From Minding The Campus.

Professors Should Dress Like Professionals
By Robert Weissberg

Judged by the recent avalanche of autopsy-like books, American higher education appears troubled. Alleged evil-doers abound, but one culprit escapes unnoticed—the horrific sartorial habits of many of today’s professors. Don’t laugh. As Oscar Wilde brilliantly observed, only shallow people do not judge by appearances. Indeed, I would argue that much of what plagues today’s academy can be traced to an almost total collapse of sartorial standards. When I began my professorial career in 1969 the tweed sport coat and tie was more or less standard. Today, with all too few exceptions, “academic casual,” even jeans and tee-shirts is de rigueur. This slide has not been kind to life of the mind.

Many of the academy’s ills are traceable to diminished professorial authority. We often feel like “I don’t get any respect” Rodney Dangerfield: students day dream, ignore assignments, barely show up, cheat, gossip during class, and send text messages among other contemptuous behaviors. And not even entertaining lectures, grade inflation and dumbed-down syllabi seem able to restore the loss of respect.

FULL ARTICLE.

AWP, Anyone?

Anyone here going to AWP in Chicago this year? Look for me. I'll be the one at the bar.

Seriously? For Real?

Yesterday we read Chapter 11 in class. I lectured on Chapter 11. I showed video clips to illustrate the concepts in Chapter 11. There was a quiz and an activity in class over Chapter 11's content.

Today, we started Chapter 12 (which is VERY different from Chapter 11). A student (who attended class yesterdayand actively participated by commenting and providing an example from her own experience) raised her hand to ask why we had skipped Chapter 11. I replied: "We didn't. We did that yesterday." Her response: "Seriously? For Real? Where was I?"

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my question. Where are they? If their minds are not in our classes (although their bodies are present), where are their minds?

Point of Clarification: I didn't call them "Chapter 11 and Chapter 12" in class. I actually mentioned the chapter titles.

I Think I've Made A Terrible Mistake

Oh Holy Shit. I’m losing it. 

For extra money this semester my Dept. Head hired me to be her PA and do his bidding. He’s rude and passive aggressive and yells at me and makes me sit through utterly inane meetings where he yells at someone else and nothing can get done. Like, I can’t move forward until he makes up his mind on things and that is always at the last minute. I definitely DO NOT work that way. 

This week I told him that I would not be around MWF because I am teaching at another school, because I need the money. That also means I won’t be around to answer emails and get things done now now now. Last night when I got home there were literally 15 emails, back and forth, some were forwards, some were cc’s about things I needed to get done…at 7 pm for tomorrow morning. Most of them concern Hamster Cage Design, but I’m a hamster scientist, so anything with the HCD takes me a loooooong time. 

I was so stressed. I may have even cried a little. Into my wine. But I finished. To get here this morning to find more emails about more things that were supposed to be done yesterday. And that because he doesn’t like to get up early (rolls in about 11 – but it’s ok because he stays late), the schedule for the lab is screwy and my lab is always scheduled during the hour when there are no classes…and there are activities for students, or seminars, or in this case a fucking evacuation. So I have to just cancel the goddamned lab. 

But you know what, I’m going to the bar during that time. Especially because I have to be on campus for 12 hours that day doing the bidding of the Dept. Head. Shoot me!

$$$$$ Finally. (An update.)

God I love this page, but sometimes the complaints that come in are just brutal.

It is true that there's a bit of inside material on the page, and folks who have been around since RYS-days probably get more of the jokes. I'm sorry if anyone feels "mocked for not being 'special'" or "purposefully left out." Nobody thought, "Hey, let's gig the yokels."

One longtime member of the blog wanted to share some really good news about something a number of us know about from a deleted RYS post from a few years ago. I know, not everyone knows about it, but the post today was short and I didn't think it'd generate the mail that I got.

I'm going to post what details I can, and then take the piece down tomorrow because I sincerely can't take another email that tells me how "overweening" I am. (I thought that might be good at first, but dictionary.com tells me otherwise!)

The confidentiality agreement forbids certain details, but very briefly: A few years ago, a freelance writer did a bunch of work for a major online magazine. The initial work was done, but then some followups were asked for (without a new contract), and that work ended up being used without credit. The writer brought a lawsuit against the major magazine; both sides agreed to a confidential arbitration. Legal fees on the writer's behalf were several thousand dollars. An editor at the magazine trashed the writer's rep to a few places where he occasionally freelanced. That was seen as outside the scope of the arbitration, however. This week the writer got word that he could a little money for damages (and get his substantial legal fees paid for). It was not the knockout victory he deserved, but it was a pretty good day anyway.

I felt enough people knew the story that my earlier note might make sense. I guess not. I apologize for the vague earlier posting, and I didn't mean for it to be an annoyance.

Melissa from Merced with Today's Early Thirsty.

Q: Ladies, has your dress changed over the past few years? I'm 50, and I've noticed younger female faculty dress far more casually than in the past. Does it change how students perceive us? Does it change how administrators perceive us? My university is still pretty traditional, and too many of our new female faculty look like sloppy grad students. I want to tell them to be sharper with their choices, but don't want to be an old fogy (fogette?) Is there any way I can help my sisters?

The Adjunct Project

Saw in the Crampicle: the article about an adjunct who started collecting data about adjuncts and their working conditions. There's now a dedicated Wordpress site: The Adjunct Project

Fill in your school, and any other data you'd like to share. According to the article, 786 people have done so (as of Feb 19, the date the article was posted).

I'm no longer an adjunct, but I have plenty of friends on this treadmill. Share widely.

Here's Something For Us to Do Today. Find Out if Your Campus Has One of These. And then Go Support It. I Was Stunned to Know My School Did. One of My Fave Students Met Me at the Door and Took Three Sad Cans of Things I Probably Would Have Thrown Out.

Campus food banks help students through tough times

By Lindsay Powers, USA TODAY

Ela Martinez-Moreno says she felt it was her fault, as if she had failed to follow some rule. She had grown up in a middle-class family, earned Latin American studies and culinary degrees and gotten a job working with at-risk youth at a non-profit.

Then, after Martinez-Moreno left her job to study food science at Oregon State University in Corvallis, her boyfriend unexpectedly lost his job. She realized they needed help.

She found part of the answer to their problem at Oregon State's food pantry, though she was hesitant at first to use it. "It's a really humbling experience," Martinez-Moreno says, but once she was in the door, the pantry became "a relief" and "a nice added bonus" to help her along. It was a positive experience that she now aims to help share as the pantry's paid outreach coordinator.

FULL USA TODAY ARTICLE.