Earlier this week, Sebastian Perkinson, a first-year civil
engineering student, checked his MyUCLA Web site, and his entire
course schedule had disappeared.
All of his classes had been dropped because he was not aware
that a notification would no longer be mailed, and as a result, he
had not paid his fees on time.
On Sept. 26 1,100 students were dropped from their classes
because they had failed to pay the balance for their billing and
receivable accounts. Like Perkinson, many students did not realize
they would be notified of their fees exclusively online.
All registration fees are due by the 20th of every month.
Failure to meet that deadline can result in holds being placed on
students’ accounts and, in the case of student fees, classes
are dropped.
To get back into their classes, students have to speak to
individual professors and obtain Permission to Enroll numbers.
While some professors let students back into their classes,
others have reasons for refusing.
“Limited number of seating is the main reason. When
students get dropped, students on the wait list will be moved up
… and most of the time it’s not an administration
error,” said Jeffrey Lew, an atmospheric sciences
professor.
Some students had their classes dropped because of issues with
financial aid, many failing to attend required debt-management
classes.
“The number of entering students who didn’t attend
debt management this year was higher than last,” said Nicolas
Valdivia, assistant director of the Financial Aid Office.
Debt management is a workshop offered by the Financial Aid
Office that must be taken by all entering students who have
financial aid or who are taking out loans.
There were also more students who did not respond to their
financial aid offers this year compared to previous years.
About 21,000 students currently have financial aid, and despite
the FAO’s campaign to notify all students of the new
electronic financial aid notification letters, there has been some
confusion.
“We are suspecting that the switch from paper to
electronic financial aid notifications caused the students to not
read the information fully,” Valdivia said.
Four thousand reminder e-mails were sent to students with
account balances last Friday to avoid problems, he added.
If appropriate paperwork is completed on time and students are
registered in at least six units, their financial aid is dispersed
about 10 days before the start of the quarter.
As a result of this year’s $1,150 fee increase for
undergraduates, funding was provided by the university to help
financial aid students cover this increase. But because this
funding was different from their typical financial aid payments,
students had to accept separately the university’s offer.
“But that money might not have passed if a student
(forgot) to accept that offer,” said Ronald Johnson, FAO
director.
Valdivia said students should get in the habit of checking their
BAR accounts on a regular basis.