Problems arise for students with registration and financial bills

Over the semester break and throughout the past semester, some students have faced continuous complications in dealing with the registrar, financial aid and business offices. Some offices are unaware of problems and other offices point to uncontrollable circumstances.

by Kristen Williams assistant copy editor

Some students coming back from their winter break were met with cancelled classes and lost checks rather than smiling faces and new teachers.

Fingers are being pointed at the registrar's office, the business office and the financial aid office. and students are anxiously awaiting reprieve.

For some, classes have mysteriously been dropped off of their schedules. When they registered before leaving for break, all their classes were on the printout, but the registrar's computer did not seem to recognize the classes.

These students, some of which are now short of what credits they need to graduate, have had to redo their entire schedule, and will now have to take an extra class so that they can be on the right track.

Other students have been completely erased from all classes. Tuition payments have been made by these students, yet the business office has seemed to have either misplaced the paperwork or has simply fallen too far behind to get to it.

Students facing this problem have come back to ,chool and have not been allowed to take classes until the problems were resolved and they registered again.

Junior Erin Lindell has come face to face with this problem every semester that she has been enrolled at Cabrini.

"I register for classes, then come back and find a notice telling me I owe the school thousands of dollars," she said. •'If I owe anything, it's like $40."

Lindell continued to say that each time she has come upon this difference in paperwork, it has always been the fault of the business office.

"They had a paper sitting .on their desk for three weeks," Lindell said. "Had they simply taken care of it when they first got it, there would be no problem."

Along with these mistakes, some students are not being paid for the work they have done here at Cabrini.

Some students ha·,e worked up to 24 hours and have not received a paycheck for their time. They claim that they have put in paperwork, but it has disappeared. Records and copies have been made of their paperwork, and taken to the business office so that new checks could be print- ed, but this has yet to happen.

First-year student Cliff Beckett has now become used to this happening. He is not only waiting for just one paycheck, but for two.

"I worked so many hours, and I keep working, and it's basically for nothing,'' Beckett said.

So what is being done about all of these conflicts?

In talking to the controller of the business office, Cindy Falcone, it seems as if the school is not even aware of the problem.

When asked why student payments were being misplaced or lost, Falcone stated that she was "unaware that such a problem existed."

"At the beginning of this semester we do what we always do," Falcone said. "We set a due date for payments to be in by, and when a student does not pay on time, we have to cancel their classes. When this occurred, students subsequently came to my office, paid, and were reregistered ."

Cabrini's registrar, Raymond Matzelle, explained that "colleges country-wide cancel classes."

He went on to state that Cabrini· s reason for canceling classes is sometimes due to low enrollment.

According to Matzelle, Cabrini cannot afford to pay professors to teach a class of five students when the class should be larger.

"Professors like interaction in their class," Matzelle said. ''With only a few students, they do not get this, and therefore have a harder time teaching the class."

Matzelle also noted that sometimes classes are canceled due to a faculty member leaving or being ill.

However, he also stated that if a canceled class affects a senior's right to graduate, that student should speak to either him or Nancy Gardner, the assistant to the provost. In such cases, accommodations would be made so that the student would not be penalized.

Students, however, are still upset with the ongoing problems and feel that it is definitely the fault of the college and not their own.

Lindell made sure of this when she said, "Just remember, it is never, never, never your fault."

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Should you order a drink during a job interview?

Confused about what to do at a formal dinner or banquet?

Just want to learn something about good food and wine? Hungry for a good meal?

Join Jim Hedtke, Ruby Remley and John Heiberger for dinner, as they renew Cabrini's highly successful "Corporate Dining Program" and teach you the tricks to look like you know what you are doing.

Corporate ©ining

When: Tuesday, February 23

Where: Great Valley Sheraton, Frazer, Penn. Time: 6 p.m.

Cost is $15.00 per student for a four course meal with choice of appetizers, entrees and dessert. Wine samples available for those over 21. Space is limited, so make paid reservations now at the Career Services Office Grace Hall, Room 160.