Administration addresses issues with PV Live

Even before the fall semester began, students experienced issues with PV Live, the service center provided for students and parents to answer questions. The minds behind PV Live are working hard to ensure its effectiveness. Are students willing to have patience? Will PV Live ever be helpful?

The service is knowledge-based and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The correspondents are trained to answer general and frequently asked questions related to recruitment, registration, financial aid and treasury services.

Its initial purpose was to help financial aid become more efficient at tending to students' common problems and concerns, so the Office of Student Affairs invested in an outside company to give assistance.

"PV Live is a big investment and we hope it can help students and parents but when calling in or chatting with a representative you have to be patient, strategic and targeted. The problem is that people continue to call into PV Live not understanding what its purpose is and how it can be of service. You also have to give the staff and the departments, especially financial aid, time to process your information," said Sheleah Reed, director of public relations, when explaining PV Live.

Because the PV Live staff doesn't know student's personally or anything particular to Prairie View's campus, they cannot answer specific questions.

If this is the case, submit a ticket that is sent to the department related to the inquiry. At that point, it is up to that particular department to resolve any issue.

Since PV Live is available 24/7, it will most likely be congested between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., if you try calling around 2 a.m. it may be quicker. PV Live is most busy at the beginning of the school, between July and early September. When calling around this time, you might be on hold a little longer plus there are students and parents who call with unanswerable questions thus tying up the phone lines.

The Office of Student Financial Aid will also be trying to make sure students are satisfied with PV Live and that it is meeting their needs.

"PV Live is beneficial but it is a work in progress. We're going to try to have a sort of cross-training to make sure that PV Live staff and on-campus staff are on the same page. The more PV Live knows about Prairie View's campus will determine how effective they're going to be in answering questions students have," said Charlene Morgan, financial aid consultant.

PV Live may not be perfect but if students and parents learn to use it correctly and be patient, it can be successful. To call in to PV Live dial (877) PVAMU30.