We all know Fitchburg State University is the bane of my existence. We know that they leave me beating my head against ]whatever available object on a regular basis. So, for the past few months, Shane has been trying to help me deal with their various levels of stupidity in whichever department decides to play Let’s Piss Krista Off on any given day. Shane is listed on my file as an alternate trainer, which means if fitchburg State University takes it into their head to fuck up somehow, he has various levels of verbal and written permission from me to assist me in jumping their shit. All that’s usually needed from me is an email to whomever, saying, “This is who he is, yes he has permission to speak to you and vice versa, now play hnice.” Ok, so it’s not worded that way, but it’s implied.
I’ve done this with several departments, up to and including maintenance, housing, and the dean’s office themselves, and I believe financial aid once too. I’ve been trying to do it with disability services for months. Obviously if you’re reading this you read the nastygram from disability services I posted about a week and a half ago, wherein the attitude is basically, “I don’t know who this Shane is but…”
My first question is, what kind of professionalism is that? Next, I ask, why isn’t the director of disability services herself asking me these questions? That email came from the woman who was the *interim* director, until the secretary got hired as the director somewhere between the end of last Spring and the beginning of fall semester. Yeah. You heard me. The secretary. Who, before she was hired, probably didn’t even know how to spit braille out of the computer and hope it was right. Instead of hiring someone who knew shit from shine-ola, Fitchburg State decided to give someone a salary boost. Great job, guys.
I got to thinking about it Friday night while shane and I were taking a few minutes to have a look at next semester’s schedule. (Yeah, I know. We prepare for stupid early.) It maybe took a while, but it registered in my head that every department we’ve dealt with has no problem dealing with an alternate trainer. Except, you guessed it, disability services. So my question now becomes, exactly what the hell are they hiding in that office that would bag them if, say, a licensed professional got his paws on it? If the dean’s office will speak to him, no problem, but refuses to speak to, say, one of my family members, namely my grandmother, then, yes, I understand. That office is doing something right. The director of housing has told him straight, “If there are any issues next year, and she contacts you, you contact me directly.” So obviously the director of housing has nothing to hide, nor does the maintenance department or the dean’s office.
Disability services’ open hostility toward him though, leads me to believe there’s definitely something in there that they don’t want someone with the appropriate authority to know about. We know it’s bad in there, we know they’re clueless. Hint: They’re using a standard JFW license instead of one that’s designed for lab use. Also, they only have jaws licensed on one machine, and there are 2 blind students at the university. Further, they’re using Jaws 11, Microsoft 2010, and Windows 7, which is a match made in hell. All they need to do is call I.t. and have them come in and upgrade. Shane and I made sure there was an SMA attached to that license and that the keys were reset so that it could be used on another computer in that lab. Hint 2: Shane should not have to rescan my books for me after they hand me an image PDF that I’m supposed to use as my textbook all semester. I ask for accessible documents, and I don’t get them. Instead, I have to send Shane pdf’s and he has to rescan the entire book, sometimes taking hours out of his day, to make sure I have what I need. And yes, now it’s public knowledge. Yes, I did just say that on the blog. No, there’s really nothing anyone can do to me for telling the truth. The other thing I have to wonder about in the back of my head is, does the Massachusetts Commission for the blind have any clue about the state of this university’s supposed disability services department? If they did, would they be paying for two, potentially three, students to attend the university? Just some things to think about. Thoughts? Comments? Anybody?
