BHUC self-serving faculty and staff Internet

No one likes to complain about an alma mater, but I have to make an exception because of the repercussions that one faces when or if one elects to come to this university.

1. Usually, students come here because it is the only public institution of higher education in DC. If you haven't lived on the East Coast, or come from a foreign country such as Russia or Africa, this used to be a great place to take a night course. Here, you might meet even staff from embassies taking courses. But a couple years ago, the open door policy changed, and now the only way one can take a course is via approval in a major program.

2. Entry into the university used to be an open line registration system. You went in with your transcripts and a registration form, and approval was immediate (if you met other basic college entrance requirements). Now, although the system is computerized, if you sign up online, you never hear back from the university! I recently wasted $50.00 this way, even though there is no need for me to go back, considering I have already graduated. But NO ONE ever got back to me, even after emailing the department head.

3. 80% of the time or more, faculty and staff NEVER return your emails! If you are IN the class, they might on occasion, but with few exceptions, they never return emails. So if you are applying to the school, and contact a Department person regarding entering into a major, you better be in DC, in person, and count on some back and forth visits before you meet whomever you must meet with. This set up, in my humble opinion, is quite asinine, and so this would definitely deter some would be applicants.

4. At the community college, the line to meet with registration counselors was at least two hours long. Please don't ask how or why they do this to students, treat them like dirt. You really have to be masochistic. And yes, they pretty much treat the students as if there is something wrong with them, and this is why they are at the community college as opposed to any place else. It feels positively penal. (And, believe it or not, there are a lot of fine community colleges out west that don't treat students this way).

5. The penal institution feeling exists in a watered down form at the flagship campus as well. For instance, like I state above, they don't return emails. The faculty, maybe because they have a chip on their shoulder, or some other reason to do with qualifications, will go out of their way to make a poor impression. Maybe they will spend an extra long time gassing about themselves, or maybe they will act as if you are part of the urban poor, or maybe they will even brag about how much money they are paid. All of this, of course, is typically in very poor taste, as if to perpetuate a sense of narcisissm. (Such testiness is also contagious--as if egging the students to become self-fulfilling prophecies of unstable problematic students).

6. Narcissism rules at this school. When I was first at this campus, the STUDENTS  were number one. They starred on the webpages, the basketball teams were terrific, and student camaraderie was strongly nurtured. That started breaking down about two years ago, when they decided to make it more corporate focused. After all, why have such high hopes if the average student is supposed to graduate and work at a big-box store like Walmart?

7. But precisely because they stopped nurturing the student spirit, and enacting this asinine corporate atmosphere, students are discouraged less and less from critical thinking, but more on the c***k c***k sounds of coins put in the piggy bank. And also, more students drop out of school when they transition into a summer job that becomes a permanent one. I mean, if they are going to work at Wal-mart AFTER they graduate, but get an offer to work at Wal-mart BEFORE they graduate, what's the big difference to Wal-mart?

8. If you are fortunate enough to graduate, no one has ever heard of this university. On the East coast, the children of the NW study, and their parent scheme to get them into exotic schools. UDC is not one of them, sadly. The universities around here, abetted by the newspapers, find it is their DUTY to practice a ridiculous snotty attitude based mostly on the ratio of money spent. They can offer the same quality course, but if you pay ten times as much, buying the Starbuck's version of fair trade coffee, say, they force feed everyone into believing the pricey version of university education is ever so much better.

9. The exotic universities literally have pipelines and networks with internship and other job slots for graduates in agencies; and the agencies, being doused with such graduates as CEOs, are used to hiring their own, in a rather inbred system. So the public university is out, and out, except with respect to the local government.

10. As if to overcompensate, places that do accept UDC graduates typically accept them as affirmative action types. So if you don't look like a poster child of the urban poor trying to move up in life, they won't want you. There is, after all, a standard stereotype of what the urban poster child is suppose to look like?

11. So don't be surprised that if you didn't graduate from UDC, you are treated like a lackey, but if you did, you are ignored unless you are a poster child. And of course, no one ever returns your email.

12. They are into backlash if they find out who it is who complained. Hey, UDC, it's not about self-serving egotism, it's about how to increase enrollment and retention, since that is what everyone is always complaining about. Maybe if they started changing the attitude of what we need vs what we don't have, and all these pity parties, and self-aggrandizement, and fractiousness, things would straighten up for a change.

O baby, it's a wild world, and it's hard to get by on a smile! --Cat Stevens