SU Financial Aid: What can they do to get better?

Over the course of the past few weeks, Howard University, also known as the ‘Mecca’ of HBCUs, has been in the news because of a recent scandal involving several officials of their financial department.
At the center of this scandal was Tyrone Hankerson Jr., a third-year law student at Howard, who was accused by an anonymous blog post of embezzling $429,000. Hankerson quickly became the face of the scandal being that he previously worked in the financial aid office for Howard, but was also seen wearing expensive clothes and going on expensive trips making it seem like he was actually benefiting from it.
Six additional employees were also fired from Howard for misappropriation of funds that comes out to roughly $1,000,000. Hankerson is now suing the university for $10,000,000 for releasing his financial aid records to the public.
On top of all that, protests have stemmed from this scandal where students just ended a nine-day sit-inside of their administration building demanding for changes to not only be made about the transparency of the university and it’s students, but also for issues that they felt have been ignored for too long.
What if something like this happened here at Southern? For starters, let me just say that I hope and pray nothing like that would happen because if it did, one can only imagine what would happen. Not only would there be a sit-in but there would also probably be a riot. Or several.
That being said, I do think that our own financial aid could use some changes and be a little more up to date with its processes. With the recent addition of the QLess app, dealing with financial aid has been slightly easier. The QLess app allows you to be able to make an appointment with your advisor and then it sends you a notification when it is time for your appointment. This easily frees up time from having to wait in long lines and gives you time to take care of other things.
However that’s only a small fix. While I can’t give exact resolutions, I do think there should be improvements when trying to register at the very beginning of the semester. Whether you’re trying to get a deferred payment plan, or fixing an issue with your aid, that entire process is just way too long, and Stewart Hall is way too small for how long those lines are.
I feel that it can be very inconvenient to have to wait in line just to to have them print out an entire new copy of your billing statement even though it is the exact same one that they email you; just to go sit in a room, fill out another form, and then go back to wait in line for them to sign off on it all before you can even move into your dorm.
Our financial aid should also make deadlines more visible.
Yes, we are grown and need to be on top of all things that involve our aid for school, but making those deadlines more visible could be a really big help. For example, the Housing Department just held an application party for people to fill out their applications and get them turned in before the May 1 deadline.
I’m not saying that they have to host an entire party, but by making those deadlines more visible, it would prompt more people to get on it, which would ultimately mean more things getting turned in on time, and less time worrying about if your financial aid is right.
But for now, whatever information and forms you may need are on the SUBR website at www.subr.edu/financialaid.