Hello, it looks like I have time again. I'm here in Athens with Chowning. The ice has hit and the roads are hard to drive on, so I think we will be in today. Sigh.
But that isn't the big news. The REALLY big news is that I have gotten my grade for the class I was taking at Tech. Unfortunately I have gotten a B, which means that I will no longer be attending Georgia Tech to get my masters, and the past four years fighting to get an advanced degree from Tech will most likely be for naught. I have been screwed countless times by the system, and inparticular how Tech employees will hide behind the system to do their dirty work so that they can distance themselves from what gets done to some students. Obviously this doesn't speak to all Tech employees, but let me explain what happened when I spoke to Dr. Joshi (head of graduate studies for ME).
To will in the back parts of this story, there are two years of getting screwed, and we wont get into all of that, we'll pick up when I tried to get my degree through a degree petition last time. This was at the end of the summer, just before I went to go to Washington. I was told that I needed to be enrolled in order to file my degree petition. So that was done, and as I got back from Washington I was told that I couldn't graduate because my GPA was below 3.0. I was never notified of this, and when I was asked what I needed to do. Regardless, I had to sign a readmission contract laying all blame for my standing on me. The contract stated that I would take one class (Numerical Methods), get an A in that class to get my GPA up to 3 and then I could graduate. At that point I asked what would happen if this didn't make and I was told that we could draft another contract if more classes needed to be taken (this is the big downfall of everything).
So I try to sign up for Numerical Methods, which should be offered every fall, however it wasn't this time because Dr. Fulton had passed away and they haven't found another person to do this. It is important to understand the timeline of these events. I was admitting very close to the deadline, and then I had to deal with this contract, but the deadline was still close. We get the first contract signed a few days late, but they said that they could get it in. At this point, I was told that I couldn't take that class and I had to get another option, so I had to put another class in that slot. It had to be done super quick because there was no time in which we could get it in. There was only class that I could find so we put that on the contract and I signed it (downfall number two).
That is the class that I got a B in. It was a great class and I feel like I learned a lot, although it was all on my own. So after I get the B I go talk to get another contract taken care of and . . . as I should have seen coming, Dr. Joshi has no recollection of telling me that we could draft another contract. He and I spend a while talking about it, and he makes the very valid point of "you signed the contract and the contract stated that you had one chance." I countered with "well, you did say that we could redraft the contract, but since you aren't remembering that, how about we talk about the fact that the contract was already revised because the class originally on the contract wasn't available." It was silly to include that in quotes. We went back and forth, each of us sitting on our stories, I signed that contract, which is now over, and the contract wasn't what was originally discussed, and there was no time to reassess the class to take (not that there was an option in the classes I would get to choose from).
In the end neither of us would budge. He stood by the original contract, and I had no choice but to leave. He told me that I had one option, to petition the graduate committee in an effort to get them to let me change the contract, if that didn't work I would be dismissed.
So that is where I sit right now. The next meeting of the graduate committee is wednesday, and there is no way that I can draft a good letter that will determine whether or not I can even persue my degree at Tech by then. So I will have to get it in by March. Until then I will try to rally whatever advocates I still have at Tech and see if I can get a little justice and a degree to boot. I feel like what I am asking (a chance to actually take a class that I want to take) isn't that unrealistic, but I can't argue with the fact that I have signed a contract that states that I will no longer be at Tech.
The whole situation is pretty fucking ridiculous. I feel like I have worked hard for Tech, and at this point she is going to fuck me one more time and kick me out the front door to boot. I'n sure this wont sour my disposition on the school in general, but there are certainly a few people at the school that I hate with a passion at this point, and given a chance to fight them I'd fuck them up royally. The thing that I don't get, and this comes up often, is I don't understand why it has to be so difficult. What is so hard with working with your students to try to maximize their achievement, rather than working against them to get them out of school? But I guess that is part of the whole process. Tech is great at not working for you, but rather in spite of you (and teaching you what it feels like to take a buick up the ass in the process), and I don't understand why things have to be so adversarial. So while there is still a glimmer of hope of getting my degree, it is just a glimmer.
Aside from that life is going well. I will have to check my options of getting a masters somewhere else . . . or maybe I have to pack it up at together and accept defeat. Who knows? I will say one thing, when I found out my Dad called and I brought this up with him and he told me "well, regardless of what happens you need to know that although they can take away the degree, they can't take away the things you learned and the things that you have done." It was one of the few truely supporting, well timed, caring (in a non-hokey way) things that my Dad as ever said. It was very like my Mom.
But that isn't the big news. The REALLY big news is that I have gotten my grade for the class I was taking at Tech. Unfortunately I have gotten a B, which means that I will no longer be attending Georgia Tech to get my masters, and the past four years fighting to get an advanced degree from Tech will most likely be for naught. I have been screwed countless times by the system, and inparticular how Tech employees will hide behind the system to do their dirty work so that they can distance themselves from what gets done to some students. Obviously this doesn't speak to all Tech employees, but let me explain what happened when I spoke to Dr. Joshi (head of graduate studies for ME).
To will in the back parts of this story, there are two years of getting screwed, and we wont get into all of that, we'll pick up when I tried to get my degree through a degree petition last time. This was at the end of the summer, just before I went to go to Washington. I was told that I needed to be enrolled in order to file my degree petition. So that was done, and as I got back from Washington I was told that I couldn't graduate because my GPA was below 3.0. I was never notified of this, and when I was asked what I needed to do. Regardless, I had to sign a readmission contract laying all blame for my standing on me. The contract stated that I would take one class (Numerical Methods), get an A in that class to get my GPA up to 3 and then I could graduate. At that point I asked what would happen if this didn't make and I was told that we could draft another contract if more classes needed to be taken (this is the big downfall of everything).
So I try to sign up for Numerical Methods, which should be offered every fall, however it wasn't this time because Dr. Fulton had passed away and they haven't found another person to do this. It is important to understand the timeline of these events. I was admitting very close to the deadline, and then I had to deal with this contract, but the deadline was still close. We get the first contract signed a few days late, but they said that they could get it in. At this point, I was told that I couldn't take that class and I had to get another option, so I had to put another class in that slot. It had to be done super quick because there was no time in which we could get it in. There was only class that I could find so we put that on the contract and I signed it (downfall number two).
That is the class that I got a B in. It was a great class and I feel like I learned a lot, although it was all on my own. So after I get the B I go talk to get another contract taken care of and . . . as I should have seen coming, Dr. Joshi has no recollection of telling me that we could draft another contract. He and I spend a while talking about it, and he makes the very valid point of "you signed the contract and the contract stated that you had one chance." I countered with "well, you did say that we could redraft the contract, but since you aren't remembering that, how about we talk about the fact that the contract was already revised because the class originally on the contract wasn't available." It was silly to include that in quotes. We went back and forth, each of us sitting on our stories, I signed that contract, which is now over, and the contract wasn't what was originally discussed, and there was no time to reassess the class to take (not that there was an option in the classes I would get to choose from).
In the end neither of us would budge. He stood by the original contract, and I had no choice but to leave. He told me that I had one option, to petition the graduate committee in an effort to get them to let me change the contract, if that didn't work I would be dismissed.
So that is where I sit right now. The next meeting of the graduate committee is wednesday, and there is no way that I can draft a good letter that will determine whether or not I can even persue my degree at Tech by then. So I will have to get it in by March. Until then I will try to rally whatever advocates I still have at Tech and see if I can get a little justice and a degree to boot. I feel like what I am asking (a chance to actually take a class that I want to take) isn't that unrealistic, but I can't argue with the fact that I have signed a contract that states that I will no longer be at Tech.
The whole situation is pretty fucking ridiculous. I feel like I have worked hard for Tech, and at this point she is going to fuck me one more time and kick me out the front door to boot. I'n sure this wont sour my disposition on the school in general, but there are certainly a few people at the school that I hate with a passion at this point, and given a chance to fight them I'd fuck them up royally. The thing that I don't get, and this comes up often, is I don't understand why it has to be so difficult. What is so hard with working with your students to try to maximize their achievement, rather than working against them to get them out of school? But I guess that is part of the whole process. Tech is great at not working for you, but rather in spite of you (and teaching you what it feels like to take a buick up the ass in the process), and I don't understand why things have to be so adversarial. So while there is still a glimmer of hope of getting my degree, it is just a glimmer.
Aside from that life is going well. I will have to check my options of getting a masters somewhere else . . . or maybe I have to pack it up at together and accept defeat. Who knows? I will say one thing, when I found out my Dad called and I brought this up with him and he told me "well, regardless of what happens you need to know that although they can take away the degree, they can't take away the things you learned and the things that you have done." It was one of the few truely supporting, well timed, caring (in a non-hokey way) things that my Dad as ever said. It was very like my Mom.
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