As if I didn’t have enough to do already, I was just informed that the textbook I ordered for my students back in March will not be available. Our students rent the textbooks we choose from the university.
I knew that clerks are useless so I confirmed whether they had the textbook at least six times since March. I asked about it once a month and recently every two weeks. The last time I asked was on Friday. Every single time I was told that yes, the textbook is available and is “waiting for the students in neat piles.”
Of course, today I was told that the textbook isn’t there and won’t be there. And the classes start in less than two weeks.
I asked them about any old textbooks they have available for this course. They have one but are refusing to show it to me because desk copies should be ordered from the publisher. Obviously, I can’t order it from any publisher because I’ve never seen this book. I have no idea who the publisher is, who wrote it, or whether I will be able to use it in my course. To make that decision I need to see the blessed book. But the Textbook Services are refusing to show it to me.
This is all happening while I’m trying to complete my tenure dossier on time.
And before I edited out all of the very inventive profanity it originally contained, this post was much longer. When anybody tried to mess with me doing my job, I get very enraged. And I mean, very enraged.
Clarissa's Blog 
// desk copies should be ordered from the publisher.
I am surprised the textbook you haven’t seen isn’t in university’s library. Can you order (several?) textbooks from Amazon and choose among them? Especially, if those are Kindle books, which you receive immediately after paying and don’t have to wait till it reaches your house? Other Spanish profs?
I hope the situation resolves itself soon, but till then it’s very unpleasant, of course.
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At this point, I can only use what is in the warehouse on campus, unfortunately. Initially, this is exactly what I did to find the textbook. I ordered several and chose one. But the clerks failed to order it for the students for some mysterious reason.
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Do they have any good explanation for why they didn’t order it? Or why they told you it was there when it wasn’t?
In situations where the fault is absolutely on the bureaucratic side, a favorite tactic of mine is to begin every interaction (sometimes every sentence) by reminding them of their failure. It doesn’t always work but it’s the closest thing I’ve found to putting them on the defensive.
“Hello, despite repeated assurances that the textbook I wanted would be available, you didn’t order it. Now…..”
“Since you didn’t order the book you told me you ordered….”
“Since you lied repeatedly about having the book I wanted, I would like to request…..”
“Since you’ve already broken university regulations by not acquiring the book I ordered….”
And seriously, the textbook procedure sounds like the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. I mean seriously. I doubt the CCCP could come up with a dumber more student hostile procedure…..
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When I ask why they kept telling me they had the book when they didn’t, I always hear, “But it wasn’t me personally who said that.” This is an old bureaucratic trick when different people are assigned to deal with one during different parts of the process. And of course, the person who did personally confirm the book was there just happens to be out of the office by a strange coincidence.
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“This is an old bureaucratic trick ”
Ah, that’s when I break out the “Given my past experience here, what assurance can you give me that I can trust anything that you’re saying?” Personal challenges to bureaucrats to deliver (when they realize their department has screwed up) can be pretty good.
There’s also the old “Don’t rules count for anything here?” Most people in most bureaucracies treat their jobs as elaborate games and accusations of breaking their own rules are one of the things they tend to take seriously. “Are you trying to tell me that lying to professors is not against the rules but trying to help a professor is?”
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The funny thing is that the moment the Chair of the department called them, they became super helpful, changed the tone of their messages to me to a very obsequious one and delivered the textbook to my office within minutes.
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Can you Interlibrary Loan the book?
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If I knew its author’s name and ISBN I could try but this is precisely what the clerk is refusing to relinquish.
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Well, Frak Them. 🙂
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Speaking of which, how long has it been since you’ve hosted a “Let’s Swear Together?” We could probably all use the comic relief.
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There’s no bureaucracy like educational bureaucracy — the most incompetent of the lot. A couple of years ago we had an entire province of schoolkids who got no textbooks for a whole year.
Actually I thought you were going to say that the university had censored the textbook you asked for because it contained “profanity”.
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I know! I will never forget how I was nearly denied admittance to McGill because I couldn’t provide my high school diploma in Russian. I kept telling them that the diploma can only exist in the state’s official language but their counterargument was that they didn’t have anybody who could read Ukrainian at the office. Obviously, I provided notarized translations but that wasn’t enough.
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I think it is possible to ask students to order the book on Barnes & Noble or (shudder) Amazon. Both can deliver within a few days. There is likely a way for you to send an email to the entire class before the semester begins.
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