They wuz screwed

The university of windsor is an okay school - decent campus, nice location, lots of great places to eat, drink, and do things within walking distance. Just like any university, it has its beaurocratic issues - which ordinarily I would ignore and chalk up to the "p" word.
Policy.
Something that was meant to make life easier for people.
Something that rarely makes life easier for people.
Something that most people want to change, but can't.

So who are the people who decide this:
Tell teacher candidates that they can move back home or to another city in Ontario for the last practice teaching placement. After getting at least A or B in two of the first three placements, we are able to apply for the alternate teaching placement.
Next, a secretary reviews the application and gives it to the field placement office.
Next, the teaching advisor is contacted for further information.
Next, it goes back to the field placement office.
Next, the field placement office once again reviews grades and all information.
Next, the field placement office calls the school board requested to find out whether or not they will accept a student from our program.
After one piece of paper has made it through6 people, our faculty then leaves ONE message for each board. Yep folks - ONE. After taking 2 weeks of evaluation and time, they put forth an outstanding effort to help out the people paying tuition to be there (hence paying their jobs) they take a deep breath and make their phone call.

Now I have elected to stay in Windsor for my final placement. This does not effect me personally, however the majority of people in my section are waiting to find out where they will be placed. For some - in what city. The crazy thing about this is that they HAVE the information already! On Wednesday, my friend Heba (who asked to be placed in either Ottawa or Kingston) and I (was along for moral support) went up to the placement office to try and find out which of the two cities she would be in so she could make her travel arrangements.
After a few moments of explanation, she provided her last name and was forced to stand there while two Chinese ladies tried to spell her Islamic name, finally finding out she was in a place called Newburgh.
"Are you sure you applied to Kingston or Ottawa?"
"um YES"
"um uh uh why don't you look on the internet and find out for sure"
"fine - how do you spell Newburgh?"

Well - Newburgh is 40 minutes away from Kingston. Up the 401. Heba does not own a car, and have been concerned about how she is going to get there. We were joking about people reporting a muslim girl running up and down the 401. "

*** to the reader: sorry this is so long, but this stuff is pretty crazy and I wanted to write it all down. I won't feel bad if you stop reading. ***

Story #2 about this

My friend Shauna is SOOOO pissed. Actually i'm pissed on her behalf - as well as everybody else in our section. She applied to the Huron Perth board which according to our placement office - said they could not take her for her placement. So Shauna, in total frustration since if you can't get a placement in the board, how the hell will you get a job - she decides to call the board herself.
This is where the crazy part comes in.
The Huron Perth board told her "we have not been contacted by anybody at the University of Windsor".
WHAAAAAAA?
How is this possible? Don't they have to call the boards in order for us to get placements there? Aren't they the FIELD PLACEMENT OFFICE? Isn't that their job???

Sorry - lol - can't help the rant.

The end of this story hasn't happened yet. The board office found Shauna a placement and quickly sent it to the field placement office so things could get approved. The field placement office had a shocking surprise for unsuspecting Shauna:
"We do not accept offers from school boards to place our students. It is our responsibility to do so. " Shauna would not be working the placement so kindly offered by the board she wants to work for someday.
She wrote a letter to the Dean and called her faculty advisor, but was ignored by the Dean and her advisor had been instructed by the Dean that "field placements are not their concern or business and they should stay out of it".

I find this whole thing utterly fascinating. How can a university get away with LYING outright to students and refusing to bend rules for something that wasn't breaking rules? I don't get it. Our whole section was ready to pound on the Dean's door and demand answers, but it probably wouldn't do a thing.

After hearing these stories, I'm surprised by how normal this all sounds. I mean, it makes sense that red tape will make things longer and more unnecessary and time consuming. The thing I don't get is how people who say to your face that they'll provide an opportunity for you then turn around and do everything they can to stop it from happening.


If anybody has made it this far - I would love to hear some opinions about how to help our friend, or at least try to get this policy fixed / changed.

good night - hope I didn't bore anybody too much with all of the school talk.