Caitlin Tremblay, Campus Editor

            Janice Grant, a junior intended nursing major at UB, is desperately looking for a new school, a new major and a new career.

            “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said. “I’m just really confused and disheartened.”

            Grant is just one of 300 undergraduates at UB who may not be able to graduate on time, or at all, with a nursing degree.

            On Tuesday, the UB School of Nursing announced to its intended majors via e-mail that it would no longer be accepting applications into the major for the fall of 2010.

            “The basic program is already at capacity, given the number of freshmen admitted a few years ago, and expanding the program is not an option at this time due to budget cuts,” said David Lang, director of student affairs for the UB School of Nursing.

            When the news broke, there was a surge of anger among the students who were hoping to apply for the major when the application opened on Feb. 1.

            “All my prerequisites are done. I transferred to UB from Brockport specifically for the nursing program and now I can’t get in. They don’t even know if I can get in next year,” said Amber Wood, a sophomore. “When I talked to the [School of Nursing] when I was transferring, they told me that while the program is competitive, [but] if I maintained or raised my GPA I would get in, and now I can’t. I feel like UB didn’t hold up their end of the bargain.”

            Grant feels similarly, especially since there’s been a projected critical shortage of nurses by the year 2020.

            “We’re not even being allowed the opportunity to apply, which means I’ve wasted almost two years and a lot of money,” she said. “I feel like we’ve been strung along. They didn’t even notify us in time to make other plans.”

            Grant is alluding to the fact that the last date to drop classes without financial liability was Friday, Jan. 15 and that it’s also too late to transfer to another nursing school.

            “It wouldn’t be so bad if they had given us time to make other plans, but they didn’t,” Grant explained. “They weren’t upfront with us.”

            Lang attributes the short notice to the university calendar.

            “We always count on students leaving the program for either academic or personal reasons, but this year that didn’t happen,” Lang said. “Fall grades are not available until Jan. 4 and then it took us time to review the record of the 400 students who are already in the program. We didn’t finish the review process until [Jan. 15] and we sent the notice out [Jan. 19] because of the long weekend. We worked as diligently as possible.”

            Grant is not sure if she believes this excuse.

            “[The School of Nursing] said they [closed the application] because they accepted too many freshmen two years ago. If they accepted that many students two years ago, how could they have not foreseen this? They should have taken into account that students wouldn’t drop out of the program, especially now when nurses are needed more than ever,” Grant said. “They should have known this would happen way before now and they should have given us more notice. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

            In an attempt to rectify the problem, the School of Nursing has closed its application for the fall and will no longer be accepting freshmen directly into the school.

            “All freshmen will have to come in as intended nursing students, take prerequisites and then apply,” Lang said.

            Grant and Wood feel that this is a fair way to run things and that this should have always been the process.

            “[Acceptance] into the program should be entirely based on GPA within the prerequisite requirements. It’s the only fair way to do it,” Grant said.

            Despite feeling that the school is pursuing an adequate solution, students still feel left in the cold — left only with options that will cost them more time and, more importantly, more money.

            “We’re advising students to either take more classes and apply again next year if we have space or to pursue another major and then apply to our accelerated program,” Lang said. “They aren’t perfect options and we’re expecting students to transfer, but it’s all we can advise right now.”

            Wood is planning on transferring, but Grant isn’t sure what she will do. Both are hoping to take action against the School of Nursing to receive a tuition refund for this semester since the notice came after the financial liability date.

            “I will demand my money back,” Wood said. “It’s ridiculous. We were all promised the opportunity to at least apply and we can’t even do that. It’s disgusting.”

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