Students suffer most from administration blunders

A strange and wild summer is turning into a cool and chilly fall – especially if you are an MHCC student on financial aid.

Now, I am not here to rip on the hard working staff led by Financial Aid Director Christi Hart. My comments are aimed at the administration, which seems to want to ignore the perfect storm they find themselves in: an increasing number of students needing financial aid and a financial aid office that is understaffed and cannot handle the mountain of applications.

In a series of emails on July 8 with Vice President of Student Success and Enrollment Services David Minger, he acknowledged the issue and said he, his staff and the President’s Council were working on solutions to the problem. On July 12, a financial aid FAQ was posted to the MHCC website to give students information regarding the delays. To their credit, I did hear from some students that Mr. Minger, Dean Robert Cox and David Sussman were in contact with students who had been impacted by this problem – but I am sure there are many more who did not get that personal attention and the problems only continued.

I taught two public speaking classes during the second half of summer term and had close to a dozen students that had not received their financial aid. I was able to get them through the course by cleaning out my cabinets of all extra copies of my textbook (even older versions). Yet, I need to let you know some of those students took their final exams with those borrowed books having never received their aid. This problem created challenges in the students other courses as well. One student would leave my class and go directly to the library everyday so she could check out a math book to do her homework. Some students spoke of sharing books with classmates or going without and praying they would pass the class. I have many more stories I could share with you, but this column would then be too long to print.

To expedite more award letters, the financial aid office has been closed until 2 p.m. daily since July so that staff can focus on working through files. Yet, even with the extra time, it is achingly clear that they need more staff. As of last week, they were working on files from July 18. Many students who have been told to not expect their aid until mid-to-late October, which means they will be starting this term without their textbooks and unable to pay for their parking passes. This 8-10 week delay is unacceptable.

Now, to be fair, students need to pay closer attention to deadlines and not put things off to the last minute. But at the same time, the college must do more to communicate the importance of getting FAFSA and all other paperwork completed and turned in by an established deadline. When students ask questions, please do not read the talking points from the website or patronize them. Students see through the façade and the empty promises as their friends at other colleges— LARGER, not SMALLER, than ours — are receiving their financial aid in two weeks or less. Students are angry and frustrated and some have left or are strongly considering leaving MHCC.

Students: Get informed and make your voices heard. Contact your ASG leaders. Write emails to the board members; their addresses can be found on the MHCC website. Request a meeting with Dean Cox, Vice President Minger, or interim President Michael Hay. Information is power. Customer service is suffering, and you deserve better.

Many faculty are doing what they can to help out. I call on my fellow faculty members to continue our commitment to placing copies of our texts on reserve and work to increase the number of online resources we can use in our courses, as well as continue to look for other cost-effective alternatives. These challenging times are going to be long-term and our students can use our help.

A strong indicator that students are losing their faith was illustrated by some of my summer public speaking students who donated their textbooks so that other students who needed books could get them — because they knew that if it could happen this summer it most likely will happen again in the fall. Other students are contacting me through the Faculty Association Facebook page to offer their used books for other classes. To those students who have stepped up: THANK YOU! However, I just cannot stop thinking your donations should not have been necessary.

Advocate Staff