This article was first published in The Sheaf, the print newspaper of The University of Saskatchewan. It was an article inside Volume 91, Issue 10.
Student Claude Piercy summed up the feeling in the air around the Administration building best when he said, “I should have done it sooner.” Procrastinators of all shapes and sizes were on hand last Thursday, September 30, the last day most students could pay for the 1999-2000 school year tuition.
The lines were long and plentiful last Thursday, full of anxious students and parents (of lucky students) wanting to pay their tuition before the deadline. Panicked faces were among some of the students in the line, as the clock slowly ticked away to 4:30, when the Administration
building is scheduled to close. Those looks slowly disappeared as students realized they were not being shooed out of line. A representative confirmed that the building was prepared for this sudden rush of payments, keeping offices open until all lines could be extinguished.
The whole process “was fine. It went smooth,” according to relieved student Robin Shaw. One problem that some students faced was that ”they should of had more [cashier] lines, and made a more clear distinction between the cheque line [and the other payment lines]” argued
student Ben Fowler.
The only students able to pay fees past the September 30th deadline without being subjected to a late fine are those studying in the Diploma of Agriculture program. Fees for that discipline are due on October 31st because their classes began later than regular classes at the university. All regular tuition payments made after the September 30th deadline will have a late fine of $40 added to their payment. All mailed tuition payments not postmarked before September 30th will also have to pay the late fee, one administration representative stated.
Despite the numbers of students making last minute payments, line-ups, depending on the time of day, seemed to last from 10 to 30 minutes, reliving the boredom felt by most students, who may have already spend enough time in line-ups this month.
