Index of Updates
September 2009
Brad Hardison
2009 CCCSFAAA President
Students, Students and More Students!
By the time you are reading this, your Fall semester should be well underway.
If your office is anything like mine, we have been experiencing high walk in and
phone traffic for two weeks prior to the start of our term and that’s with being
current with processing as of early August.
This, of course, reminds me why we are so needed by the students we serve. We
all know that the downturn in the economy is hitting our students and families
very hard. Not surprisingly they turn to our offices for assistance to help
finance their community college education. If we are lucky, we have the same
number of staff to serve more students. In some cases, we have had a reduction
in staff to assist an ever growing financial aid population.
The one bright note was the fact that the BFAAP-SFA funds were not cut in 2009
- 2010 like many other categorical programs (EOPS, DSPS, etc). I have to tell
you that CCCSFAAA played a role in explaining to legislators and staff the
difference of our program versus other programs. I want to especially thank
President Elect, Jacque Bradley and the State Issues Committee for their
tireless work in writing letters and testifying before committees.
Not only are we seeing record increases in applications but our funds have not
experienced any cost of living increases since the inception. Other categorical
programs have had that built into their programs during good revenue years.
Thus, the buying power of our BFAAP-SFA has been eroding especially with the
increase in salaries and benefits over time. I know many offices are struggling
to keep existing financial aid staff with increasing costs and no new money.
It does not appear that the 2010 – 2011 state budget will be any better than
this year's budget. We need to stay poised to advocate strongly for the programs
that matter to us and in some cases allow reductions where absolutely necessary.
Your support of CCCSFAAA assists us with doing that.
The other main mission of CCCSFAAA besides advocacy is training. Our premier
training event of the year is our annual conference. Our conference this year is
Thursday, December 10th through Saturday, December 12th in San Jose, California.
Please refer to the newsletter articles about the conference in this issue for
more details.
With the changes in regulation, it is essential we stay current with what we are
responsible for. The CCCSFAAA conference helps us in doing that in the large
range of program offerings. Please speak with your supervisor about attending. I
would love to see great statewide participation. Remember that BFAAP-SFA funds
can be used for this type of training. For those of you within driving distance
of San Jose, we offer a one day registration on Friday for $195.00. That is a
great deal if you cannot afford to attend the entire conference and pay for hotel
lodging. You still get one full day of conference offerings.
Sign up for the conference and make hotel
arrangements now!
I look forward to seeing many of you in San Jose in December!
