yunfei

6.8.07

apple of my eye

it becomes some kind of sick joke when the administrative department of the school which prides itself in its unique open-ended pedagogy replies to direct inquiries in riddles.

Email #1 by peiyi

I have a few questions regarding the SMU Study Award. Can we utilise the $2500 for our first year to purchase a notebook at this time? How should we go about claiming the reimbursement? Also, are the notebooks available for reimbursement limited to the SMU discounted notebooks or can we purchase any notebook we choose?

Email #2 by SMU Personnel

The remaining $2,500 of the Study Award may be utilitsed for any of the purposes (each for once only) as stated in the acceptance agreement, during your scholarship tenure. This means that in the first year you may use the remaining to fund a notebook purchase; in the second year, undertake a business study mission, etc. However, note the amount to be reimbursed is the amount seeking to be reimbursement or up to the remaining $2,500, whichever lower. In other words, if the total purchase amount of your notebook seeking for reimbursement is $2,400, the remaining $100 shall lapse.

Students, scholars receiving scholarships awarded by SMU that comes with a notebook grant, are strongly encouraged to purchase the notebook from either of the vendor awarded the tender for the year. The benefits are as stated on the website at: http://info.smu.edu.sg/tender/cit/computers/index.asp

in view that the reply did not seem to answer any of the questions raised, i rephrased the questions in a more obvious format and sent

Email #3 by me

(1) What is the physical procedure for reimbursement? (ie. who are we supposed to approach, and with what documents do we require)
(2) Can we purchase the notebooks for reimbursement now, or do we have to wait for classes to commence?
(3) If I intend to purchase a MacBook, is it still eligible for reimbursement?

Email #4 by SMU Personnel

(1) For reimbursement - the scholar needs to submit the original purchase document (eg invoice with payment acknowledged or official receipt) to our Centre at Level 7, Admin Building.
(2) Scholar may seek reimbursement any time during the tenure of the scholarship.
(3) Students are strongly encouraged to purchase the notebooks from either vendors awarded the tender. One of the reasons being the guaranteed compatibility with SMU's IT infrastructure. You might wish to find out more from CIT Helpdesk if you intend to purchase a Mac instead.

well, at least that's 1 question answered. but with reference to questions (2) and (3), IS IT SO BEEP-ING DIFFICULT TO ANSWER 'YES' OR 'NO'?

Labels: smu

5 Comments:

shaox said...: I would be happy to get responses like these from the NUS side or the MOE scholarship side :P; August 6, 2007 at 4:43 PM
Anonymous said...: hahaha i really really have to agree with that, re the MOE part.; August 6, 2007 at 6:02 PM
tee said...: read between the lines man..:P
I guess this is quite standard nowadays..; August 6, 2007 at 6:46 PM
Anonymous said...: actually now i think they have NO IDEA at all, so they just quote the same lines over and over again.; August 6, 2007 at 7:38 PM
=shorn> said...: ur ALL wrong, this is an example of open ended pedagogy! u donch knoe meh? Upenn oso haf! lawlz. just go with the flow yo and if they cause trouble bring it up to higher management.; August 7, 2007 at 2:39 AM