Financial Aid office gets new director to deal with complaints
Christina Faust
Issue date: 12/8/05 Section: News
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Being a student at a university for most is extremely stressful; balancing one's education with a part-time job, drafting large papers, conducting excessive amounts of research, and dealing with finals.
All these stresses affect the life of every student, but at NDNU internal stresses from departments within the university cause more than stress.
Over the past few months students have expressed dismay with the Financial Aid office over lost award letters, mistakes with accounts, the office's inability to return phone calls, and the improper cancellation of scholarships during mid-semester.
Two students offered to share their past experiences with the Financial Aid office, but they both wished to remain nameless for obvious reasons.
The first student explained that he had tried to contact the Financial Aid office a number of times throughout the summer, but the voicemail box had reached its size limit. He was unable to leave any messages due to the overwhelming amount of calls the office had been receiving.
"I needed to know what was going on with my award letter. I hadn't received it yet, and the semester was about to begin," he explained.
He later visited the office personally on multiple occasions.
"There was always a new person there; I never dealt with the same one. It took a few tries, but after a while I finally got my award letter and was allowed to register for my fall classes," he continued.
All the necessary paperwork that needed to be filled out for his financial aid package was eventually completed and his attention was then turned to his studies, rather than financing them. The student recalled his frustration and said he felt as though the office did not care about his struggle for financing his education.
"There was no way that I could afford $22,000 for my senior year. No way at all. I almost did not get to attend NDNU for my final year of college," he explained.
He offered some advice to students who have experienced similar problems.
All these stresses affect the life of every student, but at NDNU internal stresses from departments within the university cause more than stress.
Over the past few months students have expressed dismay with the Financial Aid office over lost award letters, mistakes with accounts, the office's inability to return phone calls, and the improper cancellation of scholarships during mid-semester.
Two students offered to share their past experiences with the Financial Aid office, but they both wished to remain nameless for obvious reasons.
The first student explained that he had tried to contact the Financial Aid office a number of times throughout the summer, but the voicemail box had reached its size limit. He was unable to leave any messages due to the overwhelming amount of calls the office had been receiving.
"I needed to know what was going on with my award letter. I hadn't received it yet, and the semester was about to begin," he explained.
He later visited the office personally on multiple occasions.
"There was always a new person there; I never dealt with the same one. It took a few tries, but after a while I finally got my award letter and was allowed to register for my fall classes," he continued.
All the necessary paperwork that needed to be filled out for his financial aid package was eventually completed and his attention was then turned to his studies, rather than financing them. The student recalled his frustration and said he felt as though the office did not care about his struggle for financing his education.
"There was no way that I could afford $22,000 for my senior year. No way at all. I almost did not get to attend NDNU for my final year of college," he explained.
He offered some advice to students who have experienced similar problems.