Monday, September 22, 1997 Red tape, dragging lines await
students at UCLA STUDENTS: The new BruinCard is yet another hassle
of life as a Bruin
By Mason Stockstill
Daily Bruin Contributor
This week, as students line up by the hundreds in Murphy Hall,
some will probably wonder why they must wade through so many layers
of bureaucracy in order to accomplish seemingly simple tasks.
With all this to wade through, why don’t students choose to go
to smaller universities?
Even though smaller schools market themselves as
"student-friendly" and giving their students a lot of personal
attention, according to Harriet Morgan, a professor at George Mason
University’s Institute for Educational Transformation, "students
seem to prefer the extensive course offerings, (services) and
greater reputations of large schools."
That generally translates into a large administration to
maintain it all.
"Bashing bureaucracy is a perennially popular cause, often with
good reason," said Morgan, an expert in the field of change and
organizational structure in American higher education. "There are
competing interests at work. While (it seems) students don’t like
some parts of bureaucracy, they like diverse, well-equipped
universities that, like any large organization, require extensive
administration."
That "extensive administration" is hard to escape at UCLA.
Take, for instance, the introduction of the new BruinCard, which
will replace the existing student-identification cards. The new
BruinCard purports to consolidate many functions that were
previously unconnected on the old cards.
Brochures for the new BruinCard claim that such functions as
"student identification, library card, entry card for campus
buildings, and debit card" will now all be combined into one
card.
The trouble is, that was already the case with the old student
ID cards. The only added service, so far, is the calling-card
feature.
"I just don’t see why they’re doing it," said second-year music
student Jeff Schinske. "And the lines (to get the cards) are just
terrible."
Long lines are quite familiar to most UCLA students, especially
since so many necessary services – from textbook sales to phone
services and parking administration – are provided in only one
location, each with a usually long line.
But lines aren’t the only things students have to deal with.
Along with bureaucracy comes a mountain of paperwork.
According to U.S. News and World Report, college students change
their major an average of two times before graduation. Students
might switch majors more than twice at UCLA were it not for the
painful process that accompanies such a change.
To change majors, students must first go to the school of their
desired new major, pick up a petition and have it signed by a
department administrator.
Then they must trek over to the department of their old major
and get another signature on the petition, after which it must be
reviewed by an academic committee from the new major’s school. Upon
approval, and only after all the appropriate steps have been taken,
the student’s major is changed.
Changing a major isn’t the only task made difficult by UCLA’s
sprawling bureaucracy.
Financial aid, schedule changes made after the deadline, student
fees – these are all functions performed at Murphy Hall, the Grand
Central Station to UCLA’s administrative railroad.
"Hassle" is the first word that comes to the mind of Elizabeth
Saucedo, a second-year anthropology student whose main troubles
with Murphy Hall are in the financial-aid office.
Saucedo complained that the disbursement of parent loans – loans
given to the parents of UCLA students to help defray the costs of
college – is too slow and hampered by bureaucratic nonsense.
"They don’t send out the checks until after they have received
payment of registration fees," Saucedo said. "But for most
students, the loan check is the only means to pay those fees.
"Even the woman at the window in Murphy said it was a stupid
system. I’ve probably taken off an entire week’s worth of work
hours to stand in line at Murphy Hall this summer."
That was summer. This is fall.
Once the quarter begins in earnest, things at Murphy will get
even more hectic. It is not unusual to spend over an hour in line
for service during the first week of classes.
"The challenge for a school of any size," Morgan noted, "is to
maintain enough bureaucracy to keep things running, but to minimize
the alienating effects of bureaucracy."
But that seems far off in the distant future.
Murphy Hall is not the only place students will run into
bureaucracy. For example, should a student want to speak to a vice
chancellor about a pressing concern, a different sort of officious
red tape awaits.
When the student calls the vice chancellor’s office, he will
invariably reach the vice chancellor’s secretary, who will transfer
him to the public-information office, who will then make a few
calls on the student’s behalf.
If this student is lucky, he might speak to one administrator by
the end of the day, though not necessarily the one he was
originally trying to reach.
All this backup can’t be blamed on the inordinate number of
students who now attend UCLA, though. The campus community had its
share of bureaucratic woes in the past as well.
"I remember my first day at UCLA," said UCLA alumnus Al Gordon.
"Because I lived within 20 miles of campus, and there was so much
demand for the limited space, I couldn’t get a (dorm) room on
campus."
Gordon had to commute to school, but because the parking lot for
which he had a permit was full, he had to park in Westwood and walk
to campus.
"I could have applied to get a different parking pass for
elsewhere on campus, but I would have had to go through the whole
application process again," he continued – a prospect which did not
appeal to him.
"So I just said, ‘To heck with it.’"
With reports from Frances Lee, Daily Bruin Senior Staff.
Sunyoung Oh, a doctorate student in applied linguistics, is
waiting to get a new BruinCard.
Students wait in line. Experts say that bureaucracy is the price
one must pay for the many services provided by huge schools like
UCLA.