Three graduate students in MUN’s School of Music were informed on October 12th, 2023 that they owe the university $1900 in fees for the Harlow trip. This information came five months after they had all already completed the program.
Christina Acton, Laura Wakeman, and one other grad student are part of the MUN Music Graduate program. After being notified of the university’s mistake, they have all requested for the fee to be waived or reduced.
“We did Harlow in June of 2023 and then on October 12th of this year— we got an email from the program administrator in the School of Music saying that the cashier’s office had notified them of an error that the $1900 program fee was never charged to our account and now we have to pay it, and it had been like 5 months since it was due,” explains Acton.
2022 Harlow program
To backtrack, the Harlow program was first advertised to music students in December 2022. Acton states that, at that time, they were provided with a single sheet of paper vaguely outlining the program. Following the meeting in December, they never again received a slip or document explicitly stating the sum of each payment and what they would be paying for.
All the students then committed to the program with a $500 deposit in February 2023. They then began having more meetings, discussing the program and necessary preparations.
“By April 20th— myself and the two other grad students were told there was going to be a $1900 program fee on top of [our] $1200 semester tuition, and we were told that in one email in April,” explains Acton. “Then what they said was everything that is due for Harlow you have to pay by May or you can’t go; all your fees and stuff, everything is due by May 8th, and you pay it through your student account.”
Once May 8th rolled around, all that showed up in their student accounts was the $1200 tuition fee. Although at the time Acton explains that to them it made sense.
“We were like well this makes sense,” says Acton, “We booked our own flights so that must be why there’s no $1900 program fee showing up, and you know, May 8th was approaching, we paid all our fees, May 8th passed, it was showing that everything had been paid off and we were like great! Everything is handled.”
Acton clarifies that as of right now the fee is showing up in their account as $1400 as the initial $500 deposit was deducted, as well as a $200 deduction due to them not having spent all of the collective program fees.
“So, somehow that means that we went from $1900 to $1400,” says Acton. “Which still feels a little nutty because, between the $500 and the $200, I don’t totally know how we got to that number. It was like $1600 for a little bit and then it was $1400 so it’s still a little confusing. Currently, the account is showing up as $1400.”
No direct communication with ‘the university’
Following the initial email from the School of Music informing Acton and the other grads of the money they owe the university, none of the communication has come from the cashier’s office, or even the university itself. All communication has gone through the School of Music.
“We keep getting emails from the School of Music being like, ‘the university has said this,’ we don’t know like who is the university? We don’t know because none of them will talk to us directly, it’s all been this weird pipeline,” states Acton.
The students then set up a meeting with Lisa Mcdonald, the Senior Administrative Officer for the School of Music, to explain why they were so surprised by the situation. Mcdonald explained that after speaking with the university, she was informed that waiving or reducing the fee is not possible. Unhappy with the response, the students proceeded to contact the Dean of the School of Music, Dr. Karen Bulmer.
Potential payment plan
“[Dr. Bulmer’s] been really helpful,” says Acton, “she has essentially set up a payment plan for us that is completely separate from the rest of the university and she’s like we can take that off your student account and have you pay it over nine months directly to the School of Music and then it won’t impact your ability to pay for courses and to graduate. Which is super helpful but came from the School of Music.”
Laura Wakeman explains that the process has been unorganized and unnecessarily confusing. Following the recent meeting with Dr. Bulmer, the payment plan discussed has been taken off the table as a potential solution.
Now, all three graduate students are required to pay it off before convocating, if they want to graduate.
Wakeman says, “They did say that they have taken the financial hold off of our accounts.” However, she remains unsure of what she can do about the situation as she is living month-to-month along with many other students.
Similar to Acton, Wakeman states she was explicitly informed that “Everything had to be paid by May 8th, 2023, or [they] could not go,” stressing that “[she] took that very seriously.”
She emphasizes that “It was a fantastic experience,” stating that “Memorial University’s Harlow campus is able to offer an experience really unlike any other.”
Nevertheless, five months later, they had already moved on with their lives and had planned out other essential expenses for the following semesters.
In their initial meeting with the Dean of Music and financial advisor for the School of Music, Wakeman says “It just came across as they were trying to make it seem like we were the ones that were being unreasonable, by us suggesting that we shouldn’t be held accountable for their mistake.”
Whereas, Wakeman explains “If that other amount of money had shown up there, of course, I would have found a way to work around that but that was six months ago, life has changed a lot since then.”
The third grad student, who has requested to remain anonymous, was charged late fees on top of the fee that the university mistakenly forgot to place on their accounts back in May. After numerous back-and-forth emails with admin, the student was finally able to get the additional late fees removed from the total sum they now owe.
Agreement has yet to be reached
As of now, the three graduate students have yet to come to an agreement with the university. They are still required to pay the fee in full prior to graduating.
Acton says, “[They] have emailed everyone [they] can think of now, including the interim VP of admin and finance.” Moving forward, the students will continue to communicate with the university in hopes that an agreement will be reached that satisfies both parties.