I am a military veteran using post 9/11 GIBill benefits which cover 100% tuition costs at this institution. Being new to the area I enrolled in classes on Joint Base Andrews as well as hybrid/online classes. I had no problem initially enrolling and all the proper forms were submitted to the veterans office on the main campus. At the time of enrollment I was assured that since I recieve VA benefits, the requirement for payment of all fees due on the first day of classes would be waived and an alert would be attached to my account to ensure I would not be dropped from any classes. Almost all schools have such a policy for those who recieve VA benefits as it may take up to 6 weeks for the regional VA office to processes payments.
The morning of the first day classes were to begin I log onto the school website to recheck my class schedule and book requirements only to find that all of my courses had been deleted from my schedule. Immediately I went to the on base office to address the issue. The representative I spoke with informed me that I indeed had been dropped from all courses due to non-payment from the VA. This happening on Aug 21st. I had initally enrolled in classes Aug 7th and they were not due to start until Aug 27th which according to their policy is the final deadline for payments. When I stated that I was told that this would not happen as my account should have been extended I was told that indeed it had been extended (only 14 days?) but that it no longer was and I would have to re-register for all classes provided they were still open and that my account would be once again automatically extended.
I returned home and logged into owl link on the schools website and attemtped to re-register for classes only to receive error message after error message. I once again returned to the on base office where I was informed by the same individual who told me to go online and simply sign up for the same classes again that I, in fact could not register for classes past their start date and would either have to sign up for classes in a future semester or recieve special permission from the dean of the school to attend the classes I had originally been enrolled in. Mind you that day was the very first day of classes. However there was nothing that their office could help me with any further.
I then called the admissions office at the main campus and explained my current situation with the represenative on the phone. I was informed that I would have to come into their office but I would be able to take care of the issue directly. After arriving in person at their office I was told by a different individual that I instead would have to go directly to each individual department head and recieve written permission in order to even petition to the dean to be allowed enrollment in classes. Off I go to each individual department head.
3 out of the 4 offices either had no staff to be found or they had left for the day. The final office I visited was the head of the English department and I wound up waiting over 15 minutes for the lady to finish a personal conversation in which she was gossiping about co-workers. After she finally finshed her personal call I entered her office and explained my situation yet again.instead of concern or a desire to help a student she asked my why I did not have a routing slip and that I should have been given one as I would have to go through her assistants before she could do anything to help me. At this point I would have to return to the admissions office and start from square one.
I have never heard of nor have I ever attended a school that so blatently disregarded or refused to work with a military veteran while claiming all along that they have a great veterans program. Their number one priority and concern is collecting the money from the service members benefits. Furthermore I was never even notified that my classes had been dropped via email or otherwise or that there was any issue with payment.
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