Dear ________, I am writing to you out of desperation, because every time I resolve one issue, another one crops up to follow it. I just tried to find you in your office, but you were out, presumably dealing with the graduate-student-wide payroll issue that cropped up today, so I'm emailing you with a description of my situation. I would like to meet with you at your earliest convenience, for reasons that will be made clear below. The quick summary is that because of various different administrative issues at Case (a combination of stipend money directly owed to me and medical expenses that I will eventually get back from the insurer, but had to pay upfront because Case messed up my registration repeatedly), I am currently almost $4000 out of pocket, and on the verge of having to drop out in my 4th semester because I just don't have any more money. The full list of things that have gone wrong is long, but as some of these are related to each other, I'll detail it in mostly chronological order: Spring 2003 I accepted an offer of a place as a PhD student in the EECS department. I never received a letter (which should have been sent to all incoming students) telling me about events before the official start of term, so when I arrived in Cleveland I had already missed some orientations. At some point my official GRE score report disappeared. I don't know if ETS made a mistake and it never reached Case, or if this was also lost by the university, but what I do know is that when I took the test I requested that the results be sent to 3 institutions including Case, and last term I was contacted by someone from the School of Graduate Studies to say that I will remain a "provisional" student until I furnish the official score report. Unfortunately I never kept the reference numbers, and SGS don't appear to have them either, so at this point it's looking like I might have to resit the test just to satisfy paper requirements, in my second year of studying here. August 2003 I arrived in the US for the first time (I am a foreign student), and was given a 'temporary' registration number (901-xx-xxxx). Not a problem in itself, but this has been the root of ongoing troubles ever since. September 2003 Once I had been in the US for more than two weeks, I was entitled to apply for a social security number, so I did. I had to give this number to Case in order to be paid, so I did. Without asking, or even informing me, Case somehow managed to set up a separate account for me under my SSN, in parallel with the 901 account. At this point, though I did not know it, there were two accounts for me. One had my correct address, one had a wrong one (2315 instead of 2316). One had my name spelt right, one was wrong (Elden instead of Eldan). One had my SSN, the other had the 901 ID number which continued to work for registration and for medical plan claims. One would get billed for my fees each semester, the other would receive Memoranda of Assistance showing that my fees were being covered by grants. You can probably see where this is going.... November 2003 I moved house. I notified Case (and the Department of Homeland Security, as is my legal obligation) of the new address. This new address is on file, but at times I have had things sent to the erroneous address from before, a London contact address that I gave before moving to Cleveland, and my correct previous Cleveland address. When I've tried to clear this up with the Registrar, I've been given a substantial list of different places that should in theory each be informed separately of a new address, which is absurd. Meanwhile I worry about the consequences of my address on at least some university files not matching the one I have registered with the DHS, and I worry about what other paperwork may have never reached me because it was sent to a wrong address. My first three semesters For my first three semesters, certain things happened reliably. Every semester, I would be billed for fees that I knew were covered by my grant, and have to chase people and paper until at least the middle of term to get this straightened out. Every semester, my first month's stipend would fail to arrive, and I would have to chase that too. Every semester, my medical insurance registration would take time to be processed, so at the same time as not getting paid, I would have to buy a month's instalment of my ongoing prescription (which is both expensive and essential for my health) with my own money, and claim it back from the health insurance, which sometimes takes more than 2 months to pay out. January 2004 I never received any tax forms from Case for 2003. Being a foreigner, I didn't know I was supposed to receive any. I realised a year later, when I did receive some for 2004, and now my understanding is that I have forfeited a tax refund from 2003 as a result. July 2004 I went to a conference, funded by grant money administered through Case. It took more than 3 months to get back the money I had spent getting to and registering for the conference. Fall Semester 2004 I was not informed about the prescription coverage provider being changed. Consequently a claim for reimbursement was sent back to me, delaying even further my receipt of that money, which I should never have had to pay up front in the first place. I finally managed to pressure the Registrar into merging my two accounts (I think). Unfortunately, my express instructions to keep the 901 number (because it was my health plan ID, and because I wanted to exercise my legal right not to have my SSN slapped all over files that didn't need it) were ignored, and that number was terminated without me being informed. Consequently I had medical insurance claims returned, delaying even further my receipt of that money. January 2005 So far this year, I've had the following issues: - The new Peoplesoft system had both the wrong name and wrong address for me. I updated the address myself so it is now correct, but I can't change the name myself. - Something for me was sent to the London address. This should never happen. I can't find where the university actually has that address for me to get it changed. - I received a W-2 with my name misspelled. - That same W-2 significantly understates my income from last year. - My IRS form 1098-T gives the London contact address that I have been trying to stop the university from using since my arrival in the US 16 months ago. - I am being billed, once again, for fees that are covered by my grant. - When I went to pick up January's instalment of my prescription, I found out that I had not yet been registered for the health plan, so once again I had to buy medication with my own funds, and claim for the money back. When I enquired about this, I was told that it happened because I had "registered late", in spite of my having registered before the registration deadline. - At the time of writing, I still have not received the check for my prescription reimbursements from last term, in spite of the paperwork being filed in early December, and a promise that the check would be cut last week. - My stipend has not arrived. When I spoke to Payroll about this, they claimed that it had been sent, but the money is not in my bank account. I have written to both the Registrar and the Bursar about some of these issues. The Registrar has reassured me about a couple of them, and the Bursar has not even had the courtesy to reply to my email. Status quo I budget half a day every single week for dealing with administrative issues, because things going wrong has become so commonplace. That's half a day I could spend doing something useful, such as the research I came here hoping to carry out. At present, I am owed $2400 by the prescription provider, for medicine that I should never have had to pay for out of my own pocket. I am also owed a little over $1300 in stipend money that should have been in my bank account this morning. Being a foreign student, I can't get credit anywhere. I have repeatedly been hit with overdraft fees, because I made the mistake of assuming that money would enter my account on the date it was supposed to, and it is only because my father has advanced me considerable sums of money over the past 2 years that I have not already had to drop out. I now have enough left in my checking account to either pay next month's rent, or buy myself a plane ticket home. I am finding myself wondering why for so long I have stuck with a university that makes my life unnecessarily difficult, and I am afraid of taking the gamble of staying, when I simply have no idea when I will see the thousands of dollars that I am owed. Unless some of this can be sorted out very quickly, I am going to have to drop out, in my fourth semester and after passing my department's qualifying exams. I mean this not as a threat, but as a plea for sympathy. Please help me sort out these problems, so that I don't have to throw away a year and a half of hard work. And please look at the system as a whole, because Case must lose some good students every year because of things like this happening. Yours, Eldan Goldenberg