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St. Cloud State University
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Commentary
Internet replaces unreliable mail
By Kristen Kubisiak
Published:
Monday, January 20, 2003
Kristen Kubisiak -- Staff Essay
The American Postal Service has come a long way from the dusty days of the Pony Express in the1860s. Today the Postal Service delivers several hundred million messages and billions of dollars in financial transactions every day to nearly eight million businesses and 250 million Americans. Despite the success of the Postal Service and its added benefit of making the federal government more businesslike, over the years St. Cloud State has been shying away from the institution.
The most recent recoiling of the university from the time-tested Postal Service is the new change in student billing and payment procedures. As of 2003 Spring Semester, SCSU no longer prints and mails invoices for student tuition.
While forcing students to take responsibility for themselves and their finances is not an unreasonable request, it is a bit presumptuous. Only a handful of the estimated15,600 students enrolled at SCSU, pays entirely for his or her own tuition. As long as students are claimed dependents on their parents' income tax forms, parents are liable. The ironic part is, the people who will inevitably suffer the worst consequences if this bill isn't paid in a timely manner--the parents--can't even access this information. The way the system is set up, students can only retrieve this personal information by using their Campus IDs and pin numbers.
Despite only being in the dawn of its existence, the university has rapidly accepted and employed the Internet as a legitimate "delivery" service. The Postal Service, however, a reliable means of delivery and communication for over two centuries is quickly being dismissed. Perhaps too quickly.
Its true, there are going to be imperfections in any system, due to the simple fact it was designed by a human and therefore, fallible. But because the Internet is so new, there is much we do not know about it, and what we do, should give us pause. There are constantly privacy issues, viruses, software updates and bugs.
As of Dec. 26, 2002, MnSCU ITS applied a 128 bit high security certificate for the Web Server. Many students may have discovered this the hard way when a "Encryption Error" message appeared on the screen. This new method of "protection" requires students and faculty to "upgrade" an option (inconvenience) avoided by the abhorred "snail mail." Right NOW the necessary browser upgrades are free, but act quickly, this is probably not a permanent situation.
Another fun addition to the online system is the cute message the computer offers when it fails to access the web address you want. "Oops! We couldn't find the web page you requested," is a personal favorite. This brings to mind other concerns. Who is "we" and why can't "they" access this information that is just a mouse click away? Because of heavy traffic perhaps? Well even if there is heavy traffic my mail delivery person is still able to find me.
The goal of the procedure is to "eliminate students not receiving statements because of incorrect mailing addresses" and allow students to access their account details online at "anytime" (that is, assuming there is no heavy traffic, virus, ominous message or other mysterious computer ailment that the computer OR worse yet, network, may acquire). A better solution to "eliminating" the problem of students not receiving statements because of address changes would be to request students CHANGE their address. Or AT LEAST give students a choice whether they want the information mailed or not.
This quick adoption of the Internet is too much too soon. While someday the Internet may have a reputation as time-tested as the Postal Service, right now, the evil we know is definitely better and ultimately more convenient than the evil we don't.
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