Since SPSU has screwed up something in my financial aid each of the semesters I’ve attended so far, I started weeks ago, contacting the financial aid office in an attempt to deal with any problems well ahead of time.
Despite those efforts, I just got a call from someone in their office. Okay, that’s good—he called me back finally—but that’s because my advisor was leaning on him (I have mentioned that I love my advisor, right?).
Suddenly, they’ve pulled a requirement right out of their asses saying that I have to have permission from the federal student aid office to be considered full-time while taking a half-time course load due to a documented disability. The disability office hasn’t breathed a word of this in the past. The financial aid office hasn’t mentioned it at all. It wasn’t a factor in the summer semester when I took a half-time load. But now it is an issue, and there’s absolutely no way to resolve it in time to actually get the financial aid payment on schedule.
And now they’ve just realized that I have to do a special transient letter for the Hope scholarship stuff.
The financial aid director is now claiming that she’s never talked to me before about the effects of the disability accommodations on my financial aid. I spent HOURS in that woman’s office during the summer semester! She wrangled me into a course for one credit hour after the disability office said I just needed two classes, which added up to only five hours. She’s the one who said, “you have to take 6 hours.”
Yes, I have documentation (notes and emails) that she’s got memory problems, but they don’t care. They’re editing reality, it seems.
I cannot begin to tell you how damned close I am to transferring to Kennesaw. Dealing with Floyd College’s staff has been a pure joy in comparison, and if it weren’t for the fact that they’re only a junior college I’d transfer there.
If you’re considering attending Southern Polytechnic State University, stop considering it. Find a college that has more clueful staff. Dealing with university bureaucracies is bad enough without people who are willfully ignorant.
