Confusing

On Tuesday night, I received an email from my dean, asking me to a meeting she'd set up so that we could "have a conversation about a concern that she'd been asked to address."  When I asked for a bit of info so that I could prepare, she said it was "best" that I just show up.

So I did, today, after conversing with quite a few people yesterday about how weird it was that I was being asked to talk about a "concern" yet not told what it was.  One friend said it was a "set up"; other friends encouraged me to bring along a union representative.

Anyway, the dean started the conversation with "I need to talk to you about your email to John Doe."  John Doe?  I wracked my brain, trying to figure out who that might be, what email I might have sent or someone else might have sent.

Turns out I'd sent feedback, submitted via the "feedback" link on our new college website, that insulted the recipient, John Doe.  Feeling hurt and insulted, John had told his supervisor, who'd told the academic VP, who'd asked my dean to handle it.

It never occurred to me that the "feedback" link would be a *specific* email to a *specific* person.  Usually, info given via feedback is routed to the folks who can deal with the concerns.   Not at my college: our "feedback" goes directly to the webmaster himself.

Evidently, what upset him so were my capital letters on "EXTREMELY" and my final comment that our college website has been used by other colleges as what not to do (I'd heard that this summer, and was a bit chagrined).

*Sigh*.  Our college's infrastructure and communication has been bad for all the years I've been there, and now the technology is exaggerating the gaps.  It's worse than I've ever, ever seen, anywhere.  Our "public face" embarrasses me and confuses students.  We have put the entire design of our college's website in the hands of a easily-offended fellow who does not have a four-year degree and therefore is intimidated by faculty.

Why didn't we hire a webmaster who had earned at least a bachelor's degree?  It seems shortsighted to choose someone with an AA degree as the designer for a *college*'s web presence.

Telling the Truth

I've been thinking of using this blog to tell what really goes on at my college: the happy stories are easy, of course -- like the goofy summer-school student who stopped by my office today, pleased to spend an hour chatting because she had two hours "to waste."

She wanted to show me a book she'd checked out of her public library -- "The Gay Rights Movement" -- wondering how she could buy it.  I spent 45 minutes with her, analyzing "The Children's Hour," hearing about her classes, including ear-training and logic (the textbook's cover photograph of trees in mist really confounded her: how is that the image of logic?).

But what about the not-happy things that occur all around me?

• Tech writing students who, asked to talk about "usability," immediately begin sharing horror stories about our college's new website.  
• The faulty registration system that did not screen the students for honors courses; as a result, both students and faculty have been surprised this week to find that what they thought they were signing up for is not what they've received.  
• Faculty and student training sessions led by someone who treats all the participants like children ("If I raise my hand, that means you should stop talking!").  
• Financial aid not distributing vouchers for book purchases until the second week of the semester -- so students cannot begin the reading unless I lend them my personal books (which I continue to do). 

I could write a longer list.  It might be healthy for me to purge in this blog, but I'm not sure . . . should I tell the truth about how much worse the infrastructure has gotten since I arrived 9 years ago?  Many, many things are worse, and part of the reason I think is that our president has hired his pals instead of smart people: young men who are protecting their fragile machismo by treating others badly (especially the women who run the joint).  It's just so classically sexist that it's almost funny.

*Sigh.*

One teacher's plea re. plagiarism

"Plagiarism at Uni: An open letter to students by English teacher Suzanne Linder" by Katherine Allen.

Suzanne Linder teaches English at University Laboratory High School in Urbana, IL. She writes calmly and sensibly to ask students to quit plagiarizing, to think for themselves and create original work. What good ideas.

Be sure, too, to follow the comments thread: more good ideas there, especially about the limits of certain kinds of assignments and the benefit of consistently re-examining our pedagogical practices. Also, click on the audio link to hear Linder explain what prompted her to write the letter.

I received the link to this article from Jennifer Veltsos's message on a wonderful listserv I read, TECHRHET, a space/place I've mentioned before, a place/space for great discussion about technology and teaching composition/rhetoric. It's a list hosted by InterUniversity.org.

Join the discussion. Find colleagues. Educate yourself and others.

Applause for community colleges

On a website called Education Update Online, you'll find the following article from 2005: "Study Reveals Americans Support Expanding Community College System to Serve More Students". Although the article does not make clear when the study took place, with whom, or by whom, and although I can't say I find this particular publication very academic, I *can* say that the article helps me continue with my argument: that community colleges are *colleges* and should, therefore, be funded as such, supported as such, and run as such (rather than high schools or trade schools).

So I googled around the web to find the source of the 2005 article. It's based on a 2004 survey (survey and answers here) conducted by an organization now called Community College Central. This organization has also published an interesting article called "Higher Education More Important Than Ever To Americans, But Record Numbers Fear That Costs May Prevent Access For Many Qualified Students", first published by The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education to complement the 2005 article.

Food for thought as I consider what my colleague Kris told me today: that new full-time hires in the Minnesota community college system must take courses/workshops in the philosophy of community college teaching, among other things. This additional education is new. A good idea, sure, but it seems to me that all faculty, not just new full-time folks, should take it, especially when many of our new full-time folks come from our part-time ranks.

Need a class discussion?

Then watch this video:

"The Story of Stuff" is a 20-minute video argument that needs to be seen by everyone!

It's great for many, many reasons. For one thing, it'll explain to you why our government wants to send some citizens/taxpayers an "economic stimulus" check of a few hundred dollars but doesn't want to contribute an equal amount to things like education, health care, transportation infrastructure, etc. It'll also help understand something behind the partisan wrangling about the economic stimulus package.

Watch it until the end, too, to see ways to act.

Trying to get [out of] it

Decision making is tough, I know. So many considerations, so many complications. And then to have to make decisions for events that will transpire in almost a year - like course offerings for summer 2008 - asks for a fortune-teller of impeccable reputation (or an administrator with accurate data).

Despite not attending the summer course selection meeting, I've been asked to teach a literature course for summer 2008 - I'm happy to do so in order to ensure that the course won't be cancelled. Being a good departmental citizen is important to me, and I'd also like our literature offerings for summer to continue to be robust.

Because faculty members can select the literature courses they'd like to teach - within reason - I reasonably chose one that fulfills two certificate programs (Women and Gender Studies, Global Studies) and two Minnesota transfer curriculum goals (Humanties/Fine Arts-06 and Global Perspective-08) in order to make the course an attractive choice for students. The more bang-for-their-buck, the more likely they are to select a course. It's also a course that will not have been offered any other time during the entire 2007-08 academic year, follows well in sequence with another course we offer, and is one I like teaching.

The last time I taught such a summer-session literature course, it was two-thirds full, mainly with students who were full-time at another institution: intelligently (if we consider the marketing message our community colleges send out), the students were "fulfilling their generals" at a "cheaper price" so that they could continue with their four-year degrees at Augsburg, Bethel, Hamline, St. Kate's, Kansas State, River Falls, the University of Minnesota.

Thus, although I don't have scientific data to support my choice of a summer course, I do have some experiential data and some good intentions.

But I'm told that it's not a good choice because it's a women's lit course and they have "problems with enrollment." Yikes. Surely that assessment can't smack of the sexism it implies. I guess I'll need to have a conversation with a dean even as I try to extricate myself from campus activities - something that's been tough for me on the sabbatical year. How does one truly "rest" and get away when the long arm of the schedule reaches out for another victim?

Addendum: Had the talk with my department chair listing the above reasons, and he's going to talk with the dean, who "will probably go for it" but wants me to know the course is "still a gamble."