Letter to the editor

Dear Editor:

Thursday, Jan. 10, began like any other day. The new semester was inching closer, and the last few days of winter break were slowly fading into memory. Like many, I had been anticipating my loan refund check for a few days so I could buy books and supplies and pay a few bills. I diligently checked my Bursar account online, hoping to see my refund authorized.

After waiting patiently for a few days and seeing no action on my account at all, I sent a polite e-mail to the Bursar’s office. I noted that the Bursar had already taken action on two of my colleagues’ accounts (one receiving her refund electronically, the other seeing an authorized refund on her online account). The response I received from the Bursar was appalling and insulting.

The response came in the form of a condescending and terse campus-wide e-mail. The Bursar’s office seemed annoyed at having to address the legitimate concerns of those students adversely affected by the Bursar’s mismanagement of loan money. The half-hearted apology, however, only served to show the low regard the university holds for its students — which is not surprising given that President Lefton has referred to students as “tuition-bearing units.”

But the Bursar’s terse campus-wide e-mail is an all-time low. The Bursar owes those students adversely affected by a problem they did not create, but are now paying the price for, much more than a half-hearted and insulting e-mail “apology.” I am upset at how this university treats its students with such disrespect, and I feel the university should also be ashamed at how poorly it has treated those people it exists to serve.

Thomas Weyant

History department doctoral student