Editor:
The financial aid office at the U needs to be held accountable. Why are students not a top priority? Why must they wait two weeks to speak with a counselor who can give them direction and help? Why must they wait 30 days to have an appeal reviewed? Why are students not allowed to speak with the people who can give them resources and guidance to help them financially so that they can be successful at the U? How many students does the university lose each semester because they don’t get the help they need? And finally, why are students treated so poorly by the staff at the financial aid office?
I believe students endure terrible treatment and the unnecessary delays in getting their financial aid processed, because they are not aware that they do not have to put up with it. I would encourage any student who has had to withdraw from the U to write to the dean of students and/or the president of the U and detail to them how the financial aid office not only did not help them, but because of the delays, they were not able to attend the university.
I have been frustrated, outraged and completely astonished at the treatment and the policies of the financial aid office at the U. I expected better from this institution and frankly, their students deserve better. If I or any of the people who worked with me in either of the colleges I worked at behaved in such a manner, or had policies that required students to wait two weeks for appointments and 30 days for appeals, we would have been fired for failure to do our job.
Sheila Holfeltz,
West Valley