January 31, 2012 12:02 am
Open Letter to Botzman
By Alicija Bulota, Class of 2014
THE STORY
In reference to the meeting held by Dr. Botzman on the “luxury liner.”
Dr. Botzman, I understand that this semester has been extremely hard on all of us, but I beg you to please imagine yourself in this situation, as ridiculous as it may sound.
Dr. Botzman, I would like to let you know that your office has mold. So, you need to pack up your office belongings and move them to President Urgo’s house within 12 hours. Don’t worry about getting to work because we have organized for SafeRide to pick you up every morning at 5am, running every 5 hours. I guess you’ll have a head start prepping for that meeting at 8 am since you will have been at work for 3 hours already. Unfortunately while prepping for the presentation in the meeting you realize you don’t have your computer. Well that stinks because the van isn’t going back to Urgo’s until 10am. Good thing this presentation for your meeting isn’t for a grade or anything.
Oh wait! Now that you have settled nicely into Urgo’s house, you are going to need to pack up your stuff again because you’re running up his water bill. But don’t worry! We have a luxury liner waiting for you in historic St. Mary’s City! Be ready to move in at 2 PM… no wait we mean 4 PM…actually you’re just going to have to wait until next Thursday. So while you are waiting to move you can practice packing and unpacking so you’re really good at it when you get to the boat. Don’t worry about getting work done because we are using two of your unpaid work days to help you transition.
Well, now that you’ve made it to the boat, all the way through the woods, down the hill from grandma’s house, you get to check out your new room! You know what’s really exciting? I requested you as my roommate! And don’t worry, there’s plenty of room in our crew cabin! You can sleep on the top bunk, but since you look like you are over 4’2” so you might not fit. Don’t worry though because even if you are uncomfortable, the constant, soothing noise from the generators will lull you right to sleep.
So now as you prepare for work, you pack all of the things that you will need for the day and trudge back up the hill. Once in your office you realize that in your old age, you have forgotten your laptop once again, but this time your colleagues will not accept your excuse for not having all of your materials since the boat is technically within walking distance. So for the second time today, you face the hill.
Now that you have been on the boat for a while it’s time for that yearly financial report and it’s due on Thursday. You are already behind from all the time you spent moving, but the report is still due Thursday. After pulling an all-nighter you receive an email stating that you need to be moved out of the boat by 4pm , on Thursday. Failure to complete either duty will result in deduction of pay or termination.
While you are sitting in your metal, windowless crew cabin wondering how you will survive the coming days, you find out that your good friend Joanne Goldwater who has been living in the Greens, who had to move only once, is getting monetary compensation.
Wow, it must suck to be you.
I personally feel that the meeting Dr. Botzman so graciously gave us was shameful display of our maturity. This letter, as well as the finger pointing and yelling was completely uncalled for. Yes, all the movings did disrupt our semester..yet I do not think that anyone who came to simply get ideas from people about compensation deserved to be the scapegoat for all the things that happened to us that semester. It is hard for me to see why people can’t look at the ship as one of the craziest, coolest things to happen while you were in college. But thats just me.
Most Sea Voyager Passengers (and Mold- affected residents) rose to surmount these challenges. It was a campus-wide inconvenience; a burden for resilient and creative young adults like ourselves to bear. Is this ceaseless whining the way we choose to address trying times past? I call for a more civil, mature dialogue, rather than shameless fist-shaking in the face of a uniquely challenged administration.
You called for a civil, mature dialogue? We wanted one too. That’s what we were hoping for when Dr. Botzman came to visit. He instead greeted us like we were small children, ignoring any attempt at a solution we suggested. This is why we are angry. Not only because we got shafted by the administration, but because they essentially laughed at us afterwards. But you are right about one thing. We do have a challenged administration.
I agree with “SeaVoyager Passenger”. The boat was disruptive yes, but at the same time, you were able to live somewhere nobody else will be able to say they lived (short of either purchasing a berth or working on the ship). while it was annoying and at times difficult to deal with, i for one noticed a lot of smiling, laughing, pleasant banter, and an overall more friendly environment than in the dorms. no one can say they didn’t laugh at least once on ship. just not possible. It was difficult and annoying yes, but i for one don’t think it was as hard as it could have been. personally i would like to thank everyone that had anything at all to do with us moving out of the hotels and onto the boat.
But the fact of the matter is in a year when we’re being told “there isn’t money to refund your room, not even for the time you were paying to live somewhere moldy,” numerous administrators who probably make twice what I ever will have gotten raises. It just feels…a bit hypocritical, maybe?
Oh no! I was forced to live on a cruise ship at my small liberal arts college! #FirstWorldProblems.
There is a legitimate discussion to be had about the displaced students and the school’s handling of the situation but I fail to see how this sarcastic, cliche riddled (and frankly rude) retelling from Botzman’s perspective contributes to the discussion. Surely St. Mary’s can do better.
THIS IS BRILLIANT!!!!
The issue is that many of you are first-years and don’t exactly understand how St. Mary’s works. You have to understand that in order to be hear you have to speak up. The way the mold situation was handled was ridiculous and not fair to displaced students at all. Botzman promised things like tuning pianos in the dorm and everyone accepted that as appropriate compensation. In my opinion, if you pay a certain amount of money to live in the dorms and there is a piano there, then I don’t think it should take a huge problem with mold to make the school realize those pianos should probably be tuned.