Luis Meza, computer science major, expected to receive his financial aid money on the first day of school; instead he received an email on Dec. 20 from financial aid stating that his money would not be available until Jan. 20.

This meant that Meza could not use the money for school purposes, “It’s not fair because they set the date for Jan. 10 and now it’s getting pushed back, I need the money to buy books for my classes.

“Not only do I need it for books, I also need it for necessities such as food, gas, and bills. My phone insurance is late because I don’t have the money to pay for it,” Meza added.

The push back is affecting students across campus that are dependent on the money they receive.

Jossue Carrillo, kinesiology major, also shared the same predicament as Meza. Carrillo said, “I was supposed to use the money to buy books for my classes but that’s going to have to wait,” as he was browsing the bookstore estimating the cost of his books.  

Jamie Quiroz, financial aid specialist, addressed that “system changes were the main reason,” why financial aid was pushed back.

Among the system changes included that every student that qualifies for financial aid have to meet the requirement of Satisfactory Academic Process (SAP).

The financial aid office now monitors a student’s academic progress by making sure each student meets certain regulations like maintaining a 2.0 GPA and the completion of units.

 “In the past we only monitored that once a year, now the Feds are changing it to be every semester.

“We had to make changes to our system to accommodate that, it was a pretty major change,” Quiroz said.

Along with all of the major changes the department underwent, it had to do a lot of testing, which started before the fall semester and was expected to be up and running before spring semester was in session.  

Quiroz said that they made the decision to postpone the disbursement date during the break, “Because that’s when we said ‘we’re getting too close, I don’t know if we’re going to get this done in time and we cannot disburse aid to students if they are not eligible.”

Kimberly Westby, dean of student support services, said, “We (financial aid) felt confident running disbursements the first day of school, because it’s actual enrollment versus anticipated enrollment.”  With anticipated enrollment there would be a fluctuation of adds and drops the Friday before school would start.

Quiroz added, “We disbursed on [Jan. 10] and it just takes time for the disbursements to go through students’ financial and fiscal services and Higher One and that is what takes Monday through Friday.”

Another determining factor that affects the arrival of money to students is how fast grades are posted.

With SAP being checked every semester, as opposed to every year, financial aid cannot release money to students until they have been checked to see if they are up to par with the requirements.

“We still have some small population of students that we’re waiting for their grades to be posted,” Quiroz said.

Late financial aid is not the only issue students are not happy about but they are not happy with their falcon card, which is backed up by HigherOne.

As of Jan. 2010, the cost to replace a lost or stolen card is $10 as opposed to $20, but all of the other fees remain the same.

It costs $.50 if a customer uses his PIN instead of a signature; it also charges an inactivity fee of $19 if the account has not been active for nine months and charges a $2.50 fee if it is used at a non-HigherOne ATM.

Meza said, “It (the fees) is not fair at all. It takes away from the financial aid we receive.”

Criminal justice major, Alberto Rodarte, thinks, “They should at least have an ATM on campus,” as a simple solution to avoid withdrawal fees.

A contract with School’s First Credit Union doesn’t allow Cerritos College to put a Higher One ATM on campus until the contract is expired in 2013.

The closest Higher One ATM location is across the street at Rodger’s Catering on Alondra Blvd.

Other ATM locations are at Long Beach City College, Fullerton College and all L.A. District schools.

Westby urges students to visit Higher One’s website to educate themselves on how to avoid the fees.