Registration glitches at UB

Registration glitches at UB

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Dozens of irate students towed long lines Wednesday at the University of The Bahamas (UB), hoping to register for the spring semester.  Students, however, told Eyewitness News Online that they waited in line since 6:00 a.m. yesterday and were still not served by the time the office closed at 4:00 p.m.

Students formed a bottleneck around the administration building as they waited to pay registration fees.

Students also expressed that they felt slighted by the fact that the school posted grades late, worsening the delayed registration.

Kavar Williams, a student at UB questioned the point of the new system, given the long line formed for registration today.

“This line is foolishness. We got a whole banner system online. We can’t use it for nothing.  We still have to come here at the end of this day to stand on this line to do what we could have been doing online,” Williams said, adding that UB’s untimeliness could have possibly worsened the registration delay.

“They dropped our grades late, they tell us to come in. The day they tell us come in, they close 12 o’clock, so we had to come back here for late payment or whatever.”

Despite this back and forth, some students said they were still unsure whether they would be registered for school by the end of the day. Some said they were not even sure of their grades from last year when the date for UB to post transcripts with all grades was December 14, 2018.

“Some of our grades aren’t even on banner so we still got to go inside to see the correct grades, come back on the line [and] go back on the line to go pay for school fee. This ain’t making no sense,” Williams said

Cecily Stubbs, another student, said UB administration gave students strict rules about how and when to pay for registration, but she said they still left students unsure of their academic fate.

“We have to come here from seven o’ clock or six o’ clock in the morning, stand on these long lines, and still have no guarantee that we are going to be served, because after a while they stop serving you at 3:30. You can’t even get to the cashiers.”

Students told Eyewitness News Online that they are uncertain of the outcome that this situation will bring. They say they are certain, however, that they will not be further delayed into paying late fees.

“So, we got to hope that tomorrow we get back here on time so that we don’t get charged late fee, because then they gon’ slap that $150 on there because we don’t pay.

UB was closed from December 17 to January 1, 2019. Since January 3 is the last day to pay before 4 p.m. or they will be charged a late fee, students wondered when were they were supposed to be able to pay. This situation is a relapse of past years.

With the implantation of banner, a new registration system, students and administration said they expected there to be an improvement this year with registration.

However, after this incident, students said they are wondering what the change in systems was really for. Now, if students do not register before 4 p.m. today, they will be charged a late fee of $150 and possibly will be unable to register for the spring semester altogether.

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This article was written by Whitley Cargill, Eyewitness News intern.