Tammy Ratts, graduate student, stood in line at the IUS Police department for a parking permit.

Ratts hadn’t registered for classes since before OneStart was implemented, and said she thought she could request the parking permit when she registered, but had difficulty figuring out how to do so.

“This semester when I registered on the new system, I didn’t even see the option to get a permit sent to me,” Ratts said.

Ratts said she was not billed for a permit on her bursar’s bill and had to go into the police office to buy one.

Michael McNeal, IUS Police office services assistant senior, said he occasionally hears students complain that OneStart’s interface is confusing, which sometimes causes parking permits to not be charged to their bills or mailed home.

“It’s user error in a non-user friendly system,” McNeal said. “It’s easy to mess it up.”

McNeal said he thinks some of the difficulty comes into play when students go back to the registration page to change classes.

“That box pops up again, and the student thinks ‘I thought I already checked that [box],’ then they uncheck it,” McNeal said.

Mike Kerstiens, director of Accounting Services in the Office of the Bursar, said he sometimes hears similar complaints.

“We hear about it a few times a semester, but I’ve never gone through the registration process, so I don’t know how obvious it is or isn’t,” Kerstiens said.

He said students may not click the “Save Changes” tab after they’ve selected parking, which would cause parking to be omitted from their bursar bill.

Kerstiens said there was a problem with the coding of the page in March when registration for fall 2008 classes began in March.

 He said the “Save Changes” tab was absent from the page entirely, and that was the only issue he was aware of.

Kerstiens said that problem was fixed quickly, and students affected by the error were notified immediately by e-mail and given instructions on how to fix the error.

Jan Williamson, Registrar, said her office doesn’t hear many complaints from students about parking permits, mostly because students have either talked to the IUS Police or the Bursar’s Office and resolved the issue at either office.

“If… there was a big issue, it would have been brought to my attention,” Williamson said.

Williamson said the site’s programming error in March was addressed by her office as soon as it was discovered.

Williamson said whenever there is a problem with registering students, she usually hears about it from academic advisers and the IT Help Desk. Afterward, she tries to take care of any issues with registration immediately.

“I think we have a good network of people to take on a problem like that,” Williamson said.

Williamson said there is a cutoff date for when students can select the option to have a parking permit mailed to them, which is the date the Bursar’s office starts billing students for classes.

She said some students may not be aware of the cutoff date.

Kerstiens said that date for this year was Aug. 1.

Sharon Davis, psychology junior, said she has had consistent problems with getting her permit mailed to her.

“Every time I register, I check the box, but I never get it mailed out to me,” Davis said.

Davis said she had to fill out a form at the Bursar’s office, and thought it would resolve the issue, but she still hasn’t had a permit mailed to her.

Kerstiens said what Davis had to sign was a Title IV form, which allows the university to bill a student’s financial aid for charges that are not associated with tuition, such as parking fees or lab fees.

Michael McNeal said students can check whether they’ve asked to be billed for a permit during any registration period by going to the Student Self Service tab and clicking optional services.

The only option available under that tab is parking fees. After clicking on parking, students can select the semester they want the parking permit mailed to them.

Davis said the process should be more streamlined.

“I think that’s way too much hassle,” Davis said. “It should just ask if you want it and want to be billed up front.”

McNeal said he wishes IU Southeast would be able to switch to a Web site exclusively for ordering parking permits.

He said a lot of bigger universities, such as IU Bloomington and other schools, use similar systems to handle parking, but such systems can be cost prohibitive for smaller schools like IU Southeast.

“There’s always a great solution if you have the money for it,” McNeal said.

By JEROD CLAPP
Senior Editor
jlclapp@ius.edu