We had a workshop at the university today, and besides being very good--albeit depressing about the state of instructional staff-- had excellent food.
This may not seem remarkable to most, but we hardly ever get food. Virtually every seminar I've been to in 15 years asks us to bring our lunch. But this was funded by a grant--so there was a terrific yogurt bar this morning and great salads. But man, I heard horror stories about people STILL not knowing what they're teaching in two weeks, about the business school cutting contracts to avoid paying benefits, about the total lack of institutional support for huge sections of the school. Yet--a very good lunch.
Workshopped
August 18th, 2012 at 02:46 am
August 18th, 2012 at 05:53 am 1345269222
HA! Now that's looking on the bright side.
August 18th, 2012 at 01:52 pm 1345297971
August 18th, 2012 at 01:58 pm 1345298329
August 18th, 2012 at 03:53 pm 1345305231
August 18th, 2012 at 04:06 pm 1345305981
August 18th, 2012 at 08:47 pm 1345322872
August 19th, 2012 at 11:29 am 1345375769
I can't believe teaching schedules aren't fully set. In my 20 years in academia, we always knew fall teaching schedules by March and had to have book orders in to the bookstore before May.
It's been 3 years since I left and mostly the only thing I'm missing is my library account.
August 19th, 2012 at 10:01 pm 1345413678
In contract order it goes Tenure, TA, then academic staff. Most of the academic staff has spent years teaching roughly similar things, but to not know whether you're going to get insurance or enough to live on seems to be the way some departments go. It's inexcusable. To avoid these situations, our undergrad chair sometimes has "extra" classes he holds on to without an assigned prof. Three years ago he came rushing into my office on the first day of class, asking if I was busy right then. He'd forgotten to assign his "extra" class--and the students showed up but there was no prof. He offered it to me on the spot--and always needing the money--I took it. I had no books ordered, had never taught it before, and it was an overload. The first week was pretty bumpy--and I'm sure I looked like it was MY fault in front of the students. But we build climbing walls to attract students, have cool new dorms--but the money for instruction is slashed all the time.