The Wilful Sunflower

I remember now the second thing I was going to write about yesterday. What was that saying again? Better late than never?

Well, I've been on holiday since April. From studies, that is -- yes, I've still been toiling away at work all this while! But the holiday's ending soon; our next semester begins next month and I recently got hold of the subject timetable.

I only have to take three core subjects (the other seven are elective), and I did two last semester, so I wanted to finish the third this semester. To my horror, it is being offered at THREE O'CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON on Wednesdays.

I'm a working girl. Do I look like I can attend lectures from 3pm to 6pm on a weekday?

Now, I wouldn't mind so much if it were an elective subject. I'll take those as they come. But a core subject... and the university can hardly be so obtuse as to not realise that a huge chunk of postgraduate students are taking the course part-time, juggling work and school.

Come on. This is Universiti Malaya we're talking about: the country's oldest tertiary educational institution, bastion of knowledge and learning, respected and revered, etc., etc., etc. And look what's happening.

Already you insist I go to the university during office hours to make payment for my course, verify the subjects I'm taking, collect my examination permission slip (without which we can't sit for exams), and do all that other bureaucratic stuff. I don't know how students who work in the city centre or in surrounding towns like Rawang and Kajang manage to get all this stuff done. I at least work about 20 minutes' drive away from the university and can take an early lunch break and pop in at the faculty office or postgraduate studies department to do the necessary.

But this... this is really getting my goat. Do we or do we not want to encourage a "culture of learning" in this country? Huh? A friend suggested that the afternoon classes are scheduled as such because the university expects that most people taking the course will be civil servants, schoolteachers who wish to upgrade their skills and knowledge. That explanation doesn't work either. Do you realise that civil servants used to only knock off work at 4:00pm (now a bit later) and some schools have afternoon sessions that only end at 6:00pm? Hello?

I wrote a letter to petition the dean to have the subject offered during the 6:00pm-9:00pm time slot, and when I went to the faculty office yesterday afternoon to hand it in, they told me that the likelihood of getting the timetable changed is pretty low unless I manage to get a bunch of classmates to sign the petition with me. Okay, that's normal -- a petition generally carries more weight when it is signed by more people -- but I'm still upset because this is a core subject and the university ought to have more sense than this. How can you make it a core subject and then make it impossible for me to take it? Grrr!