Krysiarose
New member
What is the name of your state? New Mexico
I am a behavioral health online student at a state college in another city, an older student switching careers. The college does not assist students with finding internships due to being online and global; the students must find their own internships and the university does not check or approve any agencies. I found an internship at a small for-profit counseling business owned by a husband and wife. I was interviewed by the wife and thought all was well until I met the husband. He was a workplace bully to everyone who worked under him; interns, contracted counselors, office employees and clients (his clients were court mandated, not paying clients). I was bullied at my maintenance job, an attorney helped me stop that situation, and I couldn’t believe I was dealing with another bully – at a counseling agency. His wife was okay (and was my supervisor per agreement with the university). Just after midterms, she gave me a good review but for some reason that set her husband off, and he fired me. Being his wife, she had to go along with his decision. The university was no help; the adjunct professor, the adviser, and the dean were not equipped to assist a student who was having problems with an internship and had nothing in place for this type of situation. The husband wrote a false letter stating that we had “parted under mutual agreement”. Because he fired me, there was no agreement – I was told I was fired, to leave, and not to return. I asked for a withdrawal grade due to the unusual circumstances. The student advocate told me that I would have to write a letter stating that the entire situation was my fault, that I was entirely responsible for what happened, and outline what I was going to do to rectify my shortcomings – if I wanted to have any hope of a withdrawal grade. My coworkers at my regular job thought that I was being treated terribly by my university but I didn’t want the F on my transcript so I wrote a letter explaining that I had just been through a workplace bullying situation, was not equipped to deal with another one so soon after the first situation was rectified, and that I would be receiving counseling to learn to deal with such situations in the future. I was given a W on my transcript. My other nine courses I had a 4.0 GPA, no issues.
I was angry at this whole fiasco and went to a rival university to ask them for advice on how they would have handled the situation, did I do anything wrong, and that university could not believe what I had to do. The rival university vets and approves all agencies before a student can work under them, to ensure the agencies can meet the university and other required standards. They have a special adviser to help a student throughout the internship, and they said that they would never have let a student getting fired – they would have been involved long before then. I also discovered that the rival university had ‘blacklisted’ the agency I was fired from, due to abuse of social work and counseling students who lodged a formal complaint as a group! I decided to change schools; I was accepted as a transfer student to the new university, all my credits transferred, and I will complete my degree at the new university.
I don’t know if it is worth it to write a letter to the old university stating that I am angry about how I was treated throughout the situation, at their lack of ability in being able to assist students who happen to get into a problematic agency, and that I want to clear my name because I did all I could, but I was not responsible for the unprofessional behavior of the agency owner and should never have been told to write a letter taking the full blame. Some of my coworkers believe that I would have a legal case against the university and the agency – the only thing that I am concerned about at this point is clearing my name, official record, informing the university that the way they are operating at this time is not acceptable, and that I am transferring to a university that handles things correctly so they lost the rest of my business. Any advice and ideas would be appreciated.
I am a behavioral health online student at a state college in another city, an older student switching careers. The college does not assist students with finding internships due to being online and global; the students must find their own internships and the university does not check or approve any agencies. I found an internship at a small for-profit counseling business owned by a husband and wife. I was interviewed by the wife and thought all was well until I met the husband. He was a workplace bully to everyone who worked under him; interns, contracted counselors, office employees and clients (his clients were court mandated, not paying clients). I was bullied at my maintenance job, an attorney helped me stop that situation, and I couldn’t believe I was dealing with another bully – at a counseling agency. His wife was okay (and was my supervisor per agreement with the university). Just after midterms, she gave me a good review but for some reason that set her husband off, and he fired me. Being his wife, she had to go along with his decision. The university was no help; the adjunct professor, the adviser, and the dean were not equipped to assist a student who was having problems with an internship and had nothing in place for this type of situation. The husband wrote a false letter stating that we had “parted under mutual agreement”. Because he fired me, there was no agreement – I was told I was fired, to leave, and not to return. I asked for a withdrawal grade due to the unusual circumstances. The student advocate told me that I would have to write a letter stating that the entire situation was my fault, that I was entirely responsible for what happened, and outline what I was going to do to rectify my shortcomings – if I wanted to have any hope of a withdrawal grade. My coworkers at my regular job thought that I was being treated terribly by my university but I didn’t want the F on my transcript so I wrote a letter explaining that I had just been through a workplace bullying situation, was not equipped to deal with another one so soon after the first situation was rectified, and that I would be receiving counseling to learn to deal with such situations in the future. I was given a W on my transcript. My other nine courses I had a 4.0 GPA, no issues.
I was angry at this whole fiasco and went to a rival university to ask them for advice on how they would have handled the situation, did I do anything wrong, and that university could not believe what I had to do. The rival university vets and approves all agencies before a student can work under them, to ensure the agencies can meet the university and other required standards. They have a special adviser to help a student throughout the internship, and they said that they would never have let a student getting fired – they would have been involved long before then. I also discovered that the rival university had ‘blacklisted’ the agency I was fired from, due to abuse of social work and counseling students who lodged a formal complaint as a group! I decided to change schools; I was accepted as a transfer student to the new university, all my credits transferred, and I will complete my degree at the new university.
I don’t know if it is worth it to write a letter to the old university stating that I am angry about how I was treated throughout the situation, at their lack of ability in being able to assist students who happen to get into a problematic agency, and that I want to clear my name because I did all I could, but I was not responsible for the unprofessional behavior of the agency owner and should never have been told to write a letter taking the full blame. Some of my coworkers believe that I would have a legal case against the university and the agency – the only thing that I am concerned about at this point is clearing my name, official record, informing the university that the way they are operating at this time is not acceptable, and that I am transferring to a university that handles things correctly so they lost the rest of my business. Any advice and ideas would be appreciated.
