McMaster to Potential Grads: We took your money, didn’t think you’d mind. Oh and we’ve charged you interest too

McMaster University is always fun to write about. McMaster administration is a veritable collection of stooges (and in my mind they walk in packs of 3 and look like Larry, Moe and Curly but you know, more than three).

In June 2007, the Board of Governor’s approved a fee of $40 to be charged to students eligible for graduation. This fee would cover the rental of the Academic Regalia (i.e. gown and hood) for those attending convocation. If students elect to have the diploma mailed to them the fee is $25 and if they pick it up themselves it’s free. The legality of this fee is debatable, and it has been debated by Maclean’s and McMaster’s Joey Coleman (I couldn’t find the exact articles on the Maclean’s site but trust me, he did make mention of the fee).

In the grand scheme of things $40 is not that much and students would pay (admittedly grudgingly) it because after all, graduation is a momentous occasion (administration obviously knows this). Most students (at least according to the Facebook group “Concern for the McMaster “Graduation” Fee“) did not know there would be a fee until they saw a charge on their account for $40. One student “was charged the fee on December 19th 2007. Two months before [she] filled out [her] grad card to even indicate [she] was graduating.” Since the charge was made on the account in December, interest has been charged on accounts with the new $40.00 owing balance since then, about $0.50 per month.

Students were of course outraged by this behind the back charge. In a statement to be emailed to the “charged” tomorrow morning, the Acting Registrar Patricia Harris apologizes for “any anxiety or inconvenience that our initial collection process may have caused.” According to her, “[t]he initial implementation plan was to charge automatically all final year students the $40 fee and then to issue the appropriate refunds, once all of the Spring convocation ceremonies were over and the
pick-ups were complete.”

Oh that’s a great plan guys! Let’s put this on your account, not tell you, charge you interest, and then have the power to withhold your diploma or transcripts because you have a balance owing on your account of which you knew nothing about in the first place. That is wonderful! In the mean time your money will be sitting in a fund somewhere, probably at a bank, earning the university interest. But we’ll refund you after everything is done (it would probably be around July that the cheques would be rolling in).

You will be glad to know that the administration “due to the substantial feedback that [it has] received from students regarding this method of ‘collecting’ the new graduation fee” has changed the process. Surprisingly to one THAT MAKES SENSE:

The Registrar’s Office is implementing a “pay for service” process for the collection of the graduation fee. When you complete the on-line Graduation Response Form you will only be charged for the option you select (as noted above).

Wonderful. Late. But wonderful. Here’s a few things I’d like to know:

• Why didn’t they think to implement it this way before hand?
• Why did the administration feel the need to go behind students’ backs with this fee?
• Why did they not inform students?
• Why did decide to go with the illegal negative-option billing?
• Who came up with the idea and why was it approved?
• Will the university be penalized for these deceptive practices?

I call on McMaster University to issue a public apology to all of its students for this kind of unethical and despicable behaviour.

Full text of the email to the “charged” after the jump.

Hopefully, you are aware that the University’s Board of Governors approved a new graduation fee in June, 2007. The graduation fee is to be administered as follows:

• Graduating students who attend Convocation: $40 fee
• Graduating students who do not attend Convocation and who request their diploma to be mailed: $25 fee
• Graduating students who do not attend Convocation and who pick up their diploma (within the specified timeline): no charge.

The initial implementation plan was to charge automatically all final year students the $40 fee and then to issue the appropriate refunds, once all of the Spring convocation ceremonies were over and the pick-ups were complete. You have probably noticed a $40 charge on your student account, in this regard. However, due to the substantial feedback that we have received from students regarding this method of ‘collecting’ the new graduation fee, we have now changed the process.

Therefore, effective immediately:
1) The $40 graduation fee (plus any interest) on your student account will automatically be reversed, next week. If you have already paid the graduation fee, a refund cheque will be issued and mailed to you by the end of March.

2) The Registrar’s Office is implementing a “pay for service” process for the collection of the graduation fee. When you complete the on-line Graduation Response Form you will only be charged for the option you select (as noted above).

The Registrar’s Office and Titles Bookstore will be sending out a graduation mailing during the week of March 24 so be sure to check your mailbox. You can also find details and information about convocation on the Registrar’s Office website after March 28.

In closing, please accept my apologies for any anxiety or inconvenience that our initial collection process may have caused. Our new plan is intended to be more “student friendly” and is hopefully, a step in the right direction.

Patricia Harris
Acting Registrar

Posts that may be related:

1. Free education? Don’t mind if I do
2. McMaster Engineering has a new Dean
3. Webcasting Graduations and more
4. No sleep for you (update)
5. It’s that time of year again