<p>Penn is great for a lot of things, but it is really tough to defend its bureaucracy. Although it is an enormous institution with 60,000+ students, faculty and staff (a hearty portion of which comes from HUP), the red tape you need to cut through in order to do really anything is brutal. That said, it really is training for life.</p>
<p>Take SAC, for example. The Student Activities Council is a phenomenal organization. It doles out $2.4 million (at least it did a few years ago) annually to any recognized student organization. This money allows nearly every undergraduate to participate in some activity without sacrificing personal funds to do so. That said, consider this: SAC has had a longstanding policy of “use it or lose it.” That means that if you are a fiscally sound organization and have a year with very few expenses, you will almost definitely lose funding the following year; on the flip side, if you are a fiscally irresponsible organization and end every year with budget deficits, you will almost definitely gain funding the following year. Within each little arm of SAC, as well, you need to go through some silliness. For example, the Performing Arts Council has four sub committees, in which all 43ish performing arts groups are put together. In order to maintain SAC recognition, representatives from the groups must attend monthly meetings for the sub committee and the general body. Failure to attend a single meeting results in disciplinary action against the group, yet the meetings provide no incentive to attend aside from “you have to attend” since the meetings themselves are only to meet bureaucratic rules set forth by SAC.</p>
<p>Navigating that bureaucracy for four years was surely a pain, but I will say this… It has, like many other things at Penn, been excellent training for life. In the real world, you need to deal with nonsense like pointless meetings and backward logic. You need to have the patience to accept the things you cannot change, the strength to change the things you feel you must and the wisdom to know the difference, lest you go insane. For example, a few weeks ago I got a parking ticket in the mail. Now, I deserved the ticket, but I never saw it on my windshield, so I had no way to pay the fine until I got a notice in the mail. Because I had not paid the unpayable ticket within 15 days, I was charged a penalty worth almost as much as the ticket itself. Obviously feeling cheated, I immediately contacted the Parking Authority, and after speaking to three people and emailing two, I set up a hearing to determine whether the ticket and penalty are valid. I’m going to need to take half a day to do the hearing, and it’s likely that I won’t even win. All for 20 bucks (ticket should be $26, but the penalty is +$20)… that is bureaucracy, folks.</p>