My Rage Rant of the Day: High Education

[Athos]

Do people want a prime example of why the bureaucracy of American post-secondary education is a steaming, rat-infested pile of shit that needs to be shot into the sun? Apparently, there an error in logged attendance for one of the classes I'm taking currently (I attended everyday and so did two or three others who reported this issue) which saw my financial aid and classes stripped away without ONE HINT of a warning by email or phone call to make sure of this issue. Apparently, you don't even get a word of warning or a grunt or a buckle hitting the floor before taking it hard in the ass these days. SO NOW I have to jump through their turd hoop to get an attendance appeal that takes 24-48 hours to resolve issues, ALL THE WHILE having an exam due online tomorrow by midnight.

So screw the clown who boned me. I hope he/she/it falls into a ditch and breaks a leg. Seriously. Break two.

I should get a free fucking semester of tuition for this shit. It just amazes me that a system that preaches "student learning" as its highest and most worthy goal, can be so mentally inept that even an underdeveloped fetus is smarter than they are.



If someone wants to send them boxes upon boxes of cow patties on my behalf, I'll tell ya where to send it.

 

[-X-]

That's fucked up.

Now take advantage of the steaming rat-infested pile of shit that is our over-litigious legal system, and sue them for mental anguish.

 

[LazyWinker]

Sorry to hear and best of luck with your appeal. I can't imagine you not winning your appeal since you were attending class and probably turning in work for those classes.

A glitch like yours doesn't really surprise me. The software schools use are very complex systems and they need to be because schools are heavily regulated. A small oversight could cause something like this, and it may not even be caused by the office responsible. Setup requires a whole lot of offices to be on the same page and the designated people to do their job otherwise there is a cluster fudge. I can understand the mistake but fixing it doesn't need to be so complicated.

I've never heard of anyone being withdrawn because they weren't showing up for one class. The common thing to do is just drop a student from the class, not withdraw them from school. I would think there would be some automated e-mail message that would inform the student that they have been withdrawn from that class.

I'm not sure how many courses you are taking but usually if you're a full time student and not attending one class you are withdrawn from the class and there are no financial implications because most schools have a census date for aid purposes. That means if your full time on that date, they don't care what you are after it as long as you don't drop below half time. Once a student drops below halftime they aren't eligible for all types of aid.

If you don't mind me asking, what is in an attendance appeal? To me an attendance appeal would be something a chronically ill student fills out that excuses them for their absences and includes a plan that is approved by the professor. I would think all you would need would be an e-mail or letter from your professor saying that you have been attending class.

 

[Angry Ram]

Yeah the hoop jumping to get stuff fixed in college is a pain in the ass. Really sucks that you have to have your financial aid at stake. ANd it's fucking sad we even need financial aid these days.

 

[Athos]

@-X-

Hah. I wish. I have neither the time, money, or inclination to submit what would amount to a "frivolous lawsuit" with the bastards that are the fat cats of education policy.

@LazyWinker

Prof actually started doing it by "attendance book" after the first two classes. Allegedly, I've "missed" two weeks worth of Anatomy class. However the fuck that works considering I've been there every day. The attendance book did miss me and a few others though who also complained. And I'm currently only taking 9 Credit hours. 3 short of full time, and 3 more than half time.

Funny enough, I'm holding down the HIGHEST GRADE in the class as well. How's that for doubly fucked up?


And, just got an email in the last minute. Apparently, I'm back in my classes. The rat bastard didn't even offer an apology. As soon as my professor emails in my appeal that I have in fact been in class every day, I'm calling the head of the bursar/registrar/financial aid and TEARING THEM A NEW ASSHOLE!

 

[LazyWinker]

As soon as my professor emails in my appeal that I have in fact been in class every day, I'm calling the head of the bursar/registrar/financial aid and TEARING THEM A NEW arsehole!

You may just get to chew out 2 or 3 people, depending on how many offices those are split into. Have fun!

 

[Athos]

I will.....may even use some high brow hyperbole to confuse their pint-sized brains.

---

And by "back in those classes" must mean abstract cyberspace...

Still don't even have access to my class information/lessons/powerpoints/exams still. Fucking dumb bitches.

Wish I had a lawyer friend to do me some pro-bono favors.

 

[bluecoconuts]

Damn, what school do you go to that just drops you without any warning? That's really messed up. I get emails from my university almost nonstop reminding me of deadlines, even if I've already completed whatever it is they need. My instructors never take attendance either though, so not like that would matter. The emails I get are pretty annoying though, since I'm doing research I get emails from the professor who is "guiding" me (I.e. making sure I don't make major errors and then signing his name to the journal when I finish it) nonstop, and probably 15-20 emails a day from my department counselor that is usually things totally unrelated to me, and then one that is useful. So I always need to sift through the bullshit to find what is important.

I also get calls asking me to donate money to the school. They charge 17K a year already, including parking ($300 a quarter) and they tell me they need me to donate 100 bucks to help pay for services. And they're raising tuition next year. What a joke.

 

[Athos]

Damn, what school do you go to that just drops you without any warning?

Just a community college since I already have an undergrad degree. Gotta finish out some annoying and some interesting pre-req classes for a DPT program.

But right? It's VERY fucked up that they drop you from all your classes without even a heads up. Typical of American education system. If you ain't a money bag, what use are you? Tells you kind of shit-show Ohio runs where the douchey gov in the last several years has cut the K-12 funding by 25%. POS.

Only email I got was an email saying a suddenly owe money, but that was last week during an exam week and I wasn't exactly on top of my student email...I was studying my ass off. Still a bunch o' horse shit for pulling my aid like that though.

I also get calls asking me to donate money to the school. They charge 17K a year already, including parking ($300 a quarter) and they tell me they need me to donate 100 bucks to help pay for services. And they're raising tuition next year. What a joke.

Like a great many things in the land o' the free, shit is broken as fuck or designed that way for a reason. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

 

[Ramhusker]

My wife is a Dean at a technical college. She has to deal with an uncanny amount of screwed up crap like this all the while having to be damn creative to comply to the clusterfuck of hoops she has to jump through dealing with the insanity that is the Affordable Care Act. Sounds like your prof may have screwed the pooch with transferring the data in his roll book or your school has a real gem of a software tech. Good luck getting it straightened out. Finding that competent person in the system can be difficult at times, especially when you are dealing with government.

 

[bluecoconuts]

Just a community college since I already have an undergrad degree. Gotta finish out some annoying and some interesting pre-req classes for a DPT program.

But right? It's VERY fucked up that they drop you from all your classes without even a heads up. Typical of American education system. If you ain't a money bag, what use are you? Tells you kind of crap-show Ohio runs where the douchey gov in the last several years has cut the K-12 funding by 25%. POS.

Only email I got was an email saying a suddenly owe money, but that was last week during an exam week and I wasn't exactly on top of my student email...I was studying my ass off. Still a bunch o' horse crap for pulling my aid like that though.

Yeah, when I was doing a few classes for community college, to help me transfer easier, but it shouldn't have taken more than a semester. Instead it took me three (including a summer one) because they kept changing classes around on me. I was planning on just busting my ass with 6 classes, had it all figured out, got it all set up as I was getting out of the military (GI Bill and all that) and then a month before I got there they said I was only able to take 3 of the classes because the other three got changed around and the times conflicted. So then I did the three and figured I'd get the next three out of the way, but again at the last second they said I couldn't do one of them because they changed it so it was at the exact same time as another one, so I had to take it during the summer. Then when I transferred to the UC schools they told me that a lot of community colleges will pull things like this (especially with GI Bill students) in order to get more money, in fact they were charging me out of state tuition (or rather, the government) even though I always maintained my CA ID and home of residence throughout my time in the military. They were just constantly dicking me around, telling me I needed to do all these extra steps.

The best part was I then found out (through UCLA) that I actually never needed to go to community college in the first place, I had enough education while I was in the military that they would have accepted me right off the bat. UCLA pisses me off a lot, but they haven't really BSed me any, and have at least helped me out. They, along with UCSB have worked with me allowing me to do most of my graduate work at UCLA, with guidance from instructors at UCSB and UCLA due to the fact I work full time and commute. I need to drive up to UCSB once a week still, but since I'm about 20 minutes from UCLA and 2 hours from UCSB, they said they'd be happy to work with me so I didn't have to move and find a new job or anything. Far different from the community college that tried to fuck me around every corner.

 

[LazyWinker]

Just a community college since I already have an undergrad degree. Gotta finish out some annoying and some interesting pre-req classes for a DPT program.

But right? It's VERY fucked up that they drop you from all your classes without even a heads up. Typical of American education system. If you ain't a money bag, what use are you? Tells you kind of crap-show Ohio runs where the douchey gov in the last several years has cut the K-12 funding by 25%. POS.

If you've got your bachelor's already and Ohio is giving you any sort of grants, that's better than most states. If you have an associate's degree disregard that previous sentence. Ever since that dang old 2008 most states have been cutting funding.

My wife is a Dean at a technical college. She has to deal with an uncanny amount of screwed up crap like this all the while having to be damn creative to comply to the clusterfuck of hoops she has to jump through dealing with the insanity that is the Affordable Care Act. Sounds like your prof may have screwed the pooch with transferring the data in his roll book or your school has a real gem of a software tech. Good luck getting it straightened out. Finding that competent person in the system can be difficult at times, especially when you are dealing with government.

Affordable Care Act is just one of many headaches. Any school that wants their students to be eligible for Title IV Aid must comply to a large list of regulations. Sometimes I think of who comes up with these and then I remember it's Congress.

 

[Ramhusker]

If you've got your bachelor's already and Ohio is giving you any sort of grants, that's better than most states. If you have an associate's degree disregard that previous sentence. Ever since that dang old 2008 most states have been cutting funding.



Affordable Care Act is just one of many headaches. Any school that wants their students to be eligible for Title IV Aid must comply to a large list of regulations. Sometimes I think of who comes up with these and then I remember it's Congress.

And that's the tip of the iceberg. She has to juggle like a circus clown to staff her departments within budget and the details are beyond ridiculous. It's almost like it was written to create an army of part time professors but none gainfully employed.