The Venting Thread

[downer]

When a student writes that an issue "garnered national attention" I'm left trying to work out where they copied and pasted the sentence from.

[Langue_doc]

NYT? Washington Post?

[downer]

NYT? Washington Post?

More like ABC News.

[Katrina Gulliver]

FFS. I just got an email from a SCC saying that the search I applied to two weeks ago will be deferred to fall because "summer is approaching". Like it's some unexpected occurrence.

[Langue_doc]

Both my printers stopped working a couple of days ago. One dropped dead as soon as I installed a new ink cartridge. The other one suddenly developed paper feed problems (paper doesn't feed despite all the sound and fury) which appears to be fixable, according to several youtube videos. I just put the latter out on the curb with a note to the effect that google can help solve the paper feed problem. It's trash pick-up day tomorrow so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the printer (which is neither trash nor recyclable) to get picked up by someone tonight.

The new one arrives tomorrow, so that's a relief.

[Vkw10]

NewDean has decided to revise the outcomes assessment process, including changing the goals and action plans for 2021-22. He's also decided to change questions and instructions on the reporting forms. Several chairs explained that it's is a university process, with university forms and goals/action plans approved last year by multiple administrative levels. NewDean scolded them for unwillingness to innovate and obstructiveness, again.

I'm filling out NewDean's forms with NewDean's goals and action plans, plus the university-approved forms with university-approved goals and action plans. Waste of time, but at least I'm getting nibbles from the applications I started submitting after I decided that I either move or retire in August.

[AmLitHist]

This vent is in the wake of my actual vent that occurred yesterday--or rather, it was a fit of rage like I haven't felt in a very, very long time. 

The semester-long story, short: after completely inappropriately handling three complaints from students in my classes (i.e., long conversations with each student, never notifying me until after the fact, promising students to intervene on their behalf--all in direct contravention of both BoT and union protocols) AND also losing her shit in a very public way about me because I hadn't given her an hour by hour report on my whereabouts on a non-teaching day, I'd had enough and read my new chair the riot act in a lengthy and detailed email cc'd to our dean and my union president.

Her response was a list of attempted rationalizations and her insistence that her attempts to micromanage me (and colleagues) isn't micromanagement at all--all of which, of course, served as admissions that she actually DID all the things she did.  Whatever; I have no interest in a kumbayah moment and made very clear that I want neither accommodations, praise, nor friendship from her, but that I demand she either explain what I've done wrong to make her not trust me or, alternatively, get the hell off my back and leave me alone to do the job I'm hired to do. 

The residual vent isn't because I'm still outraged (I'm not, but I definitely AM done playing her little chicken-sh%t games), but more because it happened at all, and because I wasted an entire day building a paper trail about it.  The good news, though, is that the next time she so much as looks at me sideways, I'm going straight to file a grievance. I am done with her sorry self.

[mamselle]

Thinking of you.

Those stupid situations are so draining, the more so because you're the one pointing out the stupid, the stupid one just sits back and lets you...and then tries to rebut with more stupid.

Find your star.

M.

[paddington_bear]

At the end of last semester,  I needed a new toner for the printer in my office. I told our dept secretary about it. All good. But then at the beginning of this semester, our campus - part of the state system - got word that the system wants to eliminate faculty members' printers and to have campuses go to shared printers. So no new printers or printer supplies would be purchased. My printer was then networked to the printer/copier in the main department office. But, my dept chair said that there was an unused printer that could be moved to my office. Great! So at the end of January that printer was moved into my office. But somehow it wasn't hooked up to my computer. So for the rest of the semester, I've been sending emails through our automated service-request system asking when they're going to connect my printer. Sometimes I got an email back saying that they've forwarded the request to some other person. Once I got an email back asking if the printer was working. No, it wasn't.  Now there's one more week left in the semester and I wouldn't be surprised if IT sends me a message this week letting me know that the printer works. Just in time for summer.

[downer]

3 students have become ill meaning they won't be able to take the final exam tomorrow.

I have to decide what to do as a make up. I'd do an oral exam, but 3 oral exams is about as much work as creating an online test. Either way, it's a pain in the neck. I could just calculate their final grade from the work done so far. That's looking tempting.

[clean]

If they are really sick, they made need a few weeks to recover.  I suggest that an Incomplete is in order and they can take a make up exam as late as the first week of Fall.  IF they are sick, they are not able to study.  They will need time to recover and then time to study once they do recover.  Dont rush them or you!.  IF you want to give an oral exam, ok, but a similar exam to what you give now would be better, I think.

[downer]

These are 19 year olds who had boosters. I'd be very surprised if they are ill more than a couple of days. But grades will be due very soon.

This school does not have incompletes. That makes it more difficult to sort out the problem. I may need to get advice from the dept chair.

[Parasaurolophus]

I dunno what IT did or when, but now it's impossible to view our class lists. The button is still there, but clicking it takes you to a page listing your courses, not the students enrolled in them. Sigh.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I am so angry and I am now committed to lying to my very, very disturbed family members. So fucking crazy. I had the phone on speaker and SO was just shaking his head. I do not need this toxicity and vitriolic destructive mess in my life. I now have to work it out through hard manual labor outside.

[Langue_doc]

EPW, you gotta do what you gotta do. I don't engage with at least one cousin who tried to convince me that Mr. T is the paragon of virtue, unlike his Dem counterparts. This was just before Nov 2016. I was dying to ask "Now how many wives has he had?", but bit my tongue and quickly changed the topic. Cousin thinks that divorce = immorality. I learned a long time ago to disengage, and excuse myself if the conversation veers into dangerous territory.

Do not engage! Stay strong! Gasp mid-sentence and come up with any excuse to end the conversation. You're having a sneezing fit. A skunk just got in through the cat or dog door. There's a deer on your property eating your newly planted vegetables.