The Beginning

So we arrived at Delta College for our meeting with the Director of Financial Aid, David Urbaniak, 10 minutes early.  He came out and introduced himself to us and then we waited for the Academic Adviser, Jessica Miller.  I like Jessica, she’s one of the few helpful staff that I’ve found at Delta.  Should you find yourself in need of advising, be sure to ask for her first at Delta.

The meeting began with a brief overview of the current status – that I was going to be essentially billed for the classes I’m currently taking because of the fact that I’m not in a program currently.  The reason I’m not in a program currently is because an Associates in Science degree was sent to me already, despite me not indicating that this is what I wanted to do.

When confronted with the idea that I never requested this from Jolene, who works in the registrar’s office, he simply stated that he ‘couldn’t speak for another person or department’ and that she stated that I requested my degree to be sent to me as soon as possible.

This is not the case; I provided my substitution request sheet to Jolene in the registrars office and requested she put the substitution through.  We even talked about graduation, and before I left I asked her to confirm that this should be all I need for graduation.  She did affirm this. My witness, also named Jolene, was sitting in the waiting chair across the way from Jolene’s desk, overhearing our conversation.

A Lack of Responsibility

Throughout this whole process nobody has taken much in the way of responsibility or ownership for the issues I’ve faced.  I’ve spent most of a year dealing with this, and mistakes have been very certainly made.  All it would have taken  to make this ‘better’ is an acknowledgment that something wrong happened in the process.

During this meeting, like in every other meeting I’ve had with Delta’s support staff, David did not take responsibility for the issue.  He did take ownership of it, and wanted to have this meeting in order to fix my issue – which I appreciate.  He stated that he didn’t want to assign blame, which is fine – but there was a lot of it that needed to be assigned.

I suppose it really comes down to people skills issues.  Being conciliatory does not necessarily mean that you have to accept all of the blame for the past, but perhaps a glimpse of being sorry that I’ve been through this for this amount of mistakes would have been appreciated.

The Result

Essentially, if I said “I do not plan to take any more classes at Delta College” they wanted me to pay them back their aid.  If I said “I plan on taking more classes at Delta College to pursue a 3rd Associates Degree”, even if I’m lying, they’ll grant me the grace to “continue receiving aid” for the classes that I currently am enrolled in.

So, in essence, they encouraged me to lie to continue receiving aid, in lieu of fixing their mistake about sending me the Degree before I asked for it.

I am now pursuing an Associates in Management of something or another.  I don’t really know what program it is, nor do I really care.

What’s Next

A whole new set of paperwork has been initiated to get me moved into this program, effective from the beginning of the last semester.  If past experiences hold, something will go wrong and I will need to continue to visit the Delta College staff to fix their errors and oversights.

The Associates in Science degree that I received in March is valid and will continue to be.

Graduation will be fine and should not be a problem.

Graduation, however, needs to be fully coordinated with Jolene in the registrars office, the same person who pushed through a Degree when I asked her to push through a course substitution request for graduation.  Then when asked she did the ole CYA manuver (Cover Your Ass, for the uninitiated). This delights me to no end.

I just want this to be over.

So I received an email from the Director of Financial aid at Delta College.  He said he would like to have a meeting with me.  I assume during this meeting he will justify the attempt to bill me for the classes that I’m currently taking.  I tried to call him to schedule this meeting but only got voicemail.  He ended up calling me back and we discussed over the phone the basics of the issue:

They emailed me because they sent me my degree already, midway through the semester.

This leaves me with no degree that I’m currently working towards, which the federal auditors would not like to see.

He talked with Jolene in the registrars office who told him that I “Wanted my degree pushed through as fast as possible”.  This is not the case, I asked her to push through my course waiver request, which would allow me to graduate.  At no time did I ever ask for a degree to be sent to me via mail, hence my surprise when it arrived.  We even discussed graduation, as in the ceremony.

I’m going to talk to him at 3:00 tomorrow in his office with the academic advisor that I had been working with.  He mentioned that I had not been in to see him previously, and inferred that we probably could have had it taken care of if I had.

Except, of course, for the fact that the one time I tried to go back to the financial aid office I stood at the desk for 20 minutes without an acknowledgment from the working staff.  This was during the middle of the day, and yes, they saw me standing there.  With that kind of service, why would I object myself to more?

I’ll be sure to update this with more information.

I’ve been having issues with Delta College and it’s financial aid and support staff.  I thought I was done fighting with them, however I got yet another email from their staff today.  The connotation is that if I don’t jump through their hoops yet again I will be billed for the classes I’m taking now.  I’ve previously been content with communicating to Delta in private, but at this point I’m far, far too tired of dealing with them.  So here’s the message I got today, now posted on the web:

—–Original Message—–
From: Sika, Elvina – Staff <elvinasika@delta.edu>
Sent: Tue 3/24/2009 12:57 PM
To: Cooke, David – Student <davidcooke@delta.edu>
Subject: declaring a new college major for financial aid purposes

Hi David.  I need you to go to the attached link

http://www.delta.edu/currentstudents/ServicesforStudents/ProgramsandGraduate/HowTo/DoaProgramChange/default.aspx

and update your college major to show you are now working towards a third degree.  You received your AS degree in March 2009, and in order to keep your financial aid for this Winter 2009 semester, you must now be working towards a new degree.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me. Please update your major as soon as possible and send me a quick email response letting me know that you have done it.

Elvina Sika
Delta College
Financial Aid Office
1961 Delta Rd.
University Center, MI 48710
989.686.9553
Fax: 989.667.2202
Email: elvinasika@delta.edu <mailto:elvinasika@delta.edu>
Delta’s Homepage: www.delta.edu

I responded with the text below:

I don’t understand your verbiage.  “In order to keep your financial aid for this Winter 2009 semester”…  Does this mean that if I don’t follow this link and change to a third degree that delta will bill me for aid granted, received, and already applied towards classes?

I’ve had such troubles with the financial aid office that it’s insane. I’ve literally spent almost a 2 credit hour class since my initial rejection letter trying to resolve issues that the Delta College administration.  In fact, issues with the financial aid office caused me to write the following letter to the president of Delta college, Jean Goodnow:

*************************

Dear Ms. Goodnow:

I have been attending Delta College on and off for many years, and have been impressed by both the affordability of the College as well as the quality of the instruction.  The staff that I have encountered have been, for the most part, extremely helpful.

I originally began going to Delta in pursuit of a Computer Information Systems degree, with which I was going to transfer to Saginaw Valley State University.  The job market lured me away from college, and I worked for some time in technology.  In the fall of 2007 I returned to school, this time wanting to pursue a degree in Accounting.  I began classes and did very well, earning a place on the Deans List in 2008.

I began registering for classes for four of my six remaining classes needed to transfer to Central Michigan University in the fall of 2009.  As part of this process, I filled out the FAFSA online on 05/08/2008.  Having had no issues before, and a definite need for aid, I did not foresee any issue with this.  It was at this point that I began to have difficulties with the college.

1.      I was issued a denial letter from the financial aid office because of too many credits being taken without a degree being earned.  This occurred on 6/16/2008, and the root cause of this was because I had switched programs from CIS to Business Administration, leaving me with classes taken that aren’t applicable to my degree.  I was busy during the summer, both with a class at delta (no aid for this class) as well as with fulltime work and childcare for my two elementary student children.  I downloaded, filled out, and submitted the “Standards of Academic Progress” form on 9/10/2008.  This process was humiliating since it’s the same form that people that fail out of college while on aid are required to fill out.

2.      On 9/12/2008 I went to CMU and spoke with an admissions advisor there to be certain that my courses were appropriate for transfer.  I registered to be a student there starting during the fall of 2009, pending the completion of the classes I’m taking now and the classes I will be taking in Winter 2009.

3.      I went to see an academic advisor at delta on 9/15/2008 to be sure that I was going to be able to complete my time with delta in a very short time, and he looked over the classes and saw that they were appropriate for transfer.  He saw no issue with what I was trying to do.  I did not get his name.

4.      I waited till the 9/15/2008 and emailed the financial aid office requesting an update.  They requested the 2008-2009 Independent Verification Worksheet, a signed copy of the Federal 1040 tax return including all W2′s, a copy of schedule C tax form, and a copy of the child support my wife receives as part of her divorce from her ex husband.  I returned this information very soon thereafter.

5.      I received a further denial for financial aid on 10/01/2008, this time requesting that I contact an academic advisor and receive their signature on a form.  I filled out the form and met with Jessica Miller in the student advising office on 10/03/2008.  She provided the signature that I needed, and also advised that I request a graduation for the associates degree that I already have earned but have not yet received.  I filled this out, and turned in the signed copy of the form to the financial aid office.

6.      I received in the mail a denial of the associates degree because instead of 1 LWA class, I had done 2 LW classes back when that was the requirement.  I went back to see Jessica Miller on 10/21/2008 and she assisted me by putting in a substitution request for the 2 LW classes to the LWA.  This was approved by the program coordinators, the dean, the registrar, and then was placed into records.  I later received my first associates degree, and will follow this with the associates for business
administration pending my completion of next semester.  Jessica was, by far, the most helpful person I’ve contacted thus far in this process.

7.      On 11/3/2008 I received notice after emailing the financial aid office that the Financial Aid Appeals Committee met on November 11th or November 13th to review the documents.  On 11/17/2008 I received a response to another request for a status update, stating that I would receive a paper mailing that week.

8.      On 11/22/2008 I emailed again not having received a mailing, and got a response back on 11/26/2008 that it was sitting on the desk of the review committee, and there has been a delay in processing.

9.      I received my financial aid award letter on 12/9/2008.  It included zero aid for the Fall of 2008 semester, and aid for the two classes in winter 2009.  When I responded to the award letter asking why this was the case, I received a response that the committee denied my appeal because they wanted me to apply for a degree.  Since I had done this, they chose to approve the Winter 2009 semester for the two courses needed to complete my degree.  This is confusing, since the classes for the Fall of 2008 contained requirements for my degree, yet they refuse to provide assistance.

This entire process has been exhausting to me.  It has been over three months since my initial attempts at appealing the decision made by the financial aid office and almost six months since my initial denial of aid.

I understand what it means when “The Delta Difference” is mentioned in commercials as well as in my personal life.  Delta has been a part of my life for a long time, and has long been something that I have recommended to others looking to get a start in college.

This is not the experience that I have had when dealing with the Financial Aid office.  While I understand the need to take care and be thoughtful about who needs and deserves aid, it seems as though bureaucracy has allowed students such as myself to be swallowed up in it.  I have even had difficulty getting the attention of someone in the Financial Aid office when I personally visit, as I tried to do on 12/11/2008.  I stood at the front desk for 20 minutes without being so much as acknowledged by the staff that was working.

At this point it is almost a foregone conclusion that I will not be receiving any sort of aid for that semester no matter what hoops I jump through, and no matter who I speak to or say.  I would appreciate any sort of action that your office could take, but after these six months I am rather discouraged.  It is my intent with this letter to make you aware of the issues that students such as myself face.

Please contact me back regarding these issues at your earliest convenience.  I would greatly enjoy having a dialog regarding these issues.

*************************
Following the above letter, the financial aid office approved my requests.  What has happened since then has been the following:

1) I applied for graduation as you are supposed to do, by the deadline that you’re supposed to do it.

2) I received the same denial for the associates in science degree as I did in step 6 above.  Because of the renumbering from LW to LWA, I was unable to graduate.

3) I contacted Jessica Miller again and requested on January 30th a substitution request

4) Nobody did anything on the administrative end, which I’ve come to expect.  I went back to Jessica Miller again on 2/19 and re-requested the substition.

4-10) I went back again and again and inquired about six times to try to get this pushed through.

11) Eventually, it came down to the registrar.  I went to see Jolene in the registrars office and asked her to push the request through.  She did.

12) I received my Associates in Science in the mail.  I’m not sure why this happened.  From my knowledge, I’m currently in the classes required to obtain my associates in science and go to CMU.  The classes I have taken are on the MACRAO transfer sheet.  I need to finish this equivelency before I go to CMU.  I did not ask for the diploma to be mailed to me, I requested graduation.

Now I get your response below.  Is your job to go through recent graduates and attempt to deny them financial aid?

As you’ve seen above, I am more than willing to jump through any hoops delta would like me to jump through.  However, I need to know – if I choose a different program, what will happen?  Does it matter which program I choose?  Why do I need to do this when the whole crux of approval rested before on these classes I am taking now for my degree?

Most of the communications I’ve sent to the financial aid office have resulted in a lack of reading and responding my questions.  Please go through and read these and try to answer them for me.

Regards,

David Cooke