Financial aid isn’t customer friendly

he Financial Aid Department at FAMU does not have the greatest reputation with the student body. Employees in the department have been known to be dishonest, inefficient and unqualified. The negligence of employees has put students in a terrible disposition.

In many cases, employees have lost important documents, stolen money and frequently have unpleasant attitudes.

This year the Interim Director of Financial Aid resigned, which left the department in an unstable situation..

Unfortunately, a vast percentage of the student body needs financial assistance and those students are constantly let down by the department.

“The whole financial aid is just messed up. They lost my paper work preventing me from obtaining aid for this year,” said Krystina Bush, a freshman business administration student from Atlanta.

There are a multitude of plans the future department director can implement to alleviate the problems within the department.

By having trained and competent employees in financial aid, the productivity, efficiency and effectiveness levels of the entire department should increase.

Upon having the required experience and training, a certification test should be given to examine their competency level.

In the event that an employee is found incompetent after the proper training, they should no longer be working in the department.

Many students have complained about the unfriendly nature of the financial aid department, but no action has been taken to improve problem.

“Some employees are extremely rude. They seem to not help you until your parents call. Also they tend to give students the run-around,” said Raven Roberts, a junior business student from Long Beach, Calif.

A few weeks ago, I went to financial aid to see why my scholarship money for the semester was divided by the fall and spring semester. Ann Floyd, a financial aid employee, told me the letter that came with the check was missing and the department had to divide the money by both semesters because the check was over the limit.

I asked to see the policy in writing and Floyd returned with a lady by the name of Carita Evans, another employee of the department. Evans then informed me that the policy was not in writing and she had been working for the department for five years.

I proceeded to ask Evans, “How do I know the policy is actually a policy if it is not in your book of policies?” She replied with the same answer as before.

On the contrary, there are students who are satisfied with the quality level of financial aid. ” I am one of the few that have not had any problems with Financial Aid,” said Josh Brown, a second year nursing student from Macon, Ga.

Alexander Harris III is a third year business administration student from Chicago. He can be reached at famuanbusiness@yahoo.com