Financial services exhausted

More than 1,000 University students remained on financial hold, making them ineligible to register for classes, Assistant Vice President for Finance Frank Claus said last week. Besides being blocked from registration through PARIS, students placed on financial hold cannot receive academic transcripts or degrees from the University. The 1,030 were placed on financial hold because they had failed to pay large debts owed to the University. Claus said last month that he hoped the number of students on financial hold would be pared down to 1,000 or fewer by the advance registration period, which ended last week. Despite a few problems, Financial Services' new financial hold policy was functioning "extremely well," Claus said. Chief among these problems was a lack of coordination between Financial Services and the Residential Living Department, he said. As a consequence, hundreds of University students living on campus received letters this month stating they would be evicted if they did not settle their debts with Financial Services by November 18 – even though most of those students are not really at risk of immediate eviction. This lack of coordination caused a great deal of "unnecessary anxiety for students, and unnecessary aggravation [for University administrators]," Claus said. And some of the warning notices Financial Services sent out could have been timed better, Claus added. Still, he said these problems should not take away from the overall success of the new policy. Under the new financial hold policy, students must pay for the current academic term before registering for the next term. "[The new policy has] helped a lot of students cope with problems a lot earlier than they would have otherwise," Claus said. "That really makes a difference." This semester, the policy is being enforced against students who owe the University more than $1,000. Under the previous policy, students could go another semester without being placed on financial hold

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