Ciao!: New rule

New rule

01.10.2005

Don't send packages to the office, if at all possible. Since our illustrious president decided on budget cuts — including the oh-so-wise decision to cut our university's track & field program (what? yes) — it now takes longer for mail to work its way through campus than to it.

Amazon.com, for example, that model of private sector logistical proficiency, can deliver a package across the continental US to my campus in less than two days. It's now 25 days later (at least 14 "business days" if we discount holidays & weekends), but my package still isn't in my office.

This isn't the first time in recent months this has happened. I called shipping/receiving, was told they'd "look into it", but that budget cuts generally mean one week delays for packages. Reason? Budget cuts. How do people think this is OK?

Thanks, university, for yet another valuable lesson in the advantages of private over public bureaucracies.

Posted by Miguel at 10:12 AM

Comments

Rather than private being better than public, I think the best bureaucracy is no bureaucracy.

Is WMU having budget problems? I thought all the schools had rebounded from the recession and were raising and making decent cash.

Posted by: Patrick at January 10, 2005 04:04 PM

I'm totally w/ you on that. More individual access, less bureaucracy is the way to go. But at least private sector bureaucracies tend to face a little something called "competition" which encourages them to do better then their competitors (price, service, etc) or face extinction. Public bureaucracies tend to be monopolies, which are usually bad.

As for WMU's budget problems. Yep. Our previous president (not Dieter, God bless him, but his less-capable succesor) spent us into the ground. We're broke. And the current president's solution to a deficit isn't to spend more, but to cut costs. I've come back from a year's absence to a campus I barely recognize. Our once-cutting-edge computer networks, for example, are shoddy at best. Mass, frequent outages. OUTAGES!

Posted by: Miguel at January 10, 2005 04:30 PM