Stricter delinquent fee policies
Jennifer Hua
Issue date: 10/29/09 Section: News
More than $9 million in student delinquent fees at EC caused the administration to take action against students who still have not paid their dues, Ann Garten, director of community relations said.
When the fall semester began, 22.5 percent of the students still owed $100 or more in fees.
Community colleges receive funding from the state of California and it assumes that the colleges will collect all the enrollment fees that are due.
Because of that, a "backfill" is not provided for the uncollected fees and it impacts the college, Garten said.
"When students do not pay their fees, it reduces the amount of funding the college receives, which negatively impacts our ability to provide support services to students, classes, instructors and support staff for the various student services," she said.
Since these unpaid fees limit the amount of services provided to students, the number of student support activities are reduced.
This also confines the amount of access students have to student services.
"I remember when I had to print out my unofficial transcript to turn into a club. I couldn't gain access because I hadn't paid off everything yet," Denise Herd, English major said. "It was blocked off for me until I turned in all the money I owed."
Along with losing access to college transcripts, students are also prevented from registering for future classes, receiving financial aid at another institution and gaining athletic team eligibility at another institution.
In the past, students were dropped from classes if their fees were not paid, but a few years ago, the college changed the policy.
In the new policy, students were not dropped from their classes, but were sent a bill with their unpaid fees each semester.
"When the process changed from dropping students from classes if their fees were not paid, to a procedure of not dropping students and sending billing letters instead, delinquent fees began to create a loss of funding for EC," Garten said.
When the fall semester began, 22.5 percent of the students still owed $100 or more in fees.
Community colleges receive funding from the state of California and it assumes that the colleges will collect all the enrollment fees that are due.
Because of that, a "backfill" is not provided for the uncollected fees and it impacts the college, Garten said.
"When students do not pay their fees, it reduces the amount of funding the college receives, which negatively impacts our ability to provide support services to students, classes, instructors and support staff for the various student services," she said.
Since these unpaid fees limit the amount of services provided to students, the number of student support activities are reduced.
This also confines the amount of access students have to student services.
"I remember when I had to print out my unofficial transcript to turn into a club. I couldn't gain access because I hadn't paid off everything yet," Denise Herd, English major said. "It was blocked off for me until I turned in all the money I owed."
Along with losing access to college transcripts, students are also prevented from registering for future classes, receiving financial aid at another institution and gaining athletic team eligibility at another institution.
In the past, students were dropped from classes if their fees were not paid, but a few years ago, the college changed the policy.
In the new policy, students were not dropped from their classes, but were sent a bill with their unpaid fees each semester.
"When the process changed from dropping students from classes if their fees were not paid, to a procedure of not dropping students and sending billing letters instead, delinquent fees began to create a loss of funding for EC," Garten said.
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