A student was denied an appeal to restore her financial aid, based on severe hardship. The last paragraph welcomed her to apply for financial aid for Fall, 1998. The supervisor who sent the letter saying the fees must be paid urgently and suggested financial aid sits next to the financial aid supervisor. There is no perpetrator in this story. No one meant to hurt this student.
Rules is rules.
And the financial aid rules draw a bright line cut off point beyond a specific limit of classes, and a variety of other factors. But imagine the pain of hearing at roughly the same time that you must produce funds immediately, the suggestion that financial aid would help, and the denial of that financial aid. Of course, the financial aid rules are ever-changing as societal support for education lessens and state and federal governments consistently cut financial aid. Since many of the state college students take far longer than the traditional four years to complete the degree, growing into their lives and education as it were, they change their minds, follow different majors, different paths, in this longer trek through school. Then they are caught in the limit to the number of units financial aid rule.