A few rants about Boalt's pre-school year set-up
On this, Disco Stu's penultimate day of work, he thought it would be fitting to start the Boalt administration bashing season--something that takes a short break between the time exam scores come out in ridiculously late mid-summer and the time OCIP debacles are not doubt going to happen.
First and foremost, what is the "adjustment period" and why is telebears not running until it is over? All DS wants to do is drop advanced legal research (he was very happy to get into tax law) and he can't until the aforementioned period is over. Admittedly, this isn't a Boalt problem, it's a berkeley campus-wide problem, but a rant still the same.
Second, in God's name, doesn't DS know what books he needs yet? He, at the end of a bike ride the other day, stopped by the bookstore to try to copy the titles/author's down, so he could then purchase them for a more reasonable price on-line, and was greeted by a rude bookstore employee informing him the bookstore was closed. He then discovered that it kept the very well thought out hours of 10-5 through Friday, then 11-4 on Sat, and Sun. What they expected people who are still working to do is beyond DS. Although all but one of his professors has emailed him back concerning the books needed he still finds this distressing. They should force professors to decide what books are going to be used, then post them along with the course information. In addition to the books, which the professors should post, the bookstore should be on-line, have the books needed for each class, and the first day's assignment. This is not an insane request as the bookstore needs to place orders for text-books well in advance to make sure they arrive to Boalt in order for them to mark up the prices 100% then sell them to poor students who are forced to take out private loans to pay for their books. (And DS does not want to hear how all the student groups at Boalt get their funding through the purchase of these marked up books. It makes absolutely no sense that DS should have to buy books, if DS is not part of any Boalt organization. For pete's sake, just have membership dues for whatever org you are in and use that).
This process probably starts mid-summer and it should be easy enough to simply transfer the info (which has got to be in electronic form) from one site to another.
That's all for now, I'm sure others of you out there have more to add.
First and foremost, what is the "adjustment period" and why is telebears not running until it is over? All DS wants to do is drop advanced legal research (he was very happy to get into tax law) and he can't until the aforementioned period is over. Admittedly, this isn't a Boalt problem, it's a berkeley campus-wide problem, but a rant still the same.
Second, in God's name, doesn't DS know what books he needs yet? He, at the end of a bike ride the other day, stopped by the bookstore to try to copy the titles/author's down, so he could then purchase them for a more reasonable price on-line, and was greeted by a rude bookstore employee informing him the bookstore was closed. He then discovered that it kept the very well thought out hours of 10-5 through Friday, then 11-4 on Sat, and Sun. What they expected people who are still working to do is beyond DS. Although all but one of his professors has emailed him back concerning the books needed he still finds this distressing. They should force professors to decide what books are going to be used, then post them along with the course information. In addition to the books, which the professors should post, the bookstore should be on-line, have the books needed for each class, and the first day's assignment. This is not an insane request as the bookstore needs to place orders for text-books well in advance to make sure they arrive to Boalt in order for them to mark up the prices 100% then sell them to poor students who are forced to take out private loans to pay for their books. (And DS does not want to hear how all the student groups at Boalt get their funding through the purchase of these marked up books. It makes absolutely no sense that DS should have to buy books, if DS is not part of any Boalt organization. For pete's sake, just have membership dues for whatever org you are in and use that).
This process probably starts mid-summer and it should be easy enough to simply transfer the info (which has got to be in electronic form) from one site to another.
That's all for now, I'm sure others of you out there have more to add.
Labels: Law School, Technology Rants
posted by Disco Stu at 3:25 PM
3 Comments:
Someone, please, make it so!
Also after you graduate, you get your grades about 2 weeks before you take the Bar. Which is a really nice confidence boost if you care a lot about grades and get all Ps or something.
If they're going to make us wait like a year and a half to get our grades anyway, why not just release them to graduated 3Ls *after* the Bar is over?
Wow, you're so important you don't even have time to get your books within posted business hours. It's not like these business hours are new. They are the same as always, or have you just had your head so far up your own butt that you haven't noticed?
I agree that, given contemporary technologies, some conveniences could be employed by Boalt regarding registration, grades and ordering books. But blaming bookstore employees, who make only an hourly wage similar to any retail clerk position, for these inconveniences is just wrong.
If only you'd employ relevant technologies to your advantage, you'd know what the "adjustment period" is and why it exists.
http://nss.berkeley.edu/ecalso/eap/tb3.html
Further, there are more technologies at your disposal, should you chose to actually take responsibility for yourself and stop expecting those you look down upon to do things for you. For example, you can buy your books from Ned's (Nebraka Books, which manages and stocks Boalt's Bookstore) just down Bancroft near Telegraph. They have later hours than the Boalt Book store at this time of year. You can also purchase your books online from a number of sources. So there's plenty of competition for Boalt's bookstore, and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that not one red cent goes to the support of your fellow students or the broader Boalt community, ya asshat.
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