Time to Lay the Smackdown on Some Bureaucratic A**

Thanks to SI's lovely PEP requirement, I signed myself up for a one credit DFE for the Spring/Summer term. Unlikemost SI students, the archivists have a ton of opportunities to earn PEP points, so one credit is all I needed to finish up. I was actually fairly efficient as an undergrad, and never had to take summer classes then, so I was unfortunately unfamiliar with the process of getting financial aid. I had to request it back in February, when I had no idea what my plans were, but the website said that I wouldn't be awarded anything until I actually registered for spring classes, as the number of credits I took would determine the amount of aid I got.

So I went through a huge saga trying to register for the class, which I couldn't do without an override, which I couldn't get until my DFE mentor sent in my project proposal, which he was quite slow to do. So I didn't actually get registered for the class until after the official start date of the term. A few weeks later, I receive my award notice in the mail, saying I'm getting a big pile of money. I declined most of it, saying I only needed a small pile of money. A couple weeks after that, I received my revised award notice, letting me know that the Office of Financial Aid would be happy to give me a small pile of money. I was quite relieved, as I had already given the University a substantial chunk of change out of my own pocket for the privilege of teaching myself archival processing for the summer. Not to mention the fact that money would be a little tight since I'm not able to work quite full time. So I sat back and waited for my funding to arrive in my bank account. And I waited. And waited.

So finally this afternoon I called the financial aid office to find out where my money was. I talked to a robotically polite bureaucratic stooge who informed me that I wasn't eligible to receive financial aid since I wasn't enrolled at least half time. ARRRRGGGGHHHHH. She seemed to think that since I was only registered for one credit, I was only in class for one hour a week. Unfortunately, in the DFE rulebook, one credit equals 60 hours of work, which equals substantially more wages lost. Plus, even one credit is quite expensive. She also seemed to see nothing odd about the fact that I was informed of my financial aid award, and that it was even confirmed. Evidently no one was planning on letting me know that I was ineligible for funding. I was just going to be left to sit by my mailbox, patiently waiting for my check that would never arrive.

Someone needs to be beaten. Severely.