Commentary

Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the majority of the editorial board. All other material represents the opinion of the authors. Deadline for submissions is the 10th of every month.

The Metropolitan retains the right to edit all submissions for length, grammar and punctuation. Letters without a signature will not be printed. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of any department or college, the university, the state university system, the student body, or The Metropolitan.

Letters to the Editor

EDITOR’S NOTE: This letter was cc’ed to the editor of The Metropolitan.

August 18, 2006
Dear Mr. Bode:

I am writing to the highest-level official that I could locate to request that you directly address two issues that have conspired against the reputation of Metropolitan State University. I am an adult student. My employer/union offers a prepaid tuition program. I hand-delivered my Prepaid Tuition Certificate to a Business Office staff member who processes third party tuition last May. I later found out she was promoted and the Business Office lost my certificate. This caused me immense stress as I learned of this unfortunate circumstance on the date of the fall semester tuition payment deadline and was concerned that I not be dropped from my classes. I contacted my employer/union and requested a second copy of the Prepaid Tuition Certificate. When I called the Business Office to find out where to send the copy, I learned they had since “found” the certificate.

The next thing that happened was that after mailing in my Bookstore Credit and Other Miscellaneous Charges Authorization and Direct Deposit Authorization forms on July 27, 2006, I was not allowed to purchase my books today. Before going to the Bookstore, I inquired as to when I would be able to use the bookstore credit to purchase my books and was told that it would be available Aug. 19. The Bookstore is only open on two Saturdays, Aug. 19. and 26. My first class starts Aug. 26 and runs from 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m., so today was my only opportunity to go to the Bookstore outside of my work hours before class starts. Today I went to the Bookstore, collected my books, and when I went to the register to pay for my books, I was told that I wasn’t “in the system.”

I am an adult student with a fulltime, Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., job in downtown Minneapolis. I first returned to Metropolitan State University Spring 2006. There was a similar comedy of errors then too. My experience since returning to Metropolitan State University has been nothing short of frustrating. I did everything I was supposed to do, and now the errors of the Metropolitan State University Business Office and Student Financial Aid have caused me a significant amount of stress. This is the reason I am writing.

I wish to be treated with respect and dignity, and a school administrative staff that causes a student this much agony is less than satisfactory. I am seriously considering finding a different college.

Dawn M.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is in response to the letter to the Editor.

August 22, 2006
Dear Editor of The Metropolitan:

Obviously I am unable to reply to the individual issues raised by this letter due to federal and state privacy law restrictions. Nor can I address the concerns related to the Business Office or the operating hours of the Bookstore. I can, however, provide you with some historical and general information about our bookstore credit program and some of the challenges students have encountered with this program this week.

For the last several years, the university has offered a limited bookstore credit program to allow financial aid recipients to transfer their Bookstore charges to their student accounts. There is no requirement that we offer such a service, but we recognize the importance that early preparation for class plays in a student’s academic success. We consider our bookstore credit program an important part of supporting the university’s academic mission. Eligible students may obtain a credit beginning a week prior to the official start of the semester and are allowed to purchase necessary items through the end of the first week of the term. The Bookstore is notified of newly eligible students at the beginning of each business day.

Until Fall 2005, the bookstore credit program was a manual process, with students often waiting in line for half an hour, sometimes longer, to receive paper vouchers with which to buy books. In Fall 2005, we began to transmit electronic files directly to the Follett Corporation (the Bookstore management company) so that bookstore credit information could be downloaded to the store’s cash registers. The electronic process eliminated the long lines and has provided greatly improved service for the majority of students.

The electronic bookstore credit process also brought about some changes that certain students may see as a decrease in service, but which benefit the university. First, we have reduced the number of ineligible students who receive vouchers. With manual vouchers, the pressure to provide a voucher to a student "not on the list" was extreme, especially if that student had been waiting in line for a long time.

In addition, to reduce the amount of redundant work in the Business Office, Bookstore and Student Financial Aid, we decided this year to stop doing any manual vouchers (with the exception of third party payments). Students with missing documents are now required to wait until the following morning after submitting all required documents.

Finally, we have required students wishing to obtain bookstore credit to submit the required written authorization before being eligible for a credit rather than trying to obtain the authorization later. This last minor change has improved our compliance with federal regulations.

So far this semester, delays have been caused by three issues:
Students have not (or just recently) completed their Stafford loan requests or their Master Promissory Notes.
Students have not submitted the required signed authorization form.
The second night’s file erroneously transmitted student id numbers without the leading zeros, creating errors at the Bookstore. (The errors did not affect students transmitted in the first night’s file, however.) These errors were corrected in the third night’s transmission.

There is no question that this process is imperfect and that some students will not have their bookstore credits available when they expect them. We can usually respond to those situations within 24 hours.

We have already learned some lessons from the start of our bookstore credit program this fall. For example, in the future we will select a day other than Saturday to begin offering bookstore credits so that we can respond even more quickly when issues arise.

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to this letter.

Sincerely,
Robert Bode
Director of Financial Aid
Metropolitan State University