(no subject)
Got some work done today! I keep finding more books to look into and I haven't even gotten to the papers yet. Siiiiiigh. Almost done with the primary text books though!
YL came in around 1 and told me she'd found another new CPLT grad who I've also been in touch with, who's also been having registration issues. A lot of these problems are because we lost our last graduate secretary and didn't have anyone who could handle the needful in between.
Either way, I went to the dept library to print worksheets for their course requirements for them since chances are they haven't seen them, even though the sheets are on the website. I also printed the science fiction ones too (which are NOT on the website, because I personally made them a couple of years ago). (Turns out, the SF track isn't even listed on the main website anymore either, which kind of totally fucking pisses me off.) I heard Dr. ML in the hallway and went to meet her and hand her the worksheet printouts so she could have them on hand for her meeting with YL and the other new grad. She took the SF ones because she'd never seen them before (of course) and I went to my office to work on updating the course groups.
The SF Track has been under review for the last seven years now and was removed because 1) it's hard to justify having an SF track and not any other kind of subject-focused track, apparently, according to the last grad adviser, and 2) with the introduction of the SFTS Designated Emphasis, in the English department, it's generally been assumed that the SF Track was no longer needed. The problem is, though, the SFTS DE is additional coursework... none of the courses required for one's main PhD counts towards the DE. And of course the DE has to be finished before quals. This is REALLY not cool for international students who only have two years to finish coursework and advance to candidacy. (IF we don't do that on time, we lose our funding. I know of one international who didn't realize this and had to take out an unexpected $10k loan as a result.)
So around 2.30 YL and AA came to my office, and I tried to help them sort things out, but came to a standstill, so took them to Dr. ML's office and sat in and helped look things up as necessary. Because Dr. ML hasn't been on the Graduate Committee for years, she has no idea that there were changes to the tracks offered, and there's just stuff about the admissions this year which is kind of an unfair sort of spread. (Apparently we accepted way too many Koreanists, because we really only have one in our department. Our Japanist peoples are also on leave this year. Sigh. I'm a bit mad admissions didn't seem to have given my friend PK a chance, who wanted to do Turkish and French SF here!)
Anyway, I hope sometime in the future Dr. ML and I can sit down to look over the student handbook and the track requirements. She says that the department will still offer the SF Track, even if it isn't on the site, and I told her I'd fight for it, especially since it's obvious with YL here it's just an overall advantage to do the SF Track than the DE unless we magically get a waiver for the international students on SOME front.
Also, I'm International Student Affairs Officer! I have yet to be ratified. But my face and name is up on the Graduate Student Association site and everything!
This entry was originally posted at http://jhameia.dreamwidth.org/204244.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
YL came in around 1 and told me she'd found another new CPLT grad who I've also been in touch with, who's also been having registration issues. A lot of these problems are because we lost our last graduate secretary and didn't have anyone who could handle the needful in between.
Either way, I went to the dept library to print worksheets for their course requirements for them since chances are they haven't seen them, even though the sheets are on the website. I also printed the science fiction ones too (which are NOT on the website, because I personally made them a couple of years ago). (Turns out, the SF track isn't even listed on the main website anymore either, which kind of totally fucking pisses me off.) I heard Dr. ML in the hallway and went to meet her and hand her the worksheet printouts so she could have them on hand for her meeting with YL and the other new grad. She took the SF ones because she'd never seen them before (of course) and I went to my office to work on updating the course groups.
The SF Track has been under review for the last seven years now and was removed because 1) it's hard to justify having an SF track and not any other kind of subject-focused track, apparently, according to the last grad adviser, and 2) with the introduction of the SFTS Designated Emphasis, in the English department, it's generally been assumed that the SF Track was no longer needed. The problem is, though, the SFTS DE is additional coursework... none of the courses required for one's main PhD counts towards the DE. And of course the DE has to be finished before quals. This is REALLY not cool for international students who only have two years to finish coursework and advance to candidacy. (IF we don't do that on time, we lose our funding. I know of one international who didn't realize this and had to take out an unexpected $10k loan as a result.)
So around 2.30 YL and AA came to my office, and I tried to help them sort things out, but came to a standstill, so took them to Dr. ML's office and sat in and helped look things up as necessary. Because Dr. ML hasn't been on the Graduate Committee for years, she has no idea that there were changes to the tracks offered, and there's just stuff about the admissions this year which is kind of an unfair sort of spread. (Apparently we accepted way too many Koreanists, because we really only have one in our department. Our Japanist peoples are also on leave this year. Sigh. I'm a bit mad admissions didn't seem to have given my friend PK a chance, who wanted to do Turkish and French SF here!)
Anyway, I hope sometime in the future Dr. ML and I can sit down to look over the student handbook and the track requirements. She says that the department will still offer the SF Track, even if it isn't on the site, and I told her I'd fight for it, especially since it's obvious with YL here it's just an overall advantage to do the SF Track than the DE unless we magically get a waiver for the international students on SOME front.
Also, I'm International Student Affairs Officer! I have yet to be ratified. But my face and name is up on the Graduate Student Association site and everything!
This entry was originally posted at http://jhameia.dreamwidth.org/204244.html. Please comment there using OpenID.