On School Woes
Nov 28th, 2009 by heidi
It’s been a really, really tough couple of weeks.
That Wheezy post? Well, the wheezy turned into the flu. Probably not H1N1, unless it was the no-high-fever variant that some folks apparently get but the flu, pure and simple. The next day was a deep, hacking, painful cough. The day after that was the worst headcold-ish runny nose ever. The day after THAT was phlegmy rottenness and, although that got better fairly quickly, my energy levels only started to recover in the middle of last week. I’d have taken an additional day off work on Monday, except that we had a temp in at our reception desk and my boss was on vacation, so someone had to be there to help the temp.
The real problem with this wasn’t taking time off of work, although I hate to do that, but the fact that I had a massive project due for class this morning. At 8 AM Eastern. Now, I’ve already done one MA. I say that not to be pretentious but to explain that I do kinda sorta know what I’m doing with this graduate school malarkey. I know that if a deadline is looming and you’ve been home sick for five days, you e-mail the professor ASAP to ask for an extension. I’d never actually DONE that before, mind you, but I knew that was academic protocol. I asked for a single day: to have the due date moved to Sunday morning instead of Saturday morning, because of the flu.
The answer I received, to my shock and horror, was “No.”
No, the professor explained, because I didn’t have a sick note from my doctor (note: I didn’t go see my doctor because I’d have been dragging myself out of the house for the privilege of paying $25 to have my doctor tell me that, really, I needed to go back home and rest), she would not give me even a day’s extension. Extensions, she declared, are, by school policy not permitted without a sick note (and she noted that this was true of incompletes as well, presumably thinking that by one day I meant “until next semester”?).
I was angry. I said uncomplimentary things about red tape and bureaucracy. I fumed that this “school policy” was actually her own decision to enforce, as other professors in the department are more flexible. I spent part of my birthday and Thanksgiving, as well as the entire day yesterday, working on this final project. I finished it (and might I note that it’s a damn good project, well considered and edited, and, pridefully, one of the best of the linked projects I’ve seen so far).
Of course I finished it. I had to. What boggled my mind was that this professor, whom I suspect is probably a decent person overall, seemed to have entirely forgotten that instead of dealing with a skittish undergraduate who might well just be playing hooky for the hell of it, she was talking to a graduate student. She forgot, I think, that there is a person behind the policy. I work full-time, care for a small child, and agonized over asking for that single day’s extension. I spent the better part of Thursday night having nightmares that I’d run out of time on the project, that I’d done it incorrectly, that I WAS GOING TO FAIL!! I have turned in every assignment so far on time, have shown all signs of being a conscientious student, up to and including VOLUNTEERING to do a master’s degree because I WANT to do it (graduate students aren’t compelled to get graduate degrees – we choose to be there!) and she ignored all of it in favor of bureaucracy.
I’m still a little angry, in case you can’t tell. I don’t fear for my grade, because I know my project is good. What troubles me is that the decision was so insensitive. When rules become inflexible, except insofar as they protect human life, they’ve gone horribly wrong.
Lawful neutrals, man. The bane of everybody’s existence.
Illegitimi non carborundum
So many reminders of why I did not go into academia!
I absolutely hate school, and I’m still in undergrad.
Yep, I hear you on the insane bureaucracy in academia. I’m a PhD student and I’ve spent the last 1.5 years jumping through a hoop they call “candidacy”. According to the guidelines on the department website, all you have to do is take 48 credits, 2 exams, defend your prospectus, turn in a short version to the dean, and fill out a form. Well, I did all that 1.5 years ago, but when I tried to apply for a grant that requires candidacy 6 months later, I was told – after spending a month working on the application – that they had lost all my paperwork and couldn’t resolve it in time, so I couldn’t apply. I was also living out of the country at this time, but returned briefly a month later and rushed around filling out every form and getting all the signatures they told me about.
Flashforward another 5 months, and once again I’m preparing to apply for a grant for which I need candidacy. Oops, sorry – a class my advisor had promised me would count towards my credits doesn’t count, so I’m 2 credits short and will have to take an independent study over the summer on top of my insane research and mentoring load.
Three months later, I’ve moved back to University town and start nagging my advisor from day 1 to tell me what I need to do next – because I’ve long ago done everything I know to do, everything we’re told, but I’m still not a candidate. Two months later, when another round of grants is only 1 month away, he starts moving. Sure enough, they’ve lost more paperwork, there’s another half-dozen forms to be filled out (which there’s no formal mention of), and the registrar keeps messing up my transcripts and taking a week to make each fix. Finally, 10 days before my first grant is due, the chair signs a departmental form confirming that I’m a candidate.
A week later, I take 2 letters in for him to sign for 2 grants (together worth nearly $40,000) acknowledging that I’m a candidate. Guess what? He won’t sign because he hasn’t yet got a formal letter from the dean saying I’m a candidate – even though he’s already told me I am a candidate!!! Worse, the dean’s office isn’t answering phone or email pleas from our awesome dept. secretary to send that letter over. I finally break down and plea with my advisor to pull some strings, and get that letter signed mere hours before I need to send it off for the first grant!
The worst of this all is 1) these grants are both highly prestigious and well-funded – were I to win one it would look good for the department, not just me, and 2) every other department I know has had their chair sign off on letters confirming candidacy of students who haven’t even remotely finished all the requirements, because these grants are competitive and they want their students to get practice early on and have multiple attempts. Yet in this case, the chair knew I had jumped through every single hoop, yet *still* wouldn’t sign because on a stupid bureaucratic rule. Gah!!!
Sorry to comment-hog. Just empathizing – and venting! Best of luck with the remainder of this course.