The Fora: A Higher Education Community

In recent months we've had a staff member semi-retire.  She has gone to part-time.  This means we're paying for fewer hours of staff time, and this staff member has been dropped from our staff employee benefits.  By not hiring another part-timer to cover the hours she's no longer here for, we have saved some money.  That will help our budget situation without any lay-offs.

The fact remains that we now have fewer staff hours with which to serve the public.  This is putting us in an awkward position at times.  We're now trying to put together a plan for the next Board of Trustees meeting to reduce our evening hours during the week slightly.  Most evenings there's nobody here at closing time, so we could amputate an hour from most evenings during the week without inconveniencing too many patrons.  By adjusting work schedules, we should be able to cover our hours pretty well.

But it's going to require quite a few adjustments in schedules.  Some lunch breaks may have to be reduced.  We need to put a good deal of thought into the best schedule.  I hope we can come up with something that won't antagonize anybody too badly.

I thought we could shorten Saturday schedules by an hour as well, but in studying patron activity on Saturdays I don't find any reliably slow hours at either the beginning or the end of the day that would be an obvious hour to sacrifice.  So it looks like we won't be shortening our opening hours on that day.

I've played a few Fallout games and I loved the series too.  They really captured the atmosphere of the video games.  And Walton Goggins is always a joy to watch.

Last night we finished season 2 of Extraordinary on Hulu.  1/2 hour comedy series centered on a 25yo with issues who lives in a world where everyone (except her) acquires a superpower when they turn 18.  I thought the premise seemed kind of interesting and when ads for season 2 started showing up I thought, "oh, this actually looks really funny!"  So we watched it, it's very well done, very funny if a bit cringe at times.  And the actress who plays Sister Michael in Derry Girls is in it.

Quote from: marshwiggle on Today at 02:15:58 PM

Quote from: Wahoo Redux on Today at 12:51:02 PMI don't think you quite understand what that phrase means, Marshy. 

Why do you say that? The point is that how anyone wants to be treated flies in the face of a society that strives to treat people fairly. In the latter case, if everyone is treated the same, then that effectively means doling out available resources equally. But in the former, if everyone (or every "group") gets to decide what they feel they deserve, that makes no reference to whether that is compatible with the available resources in the context of what everyone else feels they themselves deserve.

It's Kant's categorical imperative simplified.

All it says is treat other people the same way you would want to be treated.

Kind of in a holding pattern waiting for readers' responses on the monograph and doing a kind of scattered job search.

Been editing an old revise & resubmit, picking away at the writing, rethinking it a bit.  One reader's response was so all over the place that I don't know what to do with it; hu threw in everything possibly associated with the subject matter including the kitchen sink.  Considering including a note to this effect if and when I send it back.

Hoping for great R&R, darkstarry. 

Quote from: jimbogumbo on Today at 01:17:28 PMFrom the Ballon Juice blog:

"Are there some bad actors who have said inexcusable things and peddled anti-Semitic tropes? Of course. Are they the majority? No. Not even close."

That's because the majority are too clueless to find Gaza on a map, and are just parroting what the group tells them too, so they don't get left out.

Quote from: jimbogumbo on Today at 01:17:28 PMFrom the Ballon Juice blog:

"The other big news is all the protests occurring all over the country regarding the War in Gaza. I've been saying this for years, but I'll say it again. There is fundamentally NO DIFFERENCE between the majority of college and university administrations and every corporate hack out there. None. That's one of the dirty secrets about colleges that Republicans, in their 60 year war on the academy, don't want anyone to know. There may be faculty and students with liberal sensibilities, and a smattering of actual radicals, but the majority of administrators could just as easily be lying to congress about whether tobacco is addictive or that climate change is a hoax. The only real difference is that university admins are versed in the language of liberalism, but only enough so that they can brandish it at as a weapon against their enemies, which is usually faculty and staff and students.

So am I surprised that the gut instinct of all of these assholes is to immediately call the cops on students? Not even remotely. All they care about is that the donor cash keeps coming in and their record is not blemished with the people who matter- they're corporate donors, fellow administrators, and Republican politicians. Are there some bad actors who have said inexcusable things and peddled anti-Semitic tropes? Of course. Are they the majority? No. Not even close. I'll just leave it to you to parse why the most ardent critics of trigger warnings and safe spaces are now cheering on... the arrest and violence inflicted on them in the process of those with whom they disagree."

In a similar vein, a well-written open letter to Columbia's president by a UCLA history professor:

https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/letter-to-columbia-university-president-minouche-shafik/.

Quote from: Wahoo Redux on Today at 12:51:02 PMI don't think you quite understand what that phrase means, Marshy. 

Why do you say that? The point is that how anyone wants to be treated flies in the face of a society that strives to treat people fairly. In the latter case, if everyone is treated the same, then that effectively means doling out available resources equally. But in the former, if everyone (or every "group") gets to decide what they feel they deserve, that makes no reference to whether that is compatible with the available resources in the context of what everyone else feels they themselves deserve.

Quote from: FishProf on Today at 11:11:51 AMNow it's straightforward. 
1) Must be passing at time,
2) Must have completed most of the coursework;
3) Must complete the missing work by 8 weeks into next semester (summers excepted) or the grade becomes a failing grade. 
4) Extensions to the deadline must be approved at Dean level.

There was much grumbling, but the changes seem to have made incompletes the rarity they are meant to be

Similar rules here, but an even tighter deadline - all incomplete work is due one month after the last day of finals. They also have to fill out a form that must be approved by their advisor and the professor. It is made very clear that it is only for emergency situations the result in not being able to finish a final assignment or exam. Yet, some students still think they can use incompletes to make up long-past missed assignments, or even that it means they don't have to do the work at all. Nope, nope, nope, not going to happen!

Quote from: spork on Today at 10:25:50 AMClosure announcements today:

Wells College, NY

University of Saint Katherine, CA

Either St. Katherine's students and faculty had more to say, or its closure was the more abrupt of the two.  Apparently the great majority of their students played sports.

From the Ballon Juice blog:

"The other big news is all the protests occurring all over the country regarding the War in Gaza. I've been saying this for years, but I'll say it again. There is fundamentally NO DIFFERENCE between the majority of college and university administrations and every corporate hack out there. None. That's one of the dirty secrets about colleges that Republicans, in their 60 year war on the academy, don't want anyone to know. There may be faculty and students with liberal sensibilities, and a smattering of actual radicals, but the majority of administrators could just as easily be lying to congress about whether tobacco is addictive or that climate change is a hoax. The only real difference is that university admins are versed in the language of liberalism, but only enough so that they can brandish it at as a weapon against their enemies, which is usually faculty and staff and students.

So am I surprised that the gut instinct of all of these assholes is to immediately call the cops on students? Not even remotely. All they care about is that the donor cash keeps coming in and their record is not blemished with the people who matter- they're corporate donors, fellow administrators, and Republican politicians. Are there some bad actors who have said inexcusable things and peddled anti-Semitic tropes? Of course. Are they the majority? No. Not even close. I'll just leave it to you to parse why the most ardent critics of trigger warnings and safe spaces are now cheering on... the arrest and violence inflicted on them in the process of those with whom they disagree."