1. CCCSFAAA Financial Aid Advocacy By Craig Yamamoto May 6 & 7, 2004 CCC Confer

2. Why Advocacy? To let the State Legislature know we need to keep the money How it benefits our students How it benefits the College Goal is to keep the increased funding in upcoming State Budget cycle and May Revise timeframe

3. Why us? Significant cuts to Chancellor’s Office CO not able to help as much Cannot locate experienced candidate to help with advocacy for possible paid CCCSFAAA Staffer position Legislators use feedback from their constituents to make decisions Individual letters are better than single letter from Association to make impact We are the ones who best know what the new funds means to our Colleges and our students

4. How to locate your elected officials Use the websites: www.assembly.ca.gov Click “Find My District” Enter street address, city, zip www.senate.ca.gov Click “Senators” Click “Your Senator” Enter street address, city, zip

5. How to locate your elected officials Use the websites: www.keepthedoorsopen.org Click link under “Easy Letter-writer” Follow steps 1 – 4 1: enter address 2: edit Assembly letter 3: edit Senate Letter 4: Save, print and mail letters Suggest changing letter to make it personal

6. What to write? Refer to: Financial aid outreach and administrative capacity money redirected from PFE. Do not refer to BFAP, they will not understand. Chancellor’s Office is adamant we use “redirection” and not “augmentation”.

7. Benefits to our Students Include personal success story how our students have benefited Makes students & families aware of financial aid Hosts Financial Aid Workshops Offers personalized assistance to students & families navigate the complex application process Hire more staff to process more applications Provides information in other languages Use technology (automation) to meet students needs

8. Benefits to the College Improves retention and persistence rates Helps College reach its goals Additional staff Better trained staff More diverse student body Outreach materials Keep up with new technology (new computers and software)

9. Challenges The rest of the College really wants the money! Hiring freezes Limited experience in media/marketing Fiscal year started before the funding was secured Loss of staff at Chancellor’s Office

10. Who said it was an easy job? Let’s get to work!