The end is near! Or is it? University bureaucracy strikes again!

Is it me or is bureaucracy at the university getting worse? After seven years of blood, sweat, tears and beers, I will be vindicated and graduate from this place this year intact with a degree. However, just I see the light at the end of the tunnel, the shit hits the fan. There have been a couple of incidents which make me think that this mad beast of metal and brick is refusing to release me from my chains.

The first incident was registration. Finding out that I will be out of town at Folk Fest during my registration slot, I decided to hand in my registration and Honours Permission forms ahead of time. Lo and behold, I receive a phone call from the university telling me that my permission form is not to be found.

Thankfully, I was in still in town and a couple of phone calls later, the form was found and I was on my way once again. I decided to check Web Advisor just to make sure things were hunky dory. That was when I found out I fooked up on my registration, giving the wrong course number for the course I wanted to take. Instead I was registered for a class I had already taken. ACK!

This time it took a dozen phone calls, all of which landed in different departments with different people, all in an effort to change courses. There were times no one knew who I should be transferred to. But thankfully I did end up with someone who was determined to make my registration experience a delightful, albeit frustrating one.

The next thing that happened to me was a course cancellation. The professor slated to teach the course is seriously ill( I wish him the best and a speedy recovery), and since it is a specialized course, the department has no one else available to teach it. Normally these things are no big deal.

The only problem here was that it was canceled literally at the last minute: when everyone showed up for class. For many, this course was a prerequisite for graduation, and was only offered during this time slot this year. This was something that the department did not take into consideration. Excuse me?? It seems absolutely ridiculous that a prerequisite course sunk completely below the radar of the department.

Anyways, the department is apparently going to try its best to accomodate those who need the course (like me) to graduate, perhaps by offering a special reading course. At any rate, I am starting to think I will never EVER get out of school. Maybe it’s because deep down, it’ll be a sad day when I do.