Editor’s Note: This article is a continuation of City on a Hill Press’s coverage published last quarter on the FAFSA distribution delay. Many of the same sources were interviewed to follow updates on their aid distribution as well as conversations with administration surrounding the issue.

After raising the alarm to the administration about financial aid disbursement delays and their consequences for students last quarter, student leaders met with administrators Jan. 8 and agreed upon terms to improve financial aid disbursement for students. 

The terms included:

  • Establishing a Jan. 24 deadline for students to receive their winter quarter aid this year
  • Agreeing that the Financial Aid and Scholarship Office (FASO) will proactively reach out to students who have not completed the requirements to receive their aid or who may experience delays 
  • Adding more FASO hours to accommodate students’ schedules
  • Conveying to the student body the university’s plan for improvement and explaining the disbursement delays
  • Maintaining a 48-hour time frame in responding to student emails

Typically, aid is dispersed before the start of fall quarter in September. However, complications with the rollout of the newly implemented FAFSA Simplification Act forced FASO to process applications on an abnormal timeline this year. As a result, some students did not receive financial aid until near the end of fall quarter. 

“Without financial aid, we have this domino effect where people’s housing is getting affected, they can’t apply for EBT, so they can’t eat,” said Elsie Vizcarra, chair of Engaging Education (e²). “It’s this domino effect of so many awful things happening to students.”

Some reported reaching out to FASO repeatedly while progress with receiving their aid remained stagnant.

Vinny Fortunato, a second-year double majoring in music and cognitive science, did not receive his financial aid for fall quarter until Dec. 3. Fortunato’s FAFSA application was selected for additional verification over the summer. He submitted the necessary documents and anticipated a small delay in his aid as a result. Despite FASO telling him he had filled everything out correctly, his aid didn’t arrive until week 10.

“It was a constant message from [FASO] that, ‘oh, it would just be one more week,’ which turned into several more weeks, which turned into one more month, which turned into several months,” Fortunato said. “It was difficult for me to grasp that seeing as how I am almost entirely responsible for paying for my housing and tuition all on my own.” 

Fortunato initiated all contact with FASO. It wasn’t until his third meeting with the office that FASO told him that they had placed him on a priority list to receive his aid. He had to visit them two more times before his aid finally came through. Unable to pay tuition without aid, an enrollment hold was placed on his account.

“Had I been able to have my aid on time and pay my charges due on my account, I would have been able to have early enrollment and thus a wider selection of classes to choose from,” Fortunato said. “One of my proposed majors is in music, and I was trying to take a music theory class. But I couldn’t get into it because it had filled up before I could enroll.”

After hearing from students about their struggles navigating disbursement delays and enrollment holds, Ch.U.C.K — the retention collective of Engaging Education (e²) — along with Student Union Assemble (SUA) officers and Vizcarra, released a statement on Instagram Nov. 12 about the crisis. The post called for the university to support and take action for students who had still not received their financial aid, highlighting that delays have affected low-income, first-generation students of color in particular. 

Four representatives, each from a different organization housed under e², make up the Ch.U.C.K retention collective. These organizations include Chicanx and Latine Educandose, UMOJA, Community Unified Student Network, and Kuya Ate Mentorship Program. e² is UCSC’s Student-Initiated Outreach and Retention Center for student engagement and academic excellence.

“It is unbelievable that the last thing on this campus as a student that you’re thinking about is your academics. The first thing on your mind is being able to pay for this expensive fucking school and if you’re going to get housing,” Vizcarra said. “If so many other things are on your mind and the last thing is being a student, that to me is completely unacceptable.”

In the wake of the Instagram post, students with past-due balances of “up to a few thousand dollars” had their holds temporarily lifted, Director of FASO Lorena Rodriguez wrote in a Nov. 25 email to City on a Hill Press. 

Despite serving the more than 13,000 students who receive a form of financial aid, just 28 full-time employees, two temporary staff, and seven part time student peer advisors constitute the FASO staff. Rodriguez emphasized that FASO is implementing measures to ensure a smoother disbursement process going into the next academic year.

“We had an extraordinary year, and we worked very hard,” Rodriguez said. “It was very difficult for the financial aid office, but the most difficult part was to see that many students without financial aid packages. One of the things that we really take to heart is that this is not gonna happen again. We as an office will be doing advocacy at the different levels to make sure that we mitigate impacts.”

The Jan. 8 meeting was another step in the effort to hold administration accountable for meeting student needs. 

Since the meeting, FASO in-person, drop-in advising has remained open for an additional hour in the evening, now closing at 5 p.m. instead of 4 p.m. Administrators agreed to attend the Feb. 4 SUA meeting to revisit the issue with student leaders and discuss how they can be a more effective resource for students. Fortunato received his winter quarter aid on time. 

Despite an apparent improvement from the fall, student organizers plan to continue their advocacy for struggling students, especially amid the budget deficit plaguing the university. Vizcarra encourages all students to get involved with an organization on campus to foster communal support. 

“I strongly feel that students need to start joining spaces on campus, students need to start getting involved,” Vizcarra said. “Where I have been able to feel a lot better being on campus has been with these student orgs, in realizing the power in advocating for yourself and your community. I will not let UCSC administrators take away that spark that UCSC has. I want students to remember that we have the power on this campus. We’ve always had the power on this campus.”