A few days ago I posted about my frustration in getting my thesis submitted properly and on time. Ever since then, I’ve been continuing the process and believe it or not, it kept getting more and more difficulty. Forms which I had handed in were missing, and I had to chase it down, via telephone, by calling the ECE department, the faculty and the Grad Studies Office (GSO). It was this stupidity that led me to get off my lazy ass and write a complaint letter.

I wrote the letter, (which I was tempted to post publicly on my blog, but decided against it) and the feedback that I received from my supervisor was that it was fair and balanced. That was good, I didn’t want to come off as a raving lunatic. I also sent it before the thesis submission deadline had passed, because I didn’t want to look like a sore loser either. I sent the letter to the Director of Graduate Studies Academic Services and CC’d the Dean of Engineering, the Associate Chair of Grad Studies in ECE, the Chair of ECE and the president and VP of student affairs in the Grad Studies Association. I was debating whether to also send it further up the chain, as in the President of the university and so forth, but decided against it.

The basic qualms I had was that the process was unclear for everyone involved — both staff and students, and that there lacked accurate documentation. I think these are basic pre-requisites for running any type of business. In the end, it seems that the admin believes I’ve submitted my thesis successfully (which I heard through the grapevine from my supervisor), but I’m wondering whether I will have effected any change? I haven’t received a reply from anyone associated with Grad Studies as of yet.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: complaining, dumb, uwaterloo.ca