What have I been up to?  Everything.  My GPA last semester was 1.9, so
I needed a 4.0 this semester in order to maintain my scholarships.  Let
me tell you, 4.0 with 15 hours is not easy.  Anyway, it got down to the
wire when I found out that, due to my test grades in my Psych class, I
would have a B.  Normally, not a downer, but the fact that a $5k/yr
scholarship was resting on it kind of pooped everything else up.  So I
started going down the list of options.  I tried bargaining for extra
credit - no dice.  Apparently 58 hours of psychological research is not
sufficient for ec.  Anyway, after that, I went for a special extra
probationary semester next semester to get my GPA up by retaking the
class I failed.


You know, it kind of sucks that one class that is unrelated to my major put me in this situation, but whatever.


The mystical "Committee" turned down my request for a probationary
semester.  So then what would I do?  I begged the professor for extra
credit.  No dice, once again.  I looked into various ways to gain the
grade through special examination (which my advisor bungled up by
feeding me info for the CLEP stuff...and mom and dad wonder why I don't
like asking her for help - she also told me to give up and get a job). 
So, yeah, I was down to the line - seek gainful employment with the
University for free hours, or start paying a crapload of money. 
Naturally, I opted for the third option - find another way to retain my
scholarship.  I went to the Honors director, Connie, and asked her if
it would be possible to take a summer course as a retake and have it
count for the 2005-2006 academic year.  She said I could and suggested
I talk to Kathy, the Scholarship coordinator about it.  The next day,
mom and dad suggested I find out if this thing would be possible. 
Luckily, I was already on it.  So I talked to Kathy on Monday and she
told me to get a letter from Connie.  Unluckily, the two busiest days
of the semester were this past Sunday and Monday because of the Honors
SOAR (Student Orientation, Advisement, and Registration), so everyone
of status in Honors were working our butts off on that stuff.  In a
brief reprieve, I threw a letter together and passed it by Connie, much
to everyone else's chagrin - they thought I should wait, but I've been
testy lately, so waiting was not an option.  She checked it out and
said to have it sent as a memo, but not to turn it in until Tuesday. 
Naturally, I turned it in on Monday and had it sent then.


So now it's Tuesday.  Kathy emailed me this:



Jonathan,

Your initial request on your University Exception was to extend your probationary period to include Fall 2007. This request was denied.  However, we will allow you to retake your Calculus I class that you failed
Fall 2005 during the summer 2006.  If by the time Fall 2006 semester begins and you have brought your cumulative grade point average to a 3.0, we will reinstate your University Academic Scholarship for Fall 2006-2007.

Please stop by my office sometime this week so that we may discuss this in person.

If you have additional questions, please let me know!

So there you have it!  I'm taking Calc this summer,
hopefully online, but otherwise I'll be up here all summer.  We'll see
what happens.  Either way, I'm getting that fucking average up and keeping that scholarship.  As a friend of mine said, "They should just give
it to you for bugging them about it for this long."