Thus far, the challenges of the term:
- keeping the music down so as not to disturb the Religious Studies person next door. Honestly, the music is no louder than it was before. It's interesting that her complaint was about the type of music (I had The Roots on low), and her description was that it was "that bump-da-bump bump music."
- all the computers IT have updated with Vista in the classrooms completely freeze when the screen saver kicks in. The IT person I spoke with described this as a very limited problem with minimal impact. This has prompted my suggestion for a new slogan for our university: "University X: Hiring University X Graduates No One Else Will Have"
- a more general battle against the "because it's already here" sort of logic that inflicts this place in terms of hiring has overtaken me. Granted, we're in a crappy place and luring people from elsewhere to here is one of our big hiring challenges, but still...
- how to tell students I'm writing reference letters for that the programs they're applying to are a waste of their talents (including one student whose announcement that he intends to apply to a program here at University X was as close as I've come to having my skin literally crawl)
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6 Responses to “RBOStuck in the Office on a Satruday”
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To your last point, gently suggest additional programs that "might be a better fit"? (Which would, of course, require more work from you, but isn't that in the spirit of this post?)
January 19, 2008 at 3:59 PMI love the Roots! The fall before my tenure decision, I was in my office on a Saturday. I was playing "The Tipping Point", and you know those last songs, that are parts of "Why/What's Goin On"? Of course I was moved to dance, and so I was bopping and shaking around my office, and right at that moment in walked my department chair, asking me to please turn the music down.
January 19, 2008 at 4:03 PMQuite embarrassing.
Kermie - I did suggest a couple others, though the real crux is the student wants to stay here because his girlfriend is here and won't be done for another year. My suggestion that grad school as procrastination device might not be the best solution didn't work as well as I'd like, sadly.
January 19, 2008 at 4:48 PMMaggie - what would've been truly funny is if your dancing had been referenced in the tenure decision (though I guess that'd probably be touchy).
aiyee! tell me that student who is staying is NOT who i think it is!
January 19, 2008 at 5:46 PMOh, we hire our own too... and then they stick around, and it's soo creepy. However, I'm the only one who seems to see this as a problem....
January 20, 2008 at 9:37 AMAs to grad issues? Really painful is the student who applies to Major Ivy programs when her/his habit is to do shoddy work and rely on professors' perceptions of them as very good (rather than demonstrate same). Then the rejection letters come in and they are stunned and disbelieving and cannot fathom any reason for the turn down. Go figure.
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