Late to class, in desperate need of getting financial aid, bills past due?

What could make these few things more intolerable but long unnecessary lines at the One Stop. With a new year and a new Campus Center, new red tape has been added to the equation ( and possibly a migraine or two). Efficiency verses the high volumes of people at the One Stop shopping area, where students can get the services of the Registrar’s, Bursar’s, and Financial Aid offices, is less than accommodating. For some, it has become a pet peeve of Fall 2004 here at UMass-Boston.

Is it really impractical to have five or six people tend to hundreds waiting for a simple question? This is the everyday buzz on the upper level of the Campus Center. Many students have families, careers, and other engagements that require a certain amount of rationed time, leading some to complain that the One Stop should be less tedious than it already is.

In addition to the wait, there is the problem of being re-directed to other floors. For example, part of the Registrar’s offiices is located on the Campus Center’s fourth floor. One would would think that the offices would not be separated, making the idea of One Stop more convienient for students. Instead, students travail to other floors when their questions cannot be answered on the Upper Level. Being shuffled around like that can be truly time consuming.

Students have neither the time nor the energy to wait forty-five minutes in line, to deal with a disgruntled employees. The long lines clearly stress out the staff. By the time a student reaches a One Stop representive, there is a strong possibility that they would have to deal with rushed service from a bogged-down employee.

Privacy is in question when there are people in line, and you have a sensitive matter. It’s really difficult to contend with someone who has seen four hundred or more students and have been standing all day long. Your neighbor in the line behind you may get an earful of your personal business. Financial Aid, the Bursar’s, and Registrar’s offices in the Quinn administration building made some amount of sense. There were two separate areas for each inquiry, not the conjoining of different lines for different issues.

“I didn’t like [the One Stop] at first, and I still don’t like the idea of bunching everything together. It’s time consuming. Everything in Quinn was perfect, now there are longer lines,” noted student Hermeline Latouche.

Hopefully the numbers in line will lessen and the number of staff will increase. The frustration amongst the student body with the One Stop should be acknowledged and the idea of it should be revisted and clearly defined.

Students were sold on the idea of efficiency, but some were left disappointed with the outcome. Tailoring facilities to be more time friendly for UMass students should be one of many priorities for the university, especially since it is our tuition that foots the bill for these “ideas.”

Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Mass Media Editorial Board.