Dear Editors,

I suspect that I am not the only one who gets extremely frustrated with jumping through the hoops required to succeed and get things done through official channels in life. I expect it at the Department of Motor Vehicles, but not at school. 

Ultimately, I acquiesce because it is mostly my fault. If I were not so inept at navigating the self-perpetuating bureaucracy that makes up the Byzantine web of offices set up here to “assist” me, then I wouldn’t feel like an aimless pinball ricocheting from office to office.

I am ready at each window of the DMV for the person to tell me (with a smirk) that I am missing a form, forgot to dot my “i”s or cross my “t”s, am at the wrong window, have the wrong color of shirt on or whatever nonsense I must overcome. But not at school – without “us,” there would be no “you,” right? 

Alas, I digress; I suffer from pronoia (a term coined by Rob Brezsny), which is the opposite of paranoia, where I assume that everyone I encounter is out to help me. I’m not going to single out any particular office at De Anza, and there are many exceptions, but my main gripe is a lack of cohesive flow with the departmental offices. I am often sent from one office to another to complete a process, but when I arrive at the second, I get a blank stare as if I am speaking a foreign language. 

I’m not one to complain without a solution, so I propose this: overlap. If I must go from one office to another, please give me the name of someone at that office who has been in contact with yours and can form a link in the process, versus an impassable chasm that I must leap. Even better, call them and let them know I am coming over. This should not be a revolutionary idea, but if it is, then great! Viva la revolution! 

I’ll do my part to help my fellow students learn the procedures as I decipher them; but we need for admissions, financial aid, veterans services, tutoring, counseling, and all others to be aware of and engaged in the step that comes before them, and also the step after, to smooth the road for student success. 

This is the reason that we are all here, isn’t it?