Editorial on behalf of The Southeastern
by Allison Roberts
Managing editor
More often than praise, we hear complaints about Southeastern’s Office of Student Financial Aid. While it’s understandable that students become disgruntled when they don’t receive grant, scholarship or loan money when they expected, is it really too much to ask to try seeing things from the office’s perspective as well?
We don’t think so.
Meagan Newman, financial aid counselor, explained to us some of the many proverbial hoops, which, trust us, are numerous, that the office has to jump through in order to function.
It should be noted that the financial aid office does not actually have the power or ability to disburse funds.
That means that it doesn’t matter how many veins pop out of an angry student’s neck; the financial aid office still cannot write a check for a book advance.
Newman clarified to us many things that are apparently often misunderstood, one of them being the elusive book advance that, contrary to popular belief, is not simply free money.
Book advances add charges to the students’ accounts who receive them because the money is a portion of funds taken out of accounts and simply given in advance. The money might eventually be in hand, but it still came from a balance and needs to be repaid at some point.
Many people also complain about not getting book advances before classes begin.
Newman explained, “The easiest way to guarantee a book advance is to get your file done before July or before the middle of July for the fall semester.”
She said each student has to have a qualifying amount of aid in order to receive an advance, but the financial aid office hasn’t yet heard the amount for fall of 2012.
One thing we think a lot of students don’t take into consideration when blaming the financial aid office for all of life’s slow-burning troubles is that it, possibly more closely than most other campus departments, is monitored and regulated by the U.S. Department of Education.
Because of this, it doesn’t matter how badly the office may want to speed up the processes they must go through. Often times, they simply cannot and, they must wait like the rest of us.
The office doesn’t have much downtime, however, even when waiting on funds to be received.
“There are only five staff members; there are three student workers, usually two during the summer,” Newman said. “They are always trying to help people at the window before anything else. If there are a lot of people there in person, they can’t answer phones.”
Keep in mind that our financial aid office processes all Southeastern students’ files. In the fall semester, when enrollment is generally higher, that number can be several thousand.
“August is a mad house. Because of the amount of students and the amount of calls, everything just takes longer.” Newman explained that there is no way to process it all any faster.
She continued that it would be ideal if students complete the FAFSA on its free, official website, fafsa.ed.gov, before spring break and have their files complete by the end of the spring semester.
Though it is sometimes easy to get caught up in frustration, especially when dealing with finances, it would be nice to see people treat the financial aid office workers with the same kindness and respect that we see so frequently around other parts of campus.
After all, it was, in part, the welcoming, friendly atmosphere of the campus that first brought many of us to Southeastern.
Rather than expend energy being so angry at someone else, try to remember that employees of our school are human as well and not just money-dispensing robots behind glass windows.
Be responsible, be kind and at least try to be understanding of situations that sometimes don’t have immediate solutions.