When Holds Hold You Back

The financial aid office is meant to help students pay for college, but for one student, it’s preventing him from getting into class.

Dale Morgan, a junior and a scholarship recipient, represents Lang on the University Student Senate – yet this semester he is restricted from entering university buildings. Because of a delay in processing his financial aid records, he is still unable to register for the classes he is attending while he struggles to get the paperwork done.

When Morgan submitted his financial aid application before the beginning of last semester, he was asked to submit documents to verify his income. According to Morgan he did so, but says that the financial aid office “claims to have misplaced them, or they say that they never received them in the first place.”

Because his application was not completely processed, his financial aid award has not been disbursed and he is unable to register for classes. The financial aid office is asking for more documents to verify his parents’ income, even though he is financially independent from his parents.

According to The New School’s financial aid website, federal regulations require universities to select a random sampling of one in three students for a process called “verification,” which requires then to submit extra documentation of their income before they’re eligible to receive financial aid. Morgan says he has been selected for verification every year since his freshman year.

Due to the hold on his account, Morgan can’t pass the card-access entrances at many New School buildings, or use any resources that require a New School ID card. He is often late to class because friends have to sign him into the buildings.

“I’m under the constant stress and worry of whether I’ll be able to attend this year or not,” Morgan told the Free Press. “Even now, I still don’t know if I’ll be able to continue studying here.”

Morgan says his professors have been sympathetic to his situation, and have allowed him to attend classes while he works with the financial aid office to hopefully be able to register.

Morgan says he is actively working with the financial aid office and gave them all of the required paperwork.

“I just want to go to class and learn,” he said.

The financial aid office administration refused to comment on the matter.