The Fora: A Higher Education Community

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."

That last moment of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is a classic.

I don't think you quite understand what that phrase means, Marshy. 

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

Wells College, NY

University of Saint Katherine, CA

Heard about St. Katherine over the weekend - a message came out on one of my ListServs basically begging for people to look at their staff/faculty to see if any would be a good fit at our institutions.

Writing had been on the wall for years at Wells, but man that's a hard blow personally. Aurora was my mom and dad's happy place. So many family memories there, mostly because of MacKenzie-Childs and the Victoria/Richard empire (pre sell out). In fact, when my mom is gone she wants her ashes blended with my dad's and scattered into the lake. (Yes, we know we can't do that but she doesn't need to know that.)

Apologies for my drop-off. I traveled last week to spend time with family, and have done very little on my book besides having a productive phone call with the final case study contributor who has not drafted anything and sending feedback on a case to another contributor.

I am still an anxious mess waiting on my sabbatical manuscript to get a decision. The journal status is "awaiting final decision" for five weeks now. It was submitted almost 10 months ago. I asked the managing editor two weeks ago for a timeline, and learned after the final review was submitted in March, an associate editor gets 30+ days to recommend a decision to the editor-in-chief, who gets another 7 days. Well, it has been more than 37 days and I just want a R&R, please!

Absolutely true.  I was on the committee that tightened up the incomplete rules at FishProfU.  It was the wild west.

We had professors that;
1) Gave EVERYONE an incomplete, so they had more time to grade; or
2) Gave EVERYONE without an A and Incomplete until they got to an A; or
3) Gave students an incomplete who could not ever pass, and thereby blocked them from repeating; or
4) Gave incompletes and allowed them to be fixed for years...

Now 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

"Better FAFSA" is gonna sever the thin thread that some colleges have been hanging on to. In the case of Wells, the writing was on the wall for a long time, and I don't think there was really even a thread left.

I realized that I have a policy of waiting a few days before answering student emails that start with no greeting and go straight into "How come...?"