Registration is a hassle.
It has been this way since the dawn of Historically Black Colleges apparently, since The Southern DIGEST has published ‘registration woe’ stories dating back to 1986.
I was born in 1986, so this has literally been a Southern issue since I’ve been alive, maybe even before then. Basic research of other HBCU newspaper’s first issues in the country have yielded the same result: registration is indeed a flawed process; but only for ‘us’.
After some initial research from older—emphasis on old—alumni of registration problems, I’ve found that the same problems and complaints that the current financial aid offices were dealing with presently, are the ones from decades ago. Computer program difficulties, out dated software, slow staff, slower outgoing business, a lack of trained, employees, confusion over verification, pre-registration, and financial aid mishaps have survived the tests of time. At this rate, I believe roaches and financial aid problems will be the only things to survive nuclear explosions.
After several weeks of playing the guessing game with a post date of my fees, I decided to bite the bullet and go over to the Financial Aid Office, instead of leaving my tuition to the powers that be.
Not only was I told at 11 o’clock that I would have to sign a list to ask a question, but I would also have to go to another building to wait for—wait for it—another line, this time in the actual financial building, to inquire when my refund would be posted. After being commanded to wait in a line to ask one of the two male and female officers a basic question, I was then told that I would be unable to be helped today.
Admittedly, I was perturbed, and asked whom I could speak to regarding a question of simple date inputs. I didn’t want the formula to the cure for cancer. I didn’t want the location of a modicum of truth in a Sarah Palin speech.
I just wanted to ask a general question. Mr. Police Officer Man, in his ‘POLICE’ t-shirt, and increasingly annoying tone said, “You’ll have to wait in line for that too—tomorrow.”
Southern, Dear Southern, I am unsure of how many more letters, blogs, rants, diary entries, compositions, S.O.S smoke signals, editorials, or hate mail has to be written to get this task taken care of.
Nor will I another band-aid, suggestion, helpful hint, or irritating remark on how Southern University can improve it’s registration/registration process. At this point, as I enter the second month in the last fall semester as an undergraduate, I don’t care.
Again, for those in the back: I don’t care.
Why? Because nothing will change. Maybe next year the wait will be down to six hours. Maybe some genius will hire enough adequate staff to help the needs of the students.
Perhaps this comes off as a rant against the offices that primarily deal with registration, admissions or financial aid, but it isn’t. I’ve run out of optimism. I’ve run out of ways to make a positive from a negative. At this point, I’ve even run out of synonyms or adjectives that can appropriately describe the lackluster energy I have for financial aid, and it’s backwards process.
I don’t care.
What I would like, and what several students I have spoken to would like—is a basic answer. An answer that we’re sure will take some thinking, as students who registered after us, have received refund checks all around; where’s our money?
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