So I’m still holding my breath, but it appears that after roughly 1.5 months, SU Financial Aid finally got their act together and granted me the loan needed to pursue my MLIS. This time was nothing but stress and annoyance for me. Unfortunately there still are some issues but I’m fairly optimistic things will work out. I’ll write more later, but now I have another note of administrative disconnect/mismanagement.
I get an email from SU Housing with the Subject header: ‘Reminder – you have not yet submiitted your required ID Card photo!’
What’s funny/curious/lame is that this is the FIRST contact they’ve made regarding this matter. Whats also interesting is that they’re advising that I should submit my ID card photo after activating my SU email. This is the first I’ve been notified of that and have no record of how to proceed on that. I contacted the IT help dept.
Based on my experiences so far, I have a funny feeling that this latest slew of activities will be far from the last.
US Wellness Meats sells quality
[New Post] ID Picture and Email activation – via #twitoaster http://kitlas.com/2010/07/id-picture-and…
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jill Hurst-Wahl. Jill Hurst-Wahl said: RT @joshkitlas: [New Post] ID Picture and Email activation, http://bit.ly/d6HNhV <– @JulieWalas @rdlankes [...]
you can check this out: http://housingmealplans.syr.edu/idcardservices_newstudents.cfm
and actually, you can go to ID card Office to take the picture there if you haven’t uploaded the picture before you going there.
Thanks Carly. Funny how things get done via alternate channels. I actually JUST got an email from a student in an advisor-type role that said:
“Hey folks! It sounds like some of you are having some trouble with emails going astray and things of that nature. Last year, we had some trouble with university emails related to id cards, parking, and activating your SU account, and I suspect that is occurring again. Unfortunately,…”
You’d think these issues would be sorted out if they occurred last year. I guess not. What’s kind of embarrassing is that SU is so tech-savvy yet this stuff is going on.
Hey Josh!
Sorry it’s been such a hassle for you. The trouble is that the iSchool is tech savvy, but many individual departments on campus aren’t. That’s the problem with large organizations – they tend to compartmentalize and turn into little silos. On the other hand, we don’t want to saddle every school at the university with the same tasks. It’s quite a conundrum!
On a side note, the LIS program assistant isn’t really an advisor. I help answer questions from prospective students while working for the director of enrollment and the Program Director. It’s a weird role, really, and one that is hard to define, but I certainly don’t consider myself an advisor (and neither does the iSchool)! I’m just a peer whose job is to help prospective students to the best of my ability. : ) The only people considered advisors by the iSchool are the faculty and staff like Jose and Blythe, and a group of graduate mentors who work with Jose.
I hope that everything has worked out to your liking! I know how annoying red tape can be.
Cheers!
Andrea
Thanks Andrea. You have been EXTREMELY helpful in the past and continue to be. In no way to I want to be that ‘annoying thorn in my side’ guy and hope I haven’t branded myself as such.
I was quite frustrated with a couple experiences – partly due to some administrative lags and partly due to my own anxiety. Entering the program is a part of my personal re-branding/Josh 2.0.
I’m switching careers (somewhat drastically) and have a lot of excitement, enthusiasm, and eagerness (I ran out of words starting with ‘e’) for SU’s MLIS program. That said, I’ve been ready to start classes for close to a year and when I began running into a wall for a month+, it was really hard for me to handle.
Thankfully all of that is very much in the past.
I moved most of my stuff into a cozy 1 bedroom on Walnut Ave., and will be moving permanently on the 14th of August. I’m really excited for classes to start and can’t wait to get cracking. See you soon!