As the blackout two weeks ago demonstrated, NEIU is no way perfect. We knew that the moment we came to this school. From the rooms that are cold in the winter and boiling in the summer, to the obstacles that keep students at a four-year university for five or six years, this school frustrates both students and faculty. Since I have been at this school, I have been bombarded everywhere I go with complaints about one thing or another. Being an attentive listener, even in the cases where I am not a part of the conversation, I listen and absorb all the information that I come across. Here I have listed some NEIU horror stories that we have all experienced at one point or another.
My own experience is something that has happened to many people. I was a transfer student, fresh from my first year at a college, far from home and reluctant to come back. Being forced to change schools, I was furious to find out that my 75 credit hours had somehow transferred into 24 measly units. I was then demoted from sophomore to freshman status.
To add insult to injury, I found out that we did not have the U-pass or any other way of relieving the burden of high transportation costs. I have heard everyone bemoan the fact that NEIU, as a commuter school, is very expensive for those who use public transportation. The CTA does not help matters when they remove transfers and raise prices. It takes a part-time job just to pay for bus fare.
Financial aid is a tricky process, and often comes with a huge margin for error. For example, my friend’s mother has been working at NEIU for 18 years and his grandmother worked here from the time it opened up to the mid-1980s. Because of this, he gets half-off of his tuition…, that is if financial aid cooperates with him. This last semester he not only did not get paperwork processed until the very same day he was supposed to get his refund check, he also did not receive the check until some time after Halloween.
This semester, things did not fare any better. His paperwork, which is filled out only once a year, wasn’t processed before winter break, although he has been going to this university for more than four years and his paperwork never changes. Because they could not process it in time, his classes were dropped and he had to scramble to re-register once his problems were straightened out. It is obvious that he is not fond of NEIU. He was the one who coined the phrase I have used as the above title.
Another friend of mine and I were comparing our experiences as transfer students, and we noticed one consistent problem. There is no orientation for transfer students so we are basically left to fend for ourselves. We are thrown into the school with no way of finding our way around campus. There are many advisers to help students find vital, important things that they should know. But how do transferring students know how to find these advisers?
If any of you readers have any horror stories to share, I would love to hear them. If you want to argue with anything I’ve written, I would like to hear your reasons. As always, I can be contacted at L-Ocasio@neiu.edu.