'It was no less than $25,000': College advisor points out administrative flaw, request gets rejected, department has to pay $25k

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Jan 22, 2025 8:00 AM EST

Everyone hopes for an advisor to have their students' backs during their four years in college. So why is it that when advisors actually do advocate for their students in an ineffective system, the administration refuses to support those advisors? It is as if the whole point of employing these advisors is to keep up the illusion that the students' interests are at heart within the administration when in reality, the facts tell a different story.

This story serves as yet another indicator that advisors deserve more credit and decision-making power at these institutions. After all, these are the folks who hear directly from students. From a business perspective, they likely have the closest relationship with the "client," so one would think that what they have to say about the client's needs and wants would be not only considered but also prioritized. Keep scrolling below for this college advisor's story about how his department ended up having to swallow a significant cost after rejecting his request.

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    Cheezburger Image 10457641728
    via Shashank Raghuvanshi

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Here, we have the rare instance of a good college advisor who actually understands all the ins and outs of new departmental changes and attempts to communicate those changes effectively to their students and to their supervisor. Unfortunately, the flaw they noticed—which was about an additional course's likelihood of being covered by financial aid—was ignored by middle and upper management, leading to backlash among the student body down the road.

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    A few years ago I was the primary faculty advisor and chair for admissions to a highly competitive health science program at a small public college. While that may sound impressive, it's basically a way of saying I was the lowest on the totem pole, but had all of the
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    responsibility overseeing admissions for this program. In order to try and make the department even stronger, they added a new degree option to that health science program that
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    largely overlapped with existing classes. In fact, the only change they had to make was to add one 8-credit hour course to make the new degree option.
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    Since I was so low on the totem pole, I had no part in the process for this, but as the lone advisor, I had to learn all of the ins and outs of it so I could advise students and potential applicants. Because of
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    this, I found a problem where the new class was added to the course schedule and added to the college catalog, but it was not officially added to the new major. This would cause trouble for financial aid and, down the road, when they apply for graduation. (It may seem
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    like a small thing, but if it's not officially required for the major financial aid won't pay for it.) I pointed this out to my supervisor who thanked me for catching it and asked me to inquired about how we correct this.
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    AP57A
    via Nathan Dumlao

  • Think about it this way: if you found out that a required course for your major would not be covered by financial aid because of a technicality, would you also not complain to the administration until the problem was fixed?

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    So I sent an email to someone (middle management) who might be able to help, asking questions and proposing possible short term solutions until the curriculum committee could meet to make the changes official. After the email there was silence for a week. Therefore, I sent a follow up email.
    via RhondaTheHonda
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    The next morning I received an email from one of the VPS, chewing me out for overstepping my bounds, trying to make changes I didn't have authority to make, and a reminder that they know how to do their jobs and that I was expected to "stay in [my] lane." (This email included my supervisor, multiple deans, two department heads, and another VP.)
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    Fine. I dropped it. I was already looking for other jobs (and ended up leaving the following year) so what do I care? Fast forward 3 months: we were about 10 days away from this new class starting with the first cohort of 10 students in this new degree and I started getting phone calls and emails
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    from all over the place. The problem I pointed out still hadn't been fixed. Now the Financial Aid and Registrar's Offices are dealing with angry students who just found out each will have to pay for an 8-credit class out of pocket.
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    Both departments were reaching out to me asking for help to get this fixed before the VP found out about it. I just forwarded the email
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    I recieved from the VP with a message that I was instructed to stay out of this and that their bosses were aware that I was not to be involved. It's officially not my problem.
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    (And to anyone who might say I should have helped helped and not screwed over the students. You're right. Unfortunately, there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING I can do at that point). That's why I tried to address it months ago, when I could have helped.)
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    The proper way to make this happen involves making the proposed changes to a committee, then those changes would have to be approved by the executive board. For various reasons, this could not happen between then and the start of the class. So the VP
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    contacted the state chancellor's office to see what kind of work around the state would approve to get this done now. However the college was denied any exceptions.
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    In the end, the college ended up having to swallow the cost of this course for all 10 students. I don't remember how much it was but it was no less than $25,000.
    via RhondaTheHonda

  • Several members of the online community weighed in with their feedback about this ridiculous technicality and bureaucratic nonsense. Here's what they had to say!

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    True-Mousse4957. 2 hr. ago They I around and found out. Your superiors are victims of their own egos. Good for you, !
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    RhondaTheHonda OP. 2 hr. ago That VP is now the president at another college. I continue to follow his career just to ensure our paths don't cross again.
    via RhondaTheHonda
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    Stephij27 2 hr. ago Oooooh, this one was particularly satisfying. I absolutely love when "superiors" themselves in the foot with their own egos.
    via RhondaTheHonda
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    Bont_Tarentaal 1 hr. ago VP should have paid for this out of his own money.
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    SourcePrevious3095. 5 min. ago The cost for the college was probably only 2500 for all 10 students. Prices are so over inflated per credit hour because it us a cash cow for some rich 1.
    via RhondaTheHonda

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