I mentioned earlier that issues were being addressed. Well today they came to a head (of sorts).

Today, towards the end of my last class, both the Directory of Students and the school Dean came into class to address one of the letters they got from the students.

I first had a moment of panic…thinking they were going to talk to the whole class about my one single letter. Thankfully it was one that was written before that many students had signed.

In essence the letter (the larger one…I signed it as well) dealt with a variety of subjects. Some, in my opinion, were rather minor…long lines for meals, lack of housing, attitude of internship students (some students do their internships here)…but most importantly…books and Human Relations.

To be honest a lot of smoke was blown up our butts. We were told that class size has only increased by small amounts (but if you do the math, class size increased by 20% over last year…and I was SPECIFICALLY told by the school rep when I first was applying…that class size was roughly 15-17 students. We are 30.) They went on about housing…having to put students off campus…lots of other things. I could honestly go on quite a while about the things that were fired back and forth…it was mildly heated but conversational.

But since this blog is written by me, about me and my life, and hell…because it’s fun to write about me…I’m going to do just that.

Towards the end of the meeting I raised my hand and said something along these lines…

My major issue here is the book situation. And frankly I’m pretty disappointed. It is obvious the school knew there was an issue right off the bat, when students started arriving. However every time I went to the Library to try to get my books…I was told to come back later. Always come back later…they aren’t here…soon. We’ve gotten many memos and notes and information about things happening…events, activities, class changes, etc. Why didn’t the school simply tell us that there was an issue with the books, that they aren’t sure when it would be taken care of and that they are working on it? If the school had done that…this situation probably could have been avoided. There would have been no need for you to come to class today to address this. And beyond that, what is the school doing specifically, right now, in order to get us our books?

The answer was rather non-committal…they said they are “harassing the publisher daily” and that “we were supposed to get photocopies of the chapters on a weekly basis…” and they don’t know why that hasn’t happened. And in regards to the lack of informing the students BEFORE or DURING the situation instead of now after we became…annoyed…they had no real response.

I was proud of my comment.

And after the meeting…I had students, students that I feel are generally annoying in class, students that usually don’t talk to me, students that aren’t what I’d call “good”…several of them came up to me and said “good job, you said the right thing, it’s great that you spoke, you said something very important.”

And that itself is a reward.

I feel much better about this situation now. Up until this point it truly felt that the school was just ignoring the problem until it was solved. I’m sad that it had to come to this point when it could have been dealt with much earlier.

Ah…life. What a strange and wonderful thing it is.

PS: I saw a squirrel today…it was small, black, and had a white chest. It was really cool and acted like a silly squirrel.

PSS: Another student is going to cut my hair tonight. Personally…I’m nervous.

It appears that the school has finally decided to put their foot down about some things…and surprise surprise…there is rebellion.

Perhaps it was simply coincidence that these things took place (and probably is) but without a doubt things are staring to happen…and I like it.

For example:
-Contemporary World Issues: Tomorrow (I thought it was today, oops!) we’ve got a “test” of sorts in which we are to research a painting from our home country, and for class bring in copies of three difference references, a reference page and a color copy of the painting itself. While in class we are to write about the painting using what we’ve learned in class as well as what we learned during research. The kicker is that we cannot actually “use” the stuff we bring in (besides the painting). We hand in our references THEN do the writing. That’s not too tough actually.
But the kicker is…the teacher told us what the big part is. She then said there will be two additional questions that she will ask…and she won’t tell us those questions in advance.
A large portion of the class freaked out…they couldn’t understand how she could do that…how she could expect us to *GASP* use our brains and come up with something on the fly! There was mass grumbling after that.

-In Marketing we’ve been working on a group project that involved a lot of research on some compaines that we knew nothing about. The majority of class didn’t do a lot of in depth research…and when the teacher asked the groups what the learned they simply read, word for word, what the website said. The teacher blew up. He was telling them they will all fail, that they don’t use their brains, that they need to LEARN and not READ. It was fantastic. After class I pulled him aside and thanked him for finally giving us more of a challenge…and expecting more than just repeating information back like a parrot. He was happy about that.

-At lunch today…they kicked out at least 5 (that I saw for the hour I was there) students for not being clean shaven, or looking sloppy, etc. The students argued, they pleaded, they got pissed…but rules are rules. They know the rules. Tough shit.
Magnus not only got kicked out, but had 0.4 points taken off. He was literally screaming in the lobby…swearing up a storm about the school and the teachers. We quickly got him out of there. If he had kept it up it would have gotten him in serious trouble.

Yes…I have (and still am) having issues with the school in regards to some things…lack of a teacher for HR, lack of textbooks, and extremely unruly students. The school was so hardcore initially about “standards of excellence” that we must all obey. And I truly felt that the issues I mentioned were seriously out of line with the standards that they expect of us.

Today I saw a wonderful reversal of that. Today I saw rules being enforced. I saw teachers coming down on unruly students. I saw the school flex it’s muscles a bit.

Hopefully those mucles will be strong enough to pick up a teacher for me and to pick up some text books.

Yes…I do have hope.

I appologize for the lack of heavy posting recently…but I’ve been working pretty hard on stuff around here.

Yesterday was spent on a lot of catch-up type things (due to my prior weekends punishment) including a lot of group work (which is at least 1/2 of my class asignements)…group work in Marketing, Human Resources and of course the fun fun Project (we are giving our oral presentation next week)…add a ton of laundry to that…and emails to Kendal University in Chicago, Cornell in New York and Blackhawk (to see if I can get a letter from them to get out of my Internship)…my glorious free Tuesday turned into a pretty busy one.

But now I’m happily caught up (ahead in a couple things), have a ton of clean clothes, and a free free FREE weekend looming on the horizon…WOO HOO!!

I should be getting my camera back from Alex today (He’s in BBA and has been ultra busy with school work…we’ve had trouble connecting) so I should have some pictures to post up soon as well.

Soon I say…soon!

When specifically? I dunno…sorry folks.