"Dear Dr. Collin Gifford Brooke, PhD '97,
We are currently in the final stages of editing your biographical information to be included in The University of Texas at Arlington Alumni Directory, but we need your help!"
Umm...yeah. Here's a little story:
When I was doing my PhD in the Education State Texas, not only did I earn less than 10K annually, but we TAs had the distinct privilege of being allowed to pay for our tuition out of that princely sum, a fact that kept me from actually registering for a number of the courses that I took. But we got by, I suppose. What really got me was that there was a rule that, in our final semester of dissertation work, we were required to enroll for 9 credit hours. My final semester, I had already taken a position at Old Dominion. I didn't need the credits for the degree, but hey, it was a rule. And since I was no longer a TA, and no longer living in TX, I got to pay out-of-state tuition for those unnecessary credits. At a time when I was trying to recover from living well below the poverty line for several years, I got to shell out another 3000 bucks.
And so, my "friends" from the UTA Alumni Office, the day I lift a single finger for you, much less sign my name to a check, will be the day after I receive my refund check from you for that last, unnecessary semester's worth of credits.
And not a day sooner. That is all.
Not that kind of help, Dr. Brooke!
Thanks for the link, Diginyer, but that's Dr. Collin Gifford Brooke, Ph.D. to you.
I like to use both Dr. and Ph.D. just in case someone forgets by the time they've read my whole name that I have a doctorate. Heh.
Wow! That's unbelievable. I wouldn't help them either!
I think that you just lifted ONE finger in that particular speech-act....er write-act.
You got 10k, you lucky bastard. We UTA MA-ers only got $7k. No insurance. No tuition help. UT-Austin is much better in that regard.
I would suggest actually sending something to the graduate office saying this. In fact, maybe I'll just do that.
J, I only made 10K (if that) by overloading time in the writing center, extra grading, etc. Granted, the PhDs got more than the MAs, but not that much more...
Does it count if the single finger is lifted against them?
Dear Dr. Collin Gifford Brooke, PhD,
Did you get the gift I sent you?
Signed,
Concerned Postal Service Customer
Florida paid tuition, but we were required to pay "fees," an extortionate and nebulous way of getting shadow-tuition out of us. Is that what you're talking about? Or literally full tuition? Because I've never heard of a graduate program requiring the latter out of its TAs.
Oh no, it was straight-up tuition. Being from out of state, my TAship got me in-state rates, but that was it. We had to pay for our grad classes.