Uriah Barzola

Yasui Hall, built in 2023. Yasui Hall is named after the Yasui family, a Japanese American family forced to leave the University of Oregon during the Second World War. (Uriah Barzola/Emerald)

To access class registration at the UO, student account balances must be below a threshold set by the university, which can create issues for students who have monthly payments within their billing account.

UO requires a certain amount of tuition and, if applicable, housing costs to be paid before registration. In-state students can have a maximum of $1,000 in their billing account at registration time, and non-resident students can have a maximum of $3,000. If the balance is above this amount, the university will place a hold on the student account until it is paid, barring a student from registration.

Second-year public relations student Stella Russo feels the burden of holds. “I feel stressed by finances and holds on my account and being unable to register for classes,” Russo said. “I understand why they are so strict, but it can jeopardize your graduation.”

For some students, there is confusion around how different charges are categorized, the notification system for charges and how much needs to be paid until a hold is placed.

Third-year doctoral candidate in the quantitative research methods program, Brittany Spinner, said she has had issues with how her university housing charges are put into her billing account. According to Spinner, there is no differentiation between rent charges and other charges like tuition.

UO labels housing charges as rent, but puts them with regular student billing with no distinction, even if the rental charges are meant to be paid monthly and not at the start of the term.The lack of distinction between rent and other charges can make it difficult for students to understand what payments are urgent, and result in overpayment when it’s unnecessary.

“If you have an outstanding balance, but it’s not really outstanding, it’s rent that’s not due for another month,” Spinner said. “Students may need to pay two months of rent just to avoid the registration barrier.” 

UO Spokesperson Angela Seydel said, “The intent is to give students as much notice as possible before initial registration, so they are not surprised by a hold, and they have time to resolve the payment balance prior to their registration time.”

Spinner said this system makes it feel as if the university has the expectation of “paying rent early.”

“When I was younger, it was such a stressful thing trying to come up with money for school, rent and living expenses,” Spinner said. “hearing the stress that students are under verbally, shows that they are under financial stress.”

Spinner said she attempted to advocate for these issues, but was “met with assumptions that I couldn’t pay my bills and that if I was ‘triggered’ by a hold notice going into effect before my rent was even due, then I should seek out help for why that’s triggering for me.”

“Someone may be concerned that a new hold would be added in the middle of May for rent that is due June 1, but we do not do that,” Seydel said on behalf of Krista Borg, director of student financial services. “If a student has a hold now that includes May rent, once they pay their account down below the hold threshold, the student’s financial hold is cleared for the term. We do not continue to add financial holds throughout the term after they are initially placed,” she said. 

The university said the hold should not continue once the threshold is originally brought below. If a student receives rent that is due in June but was given in May, the student will not receive another hold.

“I see this as a systems design issue: a misalignment between billing timelines and enforcement mechanisms that has real implications for equity and student wellbeing,” Spinner said.

“I think there are ways to meet in the middle, especially if you are not able to get classes due to holds,” Russo says.

Overall, the financial stress  caused by this notification system should be looked at for further clarity and to relieve the misunderstandings that students have about what is due. I believe that the best way to fix this issue is through the structure, dividing the payments and making it clear what is needed to be able to register.