Incompetence

It's fall registration time! And what does that mean? Lifting the tri-annual hold on my record that prevents me from registering for department research credits since I'm forever a "medical student" in the system.

Mia, the grad student coordinator from a year ago, got a promotion to a different deparment. She successfully lifted my hold last fall and spring. She trained Alissa how to do it for summer registration, but Alissa has since left. There is no one currently in the office handling student registration issues. I try to figure out what's going on, which inevitably involves Roberta, the mdphd coordinator.


At 12:22 PM 8/21/2007, you wrote:
Hi George,
Is there a new Alissa yet? Because I am MD/PhD someone always has to
adjust my record in the system so that I can register for research
credit. I'm not sure who to ask.
Thanks!
Scott


From: George
Date: August 21, 2007 4:51:12 PM CDT

SCOTT, ASK SUSAN. GEORGE.


To: Susan
Date: August 21, 2007 5:38:44 PM CDT

Hi Susan...
Scott


At 11:24 AM 8/22/2007, Susan wrote:
Roberta,
Do you know the answer to Scott's question below?
Susan


From: Roberta
Date: August 22, 2007 11:57:45 AM CDT
To: Susan
CC: Scott

Susan:
What Scott means is: has your department hired someone, in place of Melissa, to handle the graduate student registrations, appointments, etc. Only you can answer that. He wants to know to whom he should address questions and submit information that formerly would have gone to Melissa (or Mia before her).
Regards, Roberta


So I go down and talk to Susan. She's annoyed at Roberta for not understanding what she meant. She had already asked the DGS, who told her to email Roberta. Susan calls Mia, the old student coordinator. Mia tells her which screen in the system to go to (SZACRP or something like that), except Susan, not primarily working with students, does not have access to this screen. Mia tells her to ask George, who is out to lunch...
Later I get these emails:


At 12:02 PM 8/22/2007, Susan wrote:
Roberta,
No, we have not hired anyone yet to replace Alissa. That is why I am asking you, as [the DGS] suggested that you might know. I know who Scott is. I only need help with some issues that no one in the department know. Do you know how to adjust a record in the system?
Susan


From: Roberta
Date: August 22, 2007 12:44:41 PM CDT
To: Susan
Cc: Me

Susan--Sorry. I misunderstood your question to me. When you asked about the answer to Scott's question, I though your meant "has your department hired someone, etc." As for adjusting his record in the system, I do not have access to Banner for purposes of inputting graduate student appointments or data. (That's why I always have to send messages to the appropriate people in each department every semester asking them to enter the appointments and to fix other problems).

However, in the case of Scott's present query, if I understand what his problem is correctly (he's not coded as a graduate student and thus is unable to reigster to GC courses),. this is a bigger problem affecting many students about which I've contacted [the Registrar], yesterday. Hopefully, she is right now working on the solution, namely manually going into each MD/PhD student's record, one by one, to make sure that they are classified as Medicine for their Primary affiliation and the department in which they are pursuing their PhD as their Secondary affiliation (thus enabling them to register for GC courses).

For a fast, emergency fix, Mia would know how to change a record and would no doubt be willing to walk someone through it.

I wish I could do more.
Roberta