Kids These Days

It's that time of the semester when everyone's tempers are a little short. Students are turning in papers late, perhaps, and have spent less time than we might like doing their research and writing. Sometimes folks don't show up at all, and it can be hard to believe that they're really sick or that there's really an emergency in the family. And the demands of the administrators are relentless.

One of the administrative demands I'm handling in my role as medium sized cheese is nominating students for some special mention. The special mention thing starts with a minimum GPA, and then adds in stuff like community service, research, departmental activities, and so on.

We had 48 students who met the GPA part, and then I've had to do some searching around to figure out which few within that group we'd nominate. I started by asking my colleagues to look at the list and give me some feedback.

I got plenty, even at this busy time of the year.

And these students are impressive. We've got students who are being nominated for their research work, for leading this or that student group, for participating in some community activity.

Then I asked my colleagues for more information about the students who were specifically nominated, and that's when I heard the glowing reports about sparkling student intellect, hard working classroom mentors, collaborative projects.

I've been writing up a statement of support for each of the students we're nominating. It's hard to pack so much in without sounding utterly silly.

I tell ya, kids these days.

I wish I'd been half the student some of these students are!