5/06/2008

Ranting and Complaining

Bah! I am very glad I will soon be done with school, because the administration makes me want to smash my head against the wall until I am no longer capable of doing so.

My advisor for the past couple of years has been a woman I've never met. This happened when I switched into the Education faculty. She deals with all secondary education undergraduates with last names starting with A to... G, I think. Previously, when I was still in the Faculty of Arts, my advisor was the head of the Music department, a man I was on a first-name basis with and who advised only students in the BMus/BEd program. I hate the Ed faculty, by the way. It's deserved.

I had already applied for convocation when I withdrew from my French course. Withdrawing from the course meant I no longer fulfilled my degree requirements and had to postpone my convocation until I had finished them. The problem was that I couldn't register in the classes I needed until my convocation was cancelled. I went to talk to the Ed Inquiries office and they told me to contact my advisor. I sent her an e-mail. She didn't get back to me, and I was starting to wonder if I should try again after a couple of weeks, but she called me. This was mostly good, though she called me to tell me I had to reregister in my French class and I was like "Hell, no. I need to postpone my convocation." So she said she'd cancel my convocation so that I could register in my Spring classes. A few days later, I went to do so and all was well.

I got an e-mail from her a few days ago reminding me to apply for convocation. I was confused as to why I'd have to do that, since there are only two rounds of convocation every year, and the next one wasn't until November. I checked it out and was pleasantly surprised to find that you can in fact convocate at the end of Spring or Summer term, you just don't get a ceremoney until November. I got to apply for convocation and... My BEd convocation date is still Winter 2008. My BMus convocation had been cacelled, so I applied to convocate with it in Spring 2008, but it wouldn't let me change my BEd.

So I e-mail my advisor, explaining that I need her to cancel my second convocation so that I can reapply for it at a later date. She writes back that, as far as the Faculty of Education records show, I *am* convocating in Spring 2008. I assume this is because I successfully applied for convocation with my BMus for then. I wrote her back saying that I wanted to make sure I was being perfectly clear, that I'm getting *two* degrees, and is she certain that both have a Spring 2008 completion date? I don't want to unsuccessfully convocate in Winter 2008 because I didn't finish my language credits and not find out that I didn't get my degree until I try to get documentation that I did get it for a job application or something. Her reply? Our records show that you're convocating in Spring 2008. If you're having more problems, contact the BearTracks online people. Not one mention of the question I asked. BOTH DEGREES!!! I ASKED IF YOU HAD RECORDS FOR BOTH DEGREES!!!

Now, this might make sense if it was my BMus that still had a Winter 2008 convocation date, since it might then be a matter of the Ed faculty not being able to change anything pertaining to my Faculty of Arts degree. But it's my Ed degree that's the problem, so I have no reason to believe that they would not be able to change that but would be able to change my BMus.

I'm going to call her tomorrow and get her to answer my question directly. I yelled at my laptop when I got the last e-mail from her, and I my mom came tearing down the hall and asked if I was ok. I woke her up. ^_^

ARGH!!!

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