An opinions article by Patrick Wheaton, 2L
The GSU College of Law is a surprisingly outstanding institution. I say surprisingly because in general, Georgia State University has a well-established reputation for bureaucratic dysfunction. Yet, the College of Law manages to overcome this reputation and provide outstanding support to its students. Regrettably, the same cannot be said of those responsibilities that the College of Law, for whatever reason, outsources to the University.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the process by which students receive financial
aid. Unfortunately for the average law student, applying for and receiving financial aid is a necessity, which is aggravated by the utterly baffling process that students must navigate on an annual, or even semiannual basis.
The typical student entering the College of Law is ill-prepared for the bureaucracy that awaits them when they first enter the Urban Life building. A significant number of students each year discover that their financial aid has not yet been processed, and that they must wait for weeks while the financial aid office resolves problems that bar the student from receiving the money that they need for rent, food, books, and utilities. Rather than notify students of problems in a proactive manner, the financial aid office abstains from notifying a student of her pending financial aid meltdown until it is much too late for anything to be done.
When a problem arises, law students must first speak to a representative in the One Stop Shop, typically waiting anywhere from thirty minutes to any number of hours in line for the privilege of speaking to a representative. Unfortunately, these conversations typically end with the representative issuing me with what is effectively a permission slip to speak to a financial aid officer directly. This process of wading through multiple levels of bureaucracy to finally obtain assistance is a consistent waste of time, which only acts as a deterrent to students seeking out help from the department tasked with resolving student financial aid issues.
Earlier this semester, I tried to circumvent the One Stop Shop and speak with a financial aid officer directly. This process ended predictably with a team of three financial aid officers spending close to five minutes explaining to me that without permission from the One Stop Shop, they were incapable of helping me. They could not deny that I needed their assistance. Indeed, all I needed was a simple form that is unavailable on the website. Yet, because of these rules that make little sense, I needed to spend my valuable time waiting in a line to receive permission to speak with one of several financial aid officers who did not appear to be busy with other students.
There appears to be little rhyme or reason to the Financial Aid Office’s insistence that students go to the One Stop Shop prior to seeking help. In effect, the long line acts as the gatekeeper to students who might dare to ask for assistance from the office tasked with helping them. Only those with the most daunting problems can afford to spend an entire afternoon waiting in line to receive five minutes of help from an otherwise idle financial aid officer.
This sad state of affairs reflects poorly on the College of Law. Without exception, the administration within the College itself excels in its duties. Nevertheless,
the degree to which students rely on, and are let down by the Office of Financial Aid adversely affects the perception students have of Georgia State, and by extension, the College of Law itself. The administration of the College of Law has done a great deal, in my experience, to ensure that the Financial Aid Office resolves issues as they arise. However, this is not enough. There must be proactive solutions to the recurring issues that confront law students year after year. Greater oversight by the College of Law, to ensure that the Financial Aid Office resolves issues proactively, would go a long way in preventing students from having to spend the first month of school charging their expenses to a credit card, or prevent students from being pulled from their classes for failing to pay tuition that should have been covered by financial aid. The problems are too frequent, and too predictable. The College of Law needs to confront these issues and create meaningful solutions.
Ideally, the College of Law should have its own financial aid office. With over 500 students in the College of Law, this does not sound unreasonable, but would likely come at the cost of higher tuition, or additional fees. This is not the only option. A less expensive, but nonetheless helpful alternative might be to create a staff position within the College of Law to act as a financial aid liaison. This person could be accessed directly by law students, without permission slip requirements, to resolve simple problems, and answer questions. This person could follow up on systematic problems with financial aid, to ensure that when multiple students have an identical problem, the financial aid office resolves the problem for all affected students, rather than only those who have the time to wait in line at the One Stop Shop for permission to speak with Financial Aid.
All too often, many students have identical problems that should be resolved simultaneously, but are only resolved on a case-by-case basis. This past summer, the aid amount awarded to students studying abroad in Austria was mistakenly set too low. Each student, even though the problem was systemic, had to follow up with financial aid individually to resolve the problem. A simple problem that could have been resolved by a single student notifying financial aid of the problem became much more severe, requiring nearly two dozen students to each individually take the time to notify financial aid that they had been adversely affected, in order for the problem to be resolved. This is unacceptable and we can do better. In the past, students have often benefitted from the attentive, proactive approach that the College of Law administration has taken in resolving student problems. We, the students, are speaking up now.
The College of Law should set up a task force composed of student and faculty members to come up with solutions to what is currently an untenable situation. There is no reason why next year’s first year students need face the bureaucracy that has been a reality for all too many law students in the past.
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