Apartment Photos
As promised, here are some photos of the apartment. There’s an entire room I don’t show, because it’s currently empty (except for recycling). As soon as we find a use for it, I’ll take a picture.
Enjoy!
Officially a graduate
I should have posted this a couple days ago, but I have officially been conferred a degree by MSU. I now have a bachelor of arts in International Relations from James Madison College. I was going to use my MSU directory listing as proof, but I’m still listed as a student. You’ll just have to take my word for it.
My job gets under my skin sometimes
Sometimes I don’t like my job. I work as a tech support consultant for MSU. This means I spend my days answering phone calls or dealing with walk-in customers. It can suck a lot. It usually means periods of intense boredom, punctuated by dealing with clueless assholes. But I generally like it. I must like to work on computers, or my phone wouldn’t be ringing all day with computer questions. I like helping people with their machines.
But what I don’t like is how the bureaucracy at work prevents me from helping people. Here’s an example:
I just got off the phone with a really nice guy from Washington State University. They’re trying to re-structure their network access policies, and he was calling other universities to gather some information. I told him that I could file a case to our communications group, and they could get back to him with an official response.
So I started to take down some of his questions. He wanted to know how users are authenticated on wired and wireless connections, what kind of information was used to verify identities, what kind of monitoring was done. It was mostly simple stuff, and it was all non-controversial. I offered to give him some basic info, with the clear understanding that the official response would come from communications. He was cool with this, and wanted to talk.
We talked to maybe 15-20 minutes, which is slightly longer then average. During the conversation, he started asking some questions about MSU policies that I didn’t know the answer to. He wanted to know how MSU handles DMCA violations and the like. I did my best to skate around some of these questions, because it really wasn’t something I should be discussing. I maybe did give out some information that I shouldn’t have, but it was all very minor, and all very nonspecific.
With 98% of callers, I would have been long gone before it came to this. But this dude was pretty interesting. He was talking about copyright violations and how WSU handles them, and he talked about the issues they have providing guest access while still covering the university’s collective ass. I really enjoyed the call. I learned a few things from him, and I felt like I actually helped him out.
But while on the phone, the student supervisor tells me to cut it off, and after I get off the phone with him, I get called into a full-timer’s office.
She was cool, and didn’t really come down on me, but clearly explained that I should not have said as much as I did. She explained that I’m acting as a representative of the department, and explained how it could come back to bite the department and myself. I can appreciate it, I really can.
But here’s my complaint. I got hired into this job primarily because I have people skills. With new hires, they’re looking for people skills almost exclusively. But when it really comes down to it, they don’t even really want people. Working in a call center is about being a semi-intelligent answering machine. As soon as a machine can do my job effectively, low-level callers will cease to exist. All I am is a filter, dealing with simple issues and keeping the riff-raff away from the valuable people. It’s frustrating, because helping people is the only part of this job that’s rewarding, and when your bosses chew on you for that…well, it’s tough to feel satisfied at work.
Thats enough whining from me, I suppose.
Tuition hikes again
Michigan State University’s student newspaper, the State News, published this story on tuition increases yesterday. Due to a decrease in funding from the state, the adjustments were higher than many had hoped. The proposed increases were predicted to be between 6 and 17 percent, depending on how much the state would provide. The 9.6% percent increase annouced yesterday is steep, but it’s a damn sight better than 17%.
Still, this is going to hurt a lot of students. I understand that Michigan’s economy is tight right now, and education isn’t cheap. It’s just frustrating. Last year we saw huge renovations to Spartan Stadium, and there are building projects all over campus, but MSU has the worst student/faculty ratio in the Big Ten. I realize that funding is complicated, and maintenance is essential, but it seems like MSU doesn’t focus enough on the actual education.
MSU is trying. They’re really pushing the Honors College as a means of attracting better students. The 2020 Plan includes some solid principles that will improve the university. But considering that I’ve spent more than $50,000 here thus far, I feel like I’ve earned the right to bitch a little. You’d think that after 3 years here, somebody would have recognized my obvious brilliance and given me a briefcase full of cash to pay for my studies. I must be kissing the wrong asses.
