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Whitcomb is a UCLA Extension student.

By Erin Whitcomb

Students are in an uproar after receiving notice that federal financial aid for many UCLA Extension certificate programs has been canceled. Many students at UCLA Extension, a non-profit continuing education institute, have just found out that the financial aid for their program of study has been terminated and the effects will be felt immediately.

A letter dating from late February was sent to all UCLA Extension students, informing the students, who were part of 28 of the over 100 certificate programs offered, that their federal financial aid was to “cease immediately.”

The decision was said to be “an unanticipated change regarding UCLA Extension certificate program eligibility for Federal Pell Grant and Stafford Loan Programs.” This was based upon “recent guidance and regulation clarification from the U.S. Department of Education.”

Saddened and enraged by this, I called a financial aid officer at the extension for further explanation and found out what I could of the whole story.

I was told that the U.S. Department of Education reviewed the programs and felt that they did not have enough “content” to warrant financial aid, and that most of the classes offered were not transferable for credit toward a bachelor’s degree. In this conversation, I was told that perhaps the financial aid never should have been approved in the first place.

Now the students are asking, who is to blame? Well that could fall on a lot of shoulders in this situation. I must play devil’s advocate for the moment and say that on the one hand, I can understand the action taken by the DOE from their overall view of the programs. Yet being in a certificate program myself, I must say the quality of education I am receiving in my program and the “content” of it is definitely of a higher standard than most institutes of continuing education or higher learning.

In my history as a student, I have been to a few different schools within California, including one technical school. The technical school I attended was also considered a continuing education institute and it offered full federally-funded financial aid to its students. I have found the classes at UCLA Extension to be not only more challenging but higher in content as well.

After asking my classmates their opinion on this matter, the common sentiment was that the DOE is sending a message clearly stating that people’s educations are not equal.

I feel that if the DOE were to delve into this matter further and take the time to truly review the full content of each program and its merit for the student, it would see the validity of financial aid. This recent turn of events leaves a lot of UCLA Extension students out in the proverbial cold.

Some of the certificate programs that were cut included accounting, advertising, public relations, computer graphics, human resources and general business studies, among others. Some of the programs kept were post-bachelor programs such as landscape architecture and Teach L.A.

UCLA Extension has been a staple to the community of Los Angeles since its inception in 1891. Known throughout the years for its excellence in continuing education and expert instructors, it has the largest writing program in the nation and is a pioneer in women’s and Chicano studies. Take it from a current – oops, I mean former – student of the certificate program for “Public Relations with a Concentration in Entertainment Publicity.”

I am troubled when I think that quality education such as the extension programs are no longer supported by our federal government. Again I ask, who is to blame for this injustice to the American student? Well, I don’t think we can blame one group of people for this.

Could it be that UCLA extension does not meet the standards set by the DOE, which validates schools? Could it have something to do with George W. Bush our “educational president”? Or is it just bad timing? Well I guess we will never truly know.

So what is the future of the extension student in need of financial assistance? The option given to the extension student is to either apply for the extension grant, which pays for one class on a financial need basis, or to apply for private continuing education loans. This leaves a large hole in the population of students such as myself who previously paid for 70 percent of the program through grants, not to be paid back.

I have searched for grants, scholarships and even loans to finish my program and advance my career further, yet what I have found is that the majority of these types of aid do not apply to continuing education. They require a student to go full time (12 units or more), which is hard for a working adult in a program such as this, and usually requires that the student attend a four-year college.

Another problem with all of this is that a person in a continuing education program would not need nearly as much money as would the recipient of the scholarship for a university.

I feel that there should be a review and possibly a reform of the standards set by the DOE regarding continuing education. There also needs to be a greater awareness of the importance of continuing education programs nationwide.

It is sad that the quality programs such as those of the extension are no longer readily available to the people of the community.

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