Sometimes a university can make a student feel like their woes are invalid and not worth their time. But why? And what can a college student just trying to survive do about the indifference?
Students ARE Just a Number [I am Number 35,123. What Number R U?]
Most colleges have lines of students trying to get in. They have HUGE enrollments and no shortage of applicants.
For example, UCD (University of California, Davis) offered enrollment to a new record number of students for fall 2025: 55,739! They are expected to have an undergraduate student body topping 40,000 after the year starts. It is bigger than the town I grew up in by 2X! UCD is it’s own world.
As UCD had over 120,000 students apply for fall 2025, what motivation do they have to go above and beyond? Not much, as there are hordes ready to take the place of any student who is not satisfied. Who cares if 1 or 1,000 leave?
You are a just a number, similar to a prison inmate. This provides little motivation for staff to go the extra mile or find solutions when asked, unless that IS their job.
College Staff Look the Other Way
College staff are an army. They are an army of workers who often defend each other, regardless of wrong.
They’ll back others in their “staff” group, any day, over a student.
As such, college staff may not stop fellow employees from treating students like garbage. When students complain, college staff may actually try to blame the student, ignore the complaints, or not offer any solution.
They overlook sexual assaults, ignore sexual harassment allegations, racial discrimination, and hazing, to students’ detriments. Those aren’t the only things they ignore…
University Employees Don’t Have to Worry About Customer Service
When you go to a store, and get great service, you feel good. In well-run companies, it is drilled into staff that the customer needs to be happy or an employee could lose their job. Then, they won’t be able to eat.
Not so in colleges, it seems.
In universities, it seems like the “customer service” mantra is not pushed. Service to students is not a priority, and firings may not issue easily due to staff shortages. Many professors are tenured and will keep their jobs indefinitely.
With 40,000++ students enrolled and a waiting line, getting the cattle through the chute is more important than making the cattle happy.
Moo.
No Personal Stake
University staff have almost no personal stake in a student’s success or the outcome of any complaint. Their house is not on the line if the student is harmed by an economics professor.
The staff stays in their work box, goes home, eats cereal for dinner and starts another day. What do they care? No one is coming for their bank accounts if the university is sued.
The student, however, may be trapped, being bullied incessantly by a professor, with no solution in site.
Student “Stuckness”
It is tough to switch colleges, so students can be stuck in their college. This “stuckness” is problematic.
It is not easy to just leave a college. A student with issues may have to apply to attend another college in a year while enduring a bad situation. Or, maybe it is so bad, they have to leave, move, and pray to get in somewhere else, all while time ticks by. Future plans are slowed or stopped in the meantime.
If colleges made transferring easier, students would have more control. They could leave bad colleges. This could actually be an effective solution– if students could walk with their money easily, colleges would have to change, as bad schools would hemorrhage money.
Sadly, it is not easy to break-up with a university.
Understaffing, Underfunding and Overcrowding
Where are the staff? Why do I have to wait so long?
Colleges have tens of thousands of students enrolled, and too few staff to manage them. A relative of mine had to call in at midnight to get an academic counseling appointment weeks in the future. If he waited until the next morning, he couldn’t get a time. Why? Not enough staff for the number of students.
At the UC Davis Student Judicial Affairs (SJA) office, it took months for my client to get a short meeting, for a minor discipline matter, due to the sheer volume of students being referred. The office is severely understaffed and there are not enough people to address the boom in AI and academic dishonesty referrals.
Bad management.
What University and College Students Can Do About It?
Students facing a mindless bureaucracy CAN do things about it, but it involves time and lots of documentation. Students may want to start with:
- Document everything
- Download all evidence and keep it for the future (lest a student suddenly can’t access university email)
- File internal written complaints where appropriate: personnel, Title IX, grade appeal, and other possible complaints
- File external complaints with agencies such as the US DOJ or US DOE, if applicable
- Follow up if replies don’t issue or never arrive
- Talk with higher ups about lower levels failing
- Appeal if you are denied
- Move schools if it is unbearable or you are in danger and they won’t address it
- Seek input from the college ombudsman or student advocates
- Help other students to do the same
There is a lot that can be done, but no one should be surprised that such impersonal bloated colleges hire and keep staff who do a cruddy job and treat YOU like crud too…. Just get in, get out, and do everything possible to address it. It may make the difference for you, and the other tens of thousands of students standing in line behind you.
Michelle Ball, student attorney, addresses school and college problems on the student side. As an education lawyer, with decades of experience, she can assist when problems arise, guide resolutions and support students’ needs. She can represent students in all California locations, including Bakersfield, Redding, Foresthill, Lodi, and anywhere else problems in schools come up.