Is it normal for universities to be managed unprofessionally?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Eclair_de_XII
  • Start date Start date
AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers around a troubling experience at a university's satellite passport office, where a clerk mishandled sensitive documentation and threatened the individual with destruction of their documents. The clerk's unprofessional behavior included neglecting the documents and making unreasonable demands, leading to a leak of personal information that was not promptly addressed by the IT department. The individual reflects on the incompetence often found in university administrative staff, attributing it to low wages and high turnover rates. The conversation also touches on the controversial nature of repressed memories, with participants advising the individual to seek medical attention for their mental health. The thread concludes with a reminder that professional help is necessary for dealing with such experiences.
Eclair_de_XII
Messages
1,082
Reaction score
91
I'm starting to recover some repressed memories, and I'm recalling some things about the way my alma mater was run.

My university had a satellite passport office within its facilities. A couple years ago, I went to it in order to have a passport card issued to me. I was required to bring some sensitive documentation to the university. The clerk assisting me with the task was... strange, to say the least. She kept treating my documentation with utter lack of regard, leaving it outside the office for anyone to find, pretending to have a thousand better things to do than to help me, and making me recite some pledge or something.

After loudly complaining that her lunch break was postponed, she finally got to helping me. What she did next was... horrifying. She refused to return my documents unless I signed into my university account; she threatened to burn the former. I later discovered that she leaked my documents to a bunch of people, some professors having informed me so after they found me in the library.

When they were informed, the IT department didn't delete the initial leak until hours later, and after much frustrated communication and lack of cooperation. I sort of had too much faith in the institution back then. And I didn't feel like making another bus trip to another office. By some miracle, I didn't have my identity stolen in the five years since this happened.

I have a couple of other horror stories about my non-academic experiences in college. But this was the one that was most salient.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
I think that what you went by was unacceptable. But aside from that, I think that it is not uncommon for universities to be full of incompetent HR, IT and administrative staff. I find that this lack of competence (might depend on the quality of the university and the way it is funded) is often the result of low wages compared to the private sector. Most of the staff may be replaced often due to the same reason.
 
You should seek medical attention.

As Wikipedia says: "Repressed memory is a controversial, and largely scientifically discredited, psychiatric phenomenon." You don't want to be dealing with something like this on your own.
 
  • Like
Likes berkeman and russ_watters
That is beyond unacceptable. I've never experienced anything close to that. I'm sorry that happened to you.
 
Thread paused for Moderation...
 
  • Like
Likes Bystander
Vanadium 50 said:
You should seek medical attention.

As Wikipedia says: "Repressed memory is a controversial, and largely scientifically discredited, psychiatric phenomenon." You don't want to be dealing with something like this on your own.
@Eclair_de_XII -- This is very good advice. Please seek medical counseling about this; we are of no help to you on this.

Thread will remain closed.
 
Similar to the 2024 thread, here I start the 2025 thread. As always it is getting increasingly difficult to predict, so I will make a list based on other article predictions. You can also leave your prediction here. Here are the predictions of 2024 that did not make it: Peter Shor, David Deutsch and all the rest of the quantum computing community (various sources) Pablo Jarrillo Herrero, Allan McDonald and Rafi Bistritzer for magic angle in twisted graphene (various sources) Christoph...
Thread 'My experience as a hostage'
I believe it was the summer of 2001 that I made a trip to Peru for my work. I was a private contractor doing automation engineering and programming for various companies, including Frito Lay. Frito had purchased a snack food plant near Lima, Peru, and sent me down to oversee the upgrades to the systems and the startup. Peru was still suffering the ills of a recent civil war and I knew it was dicey, but the money was too good to pass up. It was a long trip to Lima; about 14 hours of airtime...
Back
Top