Dance class with jazz hands.... um, no.

This week I had a meeting with my school advisor about my future classes at UWM.  It was my first meeting with this particular advisor as I'm no longer a first year transfer student and was given a "permanent" advisor.  The College of Letters & Science is the largest school at UWM, and while there are many different interests in that school, apparently my advisor doesn't seem to think that English is a "worthy" degree.  He actually did a lip curl with a tinge of distaste in his voice when he stated (when reading from my record) that I am an English major.  I was watching his face as he was reading what was plainly evident (to me, anyway) and he was just filling time.  When I asked if there was a problem with an English major, he asked if that was what I really wanted to do.  Well, it's a little late to change now, doncha think?  Is anybody really SURE of what they want to do?  I said, "yes", and he just looked like a pile of dog crap had been placed on his desk and he was told to take care of it. 

 

I decided to let him off the hook, and started asking questions as if there was nothing wrong.  He apathetically answered them, and basically told me that whatever I wanted to do was fine.  But he was a bit insistent that I take a one credit class my last semester instead of a three credit class.  I'm in that weird spot where I need 19 credits to graduate, and 18 of them need to be L&S credits above a 300 level.  That's fine.  I have ONE credit that can be anything.  Anything.  I had planned on taking my usual 6 credits my last semester, two classes at three credits each, for a total of 122 credits total.  I need 120 to graduate.  At this point, what the hell difference does taking the two extra credits make?  I will still be at UWM the same amount of time and cost-wise, I will probably get more use out of the $836 for the two extra credits than the one credit DANCE class he wants me to take.  He seems to think I should take a "fun and easy A" class.  Deep breath.  Deep, deep, breath.  I am not at college to take "fun and easy A" classes.  Yes, parents, this is what your kids are getting advised to do.

 

The most insulting part of this meeting (besides him thinking I needed to learn how to dance) was the following statement, "that A- in grammar class is killing your GPA."  What?  Did I just hear that correctly?  I said that I would hate to be his kid and come home with an A-.  What the hell is wrong with an A-?  In an ADVANCED college level grammar class?  Deep breath.  Deep, deep, breath.  Now, if my GPA was in the 1 range, I could see that being a problem.  However, my GPA currently sits at 3.953.  That's what an A- does to "kill" one's GPA.  The A- never even entered into my realm of thinking that it was "killing" my GPA.  I am thrilled with my GPA, proud even.  And for him to say that it isn't somehow "good" enough, that an A- is "killing" my GPA is so shocking and a bit discouraging to me that I brought out my big words and let him have it.  I have written in this blog numerous times about my abysmal performance my first year of college.  I KNOW what "kills" a GPA and an A- isn't one of them.  This Skippy (yes, all the young,clueless people I meet I call  Skippy) tells me that I would have a perfect 4.0 if it hadn't been for that A-, as if I don't already know that.  Somehow I think a person with a 3.953 knows that they would have a 4.0 if they have an A instead of an A-.  And while that is a nice, neat, wrapped-up perfect number, I'm really ok with a 3.953.  I asked him how he would have done in an advanced grammar class and he looked down at his desk and admitted that he would probably have gotten a lower grade.  I then told him that if he plans on doing this same thing to the younglings of UWM, who have a very fragile self-confidence, he's going to have a mess on his hands.  Because if an A- is not good enough for him, what the hell is going to happen when he finds a C student?  I told him that maybe he would want to re-evaluate his being an advisor if he's going to knock down the A students because he's got no where to go with the B, C, and D students. 

 

After my little tirade, he suggested I find a new advisor and I told him that would probably be a good idea and asked him if he knew of one that thought an A- is an acceptable grade.  Don't piss off English majors.  They know how to use the words that hurt the most. 

 

He actually suggest I take a dance class for the one credit I need, and when I said to him, "does this body look like it dances for credit?" he did have the good manners to blush.  His next one credit suggestion was for a philosophy class, which earned an eye-roll and a sigh from me.  No, I will take an advanced writing class and get useful tutelage from that even though it is three credits and not one. 

 

I don't even know where to start on the concept of taking a "fun and easy class for an A" attitude.  These classes are assessed at the same tuition rate as the "hard" classes, so you aren't getting a reduction there.  I guess if you are trying to pad your GPA they would be a good idea.  There's chess, exercise classes, yoga, photography, billiards, cooking, hiking, biking, and all sorts of classes I would say are not really college worthy.  I'm not sure why they are "educational".  All of them can be found at a YMCA, community classes, online, thorough stores and commerce business, and other venues that are not tax-payer supported.  Where they should be.  I hear complaints from my teachers about budget cuts.  Well, I can think of a department that could be cut and that money transferred to the educational programs that are really a college level class. 

 

Maybe I look stupid and uncoordinated.  That is the only reason I can come up with in Skippy's offering of dance class for me.  Maybe he didn't really look at my transcript and GPA and thought I needed a helping hand to pad my GPA.  Maybe I look like I need to take an easy class.  Maybe he wants to take the common road heavily traveled and assumes everyone else does too.  Maybe he just doesn't care what he tells his students to take.  Maybe I'm too naive in my thinking of what college is, or should be.  Maybe the problem is with me in wanting to learn something that isn't easy (Spanish?).  Maybe I expect more as I get older.  Maybe more of us should expect more when we are younger.  Maybe Skippy realized this yesterday as I refused to agree with his ridiculous plan of dance class and jazz hands.  But probably maybe not.  I suspect this is the norm for advising and once again I am under-whelmed by UWM. 

Hissing employees

Although I'm not directly on the front lines everyday, I do work in the retail world.  My part is dealing with billing and angry customers, and problem solving for the stores.  I know and understand what good customer service is all about.  I treat my customers the exact same way I would want to be treated if our positions were reversed.  So when I went to a local bead store on this past Friday night (Nov. 1st), I was stunned at how I was treated. 

I had decided at the last minute to go to this store to interview the employees for my current school  paper, an informational article, for Eng 433 (creative nonfiction for publication).  We need four "live" sources, and I was looking for new ideas and angles to pursue.  I walked into the store around 6pm and there were two or three customers in there browsing.  There were three employees doing their work stuff and asking if customers needed any help.  I was greeted, questioned about looking for something, and then left to browse.  I wanted to shop (yes, there was an ulterior motive for going, but it was all in the name of research.  Yeah, I'll stick with that.) for a bit to see if they were swamped busy and wouldn't be able to answer my questions before I even asked.  I was not about to take them away from their customers.  After a few of the other customers left, I went to the counter and asked the two employees there if they would like to answer some questions about chain/scale maille and how its use in the jewelry and fashion world have changed and evolved.  They both said ok, but that I really wanted to talk with the other employee who is their chain maille expert.  I said that would be great and wandered over to the other side of the store to assess how busy this employee was.  She was helping a customer who had a very particular issue for around 45 mins.  This is important, because most of it was him telling her about his plans (IN A VERY LOUD VOICE SO EVERYONE COULD HEAR) and not really shopping related at all. 

After the employee was done with that customer, she went back to working on pricing and putting stuff away.  One of the other employees came over and pointed me out and said that I was looking for someone to answer a few questions about chain maille for a paper.  Employee number three said sure, and I went on to explain my class, my project, and so forth.  The whole interview took around 20 mins and I thanked her and made my way to the check-out counter (all in the name of research, of course).  While checking out, the employee asked if I found everything I needed (yes) and if I got my questions answered (yes, thank you for your help).  The other employee came over, leaned across the counter and hissed (yes, she hissed) at me, "you are NOT to use the name of the store in your article!!"  I know I blinked a few times because one, I was scared of her, and two, I couldn't understand or figure out what difference it made if I used the name of the store.  I wasn't about to get into an argument with her, so I said I wouldn't.  Plain and simple, no back-talk, sass, questions why not, or anything of the sort.  Immediate and complete agreement.  That wasn't good enough for little-miss-angry-control-freak and she hissed it at me again.  This pissed me off because one, I'm not stone deaf and I heard her the first time, and two I was dropping a considerable sum of cash and I was dumb-struck at how she was treating a PAYING CUSTOMER.  Cold, hard, cash was being exchanged while she went on this tirade. 

She went on to harangue me while she walked through the store in a very LOUD voice about how unprofessional I was in not making an appointment to interview employees or to clear this.  I'm assuming she meant clearing this with the owner of the store.  Ok, I will agree that I probably should have cleared this with the owner, but honestly it is a SCHOOL PAPER.  It won't be published.  And, if she would have handled this differently, I would have recommended this store for people to buy their stuff at.  Now, I won't.  I explained to hissy-fit employee that it was again, a SCHOOL PAPER, but she wasn't having any of it.  She was angry, aggressive, and so upset that she was doing laps in the aisles yelling at me.  The poor employee checking me out was so embarrassed that she couldn't even look me in the eye.  I left as soon as I could just to shut hissy-fit up.  She continued in that tirade as I was walking out the door. 

As I look back on the whole episode, I take the responsibility that I didn't call ahead.  But I made sure the employees were not busy, not helping other customers, and I only took 20 mins.  Mr. let-me-tell-you-my-entire-life-story-and-plans took over an hour between two employees.  I know this because I was in there for a good two hours.  So if they could help him for that long, why was my little 20 minute interview such a big deal? 

My husband offered an answer that I will use in my paper.  The angry employee does not see chain/scale maille as a viable art form.  And, when she realized that I wasn't going to interview her, she got pissed.  Even though she referred me to the third employee, she was pissed off because I didn't talk with her AND she doesn't like chain/scale maille.  And this is what I've run up against from time to time from people who don't think weaving metal rings is WORTHY of being called art, or serious jewelry or fashion.  It was right there in front of me and I didn't see it.  Maybe I should have talked to her and gotten a different point of view.  I was so taken aback by her erratic behavior that all I could do was leave.  I wanted to get out of there because she was such a b*tch to me.  And, I fumed for a good part of the one hour and five minute drive home because that is not the way you treat paying customers.  She could have POLITELY asked me to not use the name of the store, or, even better, asked for my contact information so the owner could contact me and clear everything up.  POLITELY.  Not the aggressive, angry witch that she was to me. 

So I won't use the name of the store in the paper.  However, she said NOTHING about the source list.

And that my friends, is chain maille winning.