It all started towards the end of the Fall Semester when after concentrating on my coursework I suddenly realized that I had not yet registered for the Spring Semester at McHenry County College (MCC). I had been taking the Principles of Criminal Investigations class for the fun of it and was interested in taking the Community Policing class in the Spring. According to the class instructor, William Brogan who is a former chief of police in McHenry, IL, I was one of his best students this semester. Brogan has suggested that even though I am 57 years old and have what doctors call "mild cerebral palsy" and am also on dialysis owing to the fact that my kidneys are shot, I would, at least in theory, have a shot at getting a job in law enforcement due to the 2020 riots and anti-police rhetoric. Massive numbers of police officers are going into retirement coupled with the fact that hardly any young people are currently interested in law enforcement careers. Personally, given my history of medical problems, I think that it's a long shot at best that I could ever make it in law enforcement, but you never know.
When I went to the MCC Registration Office, I was informed that there was a problem. On the computer right by my name there was the word "restriction." Nobody there seemed to have any idea what it meant. Nobody had any idea who put that word by my name or why it was done. However, they seemed determined to add meaning to the word "restriction" by preventing me from registering for the Spring Semester. When I asked if there was some way by which I could register for the Spring, I was told that I needed to bring the sticker that I got when I was vaccinated. Once I did so, I would then be allowed to register for the Spring.
All this was most unexpected given that I had never been formally notified of what amounted to an anonymous accusation. The bureaucrats at MCC never had any sort of formal hearing into this accusation which was both unspecified and unsubstantiated. In other words, MCC was depriving me of the right to face my accuser. Based on my reading of the MCC website at mchenry.edu, there is a Student Code of Conduct at https://www.mchenry.edu/conduct/studentcode.pdf that is supposed to protect student rights. However in this particular case, the bureaucrats acted as if it did not exist and that they could do anything that they wanted to. What you have is an ad hoc system where anything goes based on the whims of the bureaucrats. This is an especially serious matter when you consider that the total enrollment of these 2-year colleges in Illinois is comparable to that of a major university. It makes you wonder just how many other violations of student rights occur at these schools since there does not appear to be anyone or any organization standing up to these lawless bureaucrats.
As it happened I was able to drive home and return with the sticker in less than an hour. That clearly took the bureaucrats in the Registration Office by surprise. They got together and took perhaps as much as half an hour to determine what their next move would be. Once done, they declared that a mere sticker was insufficient to allow me to register. Instead what I needed to do was to bring in my vaccination card. Once I did so, I would then be allowed to register for the Spring. I wanted to believe that they were sincere. However, since they clearly had lied about the sticker being necessary for registration, I was dismayed by this unexpected turn of events. I'm afraid that I became quite upset at them and raised my voice at them.
As it happens, I had forgotten all about getting a vaccination card or for that matter where I could have put it. However, when I saw Mr. Brogan in class I told him about my problem. He suggested that I go to the clinic where I was vaccinated and procure a photocopy of the vaccination card. I did so and then proceeded to the Registration Office.
What happened at the Registration Office was basically a repeat of my previous experience with the sticker. What happened was that they said that copies of vaccination cards were unacceptable on the grounds that you cannot tell if copies were forgeries. However, the more they talked, the more it became clear that it really did not matter if I brought in the card or not. They were bound and determined to prevent me from registering for the Spring Semester. However, that description may be unfair since it seems likely that the Registration Office bureaucrats did not have any say in the matter. The more that I have thought of it, it seems likely that the placing of the word "restriction" by my name on the computer was a willful administration decision. If that's the case, it was done in violation of the Student Code of Conduct and its guarantees of student rights such as formal hearings as well as the idea that students subject to disciplinary sanctions are formally notified of the decision against them.
Following this, I did something I probably should have done earlier. I went to the Office of Student Affairs and was able to see a lady who appeared to be in charge. Due to the fact that my class was coming up soon, it was not possible for us to have a full meeting right then and there. Instead, the lady said that once class was over, we could then have a full meeting. However, when class was over the lady was gone and in her place were two lower level schmucks one of whom appeared to have anger management problems. This person also appeared to have problems with honesty as well such as when she claimed that MCC bureaucrats were incapable of lying to students as well as her contention that nobody at the Registration Office would even think of saying that I needed to bring in a sticker in order to register. She also made the observation that "anger is incompatible with education" in reference to my earlier anger directed at the Registration Office. She made that statement in a way that made it clear that she was very angry with myself. It was at this point that the meeting went off the deep end.
The angry woman made it clear that students, such as myself, had no right to ever be angry with MCC bureaucrats. When I asked if I could register for the Spring, the other female declared that we were not talking about that. According to her, what we were talking about was whether or not I would be allowed to register for the Fall Semester. The angry woman then followed that up by declaring that what I needed to do was to make a formal written guarantee that I would never, ever get angry with the MCC bureaucrats in the future. When she said that, the meeting became too unreal even for me and I got up and said that I was through with MCC and would never ever set foot on campus again. However, after an unusually good night's sleep the very next day I rethought my decision and came to the conclusion that I needed to fight the MCC bureaucracy if for no other reason to deter the arrogant MCC big shots from aggression against future students. Besides, no matter how unrealistic I might think that the idea that I could ever make it in law enforcement was, I really needed to pursue that option.
The problem from here on out is that I lack the financial resources needed to hire a top lawyer. However, it is a proven fact that public colleges and universities are susceptible to negative publicity. If sufficient bad publicity is raised against MCC, then that would do the trick. This is something that I know from personal experience. Back in 1999, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) banned the College Republicans (CR's). When the UALR CR's showed themselves to be completely apathetic to the point that they failed to do anything to reverse that decision, I took charge of the situation. What I did was to inform a number of individuals who were known to be in favor of student rights and was able to get some of them involved. I also did everything I could do to publicize the fight against the UALR bureaucrats and eventually, the decision to ban the CR's was overturned. If it was possible to defeat the UALR administration, then it should be possible to do the same with MCC.