I am writing the final exam on January 4th or 5th. The rest of my class wrote yesterday morning. Now that we have a date I need to find a suitable room. Classes don't start until the 6th so it shouldn't be a problem. This gives me some time to see how much longer the professor is going to play hardball with the assignment grading question.
In other news I think my gall bladder is all messed up. I feel like complete crap. I am hoping to get in to see my doctor tomorrow.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Part 3
Progress report on the course:
The good news: the professor has agreed to give me an incomplete grade and write the final exam when I am able to. He is being a bit pissy about me giving him an exact day and time I will write it, which at the moment is a bit impossible. But at least that takes care of one issue.
The semi-good news: he is "considering" marking my late assignments for grades. Which is huge step forward from where he was last week. He is still screwing around with me by not coming to a final decision about it. Which I don't really understand but I am going to chalk up to the fact that he and I seem to be engaged in some weird power struggle. I have already decided that if he refuses, I will follow up with the ombudsman for the student's association and look into filing an official complaint. Because even though our agreement on the extensions was verbal, we did have one.
The nasty part: in order to protect myself should I need to file an official complaint (which I really really don't want to do), I am not going to write my final exam until I know what he has decided about the assignments. Once I write the final exam, I will lose any chance to appeal to the Registrar for a late withdrawal. So progress on the exam front, but we are still stuck on different plains of understanding when it comes to the assignments.
About the disability coordinator, I will say that she did finally step up and talk to the professor on Monday. Her reading of the situation is that it was a big miscommunication. And while I agree to a certain extent that might be the case, I am not really comfortable with that. She is now claiming she never got what turns out to be the key email where I told her I wasn't getting the accomodations I had been approved for. And while that would explain a great deal, it doesn't really explain why she never bothered to answer the 5 or so subsequent emails I sent. Sigh. Although the reality is that what happened isn't really the issue of concern right now. More important is the course grade itself. However I may come back and follow up with what happened because I think I fell through a very large crack here. And I shouldn't have. The school has very clear policies about accomodation for disability. And the fact remains I provided my documentation as required and my needs, which all were very reasonable, were not met. Saying it was merely a miscommuncation seems a cop out.
But all that aside, the disability coordinator did initially agree to set up a meeting for this week between herself, the professor, and me. Which I think would have been a good thing. If for no other reason than to educate them both a bit on why these accomodations are needed if I am going to get through my courses. But with -30 temperatures, I couldn't leave my house. So she phoned him on Monday and at least now we are moving forward with some way to get me through the course. Although he is still being more difficult about it than he really needs to be.
Appealing to the Registrar to give me a late withdrawal is still a possibility. I think I have more than enough email proof that I tried to get myself through the course with virtually no support. And in the end, my spinal cord injury just made it impossible to do on my own. Which just sucks but is reality.
In other news I am still undecided on a Christmas tree. And have done no shopping. Or mailing. I suck.
The good news: the professor has agreed to give me an incomplete grade and write the final exam when I am able to. He is being a bit pissy about me giving him an exact day and time I will write it, which at the moment is a bit impossible. But at least that takes care of one issue.
The semi-good news: he is "considering" marking my late assignments for grades. Which is huge step forward from where he was last week. He is still screwing around with me by not coming to a final decision about it. Which I don't really understand but I am going to chalk up to the fact that he and I seem to be engaged in some weird power struggle. I have already decided that if he refuses, I will follow up with the ombudsman for the student's association and look into filing an official complaint. Because even though our agreement on the extensions was verbal, we did have one.
The nasty part: in order to protect myself should I need to file an official complaint (which I really really don't want to do), I am not going to write my final exam until I know what he has decided about the assignments. Once I write the final exam, I will lose any chance to appeal to the Registrar for a late withdrawal. So progress on the exam front, but we are still stuck on different plains of understanding when it comes to the assignments.
About the disability coordinator, I will say that she did finally step up and talk to the professor on Monday. Her reading of the situation is that it was a big miscommunication. And while I agree to a certain extent that might be the case, I am not really comfortable with that. She is now claiming she never got what turns out to be the key email where I told her I wasn't getting the accomodations I had been approved for. And while that would explain a great deal, it doesn't really explain why she never bothered to answer the 5 or so subsequent emails I sent. Sigh. Although the reality is that what happened isn't really the issue of concern right now. More important is the course grade itself. However I may come back and follow up with what happened because I think I fell through a very large crack here. And I shouldn't have. The school has very clear policies about accomodation for disability. And the fact remains I provided my documentation as required and my needs, which all were very reasonable, were not met. Saying it was merely a miscommuncation seems a cop out.
But all that aside, the disability coordinator did initially agree to set up a meeting for this week between herself, the professor, and me. Which I think would have been a good thing. If for no other reason than to educate them both a bit on why these accomodations are needed if I am going to get through my courses. But with -30 temperatures, I couldn't leave my house. So she phoned him on Monday and at least now we are moving forward with some way to get me through the course. Although he is still being more difficult about it than he really needs to be.
Appealing to the Registrar to give me a late withdrawal is still a possibility. I think I have more than enough email proof that I tried to get myself through the course with virtually no support. And in the end, my spinal cord injury just made it impossible to do on my own. Which just sucks but is reality.
In other news I am still undecided on a Christmas tree. And have done no shopping. Or mailing. I suck.
Friday, December 11, 2009
The saga continues
Well....
I tried again today to communicate with the Disability Coordinator by email. She replied by only with platitudes like "oh my, you must be so stressed! Would a trip to the University's counselling services help?" and "I hope you find a solution and it all works out."
WTF????
At this point I completely lost control and wrote back saying if she wasn't willing or able to help me in terms of providing advocacy and helping with accomodations (which is exactly what the University pays her to do--although I wisely left part this out), could she please refer me to somebody who could.
She then wrote back saying she was willing to help all semester but waiting for direction from me.
Again WTF????
She has done nothing but blow me off email after email, all semester long. When she did reply it was never anything helpful or supportive--the reason I ended up appealing to the professor in person.
Anyways after I requested the name of somebody who might help, she suggested if I wanted a late withdrawal I would need to appeal to the Registrar of the University but that he would likely require "substantial medical documentation" before doing so. She then again wished me "good luck."
I looked on the agreement of service that I had signed when I registered with Disability Services and "arranging late course withdraws if necessary" was listed as a service provided. So I wrote her back--being remarkably diplomatic considering I wanted to rip her head off--and suggested I would just refer the Registrar to her regarding medical documentation, since she had personally recieved the 15 page (literally) document that my doctor was required to fill out verifying my disability and how it impacted my enrollment in classes.
Wow, this thinly veiled threat seemed to work magic as within 3 minutes of sending that email I got a reply where she stated at least three times she was here "to support" me. She also wrote how "happy" she was that I wanted her to liasion with the professor and that she would set up a meeting between the three of us for next week if that was what I wanted.
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry about this reply.
I really could write a book, couldn't I? Sigh.
I haven't yet replied to her email. I need a day or so to think about it. Trying to get the late withdrawal would likely be the less headache-prone of my choices. But I don't know how compassionate the Registrar is. I do personally know him, although not very well, as I used to work at the university. He is a generally very nice and laid back guy. He actually was part of a 4 person interview panel for a job interview I had once. I didn't get the job but he praised my interview afterward. But he also worked in a very different capacity at the University back then (coordinator of International Education). Any time I our paths crossed professionally it was a positive interaction. However he is now a big wig with lots of power. And I have never had to deal with him about something so personal. So I don't know how it might all play out.
How the hell do I get myself into these situations? Really.
I tried again today to communicate with the Disability Coordinator by email. She replied by only with platitudes like "oh my, you must be so stressed! Would a trip to the University's counselling services help?" and "I hope you find a solution and it all works out."
WTF????
At this point I completely lost control and wrote back saying if she wasn't willing or able to help me in terms of providing advocacy and helping with accomodations (which is exactly what the University pays her to do--although I wisely left part this out), could she please refer me to somebody who could.
She then wrote back saying she was willing to help all semester but waiting for direction from me.
Again WTF????
She has done nothing but blow me off email after email, all semester long. When she did reply it was never anything helpful or supportive--the reason I ended up appealing to the professor in person.
Anyways after I requested the name of somebody who might help, she suggested if I wanted a late withdrawal I would need to appeal to the Registrar of the University but that he would likely require "substantial medical documentation" before doing so. She then again wished me "good luck."
I looked on the agreement of service that I had signed when I registered with Disability Services and "arranging late course withdraws if necessary" was listed as a service provided. So I wrote her back--being remarkably diplomatic considering I wanted to rip her head off--and suggested I would just refer the Registrar to her regarding medical documentation, since she had personally recieved the 15 page (literally) document that my doctor was required to fill out verifying my disability and how it impacted my enrollment in classes.
Wow, this thinly veiled threat seemed to work magic as within 3 minutes of sending that email I got a reply where she stated at least three times she was here "to support" me. She also wrote how "happy" she was that I wanted her to liasion with the professor and that she would set up a meeting between the three of us for next week if that was what I wanted.
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry about this reply.
I really could write a book, couldn't I? Sigh.
I haven't yet replied to her email. I need a day or so to think about it. Trying to get the late withdrawal would likely be the less headache-prone of my choices. But I don't know how compassionate the Registrar is. I do personally know him, although not very well, as I used to work at the university. He is a generally very nice and laid back guy. He actually was part of a 4 person interview panel for a job interview I had once. I didn't get the job but he praised my interview afterward. But he also worked in a very different capacity at the University back then (coordinator of International Education). Any time I our paths crossed professionally it was a positive interaction. However he is now a big wig with lots of power. And I have never had to deal with him about something so personal. So I don't know how it might all play out.
How the hell do I get myself into these situations? Really.
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