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Southern Accent

NEWS
Because of the accidents that happened at this intersection last semester, the Collegedale Police Department has worked to enforce safety by having a police officer present to direct the early morning rush hour traffic. Assistant Police Chief James Hardeman of the Collegedale Police Department said they have an officer on site from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. with the busiest time between 7:45 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. The officers only direct the traffic during this busy time, Hardeman said. Otherwise they just stand on the corner and make sure everything flows smoothly. The officers treat this position like an extra job. The shifts are not assigned to officers, Hardeman said. Whoever wants to work can. Michael Cafferky, professor for the School of Business and Management was struck while crossing this intersection last semester and has since recovered from his injuries. He said having a police

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Collegedale police continue supervising intersection

Courtney Beckwith
News Editor

The intersection at University Drive and College Drive E has been a recurring problem area for commuters and pedestrians in the past. Due to several accidents in this area, changes have been made to help ensure the safety of all involved.

officer at the crossing is not the most cost affective choice. It is an expense to someonebe it Southern or Collegedale, and over time that cost is going to add up, Cafferky said. I think the best solution is a four way stop sign. Hardeman said the safety guards are paid by the Greater Collegedale School System.

The Student Finance office searches for solutions

Annalyse Hasty
Managing Editor

The impressive glass front welcomes you into the Student Finance office. Located in Wright Hall on the first floor, the waiting room seems to always be full and CNN is always on the TV. Despite its normality, this has become the center of student frustration and a negative topic in discussion over the past few semesters. This growing opinion is born out of a breakdown in communication. In an informal online survey, current students were polled about their interactions with Student Finance. Out of nearly one hundred completed surveys, about seventy percent of respondents said that their financial aid adviser is not timely with e-mail responses and reported having trouble meeting with their financial adviser during office hours. A third of the participants provided written responses and described their experiences. Stephany Smith, senior nursing major, replied to the survey saying that the department is simply understaffed. I think that they are helpful, but there are just way too many students and a poorly staffed financial department, Smith wrote. It is also difficult because on more than one occasion my advisor has left for vacation around registration time and when certain deadlines are due. I understand that they need time off, but I think that there should be a schedule of days when students will need the advisors. Some students have also complained about the new organization the office has adopted. The department has a total of six counselors; one for prospective students, one for graduate students and four for the rest of the student body.

Those four counselors are split into two groups, each taking a half of the alphabet. For each half, one counselor is in charge of emails for certain students while the other is in charge of face-to-face meetings with the same students. I am extremely dissatisfied with the new dual-counselor system. My parents speak with one counselor; I speak with the other. Neither seems to know what the other does. It also makes it so that fewer counselors are on duty for walk-inseven during busy times such as the beginning of a semester, said Curtis Prevo, senior computer systems administration major.

Since I started here five years ago, we have been asking for more personnel
These complaints across campus are followed by a specific question: what is being done about it? Since June, a company called Ed Financial located in Knoxville, Tenn. has become an option for callers. When a counselor does not pick up a call, a caller can choose to either leave a voice mail or speak with phone counselors from Ed Financial. Under a contract with Southern to pick up a call within 45 seconds, the theory is that any caller is 45 seconds away from a live person that can answer 80 percent of their finance questions or make a payment. Marc Grundy, marketing and enrollment services vice president, says the systems

six month trial run is up, and out-sourcing these calls may not have proven to lighten the load on the finance counselors. At this point, the preliminary results from it are not seemingly that positive, Grundy said. Ive put the company on notice that we will be evaluating our 6 month trial and we may be turning in our 30 day letter to discontinue that contract. Though these improvements seek to relieve stresses, the most obvious solution it seems is a fifth finance counselor. An average of 250 students per counselor is typical for a private school that has a system similar to Southerns. The counselors currently working in the Student Finance department now deal with over 550 students each. Adding a new counselor would take the student load from 550 per counselor to 470. The approval for another counselor was presented on Dec. 17 to Strategic Planning. They then decided to wait to see the enrollment numbers in January before finalizing any decisions on non-faculty positions. Lillian Loza, associate director of student finance, agrees that more staff seems to be the best answer. Ultimately we need more staff members, Loza said. Thats the ultimate goal, to get more people to help answer all the calls. Since I started here five years ago, we have been asking for more personnel. This solution, however, will not provide immediate relief for the students. If approved, the individual chosen would start this position this coming summer. More immediate steps to relieve stress on students include the 24-for-24 policy. If a student or parent emails a financial aid adviser

and does not receive a reply within 24 hours or one business day, they will receive a $24 credit to their account. But this policy does not include voicemails or calls. There is not a good way, at this point, for us to be able to offer a guarantee on a voicemail because the reliability of the voicemails are very low, Grundy said. Anybody who has an email that was not responded to within 24 hours, one business day, email it to me and we will get them a credit because that is a guarantee that we want to stand behind. This monetary credit is not the only reward a student can get from waiting. Student Finance also has a 15 minute guarantee for someone who walks in. If a student is not seen within 15 minutes after they enter the office, Grundy promises that the office will give that student a lunch certificate to any of the eateries around town. But these policies only provide temporary relief. The Parent Portal is the new long-term solution finance has come up with to ease the work-load on their limited staff and to provide students with easier access to their financial records and their counselor. The portal is a three phase online project that will result in a fully functioning ecommerce site for parents and students (see sidebar). These major improvements will ease the pressure on students and counselors. Unfortunately these solutions are months away and students continue to struggle against the communication breakdown, becoming their own financial advocates. The office waiting area may remain packed with students, but the promise of a free meal may help them see finance as a two way street.

The Parent Portal

Phase one of this three phase project has already been released. Students now have the ability to get PDFs of their statements. Parents are now able to be linked in to their students accounts. This step has been eight years in the making.

Phase two is ecommerce. Phase two is going to have payments online, automated payments, payments through your checking account. It will allow us to do automatic payments from checking accounts, credit cards. It will allow students to automatically get a budget worksheet. Its going to advance the self-service ability for our students on my access, Grundy said. Timeline for completion of phase two is six to 18 months. We are looking at outsourcing [phase two] and if we outsource, it would probably be ready by this next school year, but if we do it internally it will probably either be second semester of next school year or the following school year. Outsourcing it would speed it up, Grundy said. The estimated $50,000 for a fully functioning service website would save finance in postage costs would pay for the outsourcing of phase two.

Phase three will include self-service on financial aid and admissions. It will give students the ability to go online in real time and see what paperwork they are missing. The timeline for this final phase has not been set and it has not yet been approved.