Can you get the help you really want Part I

While the outside world is at battle, we are facing our own war here at Southern University.
Whether it is Financial Aid , Housing, or an academic issue-could you really get the help that you need? Your questions answered? The help you desire? Probably not, after all this is “Good Ole’ Southern.”
We are constantly given the run around and “purposely” pointed in the wrong direction. It’s like everyone in administration or those who are in positions of power work for that evil entity I like to call “B.S.” or the paycheck.
But if we really look at it this is an educational system that has failed students years before our time, and will continue to fail us if we don’t question authority, question what appears to be wrong, and show genuine interest in our education.
It has come to the point where I have been called ignorant and uneducated by key administrators on campus because I “have not taken care of my business,” and my attitude and questions were “inappropriate.”
So, now, I pose the question: “What is the purpose of your position?” Is it to sit back and collect a paycheck? Is it to gloat about your title? To actually help students? Or is it simply to have authority over something that you don’t have control over in your own personal life?
Should I not be concerned about my education, or the way that I am being treated? I refuse to pay $12,000 a year for my voice not to be heard and to be treated like I am non-existent.
During the summer I made numerous attempts to contact the Financial Aid office regarding my loans. Certified mail, faxes and phone calls. Finally, I had been told that Title IV funds were not being processed and I had to wait until registration to complete any loan applications.
I did just that, but when I got here I wasn’t eligible for anything. I had a personal loan to fall back on, thank God, but the financial aid office did not want to accept my loan because “they didn’t accept it.”
To put it bluntly they were being lazy in finding out if my loan could actually be accepted. They did not do their job as financial aid counselors and research vital information they need to know to assist students.
This is not only in financial aid, it’s across the board. It’s in high places, in buildings where important people with suits and ties sit on the third floor looking over the bluff as if they were drifting away on the Mississippi.
Yes, Administrators on this campus have told me “I don’t know” or they point me to another person that says, “I don’t know” HOW can you make 80+ thousand dollars and not know about the position that you have been appointed to do? Does that sound funny to you?
The people who founded Southern University implemented values. Those values have washed away with time, laziness, incompetence and intolerance.
The school needs to set some type of standard for employees that work here. The quality of workers is at a low. Human relations training and awareness is a must. So many times adults complain about our attitudes as students, but we only respond to the attitudes that we encounter.
Many students feel unappreciated, mistreated, and angry. We pay money to come to this school, and without students there would be no Southern University.
There are many administrators and faculty that have a general interest or concern for students. But when the bad outweighs the good that’s what the focus is on.
Southern University is an outstanding institution. There are good things that go on here. The Southern DIGEST is one of them. There are many great things to experience. But most of us encounter the bad first.
Take it from me, don’t give up and be strong in your walk. Your angel will come, just as mine did. This is just one of the lessons that attending a historically black college will teach you.
Patience, strength, wisdom, endurance, and adaptability. By the time you graduate you will be the ultimate survivor. By the time you graduate from here you will be ready to take on any challenge from anyone.
I am interested in hearing from anyone who is affected good or bad by this article. You may email me at: [email protected]