The Trials and Tribulations of a Western Michigan University Student

I consider myself to be an experienced student. I attended an HBCU in Washington, DC for 2 years on a full scholarship before transferring to a public university in Michigan where I completed two bachelor's degrees. During my years as a student, I - like most other students - had small gripes about incompetencies or glitches in the university systems. While I often found myself annoyed (ex: a university administration office with no fax capabilities) the staff members were generally professional and knowledgeable.

I enrolled at Western Michigan University last year to take some extra classes as I settled my plans for graduate school. Western is the university of my hometown where both of my parents and my older brother attended (along with at least 40% of my high school alums). Despite the negative press I heard about both the university and the University president (the now terminated Judith Bailey) I decided to take my chances and give the school a try.

Will they accept me?

The first hurdle was acceptance. Per the instructions of the admissions office, I submitted my university transcripts, application and the (optional) essay several months before the deadline. The school has rolling admission, so I was careful to submit my packet early.

Two weeks after submission, I received a letter confirming receipt of my completed application and offered assurance that I would hear a response in around 6-8 weeks.

Eight weeks later, after no word from the office, I called the number on the letter. I was told my the person that answered that my transcript from one of my schools, had not arrived. I spent hours on the phone calling the school to get the date the transcript was sent, getting them to fax a second copy over and asking them to send a back-up copy (at my expense!).

After those steps were completed, I called Western again. The woman on the phone had "no idea" why I was given that information: the records from that university were complete! They were actually missing my ACT scores!

Now, as a second degree student, ACT scores were not required, so I did not send them to the school. I pointed this out to the agent and she insisted that I needed to have them sent.

Wild goose chase #2: I contacted the ACT office, paid for the scores to be sent and called Western back. The woman who answered this call had a different story for me. ACT scores were not needed! The application was already sent to a separate department for an admission decision to be made. I simply had to wait. This scenario repeated several times over the next month or two, with very slight variations in what I was told.

I was applying for admission for the Spring semester, so as Christmas break approached, I became worried that I had no word on my status. Two days before break, I called and spoke to someone who insisted that my letter was sent out the day before and I would receive it in the mail.

Needless to say, I received no letter and all offices were closed for two weeks for the holidays.

After break, the day before classes started, I took the day off of work and went to the admissions office. As I sat waiting to be seen, not one, not two, not three, but FOUR other students came in to inquire about their admission status for the very next day. At least I knew I was not alone at that point.

I was finally seen, given my WIN number and registration information and acceptance letter in person. Although I would miss orientation, I felt relieved and I even began to look forward to beginning my classes.

Registration will be easy....right?

I took my shiny new WIN number and temporary id home and attempted to sign up for classes.

Problem. The number was not in the system. The username was not in the system. My name was not in the system. I called the number on the letter and was told that I had to wait for the information to be "activated" and that it would work the next day - the day the classes began.

Day one: I woke up early, drove to campus, paid $1.50 an hour to park at a meter, and waited in the very long line in Bronco Express, the student mega-conglomerate of services that were temporarily housed in one location. One should be able to access financial aid, admission, advisers, and any other service they need in that room.

I started with the advisers. I waited for an hour to be told that I could not get service without a Bronco ID card. I found the ID station (in a different room) and again, my name was not in the system. They advised me to go back to the advisers to assistance. I managed to get a supervisor to read my acceptance letter and pushed some buttons and "found" me in the system, and I was granted identification.

I returned to the Bronco Express room and since I was running out of quarters, I decided to stop at the parking pass stand first. This was the shinning beacon of my WMU experience. I was helped efficiently, I was given a much needed map of the school, and I was treated with kindness and respect. The staff working that station actually gave me hope that things would turn back around.

I was, however, quickly shoved back into reality when I approached the advisers again. Still unable to register, I was told that I needed to go to some building on the opposite end of campus and and make an appointment to speak to someone. I drove the building, only to be told that appointments were not being offered for the first week, meaning I would not be able to register before the add-drop period (a big problem!).

Frustrated, I decided to try individual departments and ask for permission to be enrolled in the class. I had marginal success with that tactic, but I was only able to sign up for entry-level classes because my transcripts were not processed properly and there was no record of my completed courses.

I found a handful of interesting classes that I could take (nothing that I really needed to take, but at that point, I would have settled for anything).

Financial aid...one more step

Just to keep the time-line in perspective, at this point it was January and I was able to make class on the second day, so I did not miss much.

Knowing I needed financing for school, I contacted the financial aid office. I completed the FAFSA long before and received paperwork from them, so I was honestly expecting this last step to be pretty simple - after-all, these things are regulated by the government, right?

I was told by an agent in the office that my award letter would be coming int he mail (where had I heard that line before?). I checked my status on the web and it seemed to confirm that as aid was said to be "pending". After several weeks, I called again and I was told that I was ineligible for aid.

I spent weeks dealing with these agents (including a very rude woman, Louetha, who told me to "drop out of school if I couldn't afford it" and to "put [my] tuition on a credit card). I was shuffled from person to person, supervisor to supervisor, growing more agitated and angrier by the day. After two months, I was finally granted access to the vice president of financial aid, who proved to be just as rude and incompatent as her staff.

Finally, I was allowed to speak to the president of the office. Within five minutes he gave me information that solved the entire problem. In April (just before the end of the semester!) my aid was processed and those classes are paid for. I am extremely grateful for the president and I wish all of the staff could be as knowledgeable and caring.

Conclusion

I'd like the say that things got better as time went on but that wouldn't be true. While I have met some very competent and engaging professors, the people in the student support offices seem to be getting worse and worse.

Where is my aid for this year, you ask? It's been "in the mail" for three weeks...

So my final conclusion is this: enrollment is down at Western because the staff is improperly trained, tuition is too high, students are unhappy and when we have to give advice to those new potential students, why would any of us suggest that others willingly submit themselves to this degree of stress?