By Kate Zydor
Staff Writer
Students with outstanding financial obligations were removed from PAWS, Canvas and the College’s e-mailing services on Sep. 7.
Students who had difficulties paying their most recent tuition bill were unenrolled from their courses, leaving them unable to access their coursework, grades and other necessary student information. This caused many students to fall behind in the completion of their academic responsibilities.
“The College had a deregistration process in place each semester prior to [Covid-19],” said Scott Sferra, executive director of the Office of Student Accounts. “During [the pandemic], the College worked with our students and their families while they navigated the challenges of the pandemic. As the College returned to normal operations, the deregistration process was reimplemented for Fall 2023.”
According to Sferra, the deregistration process affected approximately 100 students.
“I looked on Canvas and PAWS, and all my classes were gone,” said sophomore kinesiology major Rachel Rosen. “I was told that I received an email about me being unenrolled from my classes, but I didn’t see it. We get a ton of emails from TCNJ and it’s hard to go through all of them.”
This has also caused issues for professors across all departments, who were not made aware of these students’ situations.
“As we are required to submit class audits by Sep. 15, the erasure causes an attendance problem as we don’t know if these students are still attending class or if they have dropped the class,” said Martine Bertin-Peterson, professor of management and marketing.
To work around this conflict, professors have had to communicate with students through their personal Google mail accounts and other unorthodox methods.
“When a student withdraws from a class, they still appear on PAWS with a note that they have withdrawn,” Bertin-Peterson said. “These students have simply disappeared. One of my students indicated today that it might take several days for the account to clear.”
Students who were removed from all of the College’s applications had their entire PAWS and Canvas accounts cleared. Because this occurred on Thursday, Sep. 7 and many students were not aware of the deactivation until the following day, they were unable to contact the Office of Student Accounts and resolve the issue until the following Monday.
“When a deregistered student resolves their outstanding balance to the College, there is a coordinated effort between The Office of Student Accounts and Records and Registration to re-register the student back into the student back into their classes,” Sferra said. “Almost all students were reinstated in their courses after paying or coming up with a payment plan.”
Currently, the Office of Student Accounts and Financial Aid are available to provide support to both students and their families who require assistance in evaluating payment options. Despite this, not all students were aware that if their semester bill was not paid by the due date, they would in turn be unenrolled from their courses.
“Honestly, this was such an anxiety-inducing experience as a freshman,” said freshman undecided major Kelly Buquicchio.
These individuals received warning emails urging them to pay their tuition bills before they lost access to PAWS and Canvas. Once they were officially unenrolled from the College, students received an email stating that The Office of Student Accounts had completed a final review of all student accounts and they had been deregistered from their fall semester courses.
“I wish that [the College] made more of an effort to make contact with me before they unenrolled me,” Buquicchio said. “Yes, they sent emails, but I feel as though a phone call or notification through Canvas would have been a more effective form of communication.”
On Wednesday, Sep. 13, Rosen brought this issue to the attention of the Student Government. She is hoping to create a resolution to change the way the College handles outstanding financial obligations moving forward.
“If they’re going to have this system, TCNJ should be able to give a student their classes back immediately,” Rosen said. “To foster an environment where every student can be successful, you can’t just take away access to classes.”
According to both students and faculty, this has been a particularly difficult issue to resolve. As the third week of classes is coming to a close, this has been an added stressor for all parties involved.
“I have taught at TCNJ for 12 years and although I am sure I have had students who had not cleared their financial obligations, they were never erased,” Bertin-Peterson said. “This appears to be a situation created by a lack of communication.”
