If you read Part One, you'll know that my attempt to enroll in a free, zero-credit class at Long Beach City College involved a bizarre winding odyssey through bureaucracy, computer errors, and a largely non-responsive college staff.
Still, I did get enrolled and thought the complications were behind me. Then, less than two weeks before the first class, I got two emails from LBCC. One said, "Our records indicate that you may be missing a required college level Math course." The other said basically the same, except about an English course.
Now, I do understand that to earn a college degree you have to take certain classes in a certain order. But in this case all I was simply trying to do was take a single how-to class in tiling so I could retile my home shower. I wasn't seeking a degree. Even if I was, the tiling class wouldn't help since it counted for zero credits.
So I couldn't imagine the relevance of math or English courses.
Fortunately, the emails from LBCC came with a phone number and an email address I could contact for more information. OK, I thought, I should be able to clear this up quickly. I called the number and left a voicemail. Then I sent an email.
I hadn't gotten a response to either by the next day, so I called again, left another voicemail, and emailed again.
By the next week, I still hadn't gotten a response. So I left more voicemails — four in all — and more emails — another four. I finally got a response to my fourth email, from "Community Education Coordinator" Sarah Bowers, who promised, "I will look into this for you and get back to you today."
I never heard from her again.
Only when I contacted the office of the school president did I get a call from Sara Blasseti (sblasetti@lbcc.edu), head of the counseling department. She told me, in short, that I didn't need to worry about the "required" courses. They're not required for me, she said.
That was good to know. But why did it take five phone calls and four emails to get that answer?
Two weeks after I had left the first voice message — in fact, after the class had already started — I got a voicemail from someone responding to my query.
With all this bureaucracy and lack of communication, I half-expected to show up for the first class and find that I wasn't enrolled.
I needn't have worried. The teacher never took roll. For this class, you could have just shown up. In fact, if you want to take this class, that's exactly what I would suggest.
