The Culture of Cruelty

Yes, I believe that finishing college is the closest thing to nirvana for students. I, myself, is also excited about that thought.
However, the trouble with graduating is the process in which all students have to do a merry-go-round in the whole expanse of the university just to get the extremely needed and cannot-graduate-without its signatures from who ever wants his/her name to be sought after.

As for me and for those like me, the irregulars, I went through a great deal more than that since I had to grovel in front of several esteemed individuals just so I could get them to sign my letter for of several registrar asking to permit me to overload my subjects.
Yes! It was my fault I was an irregular but they could have been more helpful. Don’t you know that it took me a week just for them to sign my letter? It was indeed my worst nightmare.
It all started when my classmate had a chat with the university registrar. She also has subjects she needed to overload so she told the registrar about it. The registrar advised her to write a letter to the dean asking her permission to overload the subjects. Of course, as a good friend, she also invited me to overload.

We wrote the letter. We passed it to the dean’s student assistant who returned the letter to us because the name of the dean was not spelled right(the dean was very particular with her name).
The next day, we rewrote the letter. We passed it to the dean’s student assistant who in turn told us that we need to attach our evaluation forms along with the letter.
So the next day, we printed the letter again with a different date and attached our evaluation forms. We passed it to the dean`s student assistant who this time made us cool our heels off for thirty minutes before she said that she needed a copy of our load slip.

The next day, we printed the letter again with a different date and attached our evaluation forms and a photocopy of our load slip.
We passed it to the dean’s student assistant who perused it for a while and said, “You need to place the grades you had last semester and have it evaluated as well”. She went on to say, “However, we cannot evaluate it yet since our schedule here is quite tight.” To which I answered, “Would it be fine if we will just bring our grade forms along with the evaluation form so that you could confirm the grades”. She said it was fine.

So the next day, we printed the letter again with a different date and attached our evaluation forms and photocopy of our load slip plus the grade form. We passed it to the dean’s student assistant and she confirmed our grades, evaluated it and asked for ten pesos, the payment for the basic thing she did. She asked us to write in a certain book the amount we paid and place our signature but it was fascinating to note that she did not issue a receipt. Knowing that this is a government school, she should have.

Then she asked if we could come back the next day since the dean is still busy and it was near five by them.
So the next day, we were quite hopeful that we could already have much needed signatures.
We waited until the dean was ready for us. My friend didn`t have any problem with her requirements since she studied here since the first year. But I was a transferee so I had a hard time convincing the dean that I was a candidate for graduation.
The dean asked me for my accreditation form. I told her I didn`t have it because it has been with the registrar for two years. She asked me about who accredited my grades and I told her but when she learned that it was the chairperson of my department who accredited my English grades, she looked at me as if I was the greatest moron in the world. She told me that the chairperson was not authorized and that I should have gone to the English department. I tried to explain but she wouldn`t listen. She signed my letter and instructed me to return with my accreditation form.

I returned with it a few minutes later and I was confronted bu the assistant dean. She told me that what I did was wrong. I again tried to explain but she wouldn`t listen. She instructed me to return the form to the registrar and have deal with it. So with the last ounce of courage I told her, “If there is something wrong with my grades why do you refuse to help me, I wasn`t aware that I made a mistake.”
But she wouldn`t budge. I realized then that it wasn`t that she couldn`thelp me, she just wouldn`t. So I went out silently thanking God that I only have a few months to withstand such cruelty that has always been exuded by men and women in the higher rank of this school.
I was thankful that at least the people from the registrar are different. I realized that hey are the most helpful people in the whole university.
I guess it really would not matter how well you did your job, what matters most is how well you serve others.