Students in Pima Community Collegeβs prestigious aviation program are taking extreme measures to stay in school in the midst of an ongoing financial aid freeze.
Some of them have agreed to spend more than 50 hours a week in class to try to work around a federal rule that has had them in financial limbo for months.
βItβs a huge mess,β said aviation student Dennise Ponce, 27, who was among those cut off from aid in May through no fault of their own.
βThey waited until Sept. 6 to tell us we wouldnβt be getting aid for classes that start on Sept. 12,β she said.
PCC spokeswoman Libby Howell said college officials are doing their best to deal with a complex problem that occurred years ago and only recently came to light.
It arose after PCC discovered in January that someone neglected to get accreditor approval to run the aviation program at Tucson International Airport. The oversight made students ineligible for aid until the matter is sorted out. The accreditor has since approved the airport site but federal aid officials have yet to follow suit.
Ponce and some others have agreed to an interim solution proposed by PCC that adds 16 hours a week to their 38-hour-a-week class schedules.
Adding class hours at a regular campus makes students eligible for aid again because it changes the percentage of schooling they receive at the unapproved airport site.
Ponce, who quit a bartending job and relocated from Nogales, Arizona, to attend PCC, relies on financial aid for her living expenses and well as her college costs. She said she agreed to the extra hours because her only alternative was to drop out β a prospect she couldnβt abide.
βI really want this,β she said, her voice breaking.
βIβm single so I can go to school for 12 or 13 hours a day and do what I have to do. But what about students who work, or students with families? Itβs not fair to them.β
About 150 students are enrolled in the collegeβs aviation program. It wasnβt immediately clear Wednesday how many are affected by the ongoing aid freeze.
Howell said PCC has been on the phone daily with federal aid officials. But sorting out things is time-consuming and so far the college doesnβt know for sure when things will be back to normal for affected students.
Howell said PCC is βhopefulβ a solution will be in place before Sept 28.
Students who arenβt in a position to take extra classes have the option to stay home from school for five weeks and make up the missed work later by delaying their graduation for that amount of time, Howell said.
Aviation student Mike Hazen, 30, said he no longer trusts the collegeβs pronouncements on the situation.
Like Ponce, he intends to take classes for more than 50 hours a week until the problem is cleared up.
He finds it shocking, he said, that students have encountered such difficulties in what is widely regarded as a premier program at PCC.
βIβm mad and frustrated. Iβm so sick of all this that Iβve thought about quitting,β Hazen said.
βItβs sad to say, but right now I wouldnβt recommend Pima College to anyone.β
