The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Quote from: the_geneticist on September 17, 2024, 01:46:02 PM

Quote from: Puget on September 16, 2024, 03:04:48 PMTA, when I ask for times you are available for exam grading, providing me with times before the exam occurs is not at all helpful. Or perhaps you have a time machine?

Such a helpful TA to want to pre-grade all the exams!

I'm having to tell TAs that when class attendance for TAs is "required", that YES it means that the TAs have to be there in person.  Why? Because they are helping with in-class activities.  Promising to look at the slides after and "staying all caught up" is not acceptable.

Don't know what TAs are paid at your place, but I know from experience that it's often not enough to motivate dedicated service.  I recall from my TA days being paid a few cents an hour above minimum wage to grade for a class, but not to attend class and keep up with what was actually going on.  It was just understood that we would do that for free.  If you were at all diligent in taking care of class duties, you might well end up with an average hourly compensation below the then minimum wage.

We did it anyway, since it was expected.  Today's generation presumably can't be expected to respect norms like that. Can't say as they can be blamed with regard to that particular sort of professional norm.

I visited my brother out of state in recent days and found him dealing with varmints on his small acreage that he raises a few livestock on.  He has trapped and relocated two possums.  And permanently dealt with an armadillo that was destroying the yard.

Quote from: apl68 on December 12, 2023, 07:18:42 AM

Quote from: onehappyunicorn on December 11, 2023, 03:13:41 PMI usually teach studio art classes but we needed someone to teach an art appreciation class last minute this semester and I got volunteered. It's been a while since I've had to grade student papers and while I'm ready to start drinking I have a few gems.

From two separate papers about The Persistence of Memory:

"Dali often used ants in his paintings to represent death and decay that he, himself symbolizes."

"This painting was not up for commission, which hints that Dalí was a surrealist."

I liked this one about another artist:
"The intense intensity radiating from the artwork established a profound and automatic connection..."
I would be disappointed to have apathetic intensity radiating for sure...

I can remember sentences like these from my TA days.  And in those days students didn't need online bots to generate writing like that for them!

"Intense intensity radiating" was indeed repetitious and redundant.  If the intensity is "radiating" then it's obviously intense, since apathetic intensity almost never has what it takes to radiate.

Quote from: onehappyunicorn on December 11, 2023, 03:13:41 PMI usually teach studio art classes but we needed someone to teach an art appreciation class last minute this semester and I got volunteered. It's been a while since I've had to grade student papers and while I'm ready to start drinking I have a few gems.

From two separate papers about The Persistence of Memory:

"Dali often used ants in his paintings to represent death and decay that he, himself symbolizes."

"This painting was not up for commission, which hints that Dalí was a surrealist."

I liked this one about another artist:
"The intense intensity radiating from the artwork established a profound and automatic connection..."
I would be disappointed to have apathetic intensity radiating for sure...

Dali said in interview on Dick Cavett show not to look for meanings in his work because there are none. He was clear not joking

Do you get irrelevant and vague reasons for rejecting papers? Looks like the editors did not read it at all. Or reasons are petty or very vague. I'd rather have no comment. Ed says it lacks argument throughline when the entire paper is argument to the end. One example. Eds won't say the real reason I suspect. Maybe lack of interest or it was beyond their knowledge. They tell me of other journals with a LOWER acceptance rate.
    I currently have no access to my saved work on vacation  Is it asking too much for editor to send it back to me?

Morning!

QBwSBB last word bookrack which I thought I tried.

LB nudge for flow-whataboutism.

Happy solving!

Quote from: spork on September 17, 2024, 07:51:33 AM

Quote from: ciao_yall on September 17, 2024, 06:13:20 AM

Quote from: spork on September 17, 2024, 05:45:29 AM

Quote from: marshwiggle on September 17, 2024, 04:47:30 AM[...]

 (Well, maybe Syria, Venezuela, and Haiti aren't too worried about illegal immigration.)

Places with very successful emigration policies.

As for the U.S., as pointed out by the U.S. Census Bureau and researchers like Matthew Desmond, the official poverty rate has ranged between 11% and 15% of the population since the mid-1960s. We like to keep some people poor and invent policies to achieve this goal. Unfortunately these folks don't want to pick vegetables, butcher cows, or nail shingles, so we have to convince other people to cross our borders illegally.

France,Germany and Sweden and others are dealing with racism and Islamophobia.

Uh, maybe I'm missing the obvious, but I don't see how prejudice in these European countries connects to the 2024 elections, poverty, or immigration policies in the U.S.

Because the issues are not related to immigration policy or a social safety net.

These issues are caused by racist natives.

My sympathies as well. Keep talking to us here, and I hope you can get some psychological support - max out whatever therapy benefits your health insurance has while you still have it, use any free tele-counseling sessions from your employee assistance program, call the 988 crisis hotline if you need it.

I'd second poiuy's tip regarding considering entry level university admin positions, including not just the IRB, but also department and division admins, student affairs/grad affairs, admissions, grants office, etc.

We are constantly hiring for such positions (even when there are budget cuts) because there is a lot of turnover as people move up and out of them. They may not pay that well, but they have manageable 9-5 schedules and benefits, and folks who prove at all competent in them plus easy to work with can pretty quickly move up to more senior and higher paid positions.

PhDs from under-employed fields are not at all unusual in these positions, and many end up adjuncting a few courses on the side to keep their hand in their field and supplement their salary.

If you can quickly learn new things, are organized, have good written and oral communication skills, can find and interpret relevant information well and efficiently, can solve problems independently but incorporating feedback, and have basic office software skills, you are qualified. These are all transferable skills from being faculty in any field.

Wrote about 650 words, translated a bit.

Hi Brego,

My sincerest sympathies for all that you are going through. It's too much and academia can often be a dreadful place.

I echo all who are saying: please focus on your own wellbeing first and foremost. Go slow and easy. One small positive thing each day - talk to a friend, a walk in good weather, admire the sunset, a comedy episode. This is not hokey, you are retraining your brain out of a negative loop, and I say this as a person naturally predisposed to depression and gloom. I have to keep practicing what I preach.

In the bigger picture, it's great to get out of the professoriate. You *do* have skills - research, analysis, writing, communication, persuasion. I don't know your field or what you like to do, but there may be options in High School education, or any entry level higher ed administration, or in a local nonprofit related to your area?
I don't know your specific research expertise, but I know there is a large lack of people with IRB skills to fill positions at all levels of that structure in multiple institutions. These positions don't need high level scientific research skills, but a general knowledge base and orientation to the ethics and what is required in an institution. Is it possible to spend your remaining time in your institution getting experience or certification in some such key area that you can leverage for a job search?

You are a valuable person. Please don't despair. Do lean heavily on your networks - you would do the same for them.

I wish you the very best. Please do keep sharing here to the extent that you feel comfortable. We are all cheering you on.

Quote from: Hibush on September 12, 2024, 11:12:25 AM

Quote from: spork on September 12, 2024, 09:53:55 AMIthaca College misses

While they missed the target, they hit the same number as the last several years. They cut expenses in a big move three years ago, to 2015 levels, and that number has stayed steady. Those numbers, from both sources, make it look as if IC is in about the same shape as the last couple years.
However, the revenue side is scary, when 10% of the 2022-23 AY total is from sale of assets.

I have an emotional attachment to Ithaca College going back to about 1970. Visited a musician high school friend there then.

I love the names of categories in form whatever: Sale of assets is called revenue! No, sale of assets is better named as "financing the deficit".

Look, we aren't even at the so-called enrollment cliff yet, and the adjustment is proceeding apace by closing down colleges. 'Twould be better if non-profits could be bought out by other non-profits, 'ya know, a hostile takeover, or some such. That could save the best parts of a college from going down the tubes, instead of having the endowment, however large or small, spent on keeping the present board in wine, women, and song.

Putting aside rationality for affection, Cornell could take over the place! High above Cayuga's waters ... .