TheBanyanTree: Going to the top

[JMoney]

The first time I wrote to the Vice Chancellor his executive officer replied
the following day.  My complaint had been forwarded to the appropriate
officers for investigation in order to inform the VC's response.

A week later I wrote again to find out when I might expect to receive the
response.  Again the EO replied the following day.  I might expect it on
March 22nd.

March 22nd came and went.  I began to wonder whether the response might be
coming on paper rather than by email.

On March 26th the EO wrote to say that, unfortunately, they were still
waiting for information to come from the government department that deals
with student assistance payments.  And then there was silence.

By April 14th I was getting tired of waiting.  I wrote again to ask when I
might expect the response.  No answer.  No acknowledgement.  Nothing.

I decided to give her a week and then, if she still hadn't replied, I would
ratchet things up a notch.  The question was, what notch should I use?
Should I go to the Chancellor?  That seemed appropriate but on the
university website I could find no contact number or address for him.  Maybe
I could write to the federal minister for education, or the one for social
security.  But then I couldn't see what use that would be.

Having received nothing from the EO by midday today I decided to google the
Chancellor.  He turned out to be a very important fellow; special consultant
to governments, on various boards and national committees, honoured for long
and distinguished service in the military and so on and so forth.  But none
of these documents provided contact details.

And then I found something promising.  It was a university media release
about his reappointment to the Chancellorship.  At the bottom there was a
telephone number which could be used to get more information.  I presumed
the number would reach his secretary.

But before doing any ratcheting (and because I was a little intimidated at
the thought of doing it) I decided to give the EO one last chance.  I
collected the piece of paper with all the numbers on it, settled myself down
with the phone and rang.  It was only about 3.30pm in Queensland but there
was no one in the EO's office who would, or could, answer the phone.  So
while I had the steam up I punched in the number that I thought would get me
the Chancellor's secretary and got no secretary but the Chancellor himself.

That was surprising.  For a moment I couldn't think what to say but I
collected myself and gave him a brief version of what had happened, who I'd
been dealing with and how no one was answering my emails any more.  The guy
was taking notes!  He said to leave it with him!  He gave me his email
address!

Three quarters of an hour later an email from the VC's EO came through.  My
apologies, she said.  She was only informed two days ago that student admin
had heard back from the government department.  "[C]hanges have been made
through consultation with DEST and Centrelink on the classification with
Centrelink of the [Graduate] Bachelor of Education course."  A response
dealing with all the issues I raised and notifying me of the changes that
have been made is being prepared.

I was right and they were wrong.  They put my son through all that misery
and expense for no good reason and they would not listen to any argument
against their position.  The manager of student admin had my son in her
office and told him repeatedly that he should "get it through his head" that
he was enrolled in an undergraduate and not a postgraduate degree.  And she
was wrong, wrong, wrong.

I think we should ask for a formal, written apology for her bullying manner
from the student admin manager.  She could do with some training in conflict
resolution and best practice customer service management too, not to mention
being required to familiarise herself with legislation that affects
students.  Compensation for personal suffering, loss of opportunity and the
costs involved in moving away from Townsville would probably be in order
also, but I won't hold my breath for that.

In all my life I have never gone to the top before.  It's definitely worth a
go.

Janice