Despite harrowing paperwork, graduate succeeds in acquiring degree ... almost

Posted 04-25-2001 at 12:28PM

I tried really hard not to make my last visit to campus as a student a bitter one. After all, RPI had plenty of times wasted my time with BS (and I’m not talking about a bachelor’s of science here). I have been de-registered seven times for mistakes made by various RPI departments. My credit rating is still bruised from RPI telling me I was full-time but telling my creditors that I was taking only one credit hour. Twice. At one point, I was probably clinically depressed and didn’t know it. At another point, I had gotten so frustrated with RPI that I began to write a rant column twice a month and even ran for Student Senate. And now, I try to graduate. Trying to escape, RPI challenged me again.

Well, it turns out that the bureaucracy at RPI hasn’t beaten me yet. (Not that it isn’t still trying.) In fact, I tried to graduate this week (M.S. math). It turns out that, because I was on a professional leave of absence for my second year, I needed to re-activate my status as a student.

Of course, one would think that because my last four credit hours were transferred in or completed last term, I shouldn’t have a problem simply showing up, smiling, changing status, paying, and graduating. Warning: This takes at least five hours, and that’s with the help of awesome people employed by RPI (see below).

It really isn’t all that often that it’s any person’s fault—it’s the bureaucracy. Rules are in place, but often the reasons for them are obscured. The funniest thing in all of my efforts the other day was that I was told I needed to have on file a plan of study, almost as an afterthought to the process of graduating. (Plan? Okay. Show up, smile, change status, pay, and graduate. But seriously …)

The official reason for the plan is that state auditors may actually check that kind of thing. Oh ... so this is not just busywork or following the rules, this paperwork is to protect the school’s accreditation. Suddenly, I don’t see it as a waste of time. Suddenly the bureaucracy is not as pointless. Well, why didn’t I know that in the first place?

The key to getting these problems out of the way is communication. And this responsibility belongs to us all. Every problem that I ever had at RPI was because of a lack of communication. And every problem ever solved was solved via communication. Sometimes, people just need to understand why things (like bureaucracies) are the way that they are. In fact, careful analysis of the word communicate will reveal two other words: knowledge and thoroughness.

And so, in closure of my status as a student here, I offer you all final words of advice: Get to know each other, be friendly, communicate—and if a bureaucratic problem pops up in the meanwhile, just chat about it. They seem to get fixed more smoothly that way.

I cannot claim that all employees of RPI are awesome. However, the following people, in my opinion, all are: Carol Hayden, Mike Bayer, Kim Tobio, and Ginny Moore-Bradley, all from Student Records and Financial Services; Richard J. Many of the Gallagher Infirmary; Celia Paquette and Dennis Gornic of the Graduate School; and Dawnmarie Robens, William Siegmann, and Harry McLaughlin of the math department. These were the people who helped me get to the point where my degree will be issued this May. (Note: This is an incomplete list of people to thank, as there are many, many more wonderful people who have influenced me over my many years at RPI (especially over at the Union, the math department, and Delta Phi). Thanks.

Well, I’m just waiting for one piece of paper to arrive at RPI, and then they can send me another (special) piece of paper this May.

Jason Mutford

MATH GRAD