Yet more consistency with expectations

• Overheard: "I am so screwed."
  
  A student in my non-majors class who hasn't been to class in a week and a half, after receiving today's test.
  
  
• Observed: Another faculty member pulling out of the local sandwich shop in his large SUV, as I pull in driving my Prius hybrid.
  
  He is our resident climate change denier/skeptic.
  
  
  

 

A conversation

A quick check in about the current age of my twins led to the following conversation between the two women sitting in front of me at graduation:

Professor A: My nephew and his wife are having triplets.

Professor B: Wow, triplets! And she wasn't on any medication?

Professor A: Well, I really don't know one way or the other.

Professor B: Oh, I see, so she could have been.

Professor A: Well, she's 29, so probably not.

Professor B: Ah yes.

Aside from wondering why this question is often the first question people ask about multiples, and wanting to tell them how annoying such questions are to mothers of multiples regardless of whether their conceptions were assisted or not, I wanted to yell at them about assuming infertility is all about a woman's age. But alas, my attempts to break into the conversation where thwarted.

Oh yeah, and Professor A? She's a nurse.

Cruise Blogging - Day Three - Overheard

Overheard on the boat, after shore excursions in Puerto Vallarta:

A: Did you go drinking at Senor Frog's?

B: Yeah.

A: Was it pretty cool?

B: Yeah.

A: Yeah, I've heard the one in Meh-ZAT-lann is pretty cool too.

B: Yeah.

Photos from Mazatlan /ˌmɑsɑˈtlɑn/ [mah-sah-tlahn]

Cruise Blogging - Day One - Overheard

Overhead on the boat, while waiting in line:

"Never in my life have I seen a line for high tea. Bingo, yes, I can understand that, but for high tea?"

Relaxing and trying out "sunset mode" on my new fabulous digital camera:

Overheard: Tales from the Professoriate II

Today I spent several hours rotating through groups of new freshman with two other faculty members. The idea is to give the new students advice for succeeding at SLAC. They students were quiet and worn out from a few days of orientation already. My colleagues, however, were another matter.

One is a senior faculty member who is fabulous. He really cares about students, thinks deeply, chooses his words carefully and easily connects with students who are maybe 35 years younger than him. He was great. The other colleague is another senior faculty member. She has a partial administrative appointment that has a lot of interaction with students. Once she loosened up, things got interesting:

"I'm just amazed when a student comes in and says 'I juuuust fiiiind thaaat class soooooo booooooring'. Well! Any MORON can be bored in a class! It takes...Cre-A-TIV-ity and in-TELL-igence to find a class interesting!"

I wish I were making this up. Of course, this doesn't fully capture the emotion she put into it. For example, the imitation of the bored student 'I juuuust fiiiind thaaat class soooooo booooooring' included slurring each word with her tongue hanging out of her mouth.

I try to get us back on track with:

"I think the take home message from this is that we'll all end up taking classes we are less excited about - we take them for requirements of the college, or major, whatever. But, as long as you are there, you might as well make the most of it!"

After all this interaction with colleagues, I'm looking forward to seeing the students on Monday.

Overheard: Tales from the Professoriate

"I'm the boss."

   - a department chair interviewing a candidate for a staff position.

"Well, all this concern about diversity and yet we certainly seem to be increasing diversity with this group."

    - one faculty member to another after three women of color were introduced as new faculty.

"I've always felt like a black woman trapped in a white woman's body."

   - a faculty member describing why she thinks diversity training is important.

Overheard - Tales from Undergraduate Life

On Sabbatical U's campus:

Female student on cell phone, slowly:

"I mean, they have to realize that my abilities will be, well, drunk - very hungover."

I didn't know abilities could get hammered. Good to know.

Male student, talking to friend:

"I looked at the clock and thought...hmmm, eleven-fifty - I *could* go to my English seminar, but then I don't care. More sleep."