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Lunatick's ravings
The
Administration Zone.
So, student life (or lack of
same) aside ever wonder why this is the 2nd most miserable university in
america? Well?
Any ideas out there? The next
thing you may think of is the sucky food, but hey the e-coli seems to like it. How about this the administrative offices and the
red tape and incompetence associated with them.
Now don't get your girdle in a
bundle just yet Shirl. I'm not saying
everyone in employed at this university is incompetent but you may want to hear some of
these horror stories. Picture it if you
will, you're driving down a deserted road and you make a left turn at a glowing sign. You have left the real world and entered a place
devoid of intelligence and common sense. You
have entered the Administration zone.
Submitted for your approval the
favorite whipping boy of the students the traffic department. Pathetic little people whose lives have
been given meaning by handing out parking tickets. How
desperate are these people to fulfill their purpose.
Well after pooling 7 (yes only 7) people I have these horror stories. A person who was given a ticket over the summer
for parking in a facility lot that had only 3 other cars in it. These cars also had tickets because they were
commuters as well. Ok this was a violation of
the letter of the law, but common sense? Why
should commuters have to park in the South-p during summer session when half the facility
lots are empty??
Next a person who got a ticket
for being 3 inches over the line. First of
all they actually give tickets for that ???? Second
if you have seen most of the lines on this campus you have better vision than most. I don't think they have been repainted since the
university opened.
So now a simple story. A person who got a ticket for parking in the
"H" lot. Simple right? WRONG. This
person had an "H "permit. The
traffic department "officer" never
actually looked for it.
And finally the story of two
people who went to renew a permits. Simple
enough again, or not so simple. The first
person was told that they didn't have a parking permit.
The person told them that for the past 3 years they had to register their
car every year (this was before fall of 96 when they introduced multi year permits), and
even gave the person at the desk their permit number.
Well I think you can figure out where this goes. The pore student had to go to the end of the line
that they waited on for a half hour to fill out a registration form for their car. Now the story of the other person who also went
to renew their permit, but was told that they had unpaid parking tickets. Well they asked where they came from and out came
the infamous printout. On it was a list of
all the tickets this person had ever gotten in their sentence at this university. The only problem was that the license plate of the
unpaid ticket didn't match the plate of the student.
That didn't matter the ticket had to be appealed or paid. UM HELLO?? Why do you have to pay a ticket or even appeal one
that would stand up in any other court?
Ok I'm done now beating up on
the traffic department (but they are an easy target).
It's time to move on to other departments.
Let's reach into our bag of assorted complaints and the winner is….The
Office of Records YEAH!
Submitted for your approval the
story of a friend of mine. This friend
submitted and paid for a request for transcript form.
Because this friend was familiar of how incompetent the staff at SB was he
asked instead for them to send the transcript straight to the medical schools he was
applying to he requested them sent to his home. Well
1 week passes then 2, and he checks the status of his request on SOAR. Guess what it said.
He had no transcript requests in. So
he calls the office of records, after a lengthy conversation of my friend telling them he
had his receipt in hand and that he had submitted the request 2 weeks ago. They decided to put him on hold and look for
the request. Well after 10 min of being put
on hold a sheepish employee, who 10 min before was telling he that he was
"mistaken", picked up the phone again to tell him they found the request. It had fallen between two desks. The employee then asked if the transcripts were
important and if they could wait. No I'm
sorry for the error. No we will get these right out.
God forbid that these people work any harder to correct a mistake, they want
to know if they could wait. Can you imagine
if he had the transcripts sent direct? They
might have never gotten there. Hire the civil
servants, they are fun to watch.
So now my final nightmare of
misadministration.
Submitted for your approval the
story of the student health services. A
student submitted his health form direct to the desk because he didn't trust the campus
mail with something this time sensitive. Well
he shouldn't have worried about the mail. The student health services put it in a pile of
other paperwork. one week into this student's
classes he was told that none of his paperwork was on file.
So after a call to student health services and the typical lengthy
conversation and period of time on hold, his paperwork was found. In a pile of paperwork that should have been filed
but they were "a little behind". Well
them being a little behind, almost got a student tossed from school.
Maybe it's just me but we pay
tuition here. The staff should be here to
assist us. When we have a problem of their
creation they should take an attitude of assistance not of, oh god I actually have to earn
my overpaid salary and benefits (believe me the only thing better that state benefits out
there is federal benefits). Maybe that is
something you should work on Shirl. Instead
of trying to make the look of the offices more inviting by replacing windows with walk in
offices, you may try to work on the staff being more helpful. I don't know maybe even possessive of common
sense and courtesy? What do I know though. These are just the ravings of The Lunatick.
Copyright ©1998 The Lunatick