Zooze the Horse roams around the pasture near Lamar State College. Zooze thinks about problems in academia. Zhe wants proffies to submit posts (blog posts, not fence posts).
Monday, December 11, 2017
Big Hungry Monday
A few proffies, students, or administrators get angry at you and publicly criticize you regardless of what you do.
The department Xmas party was last week. I brought my kids. We were in the outer room with a few faculty and a lot of students. I'm biased, but they were good. Everyone who was out there commented on how cute they are etc.
The department drama queen was in the main room with most of the faculty and a few more students.
We never crossed paths. She never saw my kids.
As I was leaving she huffs, rolls her fucking eyes and says "You have your hands full with *those* two".
I always imagined one day I would "handle" her by calling her a useless baby drama queen. Apparently IRL I handle her by pretending not to hear her and walking away.
More seriously: it helps to do things with which no one can argue. One is that, as an observational astronomer, I produce images of the sky that everyone thinks are impressive. Even the worst bully our department we ever had, an old bit of deadwood with a thick German accent and the air of a child molester about him, who seemed to think that junior faculty needed to go through something like a fraternity initiation, could not deny that I was achieving SOMETHING here.
That I often involve student is even better. Whenever I show these pictures, university administrators stammer, "You say, STUDENTS did this?" I am not good at concealing my glee when I reply, "Yes, MY students did THIS." Whenever I say this, my smile is a fatuous thing, dreadful to behold. These pictures are very handy with recruiting, alumni, and parents, too.
Something else with which no one can argue is to keep bringing in external funding. That I was bringing in grants from NASA with my projects with Hubble Space Telescope and other spacecraft---and using them mainly to support students---was what got me tenure, despite numerous complaints about “collegiality” my creepier old colleagues were making.
With quotes...http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/d9/d9366a0e2a7a59951f9f4a2cab044312b23eff9d7ad9b5ff9e69ceab4468a8fc.jpg
ReplyDeleteThe department Xmas party was last week. I brought my kids. We were in the outer room with a few faculty and a lot of students. I'm biased, but they were good. Everyone who was out there commented on how cute they are etc.
ReplyDeleteThe department drama queen was in the main room with most of the faculty and a few more students.
We never crossed paths. She never saw my kids.
As I was leaving she huffs, rolls her fucking eyes and says "You have your hands full with *those* two".
I always imagined one day I would "handle" her by calling her a useless baby drama queen. Apparently IRL I handle her by pretending not to hear her and walking away.
I just STAPLE their DICKS to the FLOOR!
ReplyDeleteMore seriously: it helps to do things with which no one can argue. One is that, as an observational astronomer, I produce images of the sky that everyone thinks are impressive. Even the worst bully our department we ever had, an old bit of deadwood with a thick German accent and the air of a child molester about him, who seemed to think that junior faculty needed to go through something like a fraternity initiation, could not deny that I was achieving SOMETHING here.
That I often involve student is even better. Whenever I show these pictures, university administrators stammer, "You say, STUDENTS did this?" I am not good at concealing my glee when I reply, "Yes, MY students did THIS." Whenever I say this, my smile is a fatuous thing, dreadful to behold. These pictures are very handy with recruiting, alumni, and parents, too.
Something else with which no one can argue is to keep bringing in external funding. That I was bringing in grants from NASA with my projects with Hubble Space Telescope and other spacecraft---and using them mainly to support students---was what got me tenure, despite numerous complaints about “collegiality” my creepier old colleagues were making.
P.S. Sorry that should be "...involve students..."
Delete