Residency issue ends UWM student’s dream
A former student of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee says the school inaccurately listed her as an out-of-state student, a decision that has crushed her financially and emotionally, and all but ended her goal of getting a degree.
Financial records and emails provided to the Journal Sentinel by the student paint a picture of an overwhelmed student failing to take responsibility for her situation, and a university bound by systems and procedures, even when officials are trying to help.
At the end of the day, the university still has never determined that 20year-old Almond Moone of Janesville is a Wisconsin resident.
“I have no money, I have no grades, but I still have a (bill) balance. This all stems from a mistake that was made and could have easily been corrected,” Moone said in an interview with the
Journal Sentinel.
One school satisfied, the other not
The quality of UWM’s academic programs drew Moone to the campus; she said she was filled with anticipation when she arrived in August 2018.
“There was new excitement and adventure awaiting me in the big city, especially being away from home for the first time and living in a dorm,” Moone wrote in a May 28, 2019, email to a residency coordinator in the university’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions.
She enrolled into a pre-medical track, and also studied theater.
“At first, everything seemed great, giving me the confidence that I had made the right choice,” Moone wrote.
Moone had transferred to UWM with sophomore standing. She came from what was then UW-Rock County (now part of UW-Whitewater), where she qualified as an in-state student, according to an academic transcript provided to the Journal Sentinel.
Moone assumed she would have the same status at UWM. She said she is a lifelong Wisconsinite, and financial aid information she provided to the university indicates she has lived in Janesville at least since 2013. She’s held a Wisconsin driver’s license since 2016. She was home schooled and graduated from high school in 2017.
But UWM enrolled her as an out-of-state student. For adults like Moone, there are generally two ways to qualify for in-state status, according to state law: Be the dependent of a “bona fide” resident, or be a “bona fide” resident for 12 months before enrolling.
In her application, Moone didn’t provide information on her mother, a Janesville resident with whom she lives. And she didn’t provide enough information to prove she was a resident herself.
Despite showing she’d lived in the state since 2013 and had a state driver’s license, UWM wanted more proof, such as paying income taxes or “demonstrating leadership and involvement in the community” to meet the “bona fide” requirement, Patrick Fay, UWM’s director of Undergraduate Admissions, told the Journal Sentinel. He said this is standard for UWM.
That interpretation was the beginning of a long journey downward for Moone.
According to university records, UWM notified Moone of the residency decision in a letter dated Sept. 6, 2018, and sent it to her Janesville address.
Moone said she has no recollection of seeing the letter.
“UW-Rock County made a decision based on Almond living in Janesville with her mother and they determined that that was enough information to classify her as a resident,” Fay said.
He said state law lists several possible ways to qualify for in-state tuition, and “the threshold can be different at different UW institutions, as much as we try to maintain consistency.” There’s a UW System-wide residency group that provides guidance on residency decisions to schools, Fay said. But it’s just that — guidance.
UW-Rock County had been satisfied; UWM was not.
Missed deadlines, mounting problems
Bills began going out in August 2018 with non-resident tuition as a line item, according to the university. Other communications from the university — to her home, her university email account, her online student account — underscored the residency issue. Ultimately, the university placed a hold on Moone’s online student account.
“The goal is to try to find an avenue to qualify the student for in-state tuition whenever possible,” university spokeswoman Michelle Johnson said in an email to the Journal Sentinel.
She said Moone never tried to resolve the issue during the semester.
Moone, who comes from a low-income background, said she was aware bills for tuition, room and board, and other fees were piling up.
But, she said, she was overwhelmed with broader money troubles, school work, homesickness, and the grief that came with death of a loved one. She was having a hard time adjusting to being on her own.
“I wasn’t in the right state of mind to really respond to that,” Moone told the Journal Sentinel. “It was a lot going on so I wasn’t in the right mindset to respond in the way they probably wanted me to.”
On Oct. 19, 2018, she lost her wallet while near campus.
Moone lost $46, her dorm room key, her student ID, her driver’s license and a bus pass, and a gift card with $12 on it, according to a police report. Moone told police a woman had asked her for money as she was walking back from getting some pizza. She declined the request. She told police she did not think the woman took her wallet; instead, she said it must have dropped somewhere while walking.
Everything felt “extremely overwhelming” and though she’d tried to get an appointment at the university’s counseling center, she was told they were booked.
Moone’s mental frame of mind continued to deteriorate, until one night she attempted suicide. “I just wanted that pain to go away,” she said.
Hospital records show she was seen at ColumbiaSt. Mary’s emergency department on Oct. 22. Moone said she spent the night at the hospital, then saw a therapist and ultimately decided to temporarily withdraw from school.
Midterm exams came and passed. Moone returned to campus, determined to finish out the semester. Although her university academic record is not available, Moone said she ultimately managed to earn a 3.3 GPA.
Toward the end of the semester, Moone visited the university’s financial aid office several times, both she and the university confirm. She brought them her mother’s tax transcript and “other financial aid paperwork” over the course of four contacts between November 2018 and January 2019 — all in an attempt to get aid lined up for the spring semester.
It wasn’t until early 2019, Moone said, that she became aware of just how high her bills for fall semester 2018 were, and that she had been designated as an outof-state student.
“I was getting multiple notices about the (fall 2018) tuition bill and that was in the start of 2019,” she said. “So we (she and her mother) had reached out to them and said, ‘Why does it seem like it’s higher than what a resident student would get?’”
Meetings, refusals, more meetings
Originally, Moone owed $10,987.30, according to an Aug. 1, 2018, tuition statement. By February 2019, her bill had reached $12,989.61.
She did not take classes in spring 2019. But she did continue meeting with university officials. In midMay, a financial aid specialist noticed the residency issue and referred her to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions to file a formal appeal.
Moone continued bouncing from financial aid, undergraduate admissions, the dean of students and accounts receivable, meeting multiple times with each, according to a timeline provided by the university.
Her goal was to have the university retroactively fix her residency status.
On June 10, the undergraduate admissions office denied her appeal, noting it doesn’t make retroactive changes to student accounts except in extenuating circumstances.
On July 1, the state Department of Revenue, which handles collections for the university, came knocking. She said they took what little was in a joint bank account with her mother, more than $1,000. By then, the amount due the university had climbed to $15,451.47, according to a notice of levy sent to Moone at her Janesville address.
“They wiped out all of our money. It was really, really bad,” Moone said.
In early August, Moone contacted UWM Chancellor Mark Mone, saying her financial situation remained dire and hoping he could do something to reverse the levy. He referred her to the financial aid office, noting his hope that things worked out, but also the importance of what was at stake in financial aid decisions.
“Residency requirements are regulated strictly by the state and federal government and we have to abide by their guidelines when determining tuition or we place all of our students’ financial aid at risk,” he wrote on Aug. 5.
On Aug. 19, though the university still would not retroactively change Moone’s enrollment status, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions granted her a “regents equity waiver,” which allows students who don’t qualify but have extenuating circumstances to temporarily get the in-state rate.
In other words, a year after the original bills starting arriving, the university dropped her fall 2018 tuition bill down to the in-state rate.
On Nov. 26, Moone got a second notice of levy, this time for $8,309.90 — what was left of the in-state tuition plus room and board and any other fees.
That same day — on the advice of the Dean of Students office — Moone officially withdrew from the UWM fall 2018 session retroactively “on the basis she did not understand the in-state residency requirement and her medical circumstances,” according to the university.
She said she just wanted “some kind of financial peace,” and thought withdrawing would give her that.
In December, the Dean of Students office granted Moone a medical waiver for her tuition and fees, but that still left her with the cost of room and board.
Moone said she filled out yet another form to waive her housing charges. She has not received an answer.
In early January, the state Department of Revenue threatened to garnish her wages to collect $1,244.47. She told the Journal Sentinel she secured a waiver for the garnishment because she makes so little at her current job serving breakfast at a Janesville hotel that she is on government assistance.
She tried to enroll at UW-Whitewater, but UWM will not release her transcript until all her fees have been paid. For now, the credits from her semester at the school are out of reach.
“This is insane!” she said. “You wipe out my grades. I have nothing to show for this semester, but you leave a recurring outstanding balance. This is not fair.”
As of Feb. 9, after a year and a half of battling the university for help and two bill waivers, her balance still stands at $1,502.72 and is climbing.
“It’s because of the way that the statutes are written that we have to presume everyone is a non-resident until they meet the exceptions,” Fay said. “Based on the information that we have, she didn’t meet one of those exceptions. But in this example, had she followed up and provided her parents’ information and we were able to verify that information, she could have and potentially still can, qualify as a resident for future semesters.”
That is something Moone has all but given up on. “The truth is, I am a Wisconsin resident, but I was denied that classification at this school, which cost me my grades, my money and my education,” she said.
Have you been improperly marked as an out-ofstate student? Do you have other challenges navigating financial aid processes? We want to hear from you. Contact Devi Shastri at 414-224-2193 or DAShastri@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @DeviShastri.