APEX Or APEK? Take 1

Everyone in Malaysia knew that Universiti Sains Malaysia was granted the APEX (Accelerated Programme for Excellence) status by the Government. What's APEX status? Suffice to say, those universities that are promoted to that status will be given a LARGE amount of $$$ for the projects that the Uni seems important. APEX status also raised the profile of USM to the making of a premier university in Malaysia. What's APEK, you're wondering? Well, it's an Hokkien word for uncle/old man that sounds rather rude.

Last month or so, USM created a huge blunder in their first direct intake of undergrads, where they uploaded a list of 8k+ applicants successfully accepted into the uni only to be told on the following day that the list was wrong and only 3k+ applicants were given seats in the university. It was a huge error on the part of the university that the public wonders if USM deserved the APEX status.

OK, enough introductory. I'm gonna start my own analysis on whether USM deserved the status based on my own experiences inside USM main campus. I began a new semester just yesterday, but I came back to the campus on Sunday. With the outbreak of H1N1 flu, everyone is taking great precaution and so did USM since there were reports that there have been few cases, though how accurate it was, I had no idea. When I went to register for my hostel room, I was asked of these following questions to check if I had the flu:

• Awak ada selsema, demam, batuk atau sebarang sintom-sintom H1N1 (Do you had any flu, fever, cough, or any symptoms resembling H1N1)?
• Adakah awak pernah jumpa sesiapa dari luar negara (Did you come into contact of anyone from oversea)?
• Awak kursus apa (What course are you taking)?
• Awak dari mana (Which state are you from)?

Once I answered all these, I was given a form to fill and tick and was declared free from H1N1. That's it. No checking temperature or whatsoever. It's felt more like participating a survey. For such a 'great' precaution, I gave you APEK status.

Secondly is what I detested the most. For this semester, I had morning classes for everyday starting from 8am. Yesterday, I woke up around 7am and prepared myself for class. When I reached there, I entered the lecture hall waiting for the lecturer to arrive but that person did not come to the lecture hall. I waited until 8.20am before I leaved the hall. The class was cancelled without even bothered informing us. The same thing happened this morning for the stupid Ethnic Relationship course which we were compulsory to take. Woke up early, got myself ready, walked to the hall, class was cancelled. I'm like, COME ON. Can't they at least told us by sticking a freaking piece of paper on the door or something saying 'There's no class today. Class will commence on so and so.' Is that so hard to do? Go die la, APEK, for runing my sleep!