In a previous Spectrum issue, we covered information about the impending payment plan system, Touch Net, financial aid check distribution, and students' needs for a bank account. New information has arisen regarding those changes.
The Touch Net system will be in place by the spring 2009 semester and students need to know that, for the majority of students, paying their fees will be accomplished online. "We're really doing this as a student service," stated Cindy Butler, District Director of Student Financial Aid.
Butler said that all this is in response to many service requests that the Metropolitan Community Colleges (MCC) has not been able to manage.
Questioned regarding a student's need for a bank account to be able to use the new payment plan, Butler said: "Students really don't have to have a bank account in order to use this service. They can use either a credit or debit card. They could make a schedule of payments to pay [with a bank account] or sign up a parent or any third party.
"Students can enter the information at the bottom of their check [bank routing number]. If they have a checking account, they can enter this into the student system. The payments will automatically be taken from their [bank] account if they sign up and want that done."
What about ineligible students -those unable to get bank accounts? "We have no way of measuring how many students really are unbankable," Butler said. "We suspect it's a very small number. [For] some international students who are not eligible for a social security card, that could be an issue. But I think there are 130 international students in the district.
"Of those, some would have a social security number and some wouldn't. The ones that wouldn't, we can make special arrangements. If students truly cannot get a bank account, we can work with them and come up with some alternate method."
Is there a way to help students that just can't use these services? "The idea of all this is to free up staff, because they would not be managing all the payments, to be able to help students individually," Butler stated.
Of course, it is not to the benefit of MCC to lose even one student. Setting up a system that would eliminate a large number of students would be detrimental to enrollment statistics, class numbers, income, and other factors. But hopefully, any students needing an alternate payment method would be helped.
"Part of the philosophy, I think, is [that] we need to teach students how to enter this world, because part of graduating from college is to be able to have some financial education," says Butler.
Butler went on to say, "We have to educate and help students come up to this level. The current system is not meeting the needs of a great number of students. The students that we're talking about are exceptions. The great number of students will easily use this [new] system."
Asked about possible educational seminars or workshops to inform and teach those who do not currently have a bank account and are eligible to have one, Butler confirmed that, "We will develop some kind of workshop or support system" to help with students' comfort level regarding the changes.
Are students going to be denied access to college because of changes being made and because not enough is in place to fix in time? No one knows. But the hope is that options are going to be in place so the "exceptions" can be given time needed to secure a financial plan.
Spectrum will continue to follow this and supply updates. Write us at
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