Since setting foot in AUI, we find ourselves complaining about many things on the Student community Facebook group, namely food, and classes. Yet, there are some issues around dealing with complaints and the legal framework put in place for them at the university. The latter tells us a lot about the various aspects that complaints are dearly carrying with themselves.
Legal framework of complaints at AUI
All the words that we throw on the air in the forms of complaints are not going to stay there forever; they either fade out or get us somewhere pleasant or unpleasant. At AUI, there are different steps and institutional paths where such claims go through. In fact, there are several institutions that are formally or informally supposed to receive and respond to complaints from students. However, there is a hierarchical authority especially when it comes to who complains about whom. There is a top to the bottom perspective when it comes to their written legal framework. They are legally followed with defined steps by the Student Handbook and the Catalog when they are about a student. Yet, it seems that when the administration is concerned, little resources are found on the journey of a complaint from a complainer to the results. A thorough glance at the student handbook might secure one perspective on the various and clearly mentioned steps in case students are subject to a complaint but not the other way round (see Student Handbook, pp. 132).
On the other hand, there are some ways that students make their complaints sail through. The Student Government Association is one of the most well-known institutions that basically carry out complaints as part of its duties. However, in most cases, SGA senators function as an intermediary between the students and the respective department. In a short interview, Dr. Abdessamad Fatmi, the Dean of Student Affairs, gave several examples of how the hierarchy should work and how students lie at the bottom of this list. In fact, students are supposed to reach out to the respective departments in case of any complaint. In this case, one wonders what they are supposed to do when there is no institution for a particular case like sexual harassment.
A number of issues go unresolved for several reasons… if negligence [of departments] is suspected then that should also be followed up
Dr. Abdessamad Fatmi, Dean of Student Affairs
In any case, the complaints can either go to the SGA and then to the administrative department or just directly from students to the concerned department. In both cases, departments are involved. Since there is no written rule for having them respond to the complaints, it implies that they have the right to choose not to cooperate. While showing concern about this issue, he agreed that complaining about the complaint that hasn’t been responded to is the final solution that the Dean of Student Affairs proposes. Basically, the hierarchical authority plays its role when one sees the absolute responsibility of students to react to the complaints about them, yet the administrative departments do not have any legal commitment (but a moral one) to do the same.
Role of SGA and the process of acting on complaints
Student Government Association essentially is composed of student senators who could take care of the student complaints and voice their interests to the administration. SGA has made sure to offer several platforms for students to use for filing complaints. Moreover, being highly involved in the student life on campus, most of the senators try to receive as many informally and spoken concerns there are in their unique respective way and case as possible. After carefully investigating all the complaints received, they are to raise it to the department concerned and get a response or action done. This takes us back to the point of whether departments are responsive enough as legally responsible entities or not. “Sometimes, our requests are lost in inboxes” says Idir Moukhlis, the president of SGA, sarcastically talking about several responses they get as an institution.
Cultural Perspectives on Criticism and nature of Complaints
If we were to find a justification for the excessively followed ritual of complaining, the credit is usually given to culture. Yet to explore this further, Moroccan culture is targeted to be the reason for this kind of attitude towards the problems and challenges faced by students. While this cannot and should not be considered a generalization and/or cultural labeling, most students think that they are bringing this habit from the life experience they had living as a Moroccan. As a true Moroccan, you are to rant about anything you are facing in a casual conversation knowing that nothing in the form of a solution will that conversation lead to. If one was to observe half of the conversations in the study spots of AUIers (like the library or labs), they will be bombarded by the phrases and sentences that basically convey complaints; how students feel tired of exams, they miss their parents, and how much they dislike a certain subject. Needless to mention, none of those conversations could ever be legally recorded or led to any solution for the problem neither do the students expect a solution.
While due to the COVID-19 pandemic the amount of diversity of cultures decreased in the student body, we still managed to get the perspective of the few presidential interns present on campus. Their main aim is to secure the liberal arts educational system’s values and so would mean to complain a lot. Chloe Kate Abel, the Writing Center presidential intern, has experienced living both in Morocco and the US with almost an equal amount of immersion and told us how she chose to pick on some aspects of both cultures. While highly associating herself with this aspect, she also mentioned some of her observations of the Moroccan culture being exposed to it for several years. She thinks just being verbal about the frustrations and complaining about problems in the settings that she is sure will not be helpful has lessened the emotional burden she has to carry. She inherits this quality from her Moroccan self.
In the American culture, you need to pull yourself up; you might complain but you are the one to get it done as well
Chloe Kate Abel, the Writing Center presidential intern
In Morocco, hierarchical procedures, as well as the personal side of criticisms, can be the major reasons for us to think there is no solution but a complaint. SGA usually mediates when these kinds of situations arise or sometimes far before it comes up; in situations like when students are “hesitant” to talk to the professor.
How Can Students Become More Proactive?
Regardless of legal inefficiency and unclarity in the written rules of AUI, students are also equally responsible for learning how to bring an issue around the scene. Complaints are almost always a way for an institution to learn about its imperfections and just basically having a conversation about an issue; however, they will only be of use if they are constructively made and actively followed upon. Firstly, a lack of knowledge about certain rules or procedures that are mentioned in the policy-related documents accessible to everyone consumes a lot of energy both from students and people involved in the process of complaint management. Say if your roommate is too noisy, instead of complaining about the intensity and severity of the problem, there are steps you can take without wasting oxygen and energy to find a solution. The Student Handbook and Catalog are the ultimate documents that are made for this purpose.
Moreover, the way complaints are posed and phrased also affects the responses that it gets. Poor phrasing or asking about the information already given, reluctance from the students’ side to take the first step and unconstructive structure of the complaints are some of several reasons complaints stay as complaints. As responsible members of a community, thinking of its betterment is only fair. However, talking about it only does not suffice while actively thinking, and pushing for getting information are also options.
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