by Daniel Johnson
August 3, 2025
The college is explaining the problem as a technical drawback brought on by switching to a brand new fee system.
Howard College is going through criticism after it despatched roughly 1,000 college students notification that that they had just a few weeks to pay hundreds of {dollars} in tuition or threat having their accounts despatched to a set company and presumably additionally having their levels withheld. The college is explaining the problem as a technical drawback brought on by switching to a brand new fee system, however some college students say the college has not responded to their makes an attempt to contact them.
In accordance with The Washington Put up, in June, some college students who have been affected by the error brought on by the brand new fee system acquired emails that knowledgeable them that that they had till the top of that month to make fee preparations, and college directors additionally positioned a block on their accounts, which means that they couldn’t register for lessons till fee or fee preparations had been made.
“Proper now, it says I owe that $57,540-something, like I owe the entire thing,” Alissa Jones, a first-generation pupil at Howard, advised NBC 4. “When you have any kind of maintain, you can’t register for sophistication, however with these, obsessive quantities of cash that they’re saying we owe, it’s virtually like, that’s not one semester’s price of tuition, in any respect. That cash has been there, however the place? And why are we simply now discovering out about it?”
She concluded, “I don’t actually have any subsequent steps; I’ve been praying; I’ve numerous religion. Hopefully, it really works out in my favor.”
“To forestall your account from being despatched to collections, fee preparations should be made,” at the very least one e mail obtained by the Put up knowledgeable college students.
In different emails, Howard College arrange non-negotiable fee plans, college students are required to pay a set quantity for 12 months.
The Washington Put up talked to at the very least six college students who believed that that they had been updated on their invoice from the college, solely to search out out that they have been hundreds of {dollars} in debt with only some weeks to make funds.
A few of these college students reported that that they had been unsuccessful of their makes an attempt to contact the varsity’s Bursar workplace, which handles monetary affairs for the scholars on the college.
This pushed a number of the college students, like Taliana Singleton, to strain the college into addressing the problem by leveraging the one factor that universities care about: their public notion.
To that finish, when the college printed social media posts purporting to deal with their college students with love and unity, she took the prospect to place the establishment on blast within the feedback part.
“Howard College is at all times so involved with their on-line picture,” Singleton wrote in a touch upon the college’s Instagram story. “They pay extra consideration to their Instagram than the scholars. Let’s give them one thing to concentrate to.” After her remark, the depend of feedback on that story rose from eight to greater than 180.
“We simply wish to make it a greater place for the freshmen coming in,” she advised the Washington Put up, concerning the nascent “Who’s Howard is it?” motion that she and different college students have fashioned to convey consideration to the problem. “We’re forcing the administration to concentrate to its college students.”
In accordance with Howard’s chief communications officer, Lydia Sermons, whom the motion has mentioned it desires faraway from her submit, the college is working with college students to repair the problem.
Pricey Howard Neighborhood, please see the assertion from the Workplace of College Communications on issues concerning pupil accounts. pic.twitter.com/NRomi2PYuq
— Howard College (@HowardU) July 18, 2025
“We acknowledge the challenges our college students are going through and proceed to supply our help,” Sermons acknowledged. “We’re working actively to enhance communication, broaden fee choices, and supply well timed help by the Bursar and Monetary Help Places of work. College students who enroll in fee plans or submit formal decision requests stay in good standing and aren’t referred to collections.”
She continued, “A definitive time for sending accounts to collections has not been decided. Our focus is on exhausting all efforts for account resolutions.”
Regardless of the assertions of Sermons, college students like Makiah Goodman, who owes roughly $5,400 to the college, are calling for the college to do greater than to increase its deadline for college kids to Aug. 8.
Goodman advised the Washington Put up that the college misplaced one in every of her checks and has not been clear along with her when she has requested them for clarification.
“They only shrugged and mentioned there was nothing they might do,” Goodman advised the outlet. “Then I noticed all these miscellaneous charges and prices on my account. I requested why however there are not any viable explanations. It’s very disheartening.”
Irregardless of the commerce, I want some assist to complete up my final yr at Howard. They’ve revoked my scholarship for the final two years and I at the moment have a fairly giant stability.
All of the sources, variety phrases & donations are really appreciated https://t.co/jzthnB3IMu
— Andre Lengthy (@StraightFrmShea) July 30, 2025
Howard has a $1 billion endowment. To place that into perspective, the College of Maryland has a $2 billion endowment, however with 40k college students compared to Howard’s 12k. Howard might give each single undergraduate monetary support.
They select to not. https://t.co/ppRGBf8dPG
— she. her. that woman. (@123itsmeMary) July 24, 2025
Different college students have used the fundraising platform GoFundMe to convey consideration to their plight, whereas the “Who’s Howard is it?” pupil group has been encouraging college students to name the college’s pupil affairs workplace and the president of the college in an try to “inconvenience the very leaders and places of work that inconvenience college students each day by their insufficient management, poor communication, and lack of accountability.”
To that finish, they created a cellphone financial institution script that calls on the administration to be clear and to create a coverage that appoints two pupil representatives on each hiring committee for the college’s senior roles.
“We anticipate management to cease ignoring college students’ lived realities,” the script calls for, “and to start out aligning their actions with Howard’s mission of reality, service, and collective uplift.”
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