Students at SUNY Old Westbury are complaining about the problems they face with the Office of the Bursar. The office handles all the payments made on student accounts, including managing payment plans, financial aid payments and refunds from overpayments. These complaints from students range from the office not answering their phones, miscommunication, or encountering certain issues that cause huge setbacks.
Kayla Mcleod, sophomore and a biology major, recalled two instances where she had encountered trouble with Bursar. “They tried to charge me and put a hold on my account when I fully had the excelsior scholarship,” Mcleod complained. As a result, she wasn’t able to see her grades and the classes she registered.
Eventually, she went to Bursar and explained her situation. They were able to clear the hold off of her account, but without any explanation as to why the problem existed. Bursar placed another hold on her account after they told Mcleod that they didn’t have any proof of her high school diploma. Mcleod stated that she already sent her high school diploma during her senior year in high school. “They gave me a run around. I went to Bursar, Registrar, to this place upstairs in the [Campus Center],” said Mcleod. Bursar was able to clear her account during the school semester.
Christina DeSantis, a senior media and communications major, also had to trouble with Bursar. Her advisor advised her to register for American People II, and on the first day of class, she realized she took a similar course she had previously passed at Nassau Community College. She was later advised to drop the class but was in the 50% refund period. When she went to register for another class, the Bursar [Office] waited too long to refund her money, so by the time she did receive it, all of the other classes she could have registered for were all full. “My only goal was to graduate class of 2019,” she said. “This situation set me back a whole semester.”
Another student, Jamie Levine has also had issues dealing with Bursar. Levine is a media and communication major who is set to graduate in December 2019. She wanted to pay the $10 graduation fee, but was having issues and tried reaching out to the Office of the Bursar. However, upon calling them, no one picked up, forcing her to drive to the school and meet with the Bursar Office face to face to resolve her issue.
Susan Anderson, the College Bursar at SUNY OW, says that while she is unaware of these particular issues, she and her team are constantly trying to improve their system. “We’re trying to do a lot of things electronically,” she said. “So we’re doing everything online that you could possibly do [including] e-refunds, e-deposits payments online via credit cards and e-checks.” Anderson hopes for more students to utilize this to make it easier for all parties. “We would also like to see students using that more.”
“We do emails to try to get the information out there that they need to pay,” said Anderson. “It’s also posted on the website. We review the accounts with financial aid to make sure they’ll be able to finance.”
As far as the phones not being answered at the office, Anderson says that they are working on a better system to rectify that. “Our phones are actually answered by a contact center as well as the financial aid. So they’re not answered directly by the office. There is another office that answers them and we have sent information and talked with the other office about looking into a better system to be applied for that.”
Other grievances we’ve heard involves the process of student residents being flagged as out-of-state residents. Apparently, people take issue with the committee that operates that; however, Anderson says that Bursar is not in charge of that committee. “[Students] are flagged as in state or out of state [and] enrollment services handles it from the beginning,” she said. “When you‘re flagged and submit applications to become in state, there is a committee to review that, but not in-state or out-of-state.” Asked to identify members of the committee, Anderson declined.
Students have had issues where Bursar would accidentally misplace certain documents after receiving them, though Anderson says she is unaware of such situations.
“It would be easier for students to send us emails, because sometimes when the phones are busy, we do have people on the phones, but we have someone who looks at the emails as well to answer emails,” said Anderson.
Syed Haq, Assistant Bursar, says that they hear these complaints, and are willing to work with students to fix it. “We’re trying to make it convenient for the students and for everybody at the campus,” he said. “We’re doing our best, but we need support from the students also.”
