Angryangryangry

Temple University is STRIVING to separate itself from its former glorified community college status and build a world-class institution. Despite gracing the cover of the Inquirer seemingly once a week, they are barely state-class, city-class even, if the experience I just had is any indication.

Regrettably, I am on academic probation. Last year, I fell hard for the lie that college is a land of alcohol drenched opportunity with little consequences and no hard work. There is little hard work, sure, and it CAN be alcohol-drenched but there are consequences. I finished the year with a 1.4. I skipped class. A lot. CLEARLY I need some academic advising. And Temple knows this. They just want to make it as difficult as possible to get any.

It is the second day of my third semester and I haven't gone to class yet. The complication of commuting requires me to drastically change my schedule. Not thinking too far ahead last semester, I signed up for a 9 a.m. class. If I lived on campus still, this wouldn't be a problem. After I scheduled this class, I found out that I'd be commuting this spring. No big deal but I would have to revise my schedule. Ok. So I wanted to do that Monday, which was pretty much "Temple University is Back to Work Day." I was doing my job at the library. Apparently, advising wasn't doing theirs. They wouldn't be taking anyone until Tuesday. Fine. Why did I have to wait for advising?

Temple, maybe (for the most part) with good reason, doesn't allow folks like me who have a tendency toward shittiness to register for or revise their classes on their own. I am ok with this. I am doing my best to get off probation. It sucks. I got a 3.0 last semester. I am trying. I still have to revise and register with an adviser.

So I waited til yesterday, after work. I had work at the library from 10-2. I guess that's frowned upon? Because when I got to advising, they had taken away this precious sign up sheet which is the only way SCT advising wants to communicate with you. They're supposed to be there until four o'clock. I left Annenberg, angry.

I came back today at 10 am, plenty of time before work at 1. I was number 75 on a crude looking sheet. I waited responsibly; no headphones = no missing your name being called. During my wait I missed my first scheduled class: a photo lab, the one class I'm not planning on moving. Other folks were missing classes too. Is this responsible advising? Giving students no choice but to sit, wait, and miss while stranger after stranger is called? Especially struggling students like myself? God forbid you leave and come back to find your name crossed out.

I sat there for three hours, waiting. Students get called by an adviser, follow them into their office and leave 10-25 minutes later. The adviser may not be seen again for at least 15-20 minutes after the student leaves. What are they doing with our time? Is it wrong to assume that they should meet with a student and emerge with the student, ready to call the next name? Doesn't actually dealing with an enormous volume of pissed off Com students get easier when you make it more efficient? I know watching what I see plainly as a bunch of unhelpful stooges behave even less efficiently than the average eats me the fuck up.

After over three hours, I got fed up and left, not wanting to make the administrator I cover for during her lunch hour wait any longer. Because, unlike SCT Advising, I care about the people I'm helping out and I don't like to make them wait. I only expect the same. Tell me, is that too high a standard? And should a statistically below-average student be allowed to gripe? I think so. Because tomorrow, I will miss another class while watching for this incompetence. I'll just be sure, this time, to call out of work so I can spend, quite possibly, all day there instead of half a day. Am I not putting enough time in for you, adviser, or are you not putting in enough time for me?

I thought college was supposed to be BETTER than high school. Better people and better classes are in check, definitely. Better guidance? No way. Maybe SCT advising should be coaching a soccer team like Mr. Mosier did.