Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Dean Suzy's Day

Here we are, folks, another installment of Dean Suzy's Day, written to make you happy you don't have to deal with this stuff as well!
  • The early morning oral exam was interrupted by the crew wanting to finally install the data projector that was ordered 6 months ago. My secretary is off sick, so when they called to say they'd be coming by no one answered, so they just came anyway. Oh, and after I threw them out, they sent a nasty email in the afternoon announcing that they will be charging me 2 work hours for this.
  • We've just moved two departments, and they are back on telephone service and internet. One silverback used his CCing-talents to widely complain that the snail mail wasn't being sorted properly and all of it was in a box in the hallway. Upon investigation it turned out to be a box of advertising, and he just didn't have a key to the real mail room. He included a student in his rant email who had just handed in his thesis 2 days ago. The student called in panic that we have surely lost his thesis if it was just in a box on the hallway. I suggested he calm down, take a sedative if necessary, and let us sort it out.
  • A student sent an email at 9:13 am, another one at 11:12 am and a third one at 1:42 pm to ask if this was the correct email because he had handed in his work due yesterday at midnight and I hadn't graded it yet.
  • We have a number of search committees running, and applicant flakes who didn't read far enough down on the ad to see that we want their materials in writing on paper sent me emails with 10 attachments clocking in at about 5 MB each and effectively killing my mailbox.
  • The IT department declares it is not responsible for all the printers and all the copiers being offline and the old copy cards being unusable. There was an error in the new copy cards and this is the fault of the copier company and not their responsibility, although they took out all the old copiers. I have a printer/copier I operate illegally, i.e. outside of the reach of the IT department. It works. I have a long line of people needing to use it. Die, IT department, die! I called the IT boss to complain, but he's at a conference. I guess they go to conferences to trade stories on how to make our lives miserable.
  • I went for lunch today and sat down with one department head. As we were talking, a second department head came and sat down on my other side and started asking me a pressing question while I was in the middle of a sentence to the first DH. Two tables down a third department head saw me and rushed over, asking *his* Important Question as he approached. My multi-processing unit overloaded and I appear to have growled. They ran for cover.
  • DH 3 caught me on the trip back from lunch to rant about how useless the administration is and no one listens to him and he needs all this stuff right now and he's going to go pout in a corner and make everyone in his department pout with him if I don't give him what he wants. Need I note that what he wants is not in my power to give? As my sainted aunt used to say: Let's have a pity party, one, two, three, ohhhhhhhh.
  • I tried to explain to a search committee chair why I would not be hiring the one candidate they want me to hire. The candidate submitted two letters of reference from two different people in two different cities that were identical. This does not make me happy. That's all I need, a plagiarizing proffie.
  • And on the bright side, we had open house in the afternoon, and a Dad came up to me to ask if I was that woman he had seen on TV recently. Yes, I was, oh my, someone saw it and remembered! Seems to have been good advertising. Now send us your money child in the fall!

16 comments:

  1. I'm glad that someone else's circuits overload when she is asked to deal with multiple inputs at once. I don't even deal well with having the TV or radio on (though I usually end up tuning those out, if I can't turn them off, as I get into a project). And I, too, growl on occasion -- and then feel guilty, and vulnerable. I don't exactly want a position that allows me to growl at will, but a reasonable amount of assurance that it will be forgiven/tolerated on occasion would be nice. Power tends to confer that assurance, I think.

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  2. I'm also intrigued by the fact that Suzy has 3 DHs trying to get her attention (since DH is most often used as an internet abbreviation for "Dear Husband" -- or "Darn Husband," or husband-modified-by-some-other-word-that-starts-with-d). It all sounds vaguely polyandrous.

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  3. re:

    We've just moved two departments, and they are back on telephone service and internet. One silverback used his CCing-talents to widely complain that the snail mail wasn't being sorted properly and all of it was in a box in the hallway. Upon investigation it turned out to be a box of advertising, and he just didn't have a key to the real mail room. He included a student in his rant email who had just handed in his thesis 2 days ago. The student called in panic that we have surely lost his thesis if it was just in a box on the hallway. I suggested he calm down, take a sedative if necessary, and let us sort it out.

    >>>
    Surely the student has the thing backed up?

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  4. @cerberus: that occurred to me, too, but then I recalled how much it had cost to buy the appropriate paper and have mine duplicated and bound -- and that was nearly 10 years ago. Also, if there's a requirement that a copy be displayed in public for a certain number of days, loss/disappearance of that copy could set back a defense date (on the other hand, that's presumably the sort of requirement that a Dean could waive if the situation warranted).

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  5. Dear Suzy,
    LOVE YOU! xxxxoooo

    I just had a DH (and that DOESN'T stand for Department Head or Darn Husband right now....use your imagination) e-mail me an attached file for a student. No explanation, no request for info on the history or background of the student, just "Thanks for accepting this assignment (weeks late)." Something tells me you wouldn't do this, and I love you for it.

    Oh, and thanks for actually reading those Letters Of Recommendations. I always wondered if they really meant anything.

    Did I mention I love you? Figured you needed it three times to offset those three freaking e-mails.

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  6. I'm with junebug; chiquita, you had a crazy-assed day, and I'm feelin' ya.

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  7. Suzy, do you see how lucky your school is to have you!?!?! Hang in there!

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  8. By the way, where is Frod? And Yaro for that matter? And Myra Adele Logan?

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  9. I ate them (Frod, Yaro, Myra, Tingle), just like I've eaten everything else in my way that's not nailed down. "COOKIES WILL FIX IT."

    I am practicing detachment this week, though, perhaps that will slow down the eating and maybe prevent Beaker Ben and honestprof from disappearing down my maw.

    I have my own 'bootleg copier.' Sweet. Me and the IT department have a relationship founded on my willingness to share a bottle of single-malt scotch that lives behind bound United Nations reports. It's a thought...

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  10. ps: I wish to also book a seat on the Love On Dean Suzy train.

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  11. Oh my, (blush) what wonderful comments!

    Especially since today was a continuation of yesterday including a student yelling at me on the phone because she dropped a class online by mistake and I wouldn't drop everything and put her back on. Apparently, the growl works well over the telephone. I really must try this more often.

    DH3 appeared with a sort of appeasement offering, as now 3 of my 6 people are off sick. He's sending one of his research aides by to man the phones while I go scream at Human Resources to let me hire someone RIGHT NOW or else something drastic will happen. Growl. Grrrrowl.

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  12. Keep growling, Dean Suzy. I'm on that love train too.

    You keep reminding me why I don't want to "advance" to manager (despite flattering efforts of higher-ups to encourage me in that direction).

    Cyberhugs and kudos re: "My multi-processing unit overloaded and I appear to have growled." Great writing; if only I could express my multi-processing woes so well.

    Glee re: "As my sainted aunt used to say: Let's have a pity party, one, two, three, ohhhhhhhh."
    I hadn't remembered that for years! I must use it with my teenager soon, if not my students.

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  13. "The candidate submitted two letters of reference from two different people in two different cities that were identical.... That's all I need, a plagiarizing proffie. "

    Is it possible that the applicant was asked by each of the references to write a basic template letter, that the applicant did so, that neither reference bothered to make any changes because each was overwhelmed with work, and that the applicant never imagined that the references would submit his template letter verbatim? I'd at least call the references or the applicant to ask. The references would appreciate knowing if the applicant stole their identities. The applicant would appreciate knowing if his references were so lazy. This could be one big, unfortunate misunderstanding. It might be plagiarism, but I'd go to the source before condemning the applicant.

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