Self-Inflicted

I was at a meeting the other day where the basketweavers brainstormed about ways to get the basketweaving majors to feel like part of a group based on the major.  It's a nice thing, to feel part of a group.  I get that. 

Folks suggested we have an evening once a week where faculty and students got together in a lounge to chat about books and read, since we all read anyway.

And there were suggestions that we should do programs elsewhere where we get together to talk about books.

And we could have a potluck or picnic.

And so on.


It's not that any of these ideas are bad in themselves, but that I've been around long enough to not want to promise that faculty will show up for things where I'll be one of two faculty to show up, and I sure didn't want to be there.

I see our students doing lots of good stuff, but I have my doubts that most of them have time to spend an hour or two a week (or whatever) hanging out in the lounge area.  A few will, of course. 

And, of course, I want to say, for every hour that someone suggests I should do an additional X, I'd like them to tell me what I can drop from my duties to make the time work out, since I already have a full time job, and I get tired, and so on.

I tried not to rain on the parades at the meeting though.  But gosh, I felt like a fogey.


I worked on my last syllabus and calendar yesterday, and now they're all in at least rough shape.  Today, I'll work on making them more coherent, set up the web-based learning system thingies, and maybe even put in all the copies to get done.

In other news, I got GREAT news on the small grant proposal I wrote in summer (funded!), finished one important task for the basketweavers committee.  I feel like I'm finally getting THAT to the point where it makes sense for now.  I still have stuff to do, but the stuff to do makes sense and can be done.  If that makes sense.