Oh my gods, my life has been a bit traumatic of late and I haven't felt like writing a word for weeks. However, things are looking up. Where should I begin? Hm. Well, the biggest issue that's been on my mind since I completed my thesis was that the Registrar's Office managed to screw me royally by registering me for the wrong thesis unit. See, in my program, one has to complete 6 credit hours of thesis work but in most programs one only has to complete 3. You can take additional time, up to a year in some cases, but you have to pay the regualr rate for the initial 3-6 credit hours. That's anywhere from 2-4k. So, I was supposed to have registered for 6. 3 in the spring and 3 in the summer. Well, when I registered for summer, the registrar insisted that my advisor had written the wrong code on my form and they registered me for the thesis completion course, not the regular 3 credit hours I needed. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this at the time. Even though the tuition was reduced, I believed everything was in order. It wasn't until I was on the verge of turning in my completed thesis that I received a call from my department coordinator. She told me about the discrepancy and that I would owe more money as a result. Oh, I was so P.O.'d at her and took it out on her undeservedly. Bad me. However, once I cooled and got my thesis in on time, I decided I wasn't going to just accept that what I thought was paid for, I actually had a balance on of $2036.00!
First, I went right to the source. I complained to the Registrar's Office and they had me fill out a tutition petition form. I outlined the situation and submitted it to some unknown committee to review. This was to take two weeks. In the mean time, my thesis came back from the Graduate Dean's office who said it was spectacular! The Registrar's Office, on the other hand, were not so gracious. My petition was rejected. They wouldn't completely own up to the mistake and they based their decision on the basis that this scenario had never happened before. In other words, they had never removed a tuition expense because of a university mistake. Hard to believe but I think most people just accept it and don't try to do anything about it. However, the head registrar had a scheme that he thought could help me. He suggested they move my 3 hours from spring over to summer, which would give me 6 in summer and make me elligible for financial aid for summer. However, this didn't seem too savory to me. It felt like fraud. He did it anyway but managed to screw it up. He not only moved my credit hours but the charge for them as well, which I had already paid in the spring! Now I owed $4027.00! Can you believe this? At this point I'd had it with the Registrar's and decided I needed to go to the next level. The Provost.
I contacted the very person who said my thesis was "spectacular" and told her my story. This woman totally went to bat for me. Over a two-day period, she made calls to the Registrar, the Senior Provost, maybe the University President, Financial Aid, etc. In the end, she vindicated me and totally rocked my world! Because of her intercession on my behalf, I no longer owed a cent! I have my full thesis hours requirement. And, this awesome woman, recommened me for Honors. This last point is especially poignant because graduate students do not normally receive honors recommendations. We're expected to do honors level work because we are grad students. So the only way to get the recommendation is by "special circumstance."
I can now yell "whoo-hoo" and have it mean something! I feel much better about this degree now than I did a few weeks ago. Life is good. AH!
Also, the problem I had been having with my AC making me sick has been resolved. I was such a bozo about this. I didn't realize AC units had filters in them that you had to clean periodically. Also, the unit in question had mold inside. After cleaning the thing up, it now works better than ever. HA!
This one, no one will believe! Work is better. It's true. A circumstance arose recently where one of the Acquisition Editors left the company and she was managing a very large project. I was her sole assistant and she actually recommended me to fully take it over. So I did and almost completely stressed out in the first three days. HA! I wasn't used to so much responsibility at this job. Anyway, once I adjusted, I've found that I'm beginning to enjoy my work more. This is so wierd because, as you all know, I've hated this place forever. The question is, if this project ends well, will they offer me the editor position?
