A Mathematical Pariah

As I alluded to in a previous post, I am a sixth year graduate student, and, since my department has a strict policy about grad students finishing in five years (a policy, I might add, that no other department on campus seems to have, but whatever), I was not able to get funding this year. Fine, I can live with that, I knew about the policy and it is my fault for taking the extra year.

Then, I was informed that I no longer have an office. Now, this upset me, but, thinking about it rationally, I realized that there is only a limited amount of office space. Plus, I hardly ever use the office, so it is not like this affects me in any tangible way.

However, today, while checking my mailbox, I happened to gaze over at the bulletin board that has pictures of all of the professors and graduate students. And, for reasons known only to her, our secretary removed my picture. Now, again, I understand the funding issue and the office issue, but surely my picture being up on the board wasn't costing the department anything! And there was plenty of space, so that couldn't have been a problem. Plus there is the fact that the picture was already on the board, so it took her more effort to remove it than to just leave it up!! This is right up there with her signing me up to TA a statistics course because my roommate had requested it, but she couldn't remember which of us was which.

Really, I know that this is a trivial issue, but I am incredibly pissed off. I have passed my classes and exams, and I have done everything I need to be in line to graduate this year. I have accepted the fact that I am on my own as far as finding money and a workspace. All I ask in return is for a little shred of dignity. And, by removing my picture, they basically slapped me in the face.

Anyways, posting this here is keeping me from sending out a nasty email, one that I would certainly regret. But who takes down a picture, honestly?