Dear Boise State Administration Building Employees:

As employees in the administration building, you see many students and faculty each day. Your job therefore, no matter which department you work in, is to deal with students and faculty. It is a customer service position. That means you're supposed to be nice and helpful so that people don't dread coming to your office or leave your office cursing.

In my experience with employees in the administration building, I have had people argue without listening to my question, I have been hung up on, and I have waited in line for more than a half hour. In fact, every time I visit the registrar's office there are only two (if not only one) work-study students working at the windows while "real" employees of the office stand around behind them talking about their vacations or their children. These "real" employees are almost always eating cookies during their apparent downtime. Meanwhile, students wait in line for sometimes longer than half-hour periods before speaking to someone at a desk. In the payment and disbursement office (one of the unhappiest places on Earth) as well as in the financial aid office, students cannot even see employees from the line due to the construction of their cubicle-like seating arrangement. Also for those offices, students have nowhere to stand in line, except out the door, as the measly lobby is little more than a narrow hallway.

All your office doors are always closed, as if to tell students that you don't want to see us anyway. But don't worry, we don't want to see you, either. Every student I've spoken with about this topic agrees with me; we hate your building and every employee within. It is a miserable place fit for the depths of purgatory.

My proposal to you is not difficult. I don't expect you to undergo a massive transformation. I just want you to be nice to people. Listen when a student talks to you about a financial issue. When a student calls your tech support line, don't inform that student to change her password and hang up. Acutally help. Wait until she tries changing her password before you hang up, at the very least. Don't make fun of students, thinking they're too stupid to pick up on it. Do not treat us like we're trying to scam you around every corner. Provide us with helpful answers. Treat us like we're human beings. We know your job is not a specialized one, for the most part, and that you just got lucky with the state benefits package because you work at a state school. We know we have more education than the majority of you. We know you aren't better than we are just because you're on that side of the desk. But we hold none of that against you. We just want a little smile and a genuine "Have a nice day."

So quit being so crochety and sour. Stop pissing us off. There are a few of you I wouldn't hesitate to run over with my bike someday. Why bring that upon yourself? Just be nice.