Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Today is the Day

Today is the day I find out whether the patched together, hacked up transcript I have at MTSU was effectively processed by the office of Records at MTSU. My experience at MTSU has been demoralizing and negative.
MTSU manages a Soviet-style bureaucracy of an unbelievable scale. For instance, today on PipelineMT (MTSU's online student access to transcripts and registration) there's a message that transcripts will be unavailable until May 7th(which you'll notice is today's date). MTSU's real talent has always been telling students a plan, how things are going to happen, and then changing them without notifying them. In my time at the University, maybe 3 years, my "sheet" (classes I have to take) has changed upwards of 3 times. On not one of those occasions was I notified within a semester. Each time I went to my adviser with what was apparently now an old sheet.
Urban legends float around Universities in situations like these. My department, Elementary and Special Education, did such a poor job disseminating correct information that these myths took hold on a huge scale. Most people think that an upper division form/list of classes to take, is a contract. Wrong. MTSU reserves the right to change that sheet right out from underneath you at any time. They all come with an expiration date, and woe unto those who sign onto the sheet near the time when they are changed. Now thats not to say that they can't change it in between listed change times. And it's not to say that you should even expect to find a sheet available. In my 3 years at MTSU there has been either no upper division form, or a "draft form" for three semesters.
So I'm sitting here, with a knot in my guts. I know that I have done every single thing I can do to get a degree. I know that all the t's are crossed and there should be no problem. I also know that I've done that three times before and arrived at records to find nothing of any kind on file for me. Apparently those three times were "bad times to submit files to records." They were changing computer systems, so, I kid you not, "almost everything submitted in that time was completely lost." I know that in the end, there's every real possibility that MTSU will pull one last stunt. I completely expect it. I'm already planning the tirade will deliver, finally, after all this butt kissing. After all the times MTSU has asked me to go and pretend to be a really sweet guy who just happened to have his sub forms screwed up or lost for the 3rd time. This time, I will not be so sweet. Yeah right. I know with that fat, lazy bunch of desk chair Bolsheviks in- cubicles covered with Garfield and Cathy cartoons- the only way I am going to get anything done is to act like they're really doing me a big favor.

MTSU has been like an abusive relationship for years now. Anxiety about this experience has dominated my life for nigh on six and a half years. I've spent the whole time saying "what did I do wrong? who should I have talked to about this? how could I have know that this changed? how can I take control of this problem and monitor it so this doesn't happen again?"
I'm done. MTSU: I can't wait until our divorce papers are official and I never have to think about you again. Nothing will make me feel more free than to never have to think about you again.

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