“Every snowflake is unique, yet they are each perfect” a female voice from one of the faculty members (whose name shall remain anonymous) shouted into the microphone while attempting to sound inspirational. The woman, who is a chancellor of sorts – high up in the school district hierarchy, was standing at a podium with her hands out in the air in a big gesture, wearing a vintage English school uniform and a funny harry-potter-alike-feather-hat on top. I can see it clearly, reminiscing the orientation speech as it happened seconds ago.
I’ve been undercover at Thompson Rivers University for a month now and the orientation speech sums up the great lengths this school will go to for providing its students with a “safe place” feeling I never encountered before. Every professor I had has taken time to let us know that their classroom is a location where we as students can feel trust, discuss insecurities and concerns. Besides counselling, medical clinic, fitness classes, wellness and drop-in recreation centre the university even has its own multi-faith chaplaincy. For all services provided on campus read more here.
The university has, in fact, hired me to investigate the campus, as a resemblance to a Mystery Shopper, for an impartial report which means that neither the school staff nor the students know who I am. It is my mission to provide you with a realistic and unbiased viewpoint for both future students that may consider applying to TRU and give the president an update of what’s really going on.
In my search, I found that while the school is putting an endless amount of effort in securing its students in a fluffy cotton candy way, every rose has its thorns and what they should rather be focusing on are organizational skills. To be more specific the financial department is in need of a coordinating helping hand. They begin the semester by telling us that an inaccurate sum may apply on our tuition fee account, due to the fact that the administration and finance departments don’t work in the same systems. The balance will eventually be evened out by the end of September, they say and well aware of the above problem I might add, the payment deadline of the tuition fee is set on August 31st (the first day of school). Even though the school has officially begun it is still possible to drop and / or add courses two weeks after the semester started, which could affect the final tuition fee.
Comparing the financial system and payment deadlines dates at TRU with, for an instance Vancouver Island University, where the deadline for students to pay their final tuition fee is the same date as for “adding / dropping courses”, TRU’s approach makes absolutely no sense, it rather adds to the confusion. The finance department probably struggles the most but the lack of structure is an ongoing theme at TRU and my conclusion is that if you are disciplined or don’t think that the above-mentioned subject is much of a problem, TRU is a good fit, if not invest in time management skills – you will need it!
