Three weeks into the academic year, there are still students who don’t have a student card, making it difficult to loan books or use the printers. Student Information and Administration (SIA) is aware of the problem, though it can’t say what went wrong.
‘Every morning before class, I have to wait five minutes until someone opens the door for me. That has been very inconvenient’, says Emma Hizette, 22. She’s doing a master’s in journalism and can only enter the newsroom with a student card. But she still hasn’t been issued one and she doesn’t know why.
Unknown reasons
And she’s not the only one still without a student card. Other students speak of difficulties in accessing the UB, printers and student discounts in city establishments.
According to SIA, it concerns a batch of around thirty cards that have been delayed for unknown reasons. In other cases, it involves late enrollments where information, such as a passport photo, is missing. SIA claims to have ‘streamlined’ communication regarding these issues, so students now receive notifications more quickly if they need to submit additional materials.
Pop-up desk
‘Last year was more chaotic than this year’, agrees a staff member who is busy distributing student cards. ‘We’ve made quite a few improvements to the process. For example, there’s now a pop-up desk where you can quickly collect your card.’
However, not all issues have been resolved. Journalism student Silvia Ţeposu, 42, received a card with a question mark in her surname. ‘I told them, and they said it’s a problem with the machine, which doesn’t recognise the character.’
SIA says they are still working on resolving this.