Registar’s office chaos

As students anxiously sit in class on the first day of the winter semester, many will soon find out that their name does not grace the attendance list. Why? Apparently their tuition has not been paid yet.

Whether it’s because they haven’t received their OSAP payments or they’ve simply put it on the back-burner, there seems to have been a miscommunication between the schools and their students about paying their rite of passage.

Today is the first day that students have been required to attend class and actually be at the school, resulting in a flood of people waiting at the registrar’s office to take action. Some students claimed to have been waiting for over an hour, while representatives from the school say the official wait time is 45 minutes to an hour.

With late fees reaching up to $100 for not paying your tuition on time, you have to wonder how much Ottawa’s post-secondary schools are making from the deferment and late fees on top of tuition fee revenue.

After the fall 2012 semester, Algonquin College no longer allowed paying tuition fees via credit card, leaving students to plan ahead and hand over their fees in person or at the bank.

Algonquin did send out at least one reminder email, to inform students that tuition payments were due. However the message, entitled “Important Fees Due Date Information,” contained a PDF and a short message asking students to read said PDF. In amongst spam students received about failing internet connections, Blackboard updates and course feedback surveys, it’s easy to ignore such a sparsely worded email.

But despite receiving emails and the school offices being open as early as Thursday, Jan. 2, students seem to have all waited for the first day of class to do anything at all and it’s making it more difficult for everyone.

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