Comments on: Dr. Crazy writes a letter. . .

By: rh

rh — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:08:32 +0000

Oh, and another thing – night courses do NOT get teaching assistants and do NOT get grading help. We also get less hours to teach, stressing out both the professor and the students, because exams are during class instead of outside of class.

Everybody can’t have what they want. My long-term solution is NO in-person night classes, and only online courses for those working full-time.

By: rh

rh — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:06:04 +0000

I agree with cultureclash – the problem in the US is that the VAST majority of professors – and full-time non-tenured instructors – want their off days so they literally can either work a full day in the lab or take the day off.

I am in the situation where one of five professors has refused to teach at night at all, two “don’t prefer it” and two, including myself, feel that the burden should be shared. Four night courses over the year, with five people available, and only two professors are teaching them. This year, I taught two already, and they are trying to make me teach a third (three of the four night classes for one person of five available). I am refusing.

As for scheduling, no professor does the scheduling in my department, it all goes to the administrative assistant who compiles professors needs/wants. But that administrative assistant is bullied by certain parties, who always get what they want.

Things are changing right now, or someone else *will* teach that night class because unemployment is a better alternative to ruining my life.

By: The Radical History News: Shopping, Nixonland, Feminist Blogging and A Farewell - Tenured Radical - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 16:43:51 +0000

[...] Historiann and Tenured Radical have been nominated for a 2010 Cliopatria award in the category “Best Series of Posts,” for their series on Terry Castle’s The Professor (You can get started reading here). If that isn’t enough, the roundtable on feminist blogging I have been promising, “Women Gone Wild,” starring TR, Historiann, Jennifer Ho, May Friedman, Marilee Lindemann and Rachel Leow, is now up and rocking the house at the Journal of Women’s History. [...]

By: cultureclash

cultureclash — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:27:31 +0000

This discussion has been most interesting – it never would have occurred to me NOT to be at Uni Mon-Fri, 9-5 (at the very least). Here in Australia that is certainly the expectation, though most people tend to take a day off during the week as a “research day” to work from home without a problem. Not sure about how scheduling actually works though. In Germany, I think there is also quite the expectation of being at your desk, but the university culture is such that no student would dare to just knock on a Professor’s door to ask something or other. Since swapping to a bachelor course system, course scheduling has become a major nightmare as all sorts of courses have to be coordinated around students various combinations of majors and minors. And classes only meet once a week for 90-minutes – I cannot imagine how this would work with classes that meet 3 times a week…

By: Susan

Susan — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 01:17:19 +0000

Sorry to miss this discussion. Our registrar has asked that no more than 40% of classes be on TR (for the reasons that Truffula noted — our ability to get new buildings depends on our usage of space M-F, 7:30 AM to 9 PM. State rules.) When this came up, the person who commutes 2 hours and wants to come in 2 days a week was up in arms. But I think for lower division classes, MWF is better than TR. On the other hand, 50 minute classes for upper division seminar type classes makes no sense. So the Dean is facing a revolt of the faculty, all high minded about pedagogy, but also saying that if we’re supposed to do research, we need a two day schedule. With meetings, this semester I’ve had a 4-5 day schedule.

It’s actually been depressing, because everyone is thinking about their own comfort.

By: quixote

quixote — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 00:18:35 +0000

Scheduling. God. More trauma flashbacks. All it takes is one fucken asse (with apologies to CPP…) senior faculty member, and everybody is screwed.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 15:44:37 +0000

I guess I’m lucky that it seems like enough people in my department prefer MWF to TR schedules–that, or the strong TR preference people accept the need to pick up MWF classes.

Indyanna, your 60 or 90 minute classes are just too much! But it seems like they’re ripe for guerrilla-action–just let the students go 10 minutes “early.” I tend to run out the clock most days, but then I hear that other faculty have no problem releasing students early if you’ve covered the material you wanted to cover with them.

Wini’s comment about commutes strikes home–I’ve had long commutes my whole TT professional life. I’ve used it in pleading for a TR schedule in the past, but I’ve also been fully willing to suck it up if I didn’t get the schedule I wanted. After all, where I live is a choice, not an imperative. My husband and I decided that it was more important for him to be 1 block from the Potterville hospital and not have to drive 20-25 minutes in the middle of the night when called in for a rescussitation or emergency. I just feel lucky to live with my spouse and have a TT job.

By: wini

wini — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 14:58:22 +0000

My building is so full on TTh that I had to fight for two years to get my TTh sections in rooms with A/V. That class is a required course for the *entire major*. I’m a fine arts humanist, and my students had to scrunch around a laptop for two years to complete their work in section. That class will also be on MWF for ever and ever, for similar scheduling reasons.

There are many good things about MWF: service is on MWF. You get to cancel more classes for conferences and travel (not really kidding). This is how TTh is decided in my department:

1. Seniority
2. How important your classes are to the college majors (the more important they are to the major the *less* likely it is that you can get a TTh schedule.)
3. Service duties, except most faculty with large service duties prefer MWF schedules.
4. Other obligations except in the case of #1. (Other obligations that I know of are: pet care, children, caring for a disabled spouse, and a commute of 60 miles.)

We don’t have any classes other than grad classes after 6pm.

By: Indyanna

Indyanna — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 01:02:17 +0000

When you teach on a 4/4 template MWF is a nightmare; not that TR is any kind of a walk in the park either. And when the spanish dubloon or temporal coin of the realm is the 60-minute “contact” hour–not the standard-issue “psychiatric” hour of 50 minutes–it’s brainicide for all involved. The classes then are 60 or 90 minutes, not 50 or 75. A few years back our administration proposed rejoining the rest of the world temporally, and wow, did that just snap it. The union said whoah, wait a minute here… The scientists said “Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Shorter Classes Has Gotta Go.” Even among the humanists there was a limited degree of “Ho Ho, Hey, Hey, Longer Classes, Same Pay.” Finally, an electoral coalition of the (un)willing emerged in the rank and file and us
working stiffs “lost” another round: Shorter classes, same pay. It did put more oxygen back in the brain stems, and required a little fat cutting around the edges in yellowing lecture notes. Not to the point of making Friday classes popular with anybody. I think JJO is right, students just don’t want to touch them.

By: truffula

truffula — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 00:58:39 +0000

Heh. No F classes would never fly here. They call it “underutilized space” when you don’t program your rooms 100% or fill all the seats. Never mind that it might not be pedagogically sound to fill all the seats available for a particular class, it is still revenue lost in the eyes of a financial officer.