As the fourth week of school begins, students are still waiting to receive their financial aid from the university. Sadly, many students are prepared to have to wait for their net checks. The financial aid department should be embarrassed that students expect aid deadlines to be missed even before the year begins.
But as the weeks drag on, even the most realistic of students are beginning to wonder when their aid will be disbursed and why it has taken so long. This is the real problem. If students were told the reason for the delays, perhaps it would be easier for them to understand and cope with the wait and the mounting bills. As it is, students are left to assume that a mistake has been made or that someone has not done their job; why else would the department be unwilling to explain itself?
Any experience with the financial aid department seems designed to be as frustrating and unproductive as possible. There are usually two people working the four available windows, and the people there can provide no better answer than your computer screen at home.
They have recently added seats and a number system, which allow us to sit comfortably while we wait for the lack of usable information we will receive at the window. These comforts do nothing to help us understand the wait for our checks or to assist us in paying our various expenses.
The first thing that they could do is to hire more people to attend the windows in the office, which would allow the line to move faster.
Second, if they provided more information on OurFAMU, more students would be able to address their concerns at home, which would make the line even shorter.