A Return to the Office

Any day now classes will start, which means - of course - that I've only a few short days until my syllabi need to be ready. And since I've managed to ignore huge chunks of e-mail for most of the break (particularly during the trip home), that means there's a lot to do. And though I reviewed most of the applicants' files for our vacant position before I left, all that knowledge seems to have been lost on one of the 6 am flights. So there's a bit to do today.

It's probably not a good sign that I found myself wondering as I trudged up the backstairs to my office what I'd have to do to get fired.

But there are good things happening, to be sure. I had an advisee caught for plagarism last term who's contacted me, explained it was absolutely their fault and explained what they think the reasons for it were, asking for suggestions about how to alter the pattern they see that made cheating seem the way to go. As a beacon of hope for this term, that seems like a pretty big one. I mean how many millions of times have you felt like people - not just students - just refuse to accept responsibility for their actions. And to some degree this makes me feel better about the fact that, prior to the incident, I'd picked the student out as someone who had a lot of potential. I'll take it as the silver lining (he said, cribbing Rilo Kiley) to start the term.