The Venting Thread

[downer]

Tutoring Center has a flyer they want all students to see. So they send it to the deans, who send it to all faculty, asking them to distribute it to the students.

Why doesn't the Tutoring Center just send an email to all students?

[the_geneticist]

Someone I have never heard of, from an office dealing with international students somewhere across campus CCd me on a message to IT initiating IT to make changes to my Blackboard shell (merging my existing class with a class that is not listed as being assigned to me). 

I treated it essentially as a spam attack and alerted the IT people, my chair, my associate dean, the MBA director (as it was an MBA class that was being 'attacked'). I have also now alerted the Speaker of the Faculty Senate.

The Distance Learning liaison (also alerted) sent the instructions showing that only the department chair or instructor of record are allowed to make such requests.

So NOW that I know that the person is not a scammer Im still pissed!  Hopefully one of my administrators will stand up to such crap and spank the officials that tried such misdeeds! Perhaps a policy will be created, (or hopefully, the existing one will be brushed off and followed!)

No one has yet apologized either, so I sort of feel like I am the only one that thinks this is a problem!  I know that classes are starting today and that there are a lot of fires to deal with and this may be small embers to some, but Im sort of annoyed that no one else seems to think that having someone from the International Student's office unilaterally request changes to a faculty member's Blackboard shells is a problem.... ??? WTF???

WOW.  Just wow.  Like they thought you wouldn't notice/be totally fine with a sudden increase in your class size?

Our International Studies program tried to pull that sort of nonsense on me for an in person lab class.  The class is for non-majors and has 0 prerequisites so anyone can take it.  The class always fills with seniors who need the class to graduate, there are never any seats left when the international studies students get to register.  They wanted me to increase the lab sizes.  Nope.  Not possible due to fire code.  Then they asked if we could "just add some more sections".  Nope.  Not unless you pay for the TAs.  Or offer a "discussion section" version.  Nope.  It's a lab.

I'm waiting for them to ask again this Spring. 

[apl68]

Tutoring Center has a flyer they want all students to see. So they send it to the deans, who send it to all faculty, asking them to distribute it to the students.

Why doesn't the Tutoring Center just send an email to all students?

Maybe that's their way of making sure that faculty are aware of what the Tutoring Center is telling the students.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Someone in the College has unpaid invoices in a certain corporate account. Because of this, I cannot get the things that I need for my projects. Grrrrrrrr.

[mamselle]

Time to do a tap dance on some accountant's desk.

No fun.

M.

[downer]

Dean
Why are you sending out registration info for the Online Teaching Summit after it occurred?

[wareagle]

Tutoring Center has a flyer they want all students to see. So they send it to the deans, who send it to all faculty, asking them to distribute it to the students.

Why doesn't the Tutoring Center just send an email to all students?

They may not have access to the student listserv.  On my campus, you have to pledge your first-born as collateral, attend mysterious midnight rites, obtain a secret password, and wait for the moon to be in the Seventh House before you may have this privilege.

[downer]

Tutoring Center has a flyer they want all students to see. So they send it to the deans, who send it to all faculty, asking them to distribute it to the students.

Why doesn't the Tutoring Center just send an email to all students?

They may not have access to the student listserv.  On my campus, you have to pledge your first-born as collateral, attend mysterious midnight rites, obtain a secret password, and wait for the moon to be in the Seventh House before you may have this privilege.

Maybe so. I'd be surprised though since the whole college is run on a shoestring and there seem to be maybe 2 or 3 people in the IT dept. I don't even know if they are all full time.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Tutoring Center has a flyer they want all students to see. So they send it to the deans, who send it to all faculty, asking them to distribute it to the students.

Why doesn't the Tutoring Center just send an email to all students?

They may not have access to the student listserv.  On my campus, you have to pledge your first-born as collateral, attend mysterious midnight rites, obtain a secret password, and wait for the moon to be in the Seventh House before you may have this privilege.

Sounds about right.

[the_geneticist]

I am sick.  I have been sick for almost two weeks now.  I am very sick of being sick.
And I need a nap.
That is all.

[mamselle]

Can't help with the sick part, except to say I hope you'll be on the mend very soon.

There's a quiet room thread for napping in, though....if you like.

M.

[AmLitHist]

Feel better soon, geneticist!

It's definitely full moon here.  My evidence since yesterday:

Kid #1 put her car in a ditch on the country road by her house. (It could have been worse:  she did a couple of 360s across both lanes, skidded sideways, and buried the back end in a road ditch--but she didn't hit anything, or damage the car, or end up in the creek that was just a few feet to her right after she'd stopped.) She's a good driver on snow and was taking the pup to the vet, with only an inch of snow forecast.  She said the pup's eyes got big and he braced himself and hung on, then seemed to want to do it all again after everything stopped moving.  He enjoyed it when the tow truck pulled them out, too.  Neither of them was hurt.

I logged on around 8:15 for my 9:30 live class, only to have no internet.  The router, right beside me, was fine, and everybody else in the house had a good signal.  Apparently my wifi in the laptop has shot craps; it's fine with wired ethernet, so I'll go with that rather than buy a new laptop. 

Before I figured all that out, I dug out my work laptop and used it--and of course, had to wait for all the updates, and then had to download the MS Teams app so I could share screens, etc.  I eventually started the class, just a few minutes late, and my students all waited for me.

During class, others were having tech problems, too--dropped connections, mics that dropped out, etc.  One guy's mic came back on in the midst of a stream of blue language directed at his computer, which we all got a good laugh out of.

As I told them once class was done, I'd consider giving up for the day and going back to bed, but I'd likely fall out and brain myself.

At least it was a really good class, and I can laugh about it all. If these are the worst things I have to vent about, I'm OK with that.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Time to do a tap dance on some accountant's desk.

No fun.

M.

I wish I could. Last time this happened, it took two weeks to resolve...

[clean]

I snapped at my bride today and she remains mad at me.

My area is doing a drive in shot thing whenever they get the  vaccine.  This has only been going on for a few weeks, maybe 3 weeks now.  They have not yet done the second round of vaccines for those that got the first shot as part of these big events. 

I am eager to get my shot as i have preexisting issues (bilateral pulmonary embolisms among other things).  HOwever, I want to be sure that I get the vaccine AS Designed! (meaning 3 or 4 weeks apart depending on brand).  I do not yet have confidence that the county/state will be able to deliver the second dose on time.  AS the time has not yet arrived for the first batches of folks that were given the shots, there is no way to know yet if they will deliver on their promises.

So this morning, While I was TRYING to grade papers before my afternoon classes (via Webex), she starts nagging me (I told her she was nagging me and now she is mad).  1st.... Father RJ is now out of the hospital and back to work.  He recovered quickly because he got the first shot before he got sick...... 2nd.
The J&J dose wont be out for some time, I dont think that you should wait.   .... 3rd.  The effeciency of the J&J vaccine is lower, you should get the current shot rather than wait.....  All of this in 30 minutes. 

We have discussed WHY I am waiting.  Im not waiting too long. I told her last week (for the 3rd time) that I will be glad to discuss the shot issue after the first week of March, once we have a few weeks' evidence of whether and HOW the county is going to make good on shot 2. 

So after the 3rd 'hint' that I should get the shot in 30 minutes today, while trying to grade,  I reminded her that I wont talk about it until March and for her to stop nagging me about it and  she got her feelings hurt.  It is not like I could even get in line for a shot as there isnt even a drive in clinic scheduled at least before Friday, so What did she want me to do about it TODAY? 

I suppose that the "good news" is that tonight as we were fixing dinner, she said she 'wont be mad for much longer'..... Good!  It had only been about 10 hours by then, so Im glad to hear that she wont be mad much longer because I told her she was nagging me!!

Vent over (in a few more hours!!)

[mamselle]

Is your partner also in Academia?

M.