Students at IU all know about those pesky holds on our bursar accounts.
Usually, they’re just annoying: they keep us from getting into the classes we want, leave us with bad schedules and cause unnecessary anxiety over wait lists.
But we survive — whether that means having to wake up for an 8 a.m. lecture twice a week or finding an acceptable alternative.
Well, believe it or not, those holds seem to have benefitted us more than harmed us in light of what happened at Kentucky State University.
Kentucky State University will apparently drop up to a quarter of its students for unpaid bills.
Some of these bills go up to $40,000 and have lasted up to two years.
Due to these unpaid bills, the school now suffers a $7 million shortfall. President Raymond Burse hopes spending cuts and future savings will make up for the shortage.
Apparently, these students did not pay their tuition even after having moved into their dorms and attending their classes.
This is all because the school did not have a system in place that stopped students from registering for classes if they did not pay their mandatory fees.
Burse plans to change this in the future by making it impossible for students to enroll without paying their fees. He estimates that, ultimately, about 200 of the 600 students will end up paying their bills and return to school.
Because $7 million is not a small number, it’s completely reasonable that the university would want its money.
Yet, if this were the case, the school should have issued warnings before dropping students from enrollment.
Such extreme and sudden measures will likely have negative impacts on the students’ future plans and even life goals.
Perhaps the school should also consider the students’ academic standing before dropping them completely.
There should be a difference between someone who does not pay their tuition because they don’t really care for college and someone who excels academically but is simply unable to meet the financial demands.
In this case, the school should have some obligation to aid the more academically promising and passionate ?student.
However, for the situation to have escalated to this point, the students should also be held responsible.
Though everyone can have reasons for paying their tuition later than they’d originally expected to, it seems impossible for one to be $40,000 in debt and not know it.
In this sense, the students should be held fully responsible for their payments.
If they know it is impossible for them to pay for college, then they should not return to attend to begin with.
It would be ridiculous to assume that one could get away with never paying.
Still, the school is equally at fault — there must be something wrong with the administration to allow itself to be $7 million short due to unpaid fees.
If the fees were not paid on time, the school should be responsible for sending the ?students reminders.
Many students may in fact not be seriously in debt — in such instances, sending updates and reminders would be all that’s required for the fees to be paid.
For things to have gotten to this point, it seems both Kentucky State University and its students are responsible for their losses.
Luckily, at IU we just have our pesky holds — which will hopefully prevent us from ever worrying about being suddenly dropped from school one day.
