This is gonna be a long one.
A friend of mine got into, I quote, ‘hot soup’ over her blog which had complaints about USM. Some fuckers reported to the Dean or something like it, and X is pretty much fucked because these people with power generally do not accept any other reasoning save their own (Not a personal attack, darlings. Keep your panties on). Excuse my language, if any you USM people read this. I can swear like a sailor at times and I have no qualms about swearing like a fucking sailor. Get someone to censor this post if you like, because I’m not fuckin’ changing a single cunt-lickin’ word.
We’re not trying to spread propoganda, we’re not trying to insinuate anything, we’re not rebelling, we’re not anti-government, we’re not anarchistic, we’re not Unabombers, basically, we’re nothing. We merely take out our frustration by writing about it, to express our dissentment. It stops there. This is wrong, obviously, to USM officials and sycophantic ex-students.
I’ve never really written anything about USM. I’ve always found it tedious to write about things like that, but let me do it once and for all (hopefully). Hell, they let me come to Ireland to compare notes, right?
Let me compare it now.
USM is a pretty cool place, I gotta admit. The facilities are good, the library is well-stocked with academic and non-academic materials, everything works fine and dandy. I’m not going to complain about the physical aspects of USM - they’re all ample. The buses are always full, maybe they should invest in buses instead of annoying employees, but that’s their initiative. You just gotta know when to avoid the buses and use your feet instead.
That aside, let me get to the lecturers. I am an ELLS (English Language and Literature Studies) major, second year. The lecturers. What can I say. Dr. J. was very interesting, he really held my attention in class (and it had nothing to do with an obvious physical feature he had). Mr. R. was extremely cool and supportive. Both have since transferred. Dr. S. is the most inspiring lecturer ever, and she definitely kicks the asses of the lecturers over here. She’s the only redeeming aspect in my entire course. Woe betide USM if she were to transfer.
The other lecturers? Let’s talk about the literature lecturers. I can safely vouch that many of us have better English comprehension than them. We have better textual understanding as well. Not to boast, not to sit on my high horse and look down on them, but I really wonder how they earned their PhDs. Their explanations are equivalant to lower secondary textual analysis. Many of them use bits of Malay in lectures, in an English course. Makes you really wonder, doesn’t it. There is one lecturer who is petty, trivial and nonsensical. Her thinking is like that of a teenager’s. Honest.
Many of these lecturers are disorganised. They seem to have no class plans prepared, and simply come into class and spew caboodle. Here, the only time the lecturers use slides is for long quotations, long points and basically things too long to read out and have us write it down promptly. I suppose that it’s a Malaysian thing to teach from slides, but it really takes up too much time to wait for students to copy down notes and whatnot.
Credibility of lecturers. The aforementioned nonsensical lecturer has used notes taken from online websites like SparkNotes, so I’ve heard. Totally what the fuck.
Rigidity of USM.
#1 - Rigidity of rules. Attire - utterly understandable, but when the guards ask you to lift your arms up to see if yout t-shirt is too short, that is just plain sexual harrasment. I’m not gonna fuckin’ do aerobics in the fuckin’ library. Hair colour - I’ve seen students with pink hair here. Really weird, but anyhow what the fuck has hair colour got to do with your studies? Some rules about attire in other schools - things like you gotta wear heels and stuff. Silly. Accesibility, ie. vehicles entering USM gotta have the USM sticker, or else they gotta spend a motherlode of time getting the visitor’s pass. Students not allowed to drive in unless they have the bloody annoying sticker. I’ve mentioned that USM is a huge place, and there are loads and loads and loads of parking space. I really do not understand why this rule was implemented. There are many other rules that literally make you scratch your head, but I can’t list them all down.
#2 - Rigidity of lecturers. Literature calls for creativity in analysing texts but at the same time backing up ideas with logical points. Nothing is wrong if you’ve got the info to back it up. Yet, some of the lecturers refuse vehemently to hear out ideas that do not concur with their own. Attendance taking. Some of them read out names like back in fuckin’ primary school. That’s just plain whacked. Here they don’t take attendance yet students are responsible enough to attend class because the lectures are sardin-packed with info necessary to pass the exams, the lectures are properly organized and the lecturers are passionate about what they are teaching.
Incompetence of some of the employees.
I had to settle some matters on my Ireland exchange program, and got transfered from person to person to person I swear you could see my hair stand on ends. Many employees don’t know their head from their tails, and this is a total embarrasment. I went to the International Office over here to ask about a glitch in my passport and in two seconds the problem was solved. No transference, no dallying, nothing of that sort.
What can USM do?
Why are so many students, even those who can’t afford it, studying in private colleges?
Incompetence. Low standards. Triviality. Above all, rigidity. I don’t recall encountering blatant personal racism in USM, so I am not going to go into it. We all know what we all know about that subject anyhow.
USM can be a really swell place. Don’t get me wrong, I basically like USM. I’m rather proud to be in it at times. But dudes, you really gotta look into those things - they are really embarrrasing for a university in the top 200 list.
This post has merely tiptoed on the problems. My eyes are half-closed already. Writing about something like this fatigues me, but I felt that I should do it.
My complaints have been logical, don’t you fuckin’ turn around and tell me that they’re unreasonable. Don’t pinalise someone for expressing their opinions albeit in an angry manner. Instead of being blinded by his/her use of ‘vulgar’ language, look into those problems brought into light by the person. Being narrow-minded about it only results in stagnation.
I’m gonna go sleep now. I’ll probably be editing this later. O sleepiness.
