How do I find out who my college is "answerable" t

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As far as I know, I have earned my Associate's degree. I transferred from one college to another, changing degrees in mid stream. Of course, some of the general ed courses weren't exactly the same at the new college, so about nine months before I would be finishing my last quarter with them (as far as I could tell), I started contacting them to find out how to substitute courses from my first college to them, to satisfy GE requirements. To make a long story short, the first counselor I was talking to dropped the ball totally, and left the college, so I got another counselor involved, only to discover the first one hadn't had me fill out all the proper forums.

This all began in May of 2009. By August last year, i was on to the second counselor. I filled out all the forms, returned them, and didn't hear anything until I wrote him back in December 09, at the end of what I still think is was my last quarter. He replied, saying he didn't know where anything was, and needed to check. Over the next few months, I wrote to him every month or so, and still nothing.

I filed a petition for graduation a YEAR ago, along with all the GE substitution forms. A year later, and still nothing. I don't even know if I have to take more courses or not! I don't think I should need to. I've also got two emails out to the Dean of Arts, and the codirector of Music Technology (the degree I think I should have by now), but haven't heard from them either. Those were sent about a month ago, but I'm sure they're busy getting ready for fall semester, so it may be a bit longer.

I need to add that this is a West Coast college, and I'm on the East Coast. I took my entire program online. It's not a fly by night operation either. It's a long standing reputable community college.

My question is, who on earth are colleges answerable to? If they leave me hanging any longer, I need to light a fire under somebody, but I have no idea who!

Anybody got a clue how to force the school to pay attention? I'm about ready to call a lawyer! I don't really want to do that though, because the experience was fantastic. I really learned a lot, my instructors were unbelievable. I won an award while there, and maintained a 4.0 average my entire stint there. I'd hate to get all ugly on them.

Contact the registrar's office; they should be able to look up your records and tell you what action has been taken, then they can direct you to the appropriate person to handle any errors that have been made. As for the dean, if you emailed him a month ago, that would have been in the middle of July and he or she may simply not be in the office during the summer months. Your request is likely still sitting in their inbox as something the department secretary couldn't deal with in their absence, so I'd give them some time for that one, but I would definitely send a paper letter as a follow-up to the email.

Oh crap. I was afraid someone would say that. Love that school, but unfortunately the most incompetent people there all work in the offices. I can't believe some of the simplest questions I had that they couldn't answer. Oh well, I guess I'll have to try them anyway. The trick there is to just to be a pain in the ass until you get someone on the phone who knows what the heck they're talking about. They hire too many student interns to man phones there. Ah well, It's California, in the midst of the worst budget cuts in history, so whaddya gonna do 'bout that? Oh yeah! be a pain!