Tuesday, August 21, 2012

You throw the ball, you hit the ball, you catch the ball

Yeah, that was a shameless steal from one of my favorite movies of all time--Bull Durham--but it's how I feel this week.  Why?  Because CLASSES STARTED for the fall semester!  That seems to also mean it's "lose your damn mind" season.  Some things are just so dang simple, but people try to complicate the bejeesus out of them.

Case in point, and this won't be the only one I'm going to complain about, FYI.  Sally Student gets email from me after I've checked her stats that she has failed to pass an exam which is a pre-requisite for the course.  Now, let's all agree advisors are overworked and underpaid (like moi!) but this fact is also noted in the online schedule bulletin.  Plus, I'm nice enough to send the email telling her where to go and who to talk to before she's dropped.  Instead, Sally emails back, asking what to do. 

Cue music for my descent into hell.

I email back with same info as before.  Sally emails again that she's taken exam, failed exam, wants in class anyway.  As I'm not sitting with fingers poised over my keyboard, waiting my life so I'll know every tidbit of hers the instant it happens, I miss this email.  Within the hour, THREE MORE emails are sent, with escalating panic wondering WHY HAVEN'T YOU RESPONDED TO ME YET???!!!!!  

I'm not joking.  All caps.  Some words may have been misspelled in her version.

I email her back that, effectively, she's S.O.L., and we all know what that stands for, because it's a university pre-req.  When I come to the university this a.m., she was in my department chair's office, and a staff member told me she'd been camping out and complaining that I hadn't responded to her.  Great!  After being told again she's S.O.L., good old Sally sees me, and tries again. I am rushing to another class, so I say I can't really help, she needs to see her advisor.

TWO HOURS LATER. . .

Sally's baaaaack.  She now has a note on a business card from her advisor to "call" him.  I'm DONE.  I call him while she's there, and I say I'm not sure why I'm having to call, because four emails, two in face communications, and the head of my department have ALL said the same thing, no go sister until you pass the exam.  I pointed out I'm not jeopardizing my job, and aren't advisors supposed to ADVISE students about which classes to take?  He ummed.  I hung up, handed back the card to Sally and told her to leave my office.

I try to be nice, really I do, but some people make be bananas.

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