cheating, cheating, everywhere

If prisoners can secretly build computers, hide them in the ceiling, and connect them to the internet to do just about anything they want, should we be surprised that our students (who have far more resources) are cheating?  What should be done about it?

Signs of the Times?

An observation from a month or so ago (when I seemed to be spending all my time draft-conferencing, or, all too occasionally, sleeping, and passing through the campus at odd very early and very late hours in between), and when student-government campaigning was in full swing (which for us means flyers and chalking):

It seems to me that improved wifi has replaced improved parking as the most popular student government candidate platform.  

This makes sense in a way, since our parking infrastructure has improved (garages have replaced several parking lots) and the fee structure is more rational (you can pay more for a guaranteed spot
and/or a shorter walk, or less for a considerably longer walk from a lot that never fills up completely), but the wifi infrastructure is seriously overtaxed in some spots (including some of the bring-your-own-device classrooms, which is, well, a serious problem, and I don't appreciate classroom IT support telling me "oh, yes; we've been having problems all over campus." Fair enough, but if necessary to provide reliable service, the classrooms that are designed with the assumption that wifi will be working need to be on a separate, more robust, more closely monitored and carefully maintained system.)

Or maybe the stereotype is true, and millenials (even suburban millenials) just hate, or at least don't care about, cars? 

This is life.

Whether you're celebrating Memorial Day, National Reconciliation Week, a great mattress sale, or just another day during a mini-semester, may you find peace.

Somewhere in Orange, Texas, there's a horse grazing and thinking good thoughts about you.

"Need to..."

Sorry, just a speedy.

Can we just agree to crush any advisor who comes into a faculty office and starts with: "Lauren needs to get a B in your course"?

Yeah, well Lauren needs to turn in some work. Now you need to leave.

Big Thirsty

11 pointers for college success from a professor (and dad)

By Rodney E. Rohde, PhD

1. It's the syllabus, stupid!
2. Exams, in most cases, will not be like the ones you took in high school or dual-credit community college.
3. Visit your professor and graduate instructors. 
4. Be alert for what your professor writes on the board, course blogs, emails or other interactions during the lecture or outside of the formal coursework.
5. Writing matters – yes, even the grammar counts!
6. Your mom was right – social skills and good manners are where the rubber meets the road.
7. Do more than what's expected!
8. Surround yourself with great mentors.
9. Time is truly precious, so don't waste mine — or yours.
10. If you have to work, try to limit the hours. Better yet, find a student worker position on campus.
11. Try to find internships and other paid or non-paid opportunities to gain work experience with your career skills.

What would your #12 be?

Adjunct Debt [from Prof. Pottah]

Ok, Zooze and Company, here's the dirty list:

--I make about $14,000 per year (we'll call it 14 large to sound cool).
--My house in underwater.  Market crashed a few years after we bought. It's also in the city of
Chicago (bang-bang; I thought that we were done with that in the 1920s), so there's that. It was a mistake, but one we could not have prevented.
--Didn't even finish my degree. (Anxiety, ADD, etc.)
--Adjuncting. Student loan payments are more than my salary. Not teaching in summer, unfortunately.
--Student Loan Forgiveness: Adjuncts need not apply. (Yes, I know Dick Durbin is working on something . . . or was, in 2014 . . .)
--Out of forebearances. (Forebearancii?)
--My poor wife!
--My poor kids.

I asked some folks who are in the discipline in which I teach, and they didn't have much to say other than "teach in Saudi Arabia" and "Wait for Durbin."

Suicide is an option; if I die, I think the loans go away. The shame on my wife and children, though, makes this not an option. Not in the slightest. I'm ok.

Look, I've had some bad luck, but I've also made bad decisions. Mostly bad luck, though.

I've tried to get jobs in other fields. Dice: None. I'm 48.

I'm writing a letter of rec tonight for a decent student. I'm not sure why I'm doing this.

What options do I have? Any ideas? I have none.

Prof. Pottah

Should white guys get out of the way? [from Frankie Bow]

So there's been a big kerfuffle over this post, from a lecturer at the University of Hawaii, on the blog of the American Mathematical Society:

Get Out The Way

Not to alarm you, but I probably want you to quit your job, or at least take a demotion. Statistically speaking, you are probably taking up room that should go to someone else. If you are a white cis man (meaning you identify as male and you were assigned male at birth) you almost certainly should resign from your position of power. That’s right, please quit. Too difficult? Well, as a first step, at least get off your hiring committee, your curriculum committee, and make sure you’re replaced by a woman of color or trans person. Don’t have any in your department?  HOW SHOCKING.

My reaction: As provocative and deliberately over-the-top as the proposed solution is, it still wouldn't accomplish the desired result. If all the cis-hetero white guys (or graying Baby Boomers, or any group of tenured faculty) quit their jobs tomorrow, they'd just be replaced with adjuncts--if they were replaced at all.

What do you think?

Frankie

Big Hungry

What are you looking forward to this summer?  Anything?

75-100%

A terrific student of mine who has just gone on the market has called me to ask if all HR departments are the same, and if they include information like the "required abilities" list below from a school to which he/she has applied:

• Visual Abilities: Read reports, create presentations and use a computer system – 75-100% of the time
• Hearing: Hear well enough to communicate with co-workers, vendors and students – 75-100% of the time.
• Dexterity, Grasping, Feeling: Write, type and use the telephone, copier, and computer systems – 75-100% of the time
• Mobility: Open files and operate office machines; move between departments and attend meetings across campus – 75-100% of the time
• Talking: Frequently convey detailed or important instructions and ideas accurately, loudly, or quickly – 75-100% of the time
• Lifting, Pulling, Pushing: Exert up to 30 pounds for force occasionally, and/or up to 20 pounds of force frequently, and/or up to 10 pounds of force constantly to move objects – 50-74% of the time.
• Cognitive/Emotional: Ability to critically think and concentrate. Must be able to respond quickly to changes in conditions – 75-100% of the time

In Which Bella Ponders the Kind of Wisdom that Can't Be Taught

Tina is 18 years old and epileptic.  She told me in the beginning of the semester, and went over what I should do for her if she had a seizure in class.  I wrote it all down on a page in my grade book and went over it in my mind.  That was in January.  As we were going over the revision requirements for the final research essay, Tina appeared to be in distress.  She stood up and seemed to be intending to walk out of the room.  And then she was down.  Tina sat in the back half of the room, and she was quickly surrounded by a ring of concerned students in the row between tables.  I rushed to her, remembering I needed to loosen the clothes around her neck, and was relieved to see she was wearing
a t-shirt. I did not have anything to put under her head, so I tried to put my hands between her head and the floor. Kneeling down, I looked up at the concerned faces of the other students, processing the scene during which no time seemed to have passed. "Let's give Tina some room, some air,"  I said.  I wanted to get up and call security, but was still frantically thinking what to do about her head.

"Tina," a deep, soothing female voice said.  "I think I need me a little lay down, too."  Rachel is a sixty-ish grandmother who has struggled with her writing and comprehension of every assignment the entire semester.  It can't have been easy for her to get down on the floor, but down on the floor she came, laying down right next to Tina and giving me her soft leather handbag.  Her voice and expression were incredibly calming, and I took the handbag and put it under Tina's head.  Rachel lay her head right on the floor.  "We'll just set here a bit, me and Tina.  Now go on, y'all."  The seizure was already abating.  I rose and told the students yes, you all should go.  You can ask me any more questions about your rewrites via email.  I went to the phone by the door and called security.

Tina was fine.  Thankfully she did not hit her head on the tables, and was only bruised from her fall.  I remain so awed by the quiet wisdom of Rachel, who knew what it must feel like to be on the floor surrounded by worried eyes.  Rachel, who got down on the floor with Tina and somehow made it seem like no big deal.  Rachel, who struggles academically in spite of her hard work, and who wants to get a college degree to inspire her grandchildren.  Rachel, kind and wise and caring Rachel.  I am so glad she was there.

--Bella