Cassandra

Back in October 2011 after being called a "Cassandra" by some Administrators, I wrote about the pitfalls of using Higher One on this blog. Our esteemed Administration kept pushing, I wrote a follow up blog post in December 2011.  That was followed by  students in SHOUT complaining about it and it was posted on this blog. These students were dismissed as "Radicals"and "Uninformed".
Well here it is in the news again.

In case the link does not work here are some excerpts:

...the company hired by his college to pay out students' financial aid on debit cards.
Four years after he opted out, his classmates still face more than a dozen fees , for replacement cards, for using the cards as all-purpose debit cards, for using an ATM other than the two on-campus kiosks owned by Higher One.
"They sold it as a faster, cheaper way for the college to get students their money," said Parker-Milligan, 23, student body president at Lane Community College in Eugene, Ore. "It may be cheaper for the college, but it's not cheaper for the students."
As many as 900 colleges are pushing students into using payment cards that carry hefty costs, sometimes even to get to their financial aid money, according to a report to be released Wednesday by a public interest group.

The following bit caught my attention back in September:

Among the fees charged to students who open Higher One accounts: $50 if an account is overdrawn for more than 45 days, $10 per month if the student stops using his account for six months, $29 to $38 for overdrawing an account with a recurring bill payment and 50 cents to use a PIN instead of a signature system at a retail store.

The response I was given was similar to the following from the article:
 

Higher One has agreements with 520 campuses that enroll more than 4.3 million students, about one-fifth of the students enrolled in college nationwide, according to public filings and the U.S. PIRG report. Wells Fargo and US Bank combined have deals with schools that enroll 3.7 million, the report says.
Lane Community College's president, Mary Spilde, said in an interview that the real problem is a "lack of adequate public funding," which forces students to seek financial aid and colleges to find ways to cut costs.
"Many institutions are looking at ways to streamline and to do things that we're good at, which is education and learning, and not banking," Spilde said.
Programs like Higher One's shift the cost of handing out financial aid money from universities, which no longer have to print and mail checks, to fee-paying students, said Rich Williams, the report's lead author.

Please remember the faculty at Rio Hondo care for their students.  If we come across as Cassandras it is because we care. We do not accept ideas because they are cheaper. We blindly do not accept procedures just because other colleges do it that way. We ask questions because we care.