By Kim Manahan (Whetstone Staff Writer)

Kim Manahan

I wish I got paid to bullshit people. I would be really good at it. But I don’t.

Some people do, though.

Let’s call these people bureaucrats.

They are in government, corporations – and even at Wesley College.

I first needed a simple yes or no question answered for a story I was writing for The Whetstone, and instead I got a long, drawn-out email that had a lot of information in it, but not what I needed.

I hear that’s what it’s like being married – asking a quick question and getting a 20-minute response, but no answer.

Anyway, the story I was writing is the one about enrollment, GPA averages and the increase in remedial classes.

Several members of the Wesley community told me this semester that they suspected Wesley was accepting just about anyone who applies.

I wanted to at least find out if there was anyone who was admitted who had less than a 2.0 GPA.

I did get the answer I was looking for just before our deadline – that there were some students who had less than a 2.00 GPA who were admitted under the college’s new conditional enrollment plan.

But this led to another question: how many were there, exactly?

Once I got that answer, I asked how many were lower, so I could work out the percentages.

But what I got was a long-winded response about why that information can’t be provided.

At first, the excuse was “privacy.”

I wasn’t asking for anyone’s name, so who was the privacy for? The college?

My questions were bounced around from one administrator to another.

Please. If we students did that in class when we were asked something? We’d be looking at a fifth year.

Play nice, people.

I couldn’t get a simple number? That’s what irks me. I got these crazy percentages, but no numbers to base them on.

Hey, Wesley! I’m not good at math, but I think I can work out percentages. Please give me the numbers. (They did: it was six). If you want to give me the percentages, too, that’s cool.

I’ll be happy to check your work.