Comments on: Hopelessly Alone http://www.harrietkatz.com/2008/02/hopelessly-alone/ Sun, 20 May 2012 06:41:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: drharriet http://www.harrietkatz.com/2008/02/hopelessly-alone/comment-page-1/#comment-31 drharriet Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:25:32 +0000 http://www.harrietkatz.com/2008/02/16/hopelessly-alone/#comment-31 Tim- I understand your frustration with the university. You made a good decision to leave. Organizations of all kinds--not only higher education--need to take customer service seriously. You were the customer--i.e.: the student.. As you report it, you tried to communicate with them to find a better resolution to a bad housing situation. You made your case. Your message fell on deaf ears. You decided to take your tuition money and plunk it down in another school which would presumably be more responsive. That is very different than taking your anger violently out on other people. I congratulate you on how you handled yourself in the situation! Best, Harriet Tim-

I understand your frustration with the university. You made a good decision to leave. Organizations of all kinds–not only higher education–need to take customer service seriously. You were the customer–i.e.: the student.. As you report it, you tried to communicate with them to find a better resolution to a bad housing situation.

You made your case. Your message fell on deaf ears. You decided to take your tuition money and plunk it down in another school which would presumably be more responsive. That is very different than taking your anger violently out on other people. I congratulate you on how you handled yourself in the situation!

Best,

Harriet

]]> By: Tim http://www.harrietkatz.com/2008/02/hopelessly-alone/comment-page-1/#comment-32 Tim Mon, 03 Mar 2008 08:35:38 +0000 http://www.harrietkatz.com/2008/02/16/hopelessly-alone/#comment-32 I understand the mentality and frustrations of these individuals, particularly Virginia Tech. I attended VT for 3 semesters during which time I spent an inordinate amount of time dealing with senseless issues and stress imposed by the witless administration. Example 1: The school had a housing shortage my first semester. We were stuffed 3 persons to a 8x10 dorm room. Example 2: I was enrolled in band for the first year automatically unknownst to me because I expressed some interest in band during a visitation the prior year. I spent the whole 3rd semester attempting to get a signature from the band faculty to get the course I hadn't attended removed from my record because the particular faculty person I needed the signature from refused to make appointments. I had to catch him when "he was in the office" and he didn't hold office hours. Example 3: I inquired to the housing office to see what was involved in getting out of my on-campus housing agreement for my 4th semester. I was told "Just come in and sign a form." Thinking that was all there was to it, I located and signed a contract for off-campus housing. When I returned to the housing office to "sign a form" the form turned out to be an application for a housing committee meeting to determine if I had the grounds to be let out of the on-campus housing agreement. I exited my housing agreement by exiting Virginia Tech. To this day, if I were to read that Blacksburg had turned into a large smoking crater, I would grin from ear to ear. Virginia Tech deserves all the misery the Universe can muster. So no, I haven't been heard, and in fact it was never even possible for the institution lacked both ears and the desire to listen. I understand the mentality and frustrations of these individuals, particularly Virginia Tech. I attended VT for 3 semesters during which time I spent an inordinate amount of time dealing with senseless issues and stress imposed by the witless administration.

Example 1: The school had a housing shortage my first semester. We were stuffed 3 persons to a 8×10 dorm room.

Example 2: I was enrolled in band for the first year automatically unknownst to me because I expressed some interest in band during a visitation the prior year. I spent the whole 3rd semester attempting to get a signature from the band faculty to get the course I hadn’t attended removed from my record because the particular faculty person I needed the signature from refused to make appointments. I had to catch him when “he was in the office” and he didn’t hold office hours.

Example 3: I inquired to the housing office to see what was involved in getting out of my on-campus housing agreement for my 4th semester. I was told “Just come in and sign a form.” Thinking that was all there was to it, I located and signed a contract for off-campus housing. When I returned to the housing office to “sign a form” the form turned out to be an application for a housing committee meeting to determine if I had the grounds to be let out of the on-campus housing agreement.

I exited my housing agreement by exiting Virginia Tech. To this day, if I were to read that Blacksburg had turned into a large smoking crater, I would grin from ear to ear. Virginia Tech deserves all the misery the Universe can muster.

So no, I haven’t been heard, and in fact it was never even possible for the institution lacked both ears and the desire to listen.

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