Graduate student Lisa Ladwig’s University life has looked more like a scene from Franz Kafka’s ‘The Trial’ than the living, learning community most of us associate with the University for the last seven months.The closest many students ever get to navigating the endless stream of middle-managers — ahem, administrators — is asking for official copies of University transcripts from the friendly clerks in the Registrar’s office. But Ladwig’s experience is a bit different. Rather than dealing with hordes of University employees who are — generally speaking — helpful, Ladwig has been saddled with a process that appears to set an unfair evidentiary threshold for student illness. When proof of hospitalization doesn’t guarantee a student a speedy appeals process, there’s something fishy going on.We cannot speak to the merits of Ladwig’s appeal — we’ve only heard her side of the story because of University concerns for student privacy. But it strains our credulity that the process Ladwig’s been subjected to is remotely fair to University students. When a student’s college — in this case the Graduate School — is more interested in passing the buck than quickly coming to the aid of a student who’s been hospitalized, perhaps we should ask fewer questions about the merits of the case and more questions about common courtesy.Ladwig deserved better from the process, irrespective of its outcome.—-Contact the Editorial Board at [email protected]