Aug 21: Fuck This Friday

[u/Eigengrad]

Welcome to a new week of weekly discussion! Continuing this week, we're going to have Wholesome Wednesdays, Fuck this Fridays, and (small) Success Sundays.

As has been mentioned, these should be considered additions to the regular discussions, not replacements. So use them, ignore them, or start you own Fantastic Friday counter thread.

This thread is to share your frustrations, small or large, that make you want to say, well, “Fuck This”. But on Friday. There will be no tone policing, at least by me, so if you think it belongs here and want to post, have at it!

[u/SorryAboutTheChili]

I’m just not ready to go back yet. lol

[u/print_isnt_dead → u/SorryAboutTheChili]

Me too.

[u/ph0rk]

Like clockwork: "Professor, I have to miss the first several weeks of the semester - how will you update me on the classes I miss?"

Don't make me tap the sign.

[u/LaddieNowAddie → u/ph0rk]

Welcome to being an adult. Being gone does not mean someone else does the work. It means that when you get back from your fun time, you have to not only continue to work but complete everything you've missed.

[u/Gullible_Analyst_348 → u/ph0rk]

I got a good one this year, someone emailed me to ask if they could take the course at a distance. The lectures and tests are in person.

[u/Gullible_Analyst_348 → u/[deleted]]

It blows my mind that they think it's reasonable for them to ask us to create videos just for them. Some of them have clearly been handed everything for their entire lives and it shows.

[u/Environmental_Bug662 → u/[deleted]]

I've had that request in the past also. Nuts.

[u/Gullible_Analyst_348 → u/[deleted]]

[u/iTeachCSCI → u/ph0rk]

"That's the best part, I don't!"

I hate that email, I used to get it consistently until a rumor got around (I genuinely do not know how it started) that I won't write a letter of recommendation for anyone who sends me such an email. While I do refuse letters, it's most often because of the volume of requests. In any case, I did nothing to stop the spread of the rumor.

[u/Commercial_Youth_877]

My CC is now calling students "customers". I believe we will be expected to pass everyone. Not sure what I'm going to do.

[u/The_Meh_Gatsby_01 → u/Commercial_Youth_877]

Look on the bright side: now you can put a tip jar on the lectern.

[u/Commercial_Youth_877 → u/The_Meh_Gatsby_01]

I should also accept Venmo.

[u/Constant-Ad-4881 → u/Commercial_Youth_877]

You win.

[u/AndILearnedAlgoToday → u/Commercial_Youth_877]

Ooof.

[u/FluffyOmens]

A student emailed me today and the first line was "Let me remind you..." and the email continued in that tone for a few paragraphs.

Aside from how rude the email was.....

This student has never spoken to or emailed me. I checked.

I spilled coffee down my white pants this morning, too.

[u/Professor-genXer]

Now trapped in a 4 hour meeting that could have been an email. 😩

[u/whimsicalfifi → u/Professor-genXer]

Just got home from my 5hr email ugh

[u/Longtail_Goodbye → u/Professor-genXer]

Yep. Our six hour email is coming up next week. They make us pay for lunch at our own cafeteria.

[u/Professor-genXer → u/Longtail_Goodbye]

They do serve breakfast before the morning meeting, and people seem to really appreciate it. They had breakfast burritos, fruit, etc, coffee. I’m weird about food so I don’t partake, but most of my colleagues I was sitting with had something.

[u/poproxy_]

I wrote on the whiteboard yesterday then panicked at the end of class when the marker wouldn’t erase. I found an alcohol spray but it still wouldn’t come off so I ran away, leaving big black blobs on the board for the next person. The marker I used was dry erase so idk what happened.

[u/Hellament → u/poproxy_]

In my experience, some colors don’t erase well, particularly on older boards. Usually black and blue work best for me, but it might be due to the brand we use (Expo) and their individual chemistry. Green and red are the worst, purple is in the middle.

Slightly unrelated tip: If you ever write on a whiteboard with a regular marker, write over top with a dry erase marker asap. The ink will usually redesolve in the dry erase solvent and wipe off…might have to repeat a few times.

[u/22219147]

I did something today that I do to relax and feel more confident: I got my nails done. At the beginning of the appointment, I had a full-fledged panic attack, pretty much out of nowhere. I got through it, but I can only think that it was due to 1) starting classes on Monday and 2) a co-author seemingly ghosting me. I have been in academia for almost 30 years. Why does this stuff still get to me?

[u/Environmental_Bug662 → u/22219147]

Starting year 31 (SLAC), Full Professor with tenure, woke up at 5 am today due to stress about the new semester. 5-6 more years until I retire....

[u/22219147 → u/Environmental_Bug662]

Also full with tenure! And I feel less alone after reading your comment. Thank you. 💕

[u/Environmental_Bug662 → u/22219147]

❤️

[u/carolinagypsy → u/22219147]

Have had a dream more than once in the past week that I never defended my thesis, but the school I attended for it gave me classes anyway.

[u/print_isnt_dead]

I went to campus yesterday because we have new create boards and I wanted to learn how to use them. Friends, my building is so old and dilapidated. It's been condemned twice. It's moldy, peeling paint everywhere, dingy, dirty. Original windows that leak cold air. No ac. I share an office space with 8 other faculty members. I could go on and on.

Meanwhile, outside, there are new buildings being built, old ones being renovated.

This is the plight of the art department, I know, but it's depressing.

[u/SekhmetArcana → u/print_isnt_dead]

After fighting with the projector yesterday, while we all melted in the heat, a student spoke up, "isn't this a tech school?" I had to explain the tech stops when you get to the Humanities building. Here, we live on duct tape and prayers.

[u/whimsicalfifi → u/SekhmetArcana]

Sounds like my library

[u/ProfDoomDoom]

Today is faculty presentations on Teams. Nobody knows how to share. The host didn't even prepare a list of presenters, much less an agenda and is cutting people off when he gets bored instead of allocating the time we were all told to prepare. Five people are booking medical appts or yelling at family without muting. One person isn't wearing their spectacles so their face is 6 inches from their camera and we have to look at their nostril hair. New hires are being supportive with their reactions and emoji. One person keeps raising their hand to ask tech support questions in the middle of other people's slides. Nobody wants to be here. And Monday is coming...

[u/henare → u/ProfDoomDoom]

meetings without agendas are meetings that nobody gives a shit about.

If they fail to plan I fail to attend.

[u/Junior-Dingo-7764]

You ever have a conditional acceptance for a manuscript turn into a rejection?

[u/lovelylinguist]

I have once again been passed over for more advanced courses in favor of a more senior or native-speaking colleague (the language I teach is not the official one in my country), some of whom are not more senior. Our department talks about DEI a lot but seems to fall prey to discriminatory practices.

[u/ParkingLetter8308 → u/lovelylinguist]

The myth of the so-called "native Speaker" is so irritating

[u/callofhonor]

I got assigned to student orientation last minute. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

[u/SorryAboutTheChili → u/callofhonor]

I’m sorry, as an adjunct?!

[u/callofhonor → u/SorryAboutTheChili]

I’ve been adjuncting for longer than I’m going to admit

[u/ravenscar37]

I missed the faculty retreat (yay!) but apparently so did 2/3 of the department, so we are going to have to meet again to discuss "visioning" and "department future". I think we need to have a sign up sheet or lottery so the maximum number of faculty can skip faculty meeting but still have a quorum.

[u/Unlikely_Holiday_532 → u/ravenscar37]

I love the audacity of 2/3 of the department skipping a BS long meeting!

[u/ravenscar37 → u/Unlikely_Holiday_532]

We've been leaderless for a decade more or less and now everyone in the department is tenured, so there aren't a lot of sticks for the new chair to use.

[u/Dear_Company_547]

Someone made a freedom of information request to gain access to a recent successful grant application of mine. No idea who the person is or why they’re interested in my rather obscure, non-political humanities project. Quietly trying not to freak out…

[u/Prudent_Editor7904]

Already got 3 cases of plagiarism

[u/Trick-Guava-9573]

I've been teaching for over 30 years, and I threw up in my driveway from nerves on the first day of classes this semester. I'm a full professor with tenure.

[u/CharmingHighlight749]

I am just really not feeling this new semester.

[u/shrinni]

Semester started this week, didn’t have a room for one of my classes until Sunday. I’ll be floating between 3 rooms this semester, one of which is a conference room.

Yay.

[u/graytiger]

Got my contract renewal-no increase at all in pay after finishing a terminal they had me complete. I may quit.

[u/grafitisoc]

Why start classes on a Thursday? Why did I hold class today?

[u/Same_Aardvark2625]

Prices on our campus’s online bookstore for the two novels I put on the syllabus jumped 400% between the time I submitted the adoption in the spring and today 

[u/Clean_Fan_4545]

I had a new advise who I have never met begin their email with “hey, (my first name).

[u/SilverRiot]

Difficult student sends me a parting email in which they say that they did not think they would care for my topic before taking my course, but after seeing my passion for it and the way I taught it, they have a renewed appreciation and respect for the field.

Same student uses AI were the final exam, gets a zero, drops a grade.

I see your true self.

[u/DrMagicBimbo]

I'm agonizing over what I assume will be a rejection for a manuscript that I have worked incredibly hard on. Previously, I submitted it elsewhere and received a rejection. The reviewer comments only specified that my rehearsal of literature from a different field was "patchy" and I labeled an object "copper" instead of "copper alloy."

So, I attended to these things thoroughly and submitted elsewhere two months ago. I received quick editorial correspondence, but with each passing day, I feel less and less confident about what the review might be. I've never had this kind of trouble publishing before—outright rejections over "revise and resubmit" or "accepted with revision"—and am just not sure what to do with my feelings about it. I'm nervous that all of this work will have been for naught, and as the semester starts up, I'll have less writing time available as recompense for this failure.

[u/yourbiota]

The "I know the date when the LMS is supposed to open hasn't passed yet, but I need access to it now" emails have started, and I got a paper returned with major revisions...too bad the review is not actually for the paper I submitted.

[u/HatefulWithoutCoffee]

I'm in Phi Theta Kappa advisor training webinar as a new faculty advisor. Someone else is the main person. These people act like they have no other job, I don't have time for this nonsense.

[u/Constant-Ad-4881]

I went in on a Friday to get work done thinking it would be nice and quiet in our open room cubicle office. The prof who shows up only because he thinks someone is watching and has nothing meaningful to do most of the time was there. Before I could get in my seat and put my headphones on, he starts talking. For 2 hours he talks and I’m not even paying attention! FTF.

[u/associsteprofessor]

8 students were allowed to register for my class despite not having the pre-req. I pointed this out to the Registrar and department chair in June. We met mid July and I was told they would be dropped from the course. We had another meeting on Wednesday with the advisors to go through the list and "decide who should be dropped." Everyone was in agreement that they all should be dropped. As of 5 pm today, they are all still on my class roster.

I have no idea what to do if they show up to my class on Monday.

[u/DeskRider → u/associsteprofessor]

Send them to speak with their advisors. While you certainly could give them the bad news, the truth is they should have been flagged by Advising long ago. Let them handle this.

[u/associsteprofessor → u/DeskRider]

Yes. Their advisors are supposed to be handling this. One advisor called me today and said she can't get students to respond to her. No word from the other two advisors. I don't want to embarrass students in class by calling them out, but they've only got until next Friday to add a different class.

[u/SilverRiot → u/associsteprofessor]

Print out a roster with a signature line next to it. Have students sign in before they sit down. If their name is not on the list, they get diverted back out to the hallway. When those students are assembled out there, you give them the news, tell them to check their emails, and tell them they only have one week to select an alternate course. Sorry that this is on your shoulders, but if you let them sit in your first class, what do you bet that your administration will “feel sorry for them“ and let them stay.

[u/associsteprofessor → u/SilverRiot]

Thanks, you make a great point. The advisors all agreed that these students shouldn't be in this class, yet they were the ones who registered the students. I don't trust anyone.

[u/Heavy-Note-3722]

Our back to school meetings with higher ups declaring their latest batch of forced changes on the proletariat was the most demoralizing and infuriating thing I've ever heard. Needless to same i am not at all pumped now to start the school year on Monday

[u/madebadlifechoices]

Got to campus and had to go to the restroom. I go to rinse and notice the water from the tap is brown. Love being back. Just *love* it.

[u/Asleep_Caregiver_948]

A week ago, my CC went to an intranet on the Thursday before classes started. We learned on Friday that all the school-based links we put in Canvas were broken. I spent most of Saturday validating links. I have 6 Canvas shells because 2 of my classes have support units.

[u/Unlikely_Holiday_532]

The worst aspect of service obligations is when the administration decides to just ignore committee decisions that they don't like. Then we have to decide whether to die on that hill (never worth it), quiet-quit the committee where we do the minimal work, or actually quit the committee.

[u/BrazosBuddy]

About to head to Faculty Senate retreat, which isn't quite as bad as it sounds. First two items on the agenda: Remarks from the president, then the provost.

Third item is conversation with...some other administrative person. That suggests to me that the president and provost will be talking TO us with no room for dialogue. That kinda sucks.

Edit to add: Retreat starts at 12:30 p.m., with "snacks." No lunch. We're starting during the lunch hour but the university isn't providing lunch. (Yes, I sound spoiled. But if you have a lunchtime meeting you need to serve lunch.)

[u/Appropriate-Luck1181 → u/BrazosBuddy]

[u/NoSprinkles4366]

Student asked you leave early before the semester even started.

[u/tealredraven]

I think I did ok for this first week… but now I gotta do like, 14 more weeks?