University funding posed trip difficulties

10 days and eight nights in Paris, a nearly surreal experience for many Americans, but a reality for three Prairie View students, including myself.
 This was obviously an experience to remember yet Prairie View A&M University found a way to ruin such a memorable time.
 Beautiful, intelligent, and more importantly ambitious, I stood among two amazing women who bleed purple and gold, but were beaten by the same university they hold so dear.
 Now please do not assume I am somehow ungrateful for the endless opportunities Prairie View has provided me through my tenure here, but I am more so disappointed in the manner our university tends to conduct business.
 Each of us were awarded scholarship money in January, yet our money was not released until three days before we were scheduled to leave.
 If you are familiar with international and domestic travel, you may understand that airfare and hotel arrangements increase substantially when you decide to book three days before.
So, may I ask what kind of sense it makes as an institution of higher education, which is supported by one of the largest university system organizations in the state, to book a flight three days before the scheduled departure?
I’m speaking from frustration but more importantly I’m speaking as a proud and productive panther. Globalization in 2013 is something Americans can no longer run from.
All universities and colleges that stand on a pillar to prepare their students for success must create stable means to do so and must fulfill the promises they give to ensure student success during this era of change.
Prairie View provides great opportunities for students to become a part of, but fails to fully back its initiatives and its students in both a timely and more notably a professional manner.
I recall participating in Middlebury’s summer language program for Arabic this past summer, a personal initiative encouraged by the administration, which the university promised it would fund. Upon arrival, a fellow classmate and I were embarrassed as we were greeted by the bill, we assumed Prairie View had covered.
After a little persistence and back and forth, financial aid eventually released our aid money but the cliché of “colored people time” nearly always holds true when dealing with Prairie View.
Prairie View rarely does anything on time yet when it comes to manners of business and professionalism, time management is just as valuable as the money spent.
If you promise to pay for a trip abroad the promise should be fulfilled in a reasonable amount of time. To release money at a time that forces college students to pay for nearly half of an international trip on their own after you have already awarded them money to cover a majority of their costs is not only unfair but also wrong.
Again I am more than grateful for the endless pool of opportunities and effort this university puts forth to help me build my personal brand as a journalist, intellectual, and a woman, but in order for Prairie View to grow further, we have to criticize our university in order to make it better.
Teaching, research, and service were imprinted on the seal of Prairie View in 1876 and still remain in 2013 therefore leaving no room for our university to fall short of this branded mantra.
As the second institution of higher learning in the state of Texas, Prairie View must hold itself to a higher standard. It must move away from its seemingly lackadaisical means of business and ill regard of the student, whom motivate this university.
In short, Prairie View A&M University must do better but it is up to the student body to hold this university to a true standard of excellence…pushing PVAMU to be the true home of productive panthers.