It’s estimated that nearly 250 Military veterans currently enrolled at SFCC utilize their Military college benefits.

“We have almost 1,000 veterans here, but the people that are applying for benefits right now are about 250” Veterans resource coordinator Steven Ward said.

Applying for and receiving benefits is usually a simple and pain-free process; however within the last few months many have voiced concerns over issues with it. Veteran students have voiced complaints towards the head of financial aid and the Veterans Admissions Office during the last 6 months due to slow certification, low staffing, and improper paperwork filing.

“Between last year and this year we had a pretty rough time because our certifying official quit mid-year” Tony Diaz said. “Unfortunately the school didn’t fill that position right away so we had a lot of people backing up, missing certifications, not knowing exactly what paperwork was turned in.”

From March 2013 through September 2013 the Veterans admissions office utilized work-studies to temporarily take over until a replacement was found. During that time, however, many veterans reported issues.

“When certifying, we have to follow the VA’s rules, the VA’s guidelines. There are certain days that you need to be certified in order to get your pay in a timely manner. It’s our responsibility to get our registration, our schedules and whatnot to our certifying official,  and it’s their job to get that done”, Said Toni Graham. “It’s not something you can just put in alphabetically with the rest of the populace, because it’s a totally separate issue and process and thats not what was happening.”

The Communicator tried reaching Marjorie Davis, head of Financial Aid, for comment but was unable to do so.

“Our speculation is that we were just thrown in the pile” Graham said. “Instead of hiring a new certifying official, Marjorie was trying to do it all on her own and she was just throwing them in the pile.”

Barbara Williams knows all too well the pain of late certification.

“All I could do was wait on that certification and hope that things would clear up so I could go ahead and pay my rent” Williams said. “Oct 1st went, the 5th went, and I got another late fee, so by the 28th they just didn’t want to wait any longer and I was forced to vacate my apartment. I had to let my cable go, my insurance go on my car, I let my internet go. I had to cut my expenses in order to try and hang in there.”

Similar stories involving frustration, and lack of communication were also voiced in regards to students not being able to connect with the office.

“Marjorie did not check the phone messages for 64 days” Toni Graham said. “I started in April trying to get a hold of her and I finally got an 8 minute phone call in September. That’s how long it took. This should not be happening.”

The flip side though reveals just how pressured the Veteran office was feeling during these situations.

“It was hard for me because a lot of the students would just get so mad. They didn’t realize how hard it was on us too. To be filling multiple positions that we never should have been responsible for was stressful.” Sarah Bedient said when asked about her 6 months as the Veterans admissions office work-study.

Since September of 2013, SFCC has hired a new certifying official to work with veterans and make sure certification is completed in time for each quarter. Connie Herrara, who couldn’t be reached for an interview, was hired in September and took over for the student work-studies who had been filling in for over 6 months.

“It’s been a big turn around. I can’t praise Connie enough. She came in here not knowing the job, did her research, got a lot of advice, and just turned the whole program around.” Tony Diaz said.

The issues for SFCC veterans seem to have been resolved, however most of the damage due to the months without staffing has already taken effect on some veterans.

“The thing that is upsetting the most to the veterans is that there was no recourse, no disciplinary action, nothing. People are still trying to catch up with their bills; relationships were strained because of the financial situation, but we’re just supposed to get over it” Graham said.