While the preliminary approval of the state budget last night will allow college students across the state to finally receive their Cal Grants, Berkeley City College students will experience delays in financial aid distribution due to a lag in the implementation of a new computer system.

Currently, the district-wide computer system used to manage financial aid is not operating and students are unable to receive their first financial aid checks, said Brenda Johnson, the college's dean of student support services.

This compounds the problems already created by the state's budget delay, which prevented grants from being distributed when they were expected this year.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an order two weeks ago which stated that the state has no authority to pay the grants program until a state budget is finalized.

The college's administration declined to give statistics on the percent of students currently receiving financial aid.

But in the 2006-2007 school year, approximately 160 of the 7,876 people who enrolled in the college received Cal Grants, totalling $184,584 in aid, according to state data.

However, because of the problems with the computer system, the college has not been able to distribute Pell Grants, which are funded by the federal government and are independent of the state budget process.

According to state data, in the 2006-07 school year, approximately 1,000 students at the college received more than $2,000,000 in Pell Grants.

While college administrators were distributing fee waivers, many students at the college said that, because they had not been able to receive financial aid, they were unable to pay for books and other costs associated with school.

Ben de la Torre, a Berkeley City College student, said he and his fellow students were concerned.

"I'm here ten hours a day because I have to study at the library," de la Torre said. "Everyone here is just holding their breath."

However, the school is encouraging the library to supply loan copies of books and encouraging faculty to provide handouts during the first few weeks of classes.

"We hope that the issue is resolved fairly quickly," Johnson said. "We gave students book grants and we're trying to be proactive."

College freshman Grace Padilla said the financial complications have been severe enough that she has considered dropping out.

"I feel like I should just leave school and not worry about it anymore," Padilla said.

While college administrators said they cannot estimate when they expect the computer system to be fixed, the effects of the budget delay could continue to cause problems despite the fact that grants should begin to be distributed now that a budget compromise has been reached.

Thomas Smith, the vice chancellor for finance and administration at the Peralta Community College District, said the foreseen decrease in available Cal Grants would cause a number of students to leave college.

"The students wouldn't get their aid, so some of them would probably be forced to drop out of school," Smith said. "As soon as we find out what the amounts for the Cal Grants are, we would almost immediately begin sending out checks."

Some students waiting in line for financial aid help yesterday said they realized that the financial aid office was not responsible for the problems.

"I don't know who to talk to about it," de la Torre said. "They're just waiting, there's nothing they can do, and I think they're as frustrated as we are."

Tags: BERKELEY CITY COLLEGE, FINANCIAL AID, STATE BUDGET