes will be made through e-mails and fliers put up around campus, and by notifying financial aid recipients when they come into the financial aid office.

Many Penn Valley students do not have bank accounts. How is this new procedure going to affect them? How might it affect you? Are students literally going to be denied access to school?

Penn Valley has a large number of refugees, international students, and permanent residents that attend classes. Not all of those students are allowed to have bank accounts because they are not American citizens. Many of those students are on the school's tuition payment plan. What are those students going to do?

One possible outcome is that a lot of students might be sent away in the fall.

It was recommended that a time period of one year be given to set up financial aid workshops - workshops on how to be financially responsible - and to bring in bank representatives with information on how to open up a bank account. However, it is not likely that those things will happen, because there is not enough time before Touch Net goes into effect.

Many people will be impacted by these upcoming changes, and some positive problem-solving is going to have to occur between now and the fall semester. Spectrum will continue to follow this issue and provide updates for our readers. Write us at editor@mcckc.edu if you want to express an opinion on the issue.

Copyright 2008 Metropolitan Community College