Florida State College at Jacksonville: Kent Campus

We have had problems with FSCJ’s Kent Campus since we enrolled, and at this point it feels like a pattern, not a few isolated bad experiences. Between Financial Aid, Veteran Services, and academics, getting basic help has been far more difficult than it should be. My wife recently called Financial Aid about having her FAFSA loans reinstated. Instead of simply explaining the process, the employee responded with, “I don’t think they’ll entertain that.” She then said she would transfer the call, but the call disconnected. My wife immediately called back and could not get through. I called from my own number shortly afterward and the same employee answered. The whole interaction came across as dismissive and unprofessional. The Veteran Services office at Kent has been just as frustrating. In our experience, it is extremely difficult to reach anyone, especially after 1 PM. One employee in the back was genuinely kind and helpful. Unfortunately, two employees near the front came across as rude and uninterested in helping. While we were there, they appeared more focused on chatting and flirting with each other than helping us. About a month later, my wife received no education stipend at all. Thankfully, we do not depend on that payment for rent, but many veterans and military families do. When we went back, we were told her paperwork had apparently been misplaced, and staff began blaming each other in front of us. Misplacing paperwork tied to someone’s education benefits is not a minor inconvenience when that money may be paying for rent, food, or utilities. There is also a serious consistency problem involving FERPA. For an entire semester, my wife was allowed to verbally give permission while sitting beside me so I could help communicate with staff. Now we are being told written authorization was required. After researching FERPA, written consent generally is required before protected education-record information can be disclosed to a spouse. If that is FSCJ’s policy, why were employees discussing her information with me before? If protected information was disclosed without the required authorization, that raises legitimate compliance concerns. I will be researching those prior interactions further and, if appropriate, looking into a formal FERPA complaint and legal advice. My wife’s experience in MAT0022 with Professor Jamie Myers was also disappointing. FSCJ classifies MAT0022 as Developmental Education and says it is designed to help students build the basic math skills needed for MAT1033. Yet my wife heard comments she felt were mocking students for not attending and supposedly only collecting financial aid, and heard the professor discuss the class having a high dropout rate in a way that came across like something to be proud of. The grading structure also seemed excessive: three exams were 60% of the final grade, quizzes another 20%, while roughly 60 other assignments combined were only 20%. For a developmental class meant to rebuild foundational math skills, I believe there should be more emphasis on practice, improvement, and consistent work. What makes Kent even more disappointing is that my wife has also had in-person sessions at FSCJ South Campus, and the difference was night and day. Her experience there was professional, organized, and honestly 100 times better than what we have experienced at Kent. I have attended multiple colleges and have never had this much trouble simply getting answers, reaching departments, and receiving consistent assistance. At this rate, we honestly feel we should have chosen another college, even if it meant paying more, just to avoid the constant hassle, poor communication, misplaced paperwork, and overall terrible experience we have had at FSCJ Kent Campus. Students are paying for an education. Veterans and military families are using benefits they earned. They should not have to fight this hard just to get basic help from their own school.

I had a facial there. The service was good and the girls there do there best to give you a high quality experience.

I’m only a freshman Attending college at 24 for the first time in a AA program. Honestly, the school is ok, I usually attend on campus classes in the week during the evenings so based on that, it’s extremely quiet, the classes are extremely small maybe 3 or 4 students including you, which kinda sucks, but I’m not really a big people person. Their is no life to the campus though, no programs, no gymnasium, no cool school events or games, the teachers are ok their teaching is very dry though, their teaching is also low vibrational, some don’t teach at all idk it’s boring but educational if education had a basic generic meaning. The tuition and school fees have been taken care of so that’s good but hey I’m only attending for an AA on financial assistance so a Bachelor’s would probably be more cost effective. Overall this school is a school, if u want a real college experience with higher educational standards, than a University would be the way to go. I also wish there would be more security influence like keep our CLASS DOORS LOCKED 🔐 no reason y I should be able to just walk in the school and walk right in my classes don’t need to scan my badge or anything thats crazy.

Lovely campus and a great library. A wonderful place to start your college career or return back. Veteran friendly!