ComplaintsforFlorida State College at Jacksonville

• Initial Complaint

  10/16/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  FSCJ admission process was not a good one but the issues really began once accepted and paired with the only counselor for I.T; *****. She is the most unhelpful, robotic, and rude counselor I have ever came across. I have been a student at other colleges and never experiences someone that seems to not want to help a student. I would ask ***** a question that I did not understand and she would make me feel like what I was saying was the dumbest thing. I had to have my friend get involved on the phone calls to mediate because she was so rude to me I would become very frustrated and upset. This process with her was so bad I decided I wanted to switch degree plans just so I wouldn't have to work with her any longer. Then the other issues began. I have been waiting for my financial aid to process for about a month. I was calling daily to check in on the status and was never told about a missing document until Oct 10th. Nobody was going to update or tell me that I woudn't get aid until this document was submitted, and they dropped me from all my classes that I was enrolled in for Oct 23rd. I submitted the document the day they told me (document was a blank transcript from a college that I never attended) I even provided a official letter stating that I never received aid or attended a course, and the women would not even partner with someone to see if this document would be aceppted (This document worked for my previous university) . Now they have told me it'll take 3-5 weeks for them to process the blank transcript and I can not take courses until spring. In addition to to this, on the website it states to submit the worksheet for a degree change through the "Help Desk Ticket", I waited 4 days for a repsone(submitted her response in attachment). Before this I went INTO FSCJ and spoke with new degree counselor and she stated the ticket desk must handle it. Every time I speak with someone I get a different response, they seem like they just want me out of their face.

  Business response

  11/16/2022

  From: ********** ***** ** <************************>
  Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2022 9:04 AM
  To: Info <*****************>; **** ******* <*********************>
  Cc: ****** **** ** <*******************>; ********* **** <**********************>; ********* ********* <***************************>; ******** ******** *. <*************************>; ******** **** <*********************>
  Subject: FCSJ Response to Complaint ID ******** *** 10/14/2022

   

  Dear Ms. *******:

   

  Dr. ********* President of Florida State College at Jacksonville, referred this inquiry to me for a response since most of the departments cited in the complaint fall under my purview as the Vice President for Student Services.  I would also like to apologize for our delayed response, but we are unable to ascertain where within the college the original complaint was received.  That said, I hope that our timely response helps to clarify what happened with this student.  I would say also, just to be clear, that some of the details of what transpired may be considered protected information under the guidelines of the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act and may not be shared without written consent of the student.  Nonetheless, I believe I can clarify the situation by describing our policies and practices in general.  For clarity, I will attempt to address the issues as they presented for each department.

   

  Financial Aid:

  In order to be eligible for federal financial aid, a student must provide transcripts from each post secondary institution previously attended.  We compare student-provided information with the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) to which every participating college and university reports each semester all the students enrolled, their level of enrollment, and whether or not aid was received.  If there is unusual registration activity, it is incumbent upon the student to provide additional documentation to resolve the issue.  Until such documentation is received and verified, we are not allowed by law to distribute federal financial aid.  Because of the back-and-forth communications with the student, the administrative processing time of outside institutions from whom documentation is sought, and internal processing time once documentation is received, there is inevitably some lag time until resolution.  At FSCJ, we strive to keep our internal processing time on these kinds of documents to less than 10 business days.  We cannot, however, control either the time of the students’ responsiveness or the response time of outside institutions.

   

  Change of Program:

  The student did present a Program Change but elected a program that is considered “Limited Access” and so requires the completion of certain prerequisites before a student may be considered for admission.  In these cases, unless the limited access prerequisites have been met, the student’s Program of Study remains unchanged.  I do not believe that the Program Change form presented with this complaint had any bearing on the circumstances of concern.

   

  Advising:

  Here at FSCJ, we try very hard to provide our Advisors with the highest level of training that will allow them to provide answers across a great range of questions.  But our Advisors are somewhat specialized.  Academic Advisors are subject matter experts regarding our various programs and academic pathways.  Our Financial Aid Advisors can address detailed questions about federal, state, and scholarship aid.   Despite our best efforts at cross-training, our Advisors are not always able to address parallel student issues across departments.  So although we cannot know exactly what transpired between our Academic Advisor and this student, it would not be unreasonable to assume that the Academic Advisor answered the presenting questions regarding the academic program without realizing that there was a parallel financial aid issue that might require a different level of expertise.  That said, there is no excuse for a bad attitude in Advising, as was described by this student.  We will continue to provide customer service training, to establish clear expectations for service, and to maintain accountability with our front line service providers so that our students have a quality experience.  In this case, the Academic Advisor with whom he spoke is no longer working in an Advisor role.

   

  Resolution:

  Upon review of this student’s record, it appears that the presenting issues have been resolved.  All outside transcripts have been received, any unusual registration activity has reconciled, the student is enrolled in classes and financial aid has appropriately disbursed.

   

  In conclusion, I am glad to see that the student’s issues were resolved prior to our receipt of this message.  I hope this has answered your questions, but if not, feel free to reach out to me directly.

   

  Sincerely,

   

  ***** ** ********** *****

  **** ********* ** ******* ********

  Florida State College at Jacksonville

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