This week I found out I landed a new job I’ve been interviewing for at the Sun-Sentinel. But the process to get the job was no easy feat.
My interview was four hours, seven different higher-ups at the newsroom interviewed me and before they could offer me the job, I had to pee in a cup to prove I’m not a druggie. Oddly enough, the part I actually had a problem with was the background check.
No not because I have a record or because I’m a bad driver – although I have had a few speeding tickets – but because my FAU records are wrong. According to the FAU Registrar’s office I haven’t taken a class since May 2007.
Even better, the hiring editor for the Sun-Sentinel called to tell me the news and I missed her call because I was in class. Go figure. Luckily she believed me as I explained I wasn’t a fraud and tried to reason that the mistake could be because of FAU’s new self-service system.
Imagine if they decided to just not call me back since they believe I lied on my application? I would not have been a happy camper.
I logged on to MyFAU to check my “student records” and three screens and two tabs later I found my unofficial transcripts. They were current and up-to-date with all my information. Okay, good. At least it doesn’t say I should graduate in 2014 like it did when the system was first enacted.
In an effort to make sure my records at the Registrar’s office were corrected, I set out to get some answers. And after a day of being transferred through FAU’s phone mail and leaving messages I ended up in the same place I started – with nothing but a confused look.
Here’s how it went down:
The first lady in the Registrar’s office told me she couldn’t give out any information regarding student records and whom they have given information to. After I told her the deal and reminded her that I wanted only MY own information, she said I’d have to talk to someone named Shirley, grunted, gave me a phone number and hung up.
Then I tried Shirley, who apparently was at lunch, and another woman told me to call back in an hour. An hour later I left a voice mail for the infamous Shirley and – shocker – I never got a call back.
I called again a few hours later and no one else in the office seemed to be able to access records but her. Weird, isn’t that what they do all day?
So if it’s been a while since you checked your records with the Registrar’s office, you might want to jump on that. You can call them at 297-3050 on the Boca campus. And if you get a hold of Shirley, let me know.
You can also log on to FACTS.org and check your transcripts there. All the information on their site comes directly from your institution – so if they are correct on there, then FAU should have the right info. I stress the word “should.”
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Budget Business Unabated
**Editor’s note: This blog was written by Brandon Ballenger, University Press managing editor.
"Sometimes I have to throw up before I do this," my fellow presenter told me, meaning to reassure.
"You've got three minutes left to go throw up, then," I said, trying to make light of something besides my stomach — which was flutteringly filled with butterflies. I'd spent the last hour pacing like a man waiting urgently for the sounds of flushing toilet and unlocking door. Every minute was spent oblivious of reality, trying to frame the speech in my mind. It was all wasted time in the end: I couldn't remember five sequential words of it. You may have noticed.
A few weeks ago, 13 FAU students on the Boca campus organized an informational rally aimed at raising awareness of Florida's budget crisis and its potential impact on our school. If you're a regular UP reader, you already know that much. What you don't know is how simultaneously thrilling and terrifying it is to be part of something like what happened out on the Free Speech Lawn Feb. 28. You also probably don't know that we're not done yet.
What started as an off-the-cuff idea in my civic engagement class became an enormous project, and a great responsibility — members of the state legislature and FAU administration turned out, along with more than 200 students. Of course UPTV covered it, but we were also in the Palm Beach Post and Sun-Sentinel — and my dad first found out about the rally by hearing a 15-second clip of my speech aired on the local NPR station.
On Monday, President Brogan sent out an e-mail to notify everyone of FAU's budget Q&A. Yesterday, we got his signature to headline hundreds of others on our petition to the legislature, which we're sending off this weekend.
Are we proud? Definitely, but by no means are we stopping to congratulate ourselves. We're planning a follow-up event in the style of a town hall meeting, slated for April 15 at the Boca campus Traditions Plaza (in front of the bookstore). We want to get more legislators down here to hear us out and to tell us what's going on with the higher education budget up in Tallahassee, where they make all the big decisions. We also want to air student questions and broaden the dialogue — it is our education, after all.
If you've got a question you think deserves an answer, send an e-mail to sosprojectfau@gmail.com; we'll try to get as many answered as possible, and we'll also send you event details as they're finalized.
Oh, and please tell your friends. I'm not very good at roping people in the Breezeway into giving me the 20 seconds I need to make them care.
"Sometimes I have to throw up before I do this," my fellow presenter told me, meaning to reassure.
"You've got three minutes left to go throw up, then," I said, trying to make light of something besides my stomach — which was flutteringly filled with butterflies. I'd spent the last hour pacing like a man waiting urgently for the sounds of flushing toilet and unlocking door. Every minute was spent oblivious of reality, trying to frame the speech in my mind. It was all wasted time in the end: I couldn't remember five sequential words of it. You may have noticed.
A few weeks ago, 13 FAU students on the Boca campus organized an informational rally aimed at raising awareness of Florida's budget crisis and its potential impact on our school. If you're a regular UP reader, you already know that much. What you don't know is how simultaneously thrilling and terrifying it is to be part of something like what happened out on the Free Speech Lawn Feb. 28. You also probably don't know that we're not done yet.
What started as an off-the-cuff idea in my civic engagement class became an enormous project, and a great responsibility — members of the state legislature and FAU administration turned out, along with more than 200 students. Of course UPTV covered it, but we were also in the Palm Beach Post and Sun-Sentinel — and my dad first found out about the rally by hearing a 15-second clip of my speech aired on the local NPR station.
On Monday, President Brogan sent out an e-mail to notify everyone of FAU's budget Q&A. Yesterday, we got his signature to headline hundreds of others on our petition to the legislature, which we're sending off this weekend.
Are we proud? Definitely, but by no means are we stopping to congratulate ourselves. We're planning a follow-up event in the style of a town hall meeting, slated for April 15 at the Boca campus Traditions Plaza (in front of the bookstore). We want to get more legislators down here to hear us out and to tell us what's going on with the higher education budget up in Tallahassee, where they make all the big decisions. We also want to air student questions and broaden the dialogue — it is our education, after all.
If you've got a question you think deserves an answer, send an e-mail to sosprojectfau@gmail.com; we'll try to get as many answered as possible, and we'll also send you event details as they're finalized.
Oh, and please tell your friends. I'm not very good at roping people in the Breezeway into giving me the 20 seconds I need to make them care.
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