All the drivers (about a dozen people currently) are student volunteers, and are there to take the group of recruits where they need to go as well as out for some fun social things. They do not exist to serve as individual chauffeurs for whatever an individual student wants. Here's just a sampling of some of the hiccups - some out of our control, some recruit-related, and some related to that incompetent new assistant grad coordinator (let's call her Marge for convenience sake - not her real name).
- Thursday morning (the day the recruits all arrived) the hotel tells us that nobody can check in before 3 pm because they were booked full the previous night. The recruits started arriving at 10:30 am. At least a dozen were here before 3 pm. There's no way a bunch of people didn't check out first thing in the morning. You really mean to tell me you can't have even 2-3 rooms clean by noon? To stall, we wound up taking the earliest arrivals out to lunch, and made several recruits wait around at the airport much longer than normal.
- That girl who lives on campus without a car? Yeah, not that bright, NO idea what she's getting herself into, completely overwhelmed. I'm pretty sure her undergrad research advisor (who is a nut job) twisted her arm into applying. Oh, and this girl isn't responsible/mature enough to make a damn decision and tell anybody if or when she needs a ride. When I drove her to dinner, there was no mention of the fact that she needed a ride back to campus. Nor did she say anything about the rest of the weekend's events. When I pointedly asked if she was going on the Friday afternoon outing or to class, trying to get at whether she could wait at the hotel between said outing and dinner, or if she needed a ride from campus to dinner, she couldn't make a damn decision. Soon enough it's Friday afternoon at 5 pm and I have no idea where she is or if she needs a ride. At that point we all decided that if she needed a ride that was just too damn bad. Funny side note - Saturday afternoon she decided to go with the group that was going on a tour of Tucson. She's lived here for 4 years.
- A few weeks before recruiting weekend there's an online signup form for students to volunteer for various events. In past years, shortly before recruiting, everybody who signed up gets a name tag, schedule, and the necessary maps in their mailbox. Professors also get schedules and maps. The only thing anybody got was a name tag. Guess who's job that was.
- There was one student who requested to fly into Phoenix a day early, and planned to rent a car to drive down to Tucson, and then fly out of Tucson like everybody else. For some reason, somebody decided this was ok. When Marge emails this kid to remind him that he needs to be at the hotel by 6 pm, he asks for a ride from the rental car drop off point. On the total opposite side of town from the airport. Apparently it would cost him twice as much to return the car to the airport. After a series of emails, it is decided that Cliff (the other 5th year grad student who organizes the drivers with me) will drive pick this guy up. Thursday afternoon Cliff gets all the way across town to the rental car place and can't find this kid, so he calls him. Turns out earlier in the day he called Marge to tell her he decided to keep the rental car, and wouldn't need a ride. Did Marge answer her phone or ever check her messages? Nope. Awesome. A waste of time and we look disorganized. This gets more ridiculous. We assumed that once he decided to keep the car (no idea why, but I found out later he drove back up to Phoenix Friday night for who knows what reason) that he was no longer our problem. Wrong. Saturday night, during dinner, he asks another driver if somebody will follow him to the rental car place after dinner. No notice, no consideration that the drivers are supposed to be driving the other 39 recruits to the party. I know I'll be gone, but I hope this kid doesn't come here.
- Saturday morning the recruits come to campus and have a series of one-on-one meetings with professors. Marge was meant to be there before the recruits arrived to meet the caterer who delivered snacks and beverages. Guess who was an hour late. Guess who then sat there all morning not interacting with or helping any students find their meetings. Yep.
There were other examples too, but I'll leave you with two funny recruit stories:
- At lunch on Thursday (the early arrivals we had to entertain before hotel check in), one guy mentions that he's going to have to relearn how to iron his clothes. I guess he'd packed everything ironed, but well, it had all been crammed into a suitcase...so... The girl at lunch then offered to help him. For real. We then suggested that she teach him rather than doing it for him. I found out later that she totally did. His pants weren't in too bad of shape, so she just supervised that. Then coached him through ironing his shirts. Too funny.
- Friday night student drivers generally take the recruits out to the bars. On the way down to the hotel lobby to head out, something like 13 of them piled into one elevator. Somebody said hey, let's all jump. A couple of them jumped, and the elevator totally got stuck. For 45 minutes. Ridiculous, but super, super funny. If either of the jumpers actually come here, they will never be allowed to live it down. :)
This morning I gave my feedback to the graduate program coordinator (who is more than competent and absolutely wonderful), emailed all the planning documents I had to the grad student who's taking over coordinating the drivers, and cleaned out the folder where I had various old documents stored. SO excited that none of this is my problem any more!
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