Pima Community College has been banned from enrolling military veterans for at least 60 days while it tries to correct widespread record-keeping problems that led to the sanction.
Meanwhile, indications surfaced Friday that veterans may not be the only ones affected by the collegeβs failure to properly track the status of its students.
The Arizona Department of Veterans Services took the rare step this week of imposing the ban on new military enrollments after PCC neglected for two years straight to follow federal rules for aid payments to student veterans.
Schools are required, for example, to promptly notify the Department of Veterans Affairs when a student veteran quits, flunks out or takes courses that arenβt part of an approved program of study.
PCCβs failure to properly track such cases caused the VA to wrongly dispense tens of thousands of aid dollars last year to veterans who didnβt qualify.
About 1,500 veterans attend the college each semester.
The VA recently asked the state veterans agency to intervene after PCC promised last year to fix the problems but didnβt follow through.
Current student veterans arenβt affected by the ban.
PCC now has 30 days to provide the state veterans department with a corrective action plan. The state also will make spot checks to see if fixes are occurring by the end of 60 days.
The ban technically expires in mid-May, but PCC canβt resume military enrollments until sometime after June or July when state officials are due to make a final inspection.
If fixes arenβt made, the school could face a further ban of at least a year.
PCC Chancellor Lee Lambertο»Ώ vows it wonβt come to that.
The college already has added personnel to the area responsible for record-keeping, and other changes are in the works, he said in a news release Friday.
βWe will move quickly to rectify the deficiencies and take steps to ensure they are not repeated,β he said.
15 mistakes in 40 files
Also on Friday, a different state agency found similar record-keeping problems for nonveteran PCC students who receive Pell Grants, Perkins loans and other federal student aid.
Arizonaβs auditor general recently tested 40 files for such students and found 15 mistakes.
Most were cases in which PCC failed to notify the federal student loan system within 30 to 60 days when a studentβs status changed.
βAs a result, lenders may have provided students with larger loans than they were qualified to receive, and loan repayment terms and conditions may have been affected,β the state audit report said.
The state auditor recommended fixes to ensure proper reporting to the student loan system.
