Aug 14


Welcome to 1998

by Terry 14 August 2008


The University of Idaho takes online payments. But it wants an additional $44.87 to receive the money faster and with no chance of a check bouncing.

Uh … no. I’ll mail it in.

Buena Vista University will take my money online, but they only accept credit cards, not bank transfers.

Pacific Lutheran University doesn’t take online payments at all.

I thought universities were supposed to be leading us boldly into the new century? My electric company is more progressive than this.

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5 Comments

5 Responses to “Welcome to 1998”

  1. Ahistoricality on August 14th, 2008 6:04 pm

    Universities are the last bastion of medievalism — this is what I say about our academic structure, which is feudal — and rarely are our administrative staff the most creative or technologically savvy. In state institutions, the civil service tenure system has a way of preserving the “best practices” of previous generations, and the normal state-organized bidding process ensures that purchasing of organizational (fiscal and academic) software and systems is done by the lowest bidder….  (Quote)

  2. Terry on August 16th, 2008 9:40 am

    That’s fascinating, A. I didn’t know that civil service applied to state school administration, though it makes perfect sense. How do you manage to deal with them?  (Quote)

  3. Ahistoricality on August 17th, 2008 6:28 pm

    You figure out pretty quickly who the decent and useful ones are, and try not to overwork them. As much as possible, you work around the other ones, but don’t let them know you’re doing it. They have long memories and long careers….  (Quote)

  4. Penny on August 20th, 2008 7:50 am

    In 1988, the University of Wisconsin still herded students into the dirt-floored Cow Pavilion to register for classes, and still required campus library patrons to fill out borrowing slips by hand, in triplicate. I’m pretty sure they’ve managed to make both things a little more modern in the last 20 years, but… with universities, you’ve always got to consider where they’re starting from. The “we’ve always done it like this” mentality is powerful.  (Quote)

  5. dustbury.com » In the forefront of technological advance on October 16th, 2008 4:56 am

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