With few days left before the end of the fall semester, most students have already gotten their spring semester schedules finalized. For some, frustrating hindrances in the form of checkstops have blocked the road to successful registration.
"Most of the time checkstops are in the process of being cleared," said Marie Gersitz, a senior history and English major. "But then students still can't register for the classes they need which affects future semesters in a negative way."
According to Terri Mangione, senior associate vice provost and director of student academic records and finance, there are quite a few different oversights for which a student can become checkstopped.
"Some (checkstops) are specialty and some are more generalized," she said. "We've run out of letters of the alphabet now so I know we have 26."
Mangione said the different checkstops and the offices to contact in order to remedy the blockades are listed on the Web site for the Student Response Center at src.buffalo.edu/register/checkstops.shtml.
Each type of checkstop and the department to contact is assigned a different letter. Some of the most frequently occurring are "B" for Bursar's office, which is dealt with by the Student Response Center, and "T" for traffic, by Parking and Transportation Services, which usually is a result of outstanding parking tickets. Others are "N" for financial obligation, the Student Response Center handles these, "H" for new transfer students who must contact New Student Programs, and "E" for record problems for which students can contact the Student Response Center.
These are just a few of the 23 different checkstops that might hinder students' registration, graduation or receipt of records.
While Mangione encourages students to make themselves familiar with the different checkstops and the contact offices, as many students have come to find out, once a checkstop is placed on an account the student cannot avoid becoming familiar with the recognition and removal process.
"Those checkstops can pop up the day before you are supposed to register," said Richard Lawrence, a sophomore environmental design major. "I saw that my checkstop had been overridden before registration. When I got up on registration day I'm checkstopped. I go to my advisor, who I had to wait an hour to see, and he told me that I don't need to be checkstopped and he removed it."
Lawrence isn't the only student with complaints about suddenly appearing checkstops.
"I wanted to register for classes on Saturday and I didn't see a checkstop until Friday," said Sharee Hereford, a sophomore business management major.
Hereford said she had to go see her advisor in order to get the checkstop cleared but wishes that she had been notified of the checkstop with ample time to have it removed prior to registration.
According to Mangione, each department is responsible for placing and over-seeing pertinent checkstops and most generally give students ample notice on how to avoid them.
"(An office placing a checkstop the day before registration) would be very unusual, unless an office did their checkstops very, very late but that is unusual," said Mangione. "They normally do that well in advance so that they can see them all before registration."
Mangione said when it comes to parking tickets students are generally checkstopped according to the due date of the ticket and this date might be close to registration.
"It's possible, especially for the parking, for you to look a week in advance and not see (a checkstop), and then you go to register and it's there," she said. "But you usually know when you've had a ticket and it's fifteen or however many days past due."
With the exception of those related to parking, Mangione acknowledges the unlikelihood of a suddenly appearing checkstop but said provisions are made for students with complaints.
"If individual students wanted to contact me we can do research and we can audit programs to see when checkstops are placed," she said. "But normally they should be checking with the office that placed those checkstops because they can give them more information than we can."
According to Mangione provisions might also be made for students in extenuating circumstances.
"It's generally at the discretion of the office that's placing the checkstop. For example if a student has a financial checkstop and there is information that a loan has been applied for and approved we will lift the checkstop so they can register for classes," she said.
For students dealing with checkstops while peers are registering for classes, Mangione said prevention is always better than the cure.
"The student who pays their bill on the due date, the student who pays their parking tickets before the due date and the student who sees their academic advisor two or three weeks in advance won't get a checkstop," she said. "Be proactive and don't procrastinate."
