This semester has been a doozie for administrative issues in my life.
First, there was the thing where I didn't get registered with the university-- when I went and asked about it, it turned out that my PhD program wasn't even in their system. (That one wasn't just me, of course, but all 13 of us in the TCC program; still, I was the one who discovered it.) Then, there was the part where my login information for the university's computer system got mysteriously blocked. I wasn't able to use the NUIG wifi or any of the school's computers. Computer services never did figure out what happened, but eventually they fixed it and reset the password.
Now, there is yet another problem with my stipend. We normally get our monthly stipend transferred around the 23rd of the month, or if the 23rd is on a weekend then the nearest Friday. Since this month the 23rd was on a Saturday, I figured it would come on Friday 22 October. When that didn't happen, I thought "Well, maybe they're rounding it back, and I'll get it the Friday after the 23rd." Which is today! But I checked this morning, and still no. This wouldn't be too big a deal-- except this is a really skinny month for me, what with my annual €150 immigration registration fee. (I usually have about €150-€200 left over at the end of the month, so this fee pretty much tapped me out.)
So this morning I emailed Marie, the Moore Institute's most excellent secretary, asking if she knew what was going on with the stipend. This is the response I got:
Hi Ayla
I have spoken with Research Accounts and there has been an error over there where your end date had been set to 2010 in stead of 2012. They had done this with all the students but managed to correct all the others except yours. Darran is going to arrange to transfer your stipend into your bank account but tells me that unfortunately this may not happen until Monday as the person in Accounts is out today and he’s not sure if anyone else over there will do it.
Wow. Administrative errors strike again. This is not the first time that I have had problems with my stipend. I'm pretty annoyed that there is apparently only one employee in the university who deals with Accounts. "Oh, he's out today, so you can't get the paycheck we've owed you for a week." What the hell, NUIG.
Oh well. This is exactly why I have a credit card: emergencies. I actually used it for the first time ever this week-- to buy groceries. And it's possible that the money might get transferred this afternoon anyway. You know, if someone in the Accounts office decides to do it.
After all, it would be nice to have money for the weekend... because it's Halloween! Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday. Even though my costume this year isn't exactly an original for me, I still love any excuse to dress up. I love seeing big groups of people wearing costumes. I love dead leaves and crows and spooky trees and pumpkins. I love Halloween!
Showing posts with label adventures in funding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adventures in funding. Show all posts
Friday, October 29, 2010
Monday, October 6, 2008
What I've been up to, part 1: Money makes the world go 'round
(In which our heroine might have the best advisor ever.)
Sorry I've been so absent from the blogosphere! I started PhD school last week, and things have been a little bit busy since then. So I'm updating this in three parts. Part the first: Money matters.
I met with my supervisor, Dr. Lionel Pilkington, on Friday 26 September, ostensibly to set out a course for my PhD work for this semester. We did that-- I'm spending now until Christmas reading all that I can-- and then I mentioned that I was worried about not getting my first stipend payment on time; it was supposed to come that day. At this point, I hadn't gone to the bank to check if it had come (it's a direct deposit) so I wasn't sure if it had or not. Lionel immediately started to get nervous, especially when I mentioned that I won't be able to pay my rent next week if it didn't come, and asked that I come back and let him know whether or not the stipend came through. I went down, checked, and found-- nope, it hadn't come through. Crap. So I went back and told Lionel. He immediately got on the phone with the department secretary, who informed him that, for unknown reasons, everyone except me got their payment. Lionel got very upset about this, calling it a disgraceful and unconscionable situation. I won't go into details, but he spent the next twenty minutes making phone calls and running from office to office.
The end result: I got my stipend check the following Friday, and until then he got me €150 out of the English department petty cash to live on! He was also very concerned that this wouldn't be enough to tide me over, and told me a couple times that if I need more, just go back to the secretary and she'd fork over some more cash for me. (I have to pay it back, of course.)
What an awesome guy! I was incredibly grateful that he immediately went to bat for me like that, jumping out of his way to help me. So I have a supervisor who is passionate about my project, who for some reason is very impressed by my work and believes in me, AND is willing to come to my rescue when I'm having difficulty with the school. What more could I ask for in an advisor?
So I picked up the check on Friday 3 October. They issued it as a check instead of a direct deposit because, theoretically, I should have been able to withdraw from it right away. I took it to the bank, set up a wire transfer to my American bank account (long story involving an overdraft, which should now be taken care of), and asked if I could withdraw from the check. "In an hour or two," was the reply. Ok, I could live with that. But about 6 hours later, I tried to take money out, and the check hadn't cleared yet. It hadn't cleared on Saturday at noon, and now it hasn't cleared yet, 72 hours after depositing it. I'm beginning to be worried that it won't clear for five business days, which is what normally happens with checks here, which will mean that I won't be able to pay my rent until this weekend-- a week and a half late. (Luckily, Julie is very flexible about that sort of thing.) There is, of course, more petty cash available for my living expenses, but still. Uncool.
I really hope that whoever made the mistake-- and last I checked, no one can figure out who to blame-- has straightened things out, and this doesn't happen every month.
Sorry I've been so absent from the blogosphere! I started PhD school last week, and things have been a little bit busy since then. So I'm updating this in three parts. Part the first: Money matters.
I met with my supervisor, Dr. Lionel Pilkington, on Friday 26 September, ostensibly to set out a course for my PhD work for this semester. We did that-- I'm spending now until Christmas reading all that I can-- and then I mentioned that I was worried about not getting my first stipend payment on time; it was supposed to come that day. At this point, I hadn't gone to the bank to check if it had come (it's a direct deposit) so I wasn't sure if it had or not. Lionel immediately started to get nervous, especially when I mentioned that I won't be able to pay my rent next week if it didn't come, and asked that I come back and let him know whether or not the stipend came through. I went down, checked, and found-- nope, it hadn't come through. Crap. So I went back and told Lionel. He immediately got on the phone with the department secretary, who informed him that, for unknown reasons, everyone except me got their payment. Lionel got very upset about this, calling it a disgraceful and unconscionable situation. I won't go into details, but he spent the next twenty minutes making phone calls and running from office to office.
The end result: I got my stipend check the following Friday, and until then he got me €150 out of the English department petty cash to live on! He was also very concerned that this wouldn't be enough to tide me over, and told me a couple times that if I need more, just go back to the secretary and she'd fork over some more cash for me. (I have to pay it back, of course.)
What an awesome guy! I was incredibly grateful that he immediately went to bat for me like that, jumping out of his way to help me. So I have a supervisor who is passionate about my project, who for some reason is very impressed by my work and believes in me, AND is willing to come to my rescue when I'm having difficulty with the school. What more could I ask for in an advisor?
So I picked up the check on Friday 3 October. They issued it as a check instead of a direct deposit because, theoretically, I should have been able to withdraw from it right away. I took it to the bank, set up a wire transfer to my American bank account (long story involving an overdraft, which should now be taken care of), and asked if I could withdraw from the check. "In an hour or two," was the reply. Ok, I could live with that. But about 6 hours later, I tried to take money out, and the check hadn't cleared yet. It hadn't cleared on Saturday at noon, and now it hasn't cleared yet, 72 hours after depositing it. I'm beginning to be worried that it won't clear for five business days, which is what normally happens with checks here, which will mean that I won't be able to pay my rent until this weekend-- a week and a half late. (Luckily, Julie is very flexible about that sort of thing.) There is, of course, more petty cash available for my living expenses, but still. Uncool.
I really hope that whoever made the mistake-- and last I checked, no one can figure out who to blame-- has straightened things out, and this doesn't happen every month.
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