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— this is where I’d put my random quote… IF I HAD ONE!

RIT doesn’t get it

Up until today, I thought I went to a pretty good university. Good people, an Honors program, a true undergraduate Software Engineering major, decent budget, etc., but that all stopped today. RIT, despite being a technical university populated with geeks of the highest caliber, does not understand computers or the Internet. Why?

A little background information: the Software Engineering program requires all students to take 4 quarters of co-op—working at an employer full-time in a computing field, basically. When you are on co-op, as I am this summer, you must register it with the co-op office. They provide a web-based form to do this. Sounds simple, right?

Except the form requires Internet Explorer and Javascript enabled.

Let me remind you, this is a technical university populated with geeks, meaning many students run Linux exclusively. Apparently they’re not allowed to go on co-op.

And what of students with disabilities, who cannot use a Javascript-enabled browser? Or students who don’t have internet access? Apparently, they’re fucked.

When I discovered the form didn’t work in Mozilla, I sent them a short e-mail saying the form didn’t work and included the required information in the e-mail. You’d think they would send a polite reply, saying the form would be fixed, and thanks for the e-mail, your co-op is registered now.

But this is where they crossed the line. Their response, in its entirety:

The web form is not broken. You need to use Internet Explorer, not Netscape. Please report your job using the on line form on Internet Explorer.

Please let me know if you continue to have problems.

Instead of trying to help me—that’s what their job is—they told me to go fuck myself. I am absolutely astonished at the pure ignorance and stupidity of this reply. I can’t imagine I’m the only person who has had this problem, and the solution would not be difficult, but they refused to do anything to help me. They didn’t even say “sorry!”

I’m speechless.

Update at 10:10pm: Elizabeth Lawley has taken up the cause with me; being an actual professor, she has more influence than I do, so that should help get this problem fixed.