fossildoc
06-28-2008, 09:47 AM
Years ago when AOL first started operation, they got themselves into trouble with the U.S. Attorney General for making it so difficult for subscribers to cancel their subscription that the unwilling victims of AOL's deceptive advertising had to file suits in local courts to stop the automatic charging of their credit cards. AOL maintained that the procedure for cancellation was "available", but admitted that it was "not easy". The government didn't buy it, and AOL paid a huge fine which wiped out their ill-gotten gains.
A similar situation exists regarding the access of Xavier students to online journals. The first page of the school web site had, for over two years, stated that online access to journals would "soon" be available. This grand deception, designed as part of the inducement package to enroll new students, included a cultural defense of the interpretion of "soon". When you say "soon" to western people, they look at their watch, but when you say it to eastern people, they think in terms of generations. It is this latter interpretation which the school will use to defend its promise.
To add insult to injury, at the recent meeting of the SGA (see my post, "disappointed in SGA"), an announcement was made amidst great fanfare that the long-promised and never-delivered access was now "available", and an SGA officer held up a piece of paper with multi-colored type, presumably an instruction sheet for logging in to the system.
But apparently they meant "available" in the AOL sense, consistent with the eastern definition of "soon". Why? Because I, fossildoc, who is not a member of the SGA, still cannot obtain instructions for logging in to the elusive journal system.
I call upon all students to swarm around the registrar's office demanding that the SGA produce or get off the pot. Of course, if the school had a sensible group email system -- which I will volunteer to set up for them over the tortuous period of two hours -- the login instructions could be disseminated electronically, but instead we can look forward to the usual high-tech method of information promulgation: the posting of a single paper notice, to be taken down by the first student too lazy to copy the information.
A similar situation exists regarding the access of Xavier students to online journals. The first page of the school web site had, for over two years, stated that online access to journals would "soon" be available. This grand deception, designed as part of the inducement package to enroll new students, included a cultural defense of the interpretion of "soon". When you say "soon" to western people, they look at their watch, but when you say it to eastern people, they think in terms of generations. It is this latter interpretation which the school will use to defend its promise.
To add insult to injury, at the recent meeting of the SGA (see my post, "disappointed in SGA"), an announcement was made amidst great fanfare that the long-promised and never-delivered access was now "available", and an SGA officer held up a piece of paper with multi-colored type, presumably an instruction sheet for logging in to the system.
But apparently they meant "available" in the AOL sense, consistent with the eastern definition of "soon". Why? Because I, fossildoc, who is not a member of the SGA, still cannot obtain instructions for logging in to the elusive journal system.
I call upon all students to swarm around the registrar's office demanding that the SGA produce or get off the pot. Of course, if the school had a sensible group email system -- which I will volunteer to set up for them over the tortuous period of two hours -- the login instructions could be disseminated electronically, but instead we can look forward to the usual high-tech method of information promulgation: the posting of a single paper notice, to be taken down by the first student too lazy to copy the information.