Is it normal for universities to be managed unprofessionally?

I'm starting to recover some repressed memories, and I'm recalling some things about the way my alma mater was run.

My university had a satellite passport office within its facilities. A couple years ago, I went to it in order to have a passport card issued to me. I was required to bring some sensitive documentation to the university. The clerk assisting me with the task was... strange, to say the least. She kept treating my documentation with utter lack of regard, leaving it outside the office for anyone to find, pretending to have a thousand better things to do than to help me, and making me recite some pledge or something.

After loudly complaining that her lunch break was postponed, she finally got to helping me. What she did next was... horrifying. She refused to return my documents unless I signed into my university account; she threatened to burn the former. I later discovered that she leaked my documents to a bunch of people, some professors having informed me so after they found me in the library.

When they were informed, the IT department didn't delete the initial leak until hours later, and after much frustrated communication and lack of cooperation. I sort of had too much faith in the institution back then. And I didn't feel like making another bus trip to another office. By some miracle, I didn't have my identity stolen in the five years since this happened.

I have a couple of other horror stories about my non-academic experiences in college. But this was the one that was most salient.

I think that what you went by was unacceptable. But aside from that, I think that it is not uncommon for universities to be full of incompetent HR, IT and administrative staff. I find that this lack of competence (might depend on the quality of the university and the way it is funded) is often the result of low wages compared to the private sector. Most of the staff may be replaced often due to the same reason.

You should seek medical attention.

As Wikipedia says: "Repressed memory is a controversial, and largely scientifically discredited, psychiatric phenomenon." You don't want to be dealing with something like this on your own.

That is beyond unacceptable. I've never experienced anything close to that. I'm sorry that happened to you.

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Vanadium 50 said:

You should seek medical attention.

As Wikipedia says: "Repressed memory is a controversial, and largely scientifically discredited, psychiatric phenomenon." You don't want to be dealing with something like this on your own.

@Eclair_de_XII -- This is very good advice. Please seek medical counseling about this; we are of no help to you on this.

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