Survey Says: FERPA!

I got an email survey from the campus folks responsible for educating us about alcohol. I think my students are plenty aware of alcohol, but we have a whole office about that. We also have an office for parents. Not students as parents, but parents of students. We've cut faculty lines, but added people to manage the parents of students.

The survey is giving the "teaching members" of the "community" a chance to give input about the parents "presenting themselves" at various places on campus. (Note that "teaching members" bit? That's student services talk for either "everyone" or the people who stand in the way of customer service by insisting that some answers really ARE better than others.)

Call me old fashioned, but once a student is in college, then s/he's an adult, and his/her parents need to talk to the student and not to me. I'm okay with talking to visiting parents and potential students. I've met visiting parents on a variety of occasions, and it's fine to say hello and such. I'm very happy to congratulate parents when their kids graduate, especially when I can tell them what a wonderful daughter/son they've raised, and what a pleasure it's been to work with the student.

But talking to parents about whether the student attends class? Nope, not me. Not without signed permission. We call that FERPA, thanks very much. How about talking to parents about why their student got a C- on a test? Survey says, FERPA!

The questionnaire wants to know if I think a representative of the campus should contact parents if a student is: arrested, kicked out of the dorms, found with alcohol or drugs, doing poorly in class.

I'm guessing the office is getting pressure from parents about notifications of various sorts? Perhaps parents want to be notified? And they don't trust their adult children?

I'll tell you who notified my parents when I failed a class. Me. Because I was an adult (well, sort of), and that was the deal since my parents were funding my college education.

If parents are supporting the student, then they should lay out an agreement that fits their situation. Say, "you carry a B average, show us the report card for every term, and we'll cover tuition and books" or whatever. But that's between the adults involved, and not me.

I'm guessing things are more difficult on the dorm end, where parents are probably paying the dorm-organization directly, and things get sticky if the parent sends a check and the dorm-organization has kicked out the student?

One of the weirder questions has to do with students behaving in ways that are worrisome in terms of harm to themselves or others. I know what motivates that question, but I don't have many good answers. And I don't think that calling parents is one of the likely good answers.

I do have a feeling that we're moving in the direction of calling parents about a lot of stuff, though. I'm guessing there will be some standardized form that students will be pressured asked to sign giving the college some blanket permission.

What we should really do, I think, is give all students information about FERPA, and give any parents who come to campus (for student orientation, pre-enrollment tours) the same information.

Putting Things Together with Students

I've had two interesting student visits so far this week.

The other day, a student came in again after a year or so; he was in my writing classe several years ago, and has come by to get feedback on writing application letters and statements of purpose. I found out that the last application I helped him write was successful, which was happy news.

Now he's applying for grad school, so I read his statement of purpose and gave him some feedback, sending him off to revise and then come back with a new version.

If I were smart, I'd charge a couple hundred dollars an hour for such advice. Alas, I'm just a phud. I'm sure the powers that be would be happy that I've helped a student who's not "mine" in any way these days, but I wonder if I actually have a legal responsibility to do so? I mean, could I legally say, "no, sorry, I don't have time," and not hear badly if he decided to complain to someone way higher up?

(Not that I mind helping him, but if I got $100 for the half hour, that wouldn't hurt, either. Of course, I'd probably have to pay for my office usage, and the state would find a way to make that cost more than I'd make.)

Then today, one of my advisees dropped in unexpectedly (and not during office hours), looking a bit iffy. So in she came to talk about what classes she's going to take next semester.

Turns out, when she looks at the course offerings, she's not really interested in taking classes in either her major or minor. Well, that's a problem. So we talked, and now she's going to take a couple courses to explore potential majors and minors, more in line with what really interests her. And if things work out, she'll sign up for something else and be a whole lot happier.

The thing about both of these interactions was that I spent a lot longer than one might think trying to help each of the students understand something about how their education should matter to them, not only for taking the next professional or career step, but as an education.

When I was a student, I never really talked to an advisor much; I signed up for my major, and then 3 and a half years later, I learned that my advisor had gone somewhere else, and I had to get a different prof to sign off on my degree check. (Happily, that worked out well. And interestingly, that different prof had met with me for summer advising the summer before I entered college, so there was a sort of rounding out to my college education. And I'd taken several classes with him, and learned a lot. Thanks, Professor R.)

So in grad school, I never thought about trying to help students think about their whole education. And yet I've learned that helping students put together the disparate aspects of their education to make a whole is actually a really important part of my work.

One of these students is a graduating senior; he should be putting things together, with help from his advisor (or a random Bardiac), but mostly on his own. The other student is closer to the beginning of her academic career, and so it makes more sense that her advisor (me) needs to add perspective and an overview.

Questions for the blogosphere:

for students (and past students): are you getting a sense of synthesis about the education you're earning? If so, how and where? Advising? Classes?

for grad students: are you getting mentoring about helping undergrads put things together? Did you get help yourself as an undergrad? Or did you pretty much do it yourself?

for instructors/faculty members: does your school emphasize putting things together for students? Do you have a sense that this is fairly new, or not, where you are? Does your school, department, or program formalize that synthesis?

For this I Wrote a Dissertation?

I spent way too much time today trying to schedule a meeting. Yep, I'd scheduled a room almost three weeks ago for this meeting, and got told today that a really important thing had to take place, requiring full departmental participation, in our meeting place. Would we mind rescheduling?

For some reason this semester, we've been rescheduling a lot. But this, too, is important, and we need to reschedule.

So I got out the committee master schedule. At the beginning of the semester, I asked one of our departmental admin assistants to make a schedule of when the (then) four members of our committee had unscheduled time in common. (We're required to turn in a schedule card with all our regular time commitments for just such a purpose.) There're two hours on Monday morning, two hours on Wednesday morning, and another at 11 am on Wednesday, or an hour late Wednesday afternoon. Three hours on Thursday morning, an hour on Friday morning, and late Friday afternoon.

Complicating things: we added a member after the master schedule was made up, and we've invited another departmental colleague to talk to us about an issue. (And the next Friday afternoon, another committee with two members in common with us, has that locked up.)

So, I checked both of their schedules with the admin assistant, open Monday and Wednesday mornings, and Wednesday at 11! So I emailed to change our meeting to Wednesday at 11. But then someone said s/he actually has a class then. So that's out.

So I suggested either Monday or Wednesday at 8am. And the new committee member emailed back to say she actually has something scheduled, but didn't put it on the schedule card for the admin assistant. I tried Thursday, and nope, someone else has a class then. And then there's a medical appointment, and a special activity for another, and this and that.

I suggest late Wednesday afternoon, and a few minutes later get a visit from a committee member to tell me that there's another departmental meeting that's going to be scheduled for then. Good to know, eh?

So, I'm down to three things: Late Friday afternoon (I can hear the "I have to pick up my kid" complaints already forming), or the Friday that's the last day of classes, OR (and this is my favorite), it can wait until next semester when I've run away to Asia!

I know what I'm voting for!

It took me two years to write my dissertation, which came in at 300+ pages, and supposedly made an original contribution to my field. And this is my reward.

Sinking!

Okay, no more whining!

In George Peele's Edward I, what's up with Elinor sinking into the earth? And then floating up again, to disrupt the peasants' garden? I have this strange feeling that really, really, Peele somehow got a preview of Monty Python or something.

It must have been spectacular on stage, though!

Ambivalent

As folks who read this blog know, I'm somewhat ambivalent about the Northwoods. I'm uncomfortable with the conservativism, the overwhelming whiteness, and the pervasive religiousity here. I miss museums of other than logging, a variety of familiar landscapes, a variety of foods and people. On the other hand, I'm grateful for a job, a home I can afford on my academic salary, and for mostly good, interesting students and colleagues.

For the past couple days, I've been listening to endless little digs about the Northwoods. Jokes about broken down barns and tiny airports. Comments about two-lane highways. Questions about how people in small towns bear to live there, and fingers pointed at people in blaze orange.

If I unabashedly loved the Northwoods, I'd comment back. But I don't.

If I hated everything about the Northwoods, I'd join in the bashing, I guess. But I don't.

I'm ambivalent, and it hurts to hear my home put down, especially by someone who doesn't live here. I mean, it's one thing for a local to comment on the pervasive deer yard art, but another thing when an outsider does.

To the locals, of course, I'll never belong here. I can never comment on the deer yard art as a Northwoodsian to a true Northwoodsian.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I was a kid, I had a nickname I loathed. And when I say loathed, I mean loathed, detested, abhored. You get the point. When I was in college, I changed the name I used, both because I also hated my given name, and because I was trying to avert a lifetime of the loathed nickname.

The nickname hasn't really been used for 20 years now.

Except, it seems to have reappeared.

So what's the point of pointedly using a nickname you know someone loathes? I mean, why would you do it to a kid? And why would you do it to an adult after so many years?

Seriously, it's not that funny.

And why do I still loathe the nickname? (Other than that it's butt-ugly? I mean, really, it's hard to think of an uglier combination of sounds.) But I still have the same strong, gut-wrenching angry feelings when I hear it.

There is not enough bourbon. (And yet, compared to most Shakespearean families, mine's a gem.)

Day After

I celebrated the day after by dropping in to give blood. I'm told they need donors especially during the holiday season. This is probably my last donation for a good long time, since I'll be away, and then maybe ineligible.

I have to say this for my Mom: she rocks at craft stuff, and is always willing to give things a try. We made potato block print Christmas card things with the kids. Way fun!

Please Explain?

Let's just say, if the continuation of the human species depended on me, a lot of wildlife would breathe a sigh of relief.

Seriously, I was at lunch today with another woman, and about 5 young women, most carrying baby car seat things (you know, the ones for really little babies that come out of the car and then people carry around?), came in.

The other woman was totally fixated on the babies. She talked about how much she wished she were a new mom again. She stared at them yearningly. She talked about how cute they were. How irresistable.

Don't get me wrong. I'm careful when I need to lift or carry a baby. I've changed my share while babysitting. I try to be decent and respectful to people of all ages.

But, I have not one iota of fascination or interest in babies. Never have.

(If you're female in the US, you're really not supposed to say that.)

When the other woman talked about how she wished she were a new mom again, I thought to myself that if I found myself in day to day charge of a baby, I'd take it to the nearest hospital and then find a way to do myself in (without making a mess). Seriously, just thinking about spending even an afternoon in the company of a baby... well, I've done it plenty, and it didn't make me want to do it more.

I imagine maybe it's like color-blindness; color-blind people know that other people see green or whatever, but they don't see it. I know that some people find babies irresistable, but I don't see it.

I thank science every day for the development of effective birth control, and thank my luck for the luck part, too. I thank science and the legal system for the development of safe abortions, too.

Anyway, I asked the other woman why she'd want to be a new mom again, because I don't get it, but I'm curious.

She said, because they're cuddly and they're completely dependent.

Cuddly I can understand.

But the dependent thing? I don't get that, really. In fact, I find it sort of creepy in a power-mongering way.

So, if you're someone who likes babies, help me understand what it is you find irresistable or attractive or whatever, please!

Doubles on Campus

Every so often, I notice that someone on campus looks very much like someone quite famous.

For example, we have a famous sports lookalike (think Tommy Lasorda) during the managing years.

And we have a famous semi-intellectual lookalike (think a very young Dick Cavett).

We have a famous actor from the 20s lookalike (seriously, Oliver Hardy reborn!).

Weirdest: we have a faculty member who looks exactly like Nathan Lane in The Birdcage.

Office Hours

Today, I had the opposite of the difficult discussion I last blogged about.

First, a student who's paper is sort of tangential to the class she's writing it for, but she's just going to town reading and learning great stuff! She came in to get some extra help finding sources, and we were able to find two great things on EEBO (YAY, I love EEBO!), and an edition of letters IN PRINT! that she want to look at. What fun! She borrowed two of my three office Bibles. (Because I'm that kind of a nerd.)

Another student came in having difficulty finding resources for a paper, but she really wants to do her question. I emailed a blogger, and a couple hours later, I was able to forward on some resource leads. The internet really does work sometimes!

I love when students get excited by their research. You can tell when they come to office hours. They may be having difficulty, but they can talk about what they've tried already, what they've learned so far, and what they're after. And a student with a good question is a student I can usually help, and I can usually count on to follow up on resources.

I love the part of my job that involves helping people find resources and think about what they've found and what they're reading. I love that generous people are willing to answer questions and help, too. (Thanks, M!)

The Inevitable Question

My student looked away and hesitated, and I knew the question to come.

"What would I have to get on the final essay to pass the course?"

I actually appreciate when students ask the question because it's important that they get a realistic sense of what's possible and of what they should expect.

I pulled out the grades, and showed her that there's really no mathematically possibility that she can pass the course. (I hate that part.)

And then we talked about the difficult adjustment to college, the surprise at how much more work it requires than high school. And how to do better next semester.

I did some damage control, pointing out that I, too, had a difficult adjustment to college, that I'd failed a couple classes, and that people can "come back" from a rough start to do really well in school. It's one thing to tell a student this, and another to know that the student probably has to talk to her parents about it; and typically of our students, mine is the first course they've ever failed, so that's a difficult talk. I hope her parents are understanding and supportive, because most students DO get through an initial rough adjustment, and most do much better in their second semesters and thereafter.

I advised her to use the final assignment to learn what she could, but to put most of her energies for the rest of the term into doing better in all her other classes. I explained the math of being put on probation, and the importance of doing well when she repeats the course (because the grade will get wiped off the GPA).

I tried to be reassuring that I feel positive about students even when they fail, and that I recognize the difficulty of adjusting to college life. Failing a college class doesn't mean anything about a person's character or worthiness; it means she messed up. And most of us have messed up in life.

And in the end, did it do any good? Time will tell, but probably won't tell me. This student will go forward, retake the class with a different instructor, and we'll probably never cross paths again.

It's weird: at that moment, we're in my office chatting, and it's very important. But in the long run?

Self-Doubt

I was in the lunchroom the other day, eating, while one of my colleagues decided to hold forth on how the world should be run, specifically, how a common writing class should be taught. He kept on and on about how we should all teach basically the same, and we should all do the same sort of assignments, and the same number of assignments, and on and on.

We have a common set of goals for our common writing class, and then we figure each of us is a well-trained professional and we will work towards those goals as we best can.

Finally, one of the other people in the lunchroom asked our orator if he used the common goals to direct what he does in his class.

The orator stopped, hesitated, and bragged that he doesn't look at the common goals, but he has his own goals, and blah blah blah. It was all I could do to not laugh out loud.

The humor was lost on the orator, however. Not on the rest of us.

I worry that someday, I'll be braying forth and won't see what an ass I am, even when someone holds up a big mirror and I'm chomping on a carrot, flicking my huge ears about.

The Other Side of Student Emails

I read a lot of inane student emails, and a fair number of posts from profs talking about their students' emails. But today, today I got a student email that basically said,

Dear Professor Bardiac,

I'm back from [name of war zone] and I'm coming back to finish my degree. [other stuff.]

Best, Student

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hate the whole damned war, every aspect of it, but I'm teary-eyed with happiness that my student has come back alive and is coming back to school. I think it's probably the happiest email I've ever gotten, certainly in a LONG time.


~~~~~~~~~~~~

And the Weekend Roundup you've been waiting for:

1 stack - reading responses
1 stack - reading responses (a different class)
1 partial stack - short close reading assignments
1 partial stack - revisions
1 stack - working bibliographies and annotations
1 partial stack - essays (Handed in Monday, I've done 2/3rds already!)

It's going to be a busy weekend, but the huge committee task is done, pretty much, with some mopping up after Thanksgiving.

The other big task for this weekend is to get my house ready for a Thanksgiving crowd. Eep!

Ancient History

Reading a student paper about a movie set in the 1980s, and realizing that to the student, the clothing and everything else from the 80s really is old, as in OLD!

I despair.

I've become my parents and grandparents. When did that happen?

Another blogger is angry at the "old guard." Having been at this teaching thing for over 10 years now, I probably count as the "old guard" to some people.

I had a grad school dream last night, the first in a long time, probably 8 years or more.

In it, we grad students were carrying cardboard boxes with a big rock in each, bowling ball sized, and it was raining hard, a soaking, cold, nasty rain, and we were all trying to get one of the very limited plastic file folder boxes with a lid to put our rock in. The plastic boxes were on a big, grey, metal bookshelf thing, the scaffolding kind businesses use to hold BIG stuff. And it wasn't that we were beating each other up physically, but we were definitely competing for a very limited number of boxes for our rocks.

I woke up after the plastic boxes were gone and I didn't get one. I was standing in the rain with my cardboard box melting, trying to keep my rock as little wet as I could, and then I woke up. I was glad to wake up and know I'm not still in grad school.




(I don't know if other schools do this, but where I was, people had a habit of carrying their printed out dissertations to the filing office in cardboard boxes, usually boxes that had once held computer paper with the holes on the side or boxes that had held heavy cotton rag paper for CVs and stuffs.)

Stressy

I finished some committee work today. At least the part I need to have finished.

Now I need to grade. And grade. And grade some more. Then some more grading.

I planned this week out very poorly in very many ways.

I need a better anti-procrastination plan for tonight.

Conferencing

I've been conferencing with students from my various classes about research projects and papers of various sorts this week.

Mostly, the students have been really good; they've got good ideas and they've begun to figure out how to find answers to their questions. My job is to help them push a bit further, prompt deeper questioning, and teach them how to find resources. Sometimes, my job is also to cheerlead and send them on their way to continue the good work.

These are the students who teach me interesting stuff, and with whom I get to have engaging, challenging conversations. I love when students tell me that they're learning a lot about something, that they've "always" wanted to learn about what they're researching, and they're really getting into it.

Sometimes, though, things aren't that easy.

My student comes in and says, for example, "Lincoln was a good president." So I ask, what do you mean by that? Blank look. I try again. What makes him a good president?

See, it's not that I disagree or even have an opinion about the goodness of Lincoln as a president. It's that "goodness" isn't necesarily self-evident or something we'd all agree about. But it's my job to try to get students to question those easy middle-school statements that they haven't necessarily thought about further.

(Speaking of presidents: do you ever wonder if Bush senior doesn't sometimes just shake his head and wonder how he--a relatively intelligent guy--raised a son stupider than Quail?)

Another student comes in and tells me that "last night, I looked on the web for resources." Err, I ask, do you really think the web is going to help you find good resources? The student gives me that look of incredulity.

I explain that I could make up a web page that talked about unicorns and the history of unicorns. I could probably even provide a bibliography of texts that talk about unicorns. But, that still wouldn't mean there's really evidence that unicorns actually exist. Anyone can put up anything on the web (because, case in point: really, I'm not a prof! I'm a ... something way more sexy and exciting, yeah. Someone think of something. I'm coming up blank on what could be sexier or more exciting than what I do, especially the committee work and grading. Mmmmm.).

But I also give these students a heads up about my expectations; most of us faculty folks figure students need to spend 2-3 hours working outside of class for each class hour for college level work. So if it's a five hour a week class, and I've cancelled class meetings to hold individual conferences with all of them, then they have 15 hours minimum this week to work on their research for our class. And I expect them to put in that time. (The best students, of course, do more by this time because they've chosen a research question that really fascinates them.)

Most worrisome at this point is the student who emails after his appointment to tell me he's changed his topic. The late topic change is a red alert in a couple ways: first, it's late to change a topic, so the research is going to be rushed. OR, there's always the chance that the student's frat brother wrote a paper about topic X last year for some class, and suddenly, topic X is looking awfully appealing.

I enjoy conferencing. The fun students are just fun, engaging, interesting, and a pleasure. But even the less fun students give me a chance to do real teaching, to try to get them to think more deeply and start researching now rather than three weeks from now.

Technology for the Win

The support services side of campus does these programs that are supposed to help us learn to teach. They send us emails with hints; the hints, to me, feel like the services folks have this idea that we're all somehow bad stereotypes from the 50s. (And I don't think most of us are; at any rate, I've seen some pretty amazing teaching when I've observed a variety of colleagues.)

This week, on the main campus webpage, they're advertising a program on using technology to teach effectively.

The link to further information? Dead.

After a Long Day

I just got an email from a colleague in response to some work the committee I chair has done. Undercutting and wonderfully nasty, and perfectly polite. Admirably viscious, even. Ah, the skills we phuds bring to our work.

I could do without that.

I'm off to do my last library session. These things are tiring. I find that I have to bring a lot of energy to the group, and really try to keep folks focused. Sometimes my regular students make off the wall comments, and I just wonder what the heck they're thinking. These folks, though, some of them really bring things in from left field.

I try to make sense of things, but sometimes I really feel inadequate. And tired.

This is the last session, and so the last week of feeling like I'm teaching an extra class.

I haven't slept well before any of these classes. I should keep that in mind should I ever think about applying for this program again. It's really sort of not worth the hassle. On the other hand...

I got a whole new stack of essays today. And some extra late essays from a stack I graded over the weekend. I think some of my students have a touch of senioritis or something.

Of the new essays I graded so far, several were outstanding, really just solid A essays. I hope that means they've learned stuff this semester and doesn't just mean I've become delusional or something.

Procrastination Be Gone!

The weekend list:

1 Stack of writing stuff
1 Stack of essays (These were mostly good! It's so much less torturous to grade good essays! But really, shouldn't ALL students remember to cite their texts properly by this point in the semester????)
1 partial stack of essays (variable due dates)
1 stack of other stuff

5+ hours of committee work - 2+ hours done! First step DONE!!

Texts for next week: Play (started...), essay re play, essay

Prep the final week of my library presentation.

Biking: 18 miles (Saturday) plus 19 miles (Sunday), passing 2500 for the year. This is HUGE for me! HUGE!

All in all, not a half bad weekend.

Anti-Procrastination

I've been working on procrastinating less this semester. So here I am, blogging. Yes, I'm aware, thanks.

For one thing, thinking about going overseas for a semester has made me get a bit more on the ball about getting some things done.

In the past week, I've made appointments to get my car's oil changed (which I'm pretty good about, usually, but this semester is madness), and to get my teeth cleaned (which I'm not pretty good about, but genetics seems to have dealt me a good hand on reasonably healthy teeth once you get past the years of braces).

And, after more than fifteen years, yes, you've read that right, more than fifteen years, I finally took some chairs in to be rewoven or something. (Can it really have been fifteen years? It seems impossible, but the math works out.) I just finally face the fact that when there are people here for Thanksgiving, they'll need to sit, and since I own nice chairs, if I get them repaired, we could actually sit in those, instead of the plastic porch chairs.

So, why chairs, why today? The chairs come from a set of furniture I sort of inherited from friends of my parents. These friends (I blogged a little about them at the bottom of this post), H and T, were friends of my parents from an apartment my folks had for a couple years before I was born, and remained friends of my folks until they died.

T was probably the only veteran of WWI I knew, though H was a nurse during the war, so maybe she was a veteran as well?

Mostly, I procrastinate about grading, so I need to get back to work. I need better anti-procrastination strategies.

So far: 19 miles, rolling hills. (I passed 2500 miles total for the year today.)
Finished library presentation preparation.

The Most Boring Blogger Ever!

It's almost 7pm on Saturday, and here's how the weekend roundup list is going so far:

1 Stack of writing stuff
1 Stack of essays
1 partial stack of essays (variable due dates)
1 stack of other stuff

5+ hours of committee work - 2+ hours done! First step DONE!!

Texts for next week: Play, essay re play, essay

Prep the final week of my library presentation.

Also: 18 miles, and the bike shop solved my difficulty getting my tires pumped; turns out the pump wasn't working! It wasn't my lousy technique after all! They exchanged the pump for me. I love my bike shop folks.

So far, it's been a hugely productive weekend, and there's still time to read a play or something! I'm so happy to be done with the big first stack that I'm practically dancing around my office.