The Letter That Saved My Life

I wrote a piece several months ago on my affection for letter writing and why I believe it to be superior to forms of digital text communication. (It’s all in the human touch). 

Years ago, when I was still a college student, this habit actually ended up coming in handy.

I’ve mentioned several times that I was an English Major (do me a favor and hold the jokes—I’ve heard them all). More specifically, I was an English Major in the American University system and model. That means that, even as I was working towards my pragmatically useless degree, I was nonetheless receiving a Liberal Arts Education.

It’s this element of American University Education that’s often the target of criticism by those who think higher education—unless for a trade like welding—is a waste of time and money. The central idea underpinning the Liberal Arts Education is the concept of “well-roundedness”. On this model, students learn a little bit about every subject before they move on to intensive study of their area of interest. This is the reason why American students spend two years doing “General Education” (or Gen-Ed) courses in non-related subjects before moving on to the upper level classes they take their Junior and Senior years. (At least, if you do it in the tradition 4-year time frame). 

The Liberal Arts Model stands in stark contrast to the British Model, which focuses purely on specialization, not well-roundedness. From the time a British Undergraduate enters University until either they drop out or graduate, their entire focus is on their area of interest. So a student “reading” English at Oxford or Cambridge doesn’t spend two years learning about subjects before getting onto their “real work”. They walk in doing nothing but studying English, and they’re out in three years.

Many Americans actually admire the British model of study because they think it’s more efficient. “You can save an entire year if you didn’t have to take these pointless classes.” However, Brits actually believe our model is better because students who come out of a Liberal Arts University come out better informed and with a larger body of knowledge on which to draw. Which is better? Ask one Brit and one American, and they’ll say the other’s system is better. (I think it’s a case of “the grass is greener…” syndrome).

Anyway, I ended up educated through the American model because I was born and raised in America. (It was also an American university that offered me money to attend it, so when opportunity called, I answered with a yes). And I was a decent student. However, my university, at one point, considered me too keen on my area of interest.

To repeat, the American University model values “well-roundedness,” meaning they never wants you to be overly educated in any given area, even the one you are there to focus on. Even if it’s only by a small margin, they’re viewpoint is that even the smallest bit of over specialization has to be counter balanced. I discovered I’d become too specialize when I applied for graduation.

At the University of Missouri-St. Louis, all undergraduates who were at the end of their course had to “apply” for graduation two semesters from their supposed graduation year (essentially, the semester before you’re supposed to graduate). I did so. However, a couple of weeks later, my application came back. I was qualified to graduate on all counts except one: I had two too many credits in my major area of English. Thus, the university softly demanded that I stay on for an extra semester so I could take one extra class in another subject area in order to counter balance my over specialized degree.

Had this been any other situation, I would’ve acquiesced, but this was college, in the United States, in the mid-2010s. Put all of those aspects together and what you’d get is a hole—a hole made of debt.

The only reason I’d managed to go to college in the first place was that I’d gotten a fantastic scholarship from the Federal Government called “The Gear-Up Scholarship”. This scholarship allowed me, essentially, to go to college without taking out a single loan. It was a last dollar scholarship, meaning anything I couldn’t pay for, the school would pay for. And I couldn’t pay for anything. In addition, the school also gave me 1000 dollars a semester (2000 dollars a year), to pay for my books. All I had to do was go to school full-time—by taking 12 credit hours, at minimum—and maintain a GPA of 2.0 (again, at minimum). For someone like me, a decent student who knows a good opportunity when I see it, this was easy money for a good education. This money, though, had a time limited attached to it.

The Gear-Up would do all the things I’ve mentioned, but the university would only provide these perks for the duration of four years (the traditional amount of time it takes to earn an undergraduate degree). And, again, I had no other money.

Thus, I needed to find a way to circumvent this requirement.

I met with one of my academic advisors, a man named John Perez. I informed Perez about my conundrum, and he explained what I “had” to do, i.e. pay money that I didn’t have to take one other class in order to counter balance my overly specialized degree. I explained my financial situation and asked if there was an alternative, one less costly. Perez thought for a moment and finally explained this: if I were to write to the Dean of my College (in my case the College of Arts and Sciences who issued English degrees), explaining my situation and allow him to send it on to him—respecting the chain of command—then I might convince them to allow me to graduate on time without having to take the extra class.

I left his office, went back to my dorm room, and began writing this plea. This is where my entire letter writing experience came into play, along with the four years-worth of persuasive essay writing I’d done for all of my English classes in one piece of writing:

11/12/2014

Dear John Perez,

           

I am writing to you to ask for a great personal favor, but I first have to explain a few things. I am a senior here at UMSL, studying English, and I have hopes to graduate at the end of this upcoming Spring Semester in May. However, I now find myself in a quandary. I recently received my Application for Graduation back from review, and on it, the reviewer pointed out that I have exceeded the allotted number of major credits the University allows me to take, and because of this, I am in danger of being unable to graduate this coming May.

After turning the application back in, I checked my DARs report through MyGateway, and saw that the review’s observation was correct. I am currently nine full credits over the set limit. However, there is a reason for why I have exceeded the University’s set credit limit. You see, since I have not chosen to pursue a minor during my time here at UMSL, I thought it would be best to instead focus more intensely on my core studies. To that end, I choose to pursue three Emphasis Areas within my Major, those being American Literature, British Literature, and Creative Writing. Prior to arriving at UMSL, I reviewed the outline for the University’s English BA on the school’s website (the link for which I’ve included here: http://bulletin.umsl.edu/artsandsciences/english/#undergraduatetext), and it states under the Upper Division course heading that, “A student may not use the same course to satisfy both a distribution requirement and an emphasis area (EA).” This meant that, unlike in my previous years where I was able to take general education classes that cross-fulfilled different requirements, I had to take more classes outside of the ones I needed to complete my upper level course of study. Since I was, and remain, determined to fulfill the requirements for my three chosen Emphasis Areas, I took extra courses from the ones listed on the UMSL website to do so. Unfortunately, that same determination has now also landed me in this conundrum.

Therefore, I am sending you this email to ask you for the previously mentioned great personal favor. Please, by some means, allow me to graduate and receive my diploma at the end of next semester. I would not ask this for any reason except a dire one. You see, I am here at UMSL as a part of the Gear Up Program, and as a Gear Up scholar, I only have four years to complete my degree before my funding is dissolved. My four years ends this coming May, and without the scholarship, I will not be able to continue my education even if I wanted to due to lack of finances. So, I am genuinely asking you, please allow me to graduate this coming May.

Sincerely,

Ian Martinez-Cassmeyer

I didn’t know whether all of this explaining and defending would sway the Dean of my college once I was done with my letter. I only hoped it would. I sent it to Mr. Perez once it was complete and waited for the response, knowing for well that my whole academic future was hanging in the balance.

The speed of the response still surprises me to this day.

Perez sent my plea to the Dean (who, interestingly enough, happened to be a member of the English Department), and the Dean read it. Whether it was the eloquence of my words, the soundness of my argument, or the obvious desperation of my circumstances, a few days later, I got back the shortest—and most joy inducing—email I’d ever received in my life (up to that point):

Ian,

Great News! The Dean’s read your letter, and he’s going to let you graduate. Congratulations.

John Perez

I sighed, relieved and happy. I was able to enjoy fully my last two semesters at UMSL, and in May of 2015, I walked. My diploma now sits in the corner above my desk where I’m writing this essay now (admittedly, it’s in a Dollar Tree frame, but it still looks good).

And, the letter that I wrote to Perez that saved my academic career is still in my digital files. I’ve kept it, even four years, on as a reminder of how the ability to communicate, clearly and concisely, through the written word is a skill that can help you at times when nothing else can. Without it, maybe I wouldn’t be here, in this moment, writing these words now.