-Trudy, Yellow group

Dora: I think it could be more helpful, because they are not helpful at all.And its like I had a financial aid problem and I go to the office.And the girl had such an attitude - like I am bothering her.And so after a while I said, “Isn’t this your job?” And she said, “I am sorry to tell you this.But not everyone who gets accepted to hunter can actually attend.”And she was so rude, and I just had to get up and leave.

M: And has that been indicative of your experience with the administration in general?

Dora: Yes.

-Dora, Blue group

When relating their complaints about the administration, students specifically complained about the issue of overcrowding at Hunter, which leads to such problems as simply not having a place to sit in the classroom to deteriorating physical facilities.

Ally: But it’s too crowded—too many people—so sometimes you can’t get a seat (in the class room).

-Ally, Red group

Kelly: It’s really hard sometimes to find a place to study.I mean, if I cannot go to the library, it’s hard to find a place elsewhere.It’s really hard, because the classrooms are usually packed.And it’s difficult to find somewhere to sit.

-Kelly, Red group

Hope: The bathrooms….terrible. (Group laughter)….Oh, they are so bad.

-Hope, Yellow group

Lana: …it seems like I find myself on the floor that has the scaffolding…like the ceiling is off and I can see the interior of the school.

-Lana, Yellow group

Another serious ramification of overcrowding at Hunter that students related was the problem of being closed out of required classes, which may affect the ability of students to graduate in a timely fashion.

Wanda: Oh yeah!Just the other day I got my registration date, and oh, it’s every semester, and you know sometimes you slam the phone, [imitating] “Course code ID is closed.”And that’s it….And then you take the leftovers – even though you don’t need it.

-Wanda, Gray group

Hope: My last frustration is with the Psych Department.There’s only one session for each course. They don’t overtally, but they don’t let me take it out of Hunter.So I’m stuck here…. ‘Cause I plan to graduate within two years – 2004 in the Spring, and I don’t see it that way.I see it even longer.

-Hope, Yellow group

Meg: If I go through this another two years, I’m never going to get out!…I have the last day to register and all the classes are gone.

-Meg, Gray Group

Regarding the fulfillment of requirements, most students complained that that the requirements were too numerous and that it was difficult to figure out exactly how to fulfill all the core and distribution requirements.

Emma: But, no, I mean…it seems like most people who are here – they want to learn. I just think that some of the core requirements that they force are a little exaggerated. Highly exaggerated.

-Emma, Yellow group

Tilly: And you know what these distribution requirements - I can see a place for it. And I can see it kind of nudging me to take a class that maybe I would not take if someone wasn’t standing over me… but you know shaking a finger at me.But the distribution requirements were so out of hand, and I don’t even know what my requirements are.And I can’t seem to track it down.

-Tilly, Blue group

Emma: I mean I spent more time – calculating these core requirements which changed as a transfer student –(inaudible), but in the catalog that you receive it’s until 2003. And they have the old distribution requirements.

-Ella, Blue group

Hope: And I have to go to advisement which is not always very effective. And um…yeah they, they…. But they don’t tell you…I mean they don’t tell you the courses that you have. They don’t sit down with you and tell you, “These are the courses that you have to take.” You have to follow all the pamphlets that they have outside.

-Hope, Hope interview

Emma: You have to go in and sit there for three hours, because you have to be one of five people. You’ve all done this? (Group – um hmm.) You have to be the first five people in the door, and then you sit there for three hours to see a counselor. How do people who have kids or jobs sit there for three hours?

-Emma, Yellow group

Given the problems that students encounter with navigating the administrative processes at Hunter, the researchers specifically asked for impressions about whether or not the current Orientation Seminar (ORSEM), which focuses on administrative systems at Hunter, was helpful.Regardless of whether students were high achievers, active adapters, or low achievers, the overall consensus was that ORSEM was easy, but not particularly useful. For example, there were three participants who specifically referred to ORSEM as a class in which they got an easy “A”. Only a couple of students enjoyed the course and found it useful.

Ally: They taught us about incompletes, CUNY plus, and the libraries”

-Ally, Red group

Kelly: I took the ORSEM when I had just transferred here, and I would say that it was helpful, because (it helped you navigate the Hunter college system).

-Kelly, Red group

However, the majority of the participants who participated in ORSEM in each focus group felt that ORSEM was not helpful to them.

Tilly: Well, ORSEM to me really came off as useless and as sort of a stupid requirement that someone put in.Honestly, I cut it enough - just enough not to fail. Nods of agreement from other participants.

-Dora, Blue group

Judy: There were some seminars that you had to go to.The ORSEM was really useless like no one wanted to go and the things that were useful they were all at random times you know not when you are supposed to be in class but outside of class you have to go and do that.Inside class you are doing something so useless and then like you have to take your time out of class and go to these.

-Judy, Blue group

Although all groups of students (i.e. high achievers, active adapters, and low achievers) seemed to have encountered similar administrative problems: classes closed, requirements, and issues with Student Services, there seemed to be a difference in how the groups handled some of these problems and their ability to find solutions.This can be illustrated by the following example from the Yellow group discussion where an honors student, Sam, who could be characterized as high achiever, offered a story of how he would not tolerate being shut out of a required class.

Sam: (To Hope).With Psychology, do you go to the classes when they start and try and get overtallied?

Hope: No.I mean I can’t do that.

Sam: That’s when you do it!That’s my experience…. My last class – I took ____.And he overtallied –this professor – right on the spot.I mean…that’s just…overtallying…is you do it…with the professor…after the class starts.

-Sam and Hope, Yellow group.

Through this exchange, Sam is trying to teach Hope, an active adapter, how to be more assertive and circumvent the rule of “no overtallying” in order to get the required courses she needs for her Psychology major. Indeed, it appears that students’ ability to advocate for themselves, enables them to negotiate Hunter’s labyrinth of administrative rules and processes in a more successful fashion. Students sometimes serve as guides to other students.