Cat’s cuppa of joe: Hold it!
My semester isn’t going as well as yours. Partially because it’s not even going anymore, and while the reasons why I’m no longer enrolled as a student at Utah State University are largely my fault, the University did little to help me. That, to me, is a problem mainly because the departments that stopped my academic progress are here to help me, yet the system as it exists now did more to hinder that progress.
Perhaps it would be better to explain. Last week, the university purged me from my courses due to a previous balance and placed a hold on my account. I’ve experienced this before, so I thought I could easily fix it. I didn’t however, account for this situation being very different from the last. Oh and so different it was. By merely setting up a payment plan I solved this problem last time, but this time, I had more than just a hold on my account from the registrar’s office. The financial aid office and my advisor’s office both placed additional holds on my account.
As Monday rolled around, and I headed to the Bursar after class to set up a payment plan, I was blissfully unaware that I had only three days to get these three holds removed from my account. Upon finding out, I rushed down to the financial aid office to get the situation sorted, where they informed me that I needed to make an appointment with my financial aid counselor. She was out for the day at that point, but would be back tomorrow morning. It sounded fair enough at the time.
In a terribly serendipitous twist, I was struck ill with food poisoning that following Tuesday morning with little more than 24 hours to fix the only hold I thought I had left on my account. I lay sick for almost that whole time and as I went to meet with my counselor that very next day, my final day, I was informed that to get the hold removed I would need to talk to my advisor to get them to remove their hold on my account. I called my advising office, and in moments all my hopes of fixing this died. My academic advisor works part time every Monday, Thursday, and Friday.
There was no way to solve that problem. In order to “help” my progress, my advisor and financial counselor placed holds on my accounts that made me have to drop the semester. Not being in school means that I’ve lost my job. Forget the fact I’ve lost four months of my life due to the fact I cannot attend this semester. I have rent and bills to pay, food to buy and no way to pay for it because the bureaucracy of the University set up a system to help me.
I know that they are just doing their jobs and that most students can use these systems as safety nets, but in my case, these systems have ruined me. The reality is that getting back into school at this point will be more difficult than anything any semester could have thrown at me.
Again, I know that this is mostly my doing. I didn’t act months ago. Out of hubris I thought I could just do what I always do and solve the problem quickly and easily and that risk I took put me out of this University, possibly permanently, and honestly I asked for help from every department I possibly could and got nothing. I don’t know if I want to go here anymore, all things considered.
Catherine St. Claire is a Ravenclaw, ex-Staff Writer and ex-Utah State University student. Her hobbies include looking for better schools and imagining a day when she doesn’t have to live on a dry campus.
@Cat_StClaire
Catherine@aggiemail.usu.edu