Bullshit

An exchange with a former student yesterday about failing to take care of his incomplete, started my day on a less than enthusiastic note. Literally, the moment I stepped foot on campus, he pops out of nowhere to talk about this nonsense.

Student: Hey! Did you get my email?

Me: No. Did you get mine? (I smell bullshit)

Student: Yeah, I did. Huh? You didn't get mine? I sent it a couple of days ago with my paper. I think there might be something wrong with my workplace's computer.

Me: Is that so? (Yep, it's fresh bullshit)

Student: Yeah, I should talk to the tech guy about it.

Me: Yeah, you should. You should just use your CCA email account. It never fails. (My turn to bullshit)

Student: Oh. OK. Soooo ...

Me: Yeah? (More?)

Student: So I should send it again?

Me: Yes, if you don't want your incomplete to be changed into a failing grade.

Student: Oh. OK.

Me: As soon as your email account is fixed, forward your original email from your SENT folder that has the time/date stamp. (Here, young lad, have some of my bullshit)

Student: (puzzled look) You mean, the time/date stamp on my paper?

Me: No, I mean there's a backup of every email that you send in a folder called "SENT" or "SENT MAIL." Go there and you'll find your original email with your paper. It has a time/date stamp confirming when you sent it. It's a default setting and it's there for instances like this when something unexpected happens. It's a good thing too in your case otherwise you'd be in trouble. (Smile at my bullshit)

Student: (visibly stunned) Oh. OK.

Me: OK, I got to get ready for class. But get that to me ASAP. And good to see you again. (I love bullshit)

On the First Day

A former student of mine, who is now in grad school, will be teaching a class for the first time on her own. Understandably, she was nervous. So she asked mewhat I did to mentally prepare for the first day. I told her I played songs in my head to calm my nerves and get focused.

"So what song do you play?" she asked.

"The Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back."

"OMG! You're such a dork!" she laughed.

"It's been a top favorite lately and it works for me."

To all the teachers and professors, good luck on the start of a new semester! :D

Taking a Break

I know I have tons of stuff to do before classes return next week, but I think I need a break from everything. My interview at CCA went very well on Monday; I got good vibes from everyone and I hope the search committee got a good impression of me. It's also great to have faculty and, believe it or not, a provost (!) who knows a lot about Foucault and I got some really great questions from them. So as with all job searches, I'll just wait and see what happens. In the meantime, I came across this very well done video about a battle between Bruce Lee and Iron Man. Cool stuff!

The Nicest Things

I went back to work today after I came home last night from an exhausting interview. I was tired, unfocused, and sleep deprived. You cannot imagine how much I smoked these past few days when I was interviewing; I was like a train on fire.

But as soon as I stepped into my office, I had a constant steady stream of students meeting with me about their projects, their presentations, and just to check up on me to see how I was doing. And all of a sudden, I felt fine. The nicest thing about coming home is to see my partner again, and to see the happy faces on my students.

It's Official

I just got word of a second interview for a tenure-track position at a school on the west coast. I have my first interview at a university down south in which I'll be flying out tomorrow.

Considering the economic crisis and how it's impacting the market, I am extremely lucky to have just one. Two is a damn miracle.

Now I just have to do my thing and see where all of this goes.

Interviews

One interview for a tenure track position at a school on the west coast is done.

And another one at a school in the south coming up very very soon.

My head feels like it's going to explode!

Is This It?

So I got my diploma today.

I opened the package which included my official transcripts, a description of the alumni association, a thank you memo, and of course my diploma.

My name is in big bold letters and underneath it reads, "awarded the Doctorate of Philosophy in Cultural Studies."

*sarcasm hat on*

Wow. I am soooooooo excited at my accomplishment.

Wow. Three extra letters after my name.

Wow. Over ten years of heartache for a friggin' piece of paper.

Wow. Student loans up the ying yang that I will have to start paying off soon.

*sarcasm hat off*

I did have the best dissertation committee that anyone could ever ask for.

I have met a number of colleagues and friends who are very supportive.

I do have a job at a great college with the most wonderful students.

I am making the most of what I got.

So it's all good in the end. ^.^

Whoa!

Only got a short minute to post an article from The Chronicle for Higher Education about an altercation between two professors at a debate competition. I've included the clip at the end.

A Professor Is in the Hot Seat After Mooning Debate Judges

By JEFFREY R. YOUNG

A debate coach for Fort Hays State University, in Kansas, is under review by the institution after he swore at officials and mooned judges at a tournament earlier this year, in an incident that was recorded and uploaded to YouTube.

The coach, William Shanahan III, a professor of communication, got into a shouting match with a judge—and at one point briefly dropped his pants—during the national tournament of the Cross Examination Debate Association, which was held in Kansas this spring. A video recording of the incident was posted to YouTube last week, drawing thousands of views, attention from the national news media, and calls to the university from alumni and others demanding that it fire the professor for his behavior.

Off and away ...

With the final revisions done, I made two copies of my dissertation and mailed it off to CGU along with my check for processing.

I checked and double-checked my pagination, margins, titles, footnotes, and bibliographic format and all seems to be in order. If there's no major problem -- and there better not be -- I will be officially done with my degree by June 2008.

And now I have to take care of consolidating my pesky student loans. *grrrrr*

There's always one ...

Just when I thought I was going to make it through the end of the semester without a hitch, I get this email yesterday before the final exam.

Hello Professor Leung,

This morning I had a relative pass away. We had been preparing for this for months, but it still seemed so sudden. I feel that taking this exam today would not be in my best interest. I was wondering if I could come in Friday or Monday. Please let me know what I need to do in order to complete your class.

Thank you

I call bullshit. And I was about to blow a gasket right before I gave my final exam. The timing of the email was so damn suspicious. Here's why ... This student had not been around since the midterm exam. She had not turned in an online assignment since Week 4. She had missed all the quizzes. No email or phone call. Nothing.

If in fact she had been "preparing for this for months," why did she not inform me earlier? I had three students who had family members pass away this semester, but they kept me apprised on their situations and still maintained their work in class. We worked out a different schedule so that they can keep up with the course material. This student had all the time in the world to inform me; that was ultimately her responsibility as an adult and she failed.

Maybe this was a very personal issue? Maybe it was really hard for her to talk about to anyone else? Maybe. I will concede that point. But would you disappear for several weeks without telling your employer about what's going on? If you had a seriously deep anxiety about discussing your private affairs openly, you might react that way. Fine. But for any reasonable person? I don't think so. You will get fired and if that consequence isn't enough to tell your employer about what's going on, then I really don't know what is.

Here's what I wrote in response:

I'm sorry to hear of your loss and I am sure it is a difficult time for you and everyone in your family. However, I don't think rescheduling your final will be any good to you at this point. According to my records, you've only turned in 4/10 assignments, I have no quizzes recorded, and you scored a 73% on your midterm. You also have not showed up to class since the midterm according to my attendance records. The numbers say that you will not pass my course even if you have a perfect score on your final exam.

In order to avoid a negative report on your transcript, I suggest contacting the chair of the PIA department, Prof. Robert Dudley, about dropping/withdrawing my course because of a prolonged family illness resulting in death. You would need official documentation in order to make your case.

I wish I could give you better news but had I known about this we could have worked out an alternate schedule to accommodate your needs. I do wish you the best.

It's a fair, honest, and practical response, no?

Every semester, and it always happens around the time of final exams, I get a few students with very similar records of prolonged absences, missing quizzes, even an absent midterm, asking for an extension or a rescheduling because of an "illness," "a family emergency," "a death in the family," or "stuck in Boston." I said I would allow it if you provided documentation: doctor's note, family physician, airline stub, etc. And each and every time no one has ever provided me the proof. It is the one action that I have as a professor to protect myself from any liability. Moreover, I hate being a jerk to students but I'll be damned if anyone takes advantage of my good will. In this case, there was no way this student could even pass even if she had a perfect score. She can still technically withdraw under extraordinary circumstances, but she still needs proof. That's the bottom line.

I have not heard from her since yesterday nor do I think I ever will.

"I Swear"

No I am not talking about this group from way back when.

From The Chronicle of Higher Education, another faculty member was removed for failing to sign a loyalty oath upon employment at the California State University system. This marks the second time a faculty member was denied employment on this basis. The first was at CSU East Bay of a mathematics instructor, and both are Quakers and both, I believe, are adjunct professors. California's loyalty oath was added to the state constitution for the expressed purpose of preventing communists from taking public jobs in 1952.

Now having been an adjunct for nearly nine years, and aside from asking the obvious about religious freedom and the archaic practice of this particular loyalty oath, I have to ask these questions just off the top of my head:

• I wonder if any tenure track professor was denied employment on the basis of refusing to sign or altering a loyalty oath?
• I wonder what protections, resources, and advice are afforded to part-time lecturers?
• Do the CSU's counterpart, the research powerhouses of the University of California system (i.e., UC Berkeley, UCLA, etc.), also administer loyalty oaths to their tenure track and part-time lecturers?

I'm just curious about these kinds of institutional distinctions. I've always maintained that if a rule is in place, it must be applied equally across the board or none at all (well that's more of a guideline than an actual legal procedure but anyways ... ). When I was hired to teach a course at "Some University" in their "Pretty Cool" program, I had to sign a loyalty oath. It was a short document that looked as though it was printed in the 1950s with the ink from the mimeograph still fresh after all these years. It made me wonder if it literally was printed in the 1950s when questions about loyalty and the infiltration of communism (thanks to McCarthyism and the nationwide "red scare") inflamed this country, and again in the late 1960s when a very conservative California legislature enacted to strangle the state's university professors and their activism. I wasn't sure if that was because the school had not hired that many new faculty -- which could've explained why there was a distinct generation gap -- or that the school was not an attractive institution to work -- which is also plausible since some of the buildings were literally from the Stone Age and just being a professor is not a lucrative job. I was also tempted to inhale the document hoping that I could catch a whiff of the intoxicating fumes from the blue ink but I digress.

Anyways, I asked the administrator -- who looked as though he was there since the 1950s -- what would happen if I did not sign it. He simply said, "You won't get hired."

WTF???

"So there's no way around it?"

"None at all."

"Can I change some of the wording?"

"You can't do that."

"Because?"

"It's against the law."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"Can I sign it under a different name?" At this point, I was being somewhat of an ass, but he nevertheless maintained his composure. I could tell from his facial reaction that he either found me or the whole thing really amusing.

"Nope."

I took the pen in my hand and hovered over the "Sign here" section of the document. I looked up at him again with a concerned look on my face and he blurted out, "You won't get paid."

*GASPS* He got me. I was done for and so I signed the document, once again as the wretched of the academy I am so happy to receive pennies for my labor. I handed the abominable oath back to him and I could have sworn I saw a snicker, maybe a curl on his upper lip, as if I signed my soul away. Curse him!

But to complicate my story a bit further, "Some University" was not the only university that I taught for the California State University system. I had taught elsewhere in the system and none of them ever once asked me to sign a loyalty oath on condition of employment and payment.

Go figure that one out.

May 5, 2008

California State U. Sacks Another Quaker Instructor Over Loyalty Oath

Yet another Quaker instructor has been sacked by the California State University system for objecting to a state loyalty oath that clashes with her pacifist religious beliefs, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Wendy Gonaver, an American-studies lecturer at California State University at Fullerton, was fired the day before the start of classes because she would not “sign an oath swearing to ‘defend’ the U.S. and California constitutions ‘against all enemies, foreign and domestic’” unless she was allowed to include a statement explaining her views, “a practice allowed by other state institutions,” the reporter, Richard C. Paddock, writes. The university refused to grant her request.

Earlier this year, California State University at East Bay fired Marianne Kearney-Brown, a Quaker mathematics instructor, for trying to add the word “nonviolently” to the state loyalty oath and for refusing to sign it when the university did not allow her to add the word. She was later reinstated.

See an item on The Chronicle’s News Blog for more details.

Last Lecture

It just occurred to me that my last lecture for GMU officially ended today. Next Wednesday is the final exam and hopefully I'll be able to turn in final grades a few days later. Surprisingly, I've had very few complaints with this class. I still have the usual slackers and there were times when I felt my lectures could have been tighter. But overall, it was a good semester.

I remember my last day at Loyola Marymount University and Santa Monica College. I did feel a sense of loss as if my work with students was unfinished and incomplete. I have that feeling again with the students at GMU ... at least, the ones who matter ... which is a small minority ... which seems to be consistent every semester ... Anyways ...

But there's also this feeling of relief that this semester, and my time at GMU and living in Washington, DC, is almost over. It would too cliche to say "I'll be starting a new chapter." Geez that sounds really sappy. I think it's closure that best describes my state of being; maybe, a clean break and a real desire to just move on and see what else is out there. A very good friend of mine in grad school once said at the completion of her qualifying exams, "I am totally done with this place."

Yup!

Drumroll Please ...

At 1pm, Monday, I successfully defended my dissertation!!!

It was a two hour meeting with two of my committee members on conference call, my third committee was present as well as two of my best friends attending. My defense began with a 20 minute overview of my dissertation that covered some of the main topics and how it raised larger questions. The one thing that really struck me was how each of them in turn praised my work, loved my methodological approach, and indicated many times that my work was a major contribution to cultural studies and more importantly agency and resistance. For once, in a long while, I haven't felt like my work was anything of consequence yet within two hours they made me feel like I was on top of the world. It was an odd feeling to be congratulated in this way after spending so many years agonizing over my research. But this moment was the first time that I felt like I was am an intellectual equal.

I have some minor revisions to my introduction and conclusion, but they all urged to get it done ASAP and they will sign me off. After so many years, I am just a step closer to finishing.

First Draft Completed

Coming in at a lean and mean 170 pages, 49,269 words, 945 paragraphs, and 4,506 lines, is my completed dissertation draft. *WHEW*

My immediate concern is my defense scheduled for this Monday, 11am, and I have a number of items to take care of before I leave for Los Angeles this weekend.

Of all the things to do I had the most difficult time with was formatting my dissertation, and writing my acknowledgements page. The general issue about formatting my dissertation are the specific requirements regarding margin lengths, typeface, point size, title page, signature pages, dedication, acknowledgements, table of contents, and many others. It's more of a technical issue but it is time consuming. For instance, one requirement about page numbering states that the page number should be at the bottom-center for the first page of each new chapter. All other pages will have the page number at the upper-right hand corner. After googling for the answer, I found that I needed to use section breaks that will allow different formats for each page including page numbering. I was using page breaks which allows a continuous format for all pages. *Shrugs* I did it and it's done.

The hardest part was writing my acknowledgements page and I can't say that I'm totally happy with it. According to the dissertation preparation manual, an acknowledgements page, "is where you would acknowledge the assistance of those who were significant contributors to the process of writing your dissertation: committee members, outside readers, someone who helped you formulate your proposal, someone who helped with computer work or statistical analysis. Funding sources which supported your research would be acknowledged here as well."

I made an initial list and I ended up with several dozen people to thank that went over three pages single spaced. That's way too long but how do I choose? I started by identifying who I absolutely had to include and they were my partner, my dissertation committee, and my dissertation grants. I then asked myself who could I do without and they were mostly folks I randomly met at conferences, through other friends, etc. Interesting conversations but not a totally huge impact on the direction of my dissertation. What's left are the people in-between that includes close friends, scholars, and professionals. I worked with a couple of friends from my program to build an intellectual community; I know have to thank them. There are friends who I met at Claremont who provided a wonderful social setting for colleagues; my quality of life would've been horrid if it wasn't for them. Then there are the folks in the academic setting who didn't treat me like an adjunct but helped my professional career and offered their support for my writing. They were highly influential because they gave me an idea on what it means to be a researcher/scholar/activist. It keeps going from there and I think I have to include my family in some way too even though my parents still have no idea what I do for a living.

I just have to keep thinking about who made a difference on my scholarship and how to determine those lines. Or, I could just make it totally simple and short. Thanks to my committee, my partner, and the dissertation funding from CGU.

One Step Closer ...

As of 12:32 am, Thursday, April 3, I completed my first draft of my entire dissertation and it was sent off to my committee for review.

The word is ... "Hooray?"

That Word?

What's that word that describes an impending explosion in your head? It starts out maybe as a slight headache, a minor throbbing. Maybe there's a minor vertigo effect. Then it stops and you think you may be fine. But it starts up again. You feel your brain pulsating, pounding the walls of your skull. The pain intensifies to the point where you can't do anything.

What's that word?

I've got less than 10 hours before I finish my first complete draft of my dissertation. I still have to do some editing and grammar checks before I send it off. Come to think of it ... I just remembered I have to fix my conclusion now that a major portion of it went into the introduction.

Seriously, what's that word I'm looking for?

Post-Grinnell

I had a pounding headache after I returned from Grinnell. There was no way I could actually work even though I have a ton of things to do like scheduling my defense, finish my revisions, and of course switch gears back to teaching at GMU; something about Marxism and democracy. That reminds me, I have to grade their midterm exams. *grumbles*

Oh hell.

Grinnell Day 3

Wrapped up the remaining interviews with faculty from Sociology and American Studies. I was so tired that I can't even remember their questions, let alone if my answers were coherent. I just remember ending it well and leaving Grinnell with more sights of wild turkeys, soaring hawks and eagles, and an Amish colony. I had no trouble with my flights in and out of Chicago. When I arrived at Reagan National I bumped into a former student who was working there. We chatted and he asked about where I went. I told him I was interviewing at Grinnell. "You're leaving us?" he asked. "If I get it I'm going," I said. He looked dejected and said I was his best professor ever, and then started a colorful tirade against GMU. "Gawd damn that school!" he ended. I told him that nothing has been confirmed and that I'll still be around. We laughed, shook hands, and parted ways.

I called "J" to pick me up. When I saw her drive up, I knew I was home. I got into the car, turned to her and said, "I got class issues."

"So what else is new?"

Exactly I thought.

At Grinnell Day 2

I am absolutely exhausted, exhilarated, and overwhelmed with my second day of interviews. I talked with more faculty members from the department from 8:45am to 8:00pm. It was a seriously full day of great advice, solid exchanges, and some no-nonsense talk that I really appreciated. My lecture demonstration went well in the morning and my job talk seemed pretty solid in the afternoon. And above all, I got to meet with some of the Sociology majors and they gave me a really good insight about student culture and what it means to be at Grinnell. Teaching is probably the most valued practice and principle that constitutes the identity of this college and students are highly invested in their educational experience, one that I haven't seen this intense in any college or university anywhere in my career.

My meetings with the faculty really gave me a solid idea of what it means to be a colleague. And the nicest thing the chair of the department said to me was that my value to the department is my very personhood.

And I saw Manning Marable today at dinner who gave a public lecture at Grinnell.

"Wow" is what I kept saying all day.

At Grinnell

I'm here in Grinnell!!! I started on what will be 3 days of interviewing.

My interview started with a wonderful dinner with some of the faculty members in the department and the Special Assistant to the President on Diversity Affairs. They gave me the lowdown on what's been happening and how timely and important my talk will be for them. But more importantly, I had forgotten what it was like to have colleagues. The people who I have met thus far are simply amazing and I know that's going to be a very common theme with everyone else so I hope I can show them my best. It's been really positive. I have to get ready for tomorrow because it's going to be a very full day from morning till night. I have a serious schedule meeting faculty from the Sociology and American Studies departments as well as various administrators. On top of all that, I have a lecture demonstration and my full talk in the afternoon and somewhere in-between I have to find time to eat. It's going to be one long intense day.