An Open Letter to the University of Maryland's Human Resources Department

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing to you concerning an error you have made that is preventing me from getting the fellowship stipend for the fall semester that I am due.  The problem is that when the charges for the semester were posted, not only did the fellowship post the tuition remission I was supposed to get, but your office posted an extra one to my account, presumably still considering me a graduate assistant for the fall.  However, I informed the math department in April, who subsequently informed you, that I will not be a university employee in the fall.  As such, you had about four months to make the appropriate changes to your records, which apparently, you did not.

While the ideal solution would be to request a partial refund from my student account, the Bursar's Office has informed me that I cannot do so.  And since in trying to do the right thing I informed them that you would be taking the extra tuition remission off my student account, I do not believe that the Bursar's Office will give me the refund since they know that there is a credit in error on my account.  Thus, I cannot get the stipend that is owed to me because of your office's mistake.

After some correspondence with Ms. Celeste Regalado, she forwarded an email to me from your benefits office that stated that the change would be made to my account Friday, August 17, 2012.  However, such a change has not been posted as of the morning of the 18th. 

I do not know why it is taking so long for you to fix your mistake, but it should not take over a week and a half to fix this relatively simple issue.  And since it has not been fixed, I cannot get paid for the fall semester, which is a considerable problem since once this gets fixed, I will not have a lot of time between getting the refund check from the bursar and paying rent, airfare and accommodations for a wedding I have to attend in October, registering for a conference I have to attend in January, estimated income tax payments due in mid-September, and other assorted bills.

I hope that you will be able to quickly fix your mistake and that your office will institute changes that will prevent this kind of mistake from occurring in the future, or at least resolve this kind of error much more quickly.  I have been supremely disappointed in how this has been handled on your part.  If you cannot fix it by August 20th, I may be left with little option but to explore options for help outside of the university (including, but not limited to informing legislators in Annapolis).

Sincerely,

Joshua Ballew