The RIT Sentinel

I still hate it here.

When this gets posted, I probably won’t be at RIT. I’ll probably be far from this hellhole, in quite another hellhole. Spending some time home for the holidays. With the ol’ folks. And by ol’ folks, I mean the geriatrics that I call my parents.

Now, if you’ve ever attended RIT, you know of a place called The Hub. It’s a little known fact that there exists another place called “The Hub” at RIT, where you can get Printing and Postal work done. They’ll charge you out the ass, mess up your print orders, and not have any of the postal supplies you need, but they’re still the best place on campus to get printing actually done, rather than just stuck in print queues.

But the real RIT hub, as run by a proud stream of crazies, is/was, a DC++ hub. It was a great place. A place to share important group project files. A place to put your work to be seen. A place for the people to socialize in a chat that proved who had the biggest net-penis. Because, at RIT, a net-penis gets way more use than a real one ever would.

Recently, RIT shut down this fine bastion of free speech. In fact, they pulled the plug on ALL internet access by the user, as well as placing them under judicial review. I’m not gonna comment on judicial review: The user in question will probably have done that by the time this appears. More, I’m going to state how sad it is that an academic institution should feel the need to destroy something as tiny and yet vital to the RIT community as the hub.

There’s no question: The hub was terribly abused. It was most used for copyright infringement. Well, copyright infringement as defined by the RIAA, anyway. Their definition, to put it simply, is transferring data. Because, for any group of bits, SOMEBODY owns the copyright, and therefore somebody must be paid every time they are moved.

Unfortunately, that’s not how most of the world sees it. Ask any person on the street, and they’ll not give two cents about who might own the copyright. They might care that the artist gets paid, but no more than that. And, with the current label control of copyright, the artist doesn’t really get paid even IF the cd is bought.

What The Hub was used for was the perennial college goal: Free Speech, Social Reform, reworking of the way society works by making more of what can be free free. The shutdown of The Hub was the modern day Kent State: A strategic decision to ruin lives to prevent the spread of ideas that were unfavorable to those in power. But, as those in power learned then and will learn again, they’re shooting at an idea, but ideas are bulletproof.

In case you missed the point, I hate it here.

Here I sit, Christmas eve in the festering squalor I call home and it is all I can do not to not to shit myself in agony at the though of yet another holiday season coming and going. Hell, if it was up to me, everyone who made a big deal of this shit would be forced to eat their own fecal matter amid their overwrought display of electric fantasy.

But that’s not why I hate it. All over one sees yet another mindless automaton condemning the evils of using all but the generic, heartless greeting of Happy holidays. Well for that I tell them to go blow themselves, because they are obviously missing the point. If by now, in this pitiful thing you call your existence you haven’t figured out that the true meaning of the season is talking to people you know and waking up in a pile of your own drool after a night and day of celebrations you can hardly remember, then obviously you are to stupid to continue on with life.

Seriously folks, forget whatever holiday label you want to put on the season. Go out, talk to friends old and new, hell, go get some hookers for all I care (though if you do, Uncle Spidey appreciates bribes), but spend time with those you love. Be thankful for something.

Finally, for the love of sanity, remember, RIT gear does not make good for a good present. Just because its hell does not mean you have to share your pain like its a good thing.

I hate it here.

It’s a simple pretense for a column. It’s pretty easy to grasp: Things here, they piss me off. They probably piss you off, too, though you might not even realize it.

So I’m writing about it. I’m not gonna try and be terse: I’m usually pretty damn terse. I view actions as having much more meaning than words, but I always forget that you can’t see my waving my middle finger at the thought of the bullsh*t they pull here as I type. So, I’ll try and explicate (That’s “Describe in great detail” for those of you who’ve not taken Writing I).

This week, it’s about my Friend. He’s been rather screwed by RIT. He’s been kicked out, what, twice? Three times? They re-instated him, but then still changed the locks… They seem to not know whether he’s coming or going.

He screwed up, he admits. He was on probation, did crappy in classes. Fine, dandy. He petitioned to not be suspended, and was re-instated. 7 weeks into the quarter.

Let that roll around in your head for a bit.

He was told, 7 weeks into a 10 week quarter, that yes, he could continue taking classes. And that, indeed, he needed to maintain a 3.0 GPA for that quarter. For which he had already missed half. Half the tests. Half the grade. Many classes, which had online tests, he wasn’t able to take them. One class had >50% of it’s grade through MyCourses tests. MyCourses tests, which he COULDN’T SEE because he wasn’t properly registered for it.

Now, RIT has plenty of excuses. They have papers, signed and dated, saying he was re-instated 4th week. First off, this is still crazy late. CRAZY late. But it’s also NOT TRUE. He didn’t get the notice that he wasn’t a student till third week. He submitted an appeal as soon as he could.

So, let’s go over the timeline, as it happens:

Before Fall - Friend does poorly over summer quarter. Is put on probation.
Week 1 - RIT sends letter, late. Like, middle of first week, late.
Week 2 - Friend finds out, when his card stops working at the gym, that he’s no longer a student.
Week 3 - Friend gets letter, third week, at his home home, that says he’s been suspended.
Week 4 - Friend submits appeal.
Week 7 - Friend gets his studenthood reinstated, on contract.
Week 10 - Friend fails, horribly. Yay. RIT suspends him again.

Now, he’s submitted another appeal. He submitted it week 1. He’s got no response. He keeps getting no response. They’re still saying “We’re considering it”. Who wants to bet he doesn’t hear back till Week 7 again?