Padding The Books

Today I am thankful for the information and insight stored in the back of my mind from listening to my ex-husband talk about auditing governments and companies.

The subconscious mind is said to store everything;

everything we think,

everything we feel,

everything we see,

everything we hear,

and

everything we smell.

For some darn reason, the smell of misleading and vague information shared by a government employee hiding behind a bureaucracy grabbed my attention.

I realize why my internal radar is going off with the local community college.

I suspect financial fraud. 

This will be my working post on why that is so.

First and foremost, I am learning through my research that the Department of Education has rules that schools who accept financial aid must follow.

1.) They must release the funds they receive on behalf of students within three business days.

This college is hanging on to them for upwards of three weeks causing some students to be dis-enrolled from their classes due to nonpayment.

2.) The federal government caps student loan collection fees at 18.5%.  Any money owed to a public school is, technically, a student loan.  This means one can never bankrupt on the debt.  This debt, like a defaulted student loan, will make it impossible for a student to enroll in college.

This community college charges a 30% collection fee to set up a payment plan. 

These are issues I'm still researching.

A.) How long can a school hang on to funds when a student is withdrawn?  Do they have to send the government's money back to them within a certain amount of time?

This is the huge red flag. Last week, we received a letter stating that my daughter was withdrawn from all of her classes and that money was owed.  The letter didn't give much information.

After several hours wrangling with the school on Thursday, my daughter found out she was automatically did-enrolled from ALL of her classes on February 14th.  She was still turning in homework because she was not informed of the withdrawals.  The grants were not returned to the government until.....

(drum roll....)

JUNE 12TH!

It gets worse.  The Registrar said she was kicked out of her classes on February 14th.  The Financial Aid office and the Cashier show her as an active student who failed all of her classes.  She was possibly failed because the professors thought she was kicked out and didn't grade her coursework.  Perhaps the school cuts off the communication between the instructors and the students after a withdrawal from class. 

There has to be something to this level of mis-communication.

[Perhaps I should be happy I didn't take the graduate level teaching job at my alma matter.  Wow.....]

THIS IS A HUGE RED FLAG.

B.) Does the government have rules about the length of time between a billing statement and demand for final payment? 

There was only one billing statement dated May 25th, 2017.  It was due June 22nd for the amount of $1,027.00.  The demand was for $2,165.

There was absolutely no statement created as of June 22nd for the surprise $1,138.00. 

Why?  Can they just demand more money when you show up with a credit card?

THIS IS BEYOND BIZARRE.

*****

This is my process post.  If anything else crops up, I'll post it here.

I've bailed my daughter out.  At considerable financial risk I put this on a credit card to appease the school.

I'll cut back on expenses and will float my bills to pay back the credit cards without too much interest.  I'm not happy.  I've cut back on food.  I eat jello rather than meat and to save grocery money.  I found an old canister of unflavored gelatin I bought when a health food store closed about a decade ago.

Do you know gelatin smells like wet dog?

I drink it anyway. Every little bit helps. 

I'm sure in the future, if I'm ever elected to office and someone asks me about community colleges, my subconscious mind is going to take me back to the smell and taste of that wet dog concoction.

I'll talk about wasted time due to automatic withdrawals, naïve students, poor communication, withholding financial aid for three weeks, surprise bills, insane collection fees, extended time to finish degrees, watered down coursework.....and other things

with the look of disgust on my face. 

At least, I'll possibly be thinner. 

******

I don't trust this school.  There are too many red flags. 

If this were a private company.  I'd just tell my friends and refuse to do business with them again.

This is an institution funded by tax dollars.

Something is bugging me about this. 

I can't put my finger on it.....yet.

My thoughts are that this school is taking advantage of naïve young people.  They hide behind privacy to keep the parents out of the loop until the bill comes due.

By the time most of us hit forty, we've lived long enough to know what is legal and what is not.

I'm thinking the school may not be as financially sound as they'd like to show themselves to be.  I suspect that may be why they are di-enrolling students after the deadline for full withdrawal has passed and hanging on to the funds for 90 - 180 days prior to sending the money back to the Federal Government (depending on if you count the date they receive the funds or the date they withdraw the student from class).

Hey taxpayers..............

that's your dough that's being borrowed.  They're not providing the service you're paying for and refunding you more than three months after the fact!

How does that make you feel?  

Do you think this is right?

I don't.

The illegal 30% collection fee is to push parents into paying immediately.  If families could pony up an entire semesters worth of tuition in less than 30 days, there would be no need for financial aid, would there? 

It gets worse.  They promised to "potentially" let my daughter retake the courses at no additional cost if she wrote a statement talking about how tough life is at home.

I think that this is a way the colleges lawyers can blame ME for their financial shenanigans and lack of communication should this go much further.

I get it now!!!  Bring it.....I've sued more corrupt governmental organizations.  I don't think they could hold a candle to the gossip the crazy chick that used to work for the City of Aurora used to spew.  At least, I'd hope the lawyers for a college could use more melodious language in their deflections of responsibility and projections of personal shortcomings.

Something is afoot.

I'll try to find it.

I hope someone else joins me on this endeavor.  I'll find a way to make my research public just in case it helps someone else.

I'm reading about this a lot in the college review forums.

The problems seem to start around 2012. 

I can't pinpoint what changed that year.

Something is wrong with this particular school. 

I want to know what it is.

Love ya lots,

S.

EDIT: I reached out to the school via Facebook and asked for the name and contact information for the Dean of Student Affairs. 

They wrote back refusing to give it to me because they spoke to my daughter. I asked her about it.  They have not reached out to her.

Understand. I have a graduate degree.  I graduated with a BA from Washginton state.  I have even taken courses from this school.  Contacting a dean to share concerns has NEVER been issue before.   

Why wouldn't I think they've broken laws at this point? 

No one is this evasive!

Geesh!!

At least I gave the community college a chance to speak to me before proceeding to complaining to the federal investigators.  When you play with government funds.  There are rules that must be followed.  So far, I've found two laws being broken and several red flags. 

Something is wrong here.  My friends are quick to tell me that Community Colleges have uneducated teachers and sloppy admins. 

I never believed that until now.

If one is dis-enrolled, one should know and one should know why.  That's not an answer my daughter has received.  And despite the communication below, NO ONE has given my daughter an answer.

We're interviewing other colleges.

I'll copy and paste the communication below. 

FRI 2:20PM

Please let me know how to contact the dean of student affairs.  I have concerns. 

I've shared them with my state representative [deleted]

I've also contacted the Federal Department of Education's investigation unit.

I'll continue researching the issue.  Please let me know who to speak to.  This has to do with automatically withdrawing students (no concrete reason given) and getting different answers from different departments as to the student's enrollment status.

After reading reviews of this college online, I'm seeing that this is a common issue.

Please let me know who to speak with.

Thank you.

11:03AM

thank you for expressing your concerns about your daughter being dropped from classes here at CCA earlier this year. Please have her complete our Student Complaint Form so that someone can contact her.

Here’s the link to the form:
https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?CCofAurora&layout_id=4

Thank you again for expressing your concerns. Someone has talked with your daughter and the issue is being resolved.

Just to be sure I am understanding the situation I'm going to ask one more time:

Is it possible to connect with either the Dean of Student Affairs or the Dean of Student Retention? Contact information is missing from the CCA website.

Thank you in advance for your time.

Please have your daughter complete our Student Complaint Form so that someone can contact her.

Here’s the link to the form:
https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?CCofAurora&layout_id=4

This seems quite abnormal that one cannot contact the deans.  Thank you for doing your best.  I'll share this message.

I wish you a marvelous Monday.