I’m Back :P

Yes I know, it’s been a long time since I had the inclination or anything much to write about (well to be honest, I have had a lot to write about but too lazy). Jesse has made me feel ashamed with all his great posts and me here contributing nada, zilch, zero, nothing – so I thought I had better get my A into G and write something……

I have settled into my role in the registrar’s office and am starting to learn many things such as what pre-requisites really are and how, if a class is over-ridden what impact is has on the student’s future learning outcome, especially if their grade is suffering with their chosen subject.

I recently did an audit on all the math courses offered and was totally awe-struck that the majority of women doing these classes had a mark of A or A+ right through all their courses. I had one young lady in recently to pick up her graduation certificate (one of our first graduates) and I had to print out her official transcript, and over the 4 years she studied, every class she took, which were many, were all A+. The audit I carried out was actually a great exercise for me as it really helped me to consolidate a lot of information I previously had to take in.

I learnt a few weeks after starting in this new position that for some reason when I was bringing up the software forms that we use called Banner, that more than 1/2 the information was missing from my screen. In many ways I was quite relieved that it was the computer and not me just being thick at having to seek information from my colleagues several times before I “got it”.

After much semi- aggressive campaigning and many phone discussions to the Banner Technician about what the actual problem was, it has been fixed and it is a delight to have all the information available to me. Well done to the PMU IT team is what I say (especially my husband – Director of IT)

At the moment, all talk at work is of Ramadan which is one month of fasting for all muslims. They are not allowed to eat or drink during daylight hours and will only eat well after the sun disappears. I have been told that the shops and restaurants will open from 10pm and will stay open for most of the night. So in effect life is lived backwards as far as body clock is concerned. We have different shorter class schedules as most of our students and staff are muslims, and we have to accomodate the change in their routine. At the end of this time is what they call the Eid which is in effect a nine day holiday to celebrate the end of Ramadan.