Oracle Online

“My problem is with cutting off students’ access to e-mail or checking out materials: things that, for me, have a very direct relationship to academic work,” Embser-Herbert said.

The policy, which will go into effect next semester, calls for a one-time five percent penalty on students owing over $500. After a month, students who owe more than $2,000 and have not contacted the financial aid department will lose privileges to Netmail, the university network, NetStorage, online library databases and material checkout, and Piperline.

Embser-Herbert says that she has an issue with academically penalizing students over financial problems.

“We’re doing all this work around technology, and all of my classes have some use for Blackboard,” she said. “So if you have a student, and now they can’t get the assignment or check the update on the syllabus, that’s a problem.”

Embser-Herbert first made her feelings known at the CLA faculty meeting on Nov. 2, when the new policy was presented as a proposal. However, the proposal was cemented into place by the middle of the following week, even though Embser-Herbert says many faculty members expressed concerns at the meeting.

“Some faculty have described this as an effective disenrollment,” she said. “We’re not going to disenroll you, but we’re going to take away everything you need to do your coursework.”

English professor Alice Moorhead says that the university is using the new policy as a deterrent.

“If it seems they can’t get people to respond to (financial problems), perhaps they feel it has gone too far and they need an incentive that makes people take action,” she said.
That action would include setting up an alternative or flexible payment plan with the department of financial aid.

“If they just go talk to somebody and say, ‘Here’s the situation, what can we do?’ then they won’t have to go through this,” Embser-Herbert said. “All they have to do is talk to somebody about their situation and all these ifs, ands and buts will go away.”