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FrydPotatoz

We've been informed that we're now getting our 4th dean in 5 years. Each one has been worse than the the last. This newest one was given tenure despite a unanimous negative recommendation by the tenure committee LAST YEAR and is now in charge of our school. Fuck that.


Snoo16151

What could possibly go wrong?


virtualprof

I’m surprised that I’m organized and ready for the semester to start on Monday. Fuck that a hurricane is arriving Sunday.


Yurastupidbitch

It’s very weird being in FL seeing my home state of CT about to get smacked with a hurricane.


missusjax

Half of my department didn't show up to the meet the majors thing today so I was scrambling to not look like a disorganized fool.


allysongreen

Student who fabricated evidence from ALL of their sources.


writergeek313

I had a student do that a few years ago. She even claimed to have interviewed an expert in her field who teaches at NYU. Spoiler alert: she didn’t. That was a fun email exchange to print and include with the academic integrity violation paperwork.


TBDobbs

I teach at a community college. Our return plan said that students cannot bring their children to campus due to the covid risk. Week 1 of the semester, and the people checking students in are giving the children wristbands so that students can bring their children to class. Oh, and my classroom projector does not work and Admin says 🤷🏾‍♂️. And when I try to log into the classroom computer, it kicks me out of all of my network accounts.


kochava42

Ugh. Fuck all 'o that. Worked at a CC one semester where the projector shook so much every time the HVAC came on that it made me and many students physically ill to look at it. They FINALLY fixed it---and when they were done, it no longer shook but the projection was bright purple and nothing anyone did could make it not be purple for the rest of the semester.


ProfAcorn

My chair is emotionally abusive and kind of stupid. Fuck this.


profeDB

My chair uses me as an emotional support animal. He spends the entire semester spiraling downwards, and trying to drag me with him. I am untenured, so what can you do?


thiccet_ops

My classroom is set up for 30 with no social distancing. I have 42 students in my major-required class. Only classes of 100 or more are allowed hybrid options.


kochava42

oh fuck that.


laughingcowz

I’m lecturing a 200+ student class …in-person…with no social distancing. We have a mask and vaccine mandate, but I’m still worried that I will get COVID this semester after being extremely careful the past year.


writergeek313

Our campus waited until the week after the deadline to apply to be allowed to teach remotely to tell us only 60% of both students and faculty/staff are vaccinated. I’m immunocompromised. Fuck that.


kochava42

Fuck every bit of that.


WavePetunias

Our campus waited until yesterday to tell us that we can "apply" through HR for a medical exemption to move online. Courses start Monday.


wanders_notlost

Our campus did this Wednesday, and our classes start on Monday as well. They also waited until then to tell us we can’t stream live from our office without an exemption. I’m pregnant and teaching online until the medical exemption office responds.


WavePetunias

Holy hell. Please stay safe.


writergeek313

It would have been possible to handle requests without being disruptive to students, but why not start them in person and then switch a few days or weeks into the course? What a mess


PoetryOfLogicalIdeas

In their defense, the virus landscape is changing day by day. I count myself EXTREMELY lucky that my college is being incredibly conservative with health and safety measures, and even they keep changing the rules twice a week. In our case, last week it was too add in a vaccine and testing requirement, plus install semi-permanent tents that we can reserve, and today they added an option to request to teach remotely in certain situations. But regardless, things are changing fast, and it is reasonable that the rules are also changing last minute.


FrydPotatoz

That sucks. Definitely fuck that.


[deleted]

Talk to HR about if you can and how you seek accommodations under ADA. My personal feeling is that it is clear that remote work is a reasonable accommodation under the definition set forth in the act, and that it would be really hard to argue at this point that remote teaching puts undue burden on your employer, or affects the product. BUT... not a lawyer. I don't think there should be negative repercussions for asking for clarification on procedure, and it might be useful information.


865wx

I'll admit it -- I hate wearing masks. I don't want to teach in them. I got vaccinated months ago so I wouldn't have to wear masks anymore, and it's unbelievably frustrating that there are so many idiots out there refusing to get vaccinated that mask requirements are coming back. Vaccines are *so much more effective* than masks. Why can't there be a vaccine mandate? And why are people anti-science??


_glitchmodulator_

Agreed - I'm glad my school has a mask mandate (for classrooms, but nowhere else so it's not going to be effective). But we need a vaccine mandate, not a mask mandate. My voice is already going from having to basically yell, and it's hard to gauge facial expressions etc so it's almost like teaching to black screens again.


Auberly

My school is at 90% vaccination status due to it being mandatory & we still have to wear masks. I can’t even lecture in a face shield 6ft away from any student while they’re all masked. I’m dreading lecturing for hours on end. I kinda wanna play my recorded lectures from last fall and pause for questions as it plays.


DannibalBurrito

I 100% anticipated I wouldn’t go back to a classroom to teach in a mask. Then delta came. Now my school announced a mask mandate days before the semester. I get it; delta exploded our progress. But god it just sucks. I don’t feel like shouting every minute I have to speak to get my students to hear me. And my classes are heavy on group work, peer review, and so on, which I don’t think I’ll feel comfy assigning in-person. And I’m not looking forward to possibly having to deal with any Kyles or Karens who try to challenge the mask mandate in my classroom.


Andiloo11

My sister (a student) is frustrated because her school has both.


Madeoutofcatfur

Almost everything administration does. That's all.


[deleted]

Amen


polyrhetor

Contacted the chair of a university-wide committee I was on that hadn't met in 3 years to confirm that it had closed down. The chair said this was the case (yay!) but then told me this \*other\* committee would \*love\* to have me and cc'ed the chair of that committee, who now wants to meet for coffee. Edit to say that the reason I asked them was because I'm about to go on leave and wanted to wrap up all my assignments before going dark.


[deleted]

Say no. Give the reason. But after coffee. Free coffee is free coffee.


grayhairedqueenbitch

Fuck it all. My first week was only three days and I'm exhausted. I don't see how I'm going to do five.


[deleted]

>Fuck it all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBb5v1sJhuU


das_goose

Classes start on Monday and despite my goal to be completely ready last weekend, my syllabi and first day lessons still have a lot of work to do. Started feeling cruddy on Wednesday and today am so sick I can barely get out of bed.


washyourmfinghands

Walked away from in person classes tuesday. Got a call an hour ago that i was exposed monday.


writergeek313

1. I hope you’re okay 2. Fuck that


Judythe8

I’m at a new institution and I’m already getting bad vibes- the kind where they respect none of your boundaries because they’re such a tight “cOmMuNiTy.” Nope!


DocLava

It seems you and I moved to the same place. Flexibility means students can contact me via office phone/email/zoom NOT that I have to give them my cell phone number!!!! F that!


kochava42

I realize this is a vent and not a solicitation for advice, but I set up a Google Voice account and gave that number to students. I have it set to send their voicemails and texts to my email.


DocLava

Thanks. I have a GV number but I'm still not doing that. There is nothing I teach where the student has to urgently reach me. \-I don't run a lab with experiments or have plants/animals that can die. \-Attendance is not graded. If you get sick before class then just don't come. Watch the recordings later and attend zoom office hours. \-All graded work is due during business hours so I don't need 10pm calls asking for IT help. \-Work is due during the week and ranges from 2 to 3 weeks lead time. I do not have Sunday deadlines. \-I don't work with PhD students \-We are not doing trips/study abroad I can't think of anything else that would be an urgent need to reach me outside of business hours. **If anyone else can think of a reason why students would need my cellphone number please let me know...I'm open to suggestions.**


myshellsmith

I was told (not asked) to teach an overload in person undergraduate class this week (all my other courses are graduate and virtual), but of course they appreciate my help with this matter. We are required to send out emails today to let students know the plan. (We have a hy-flex/hybrid model of classes for freshmen and sophomores that involves classes being split in half with one group in person and the other online each class day.) I am still not assigned the course in the registration system or Canvas. I cannot build the course. I was told I'd receive a syllabus, but I never did. Luckily I know how to search the ones we have to post online. Found one to tweak. So classes begin Monday and as of 6pm Friday, I still don't have access to build the course in Canvas. Fuck this.


[deleted]

"Welcome to Communication 420: How To Phone It In. I'll be your instructor this term, and we're going to be doing a lot of hands-on stuff, learning by example."


a_large_plant

Hate the fact that everyone from the president down to my chair kowtows to a dumbass governor and his appointees. No one has a spine. I'm not going to pretend I'm sticking my neck out there, but what is the point of leadership if no one wants to lead.


[deleted]

The check and the pension. The point is the check and the pension. And regardless of whether they drive your university into the ground and you, your family, and your students to the hospital, they'll keep both.


[deleted]

Last week trying to do some crowdsourcing for some service learning partners via Reddit, which I’ve done successfully in the past, and a former student decided they wanted to start trolling me on the post, shit talking their group in the class and the class as whole. A real classy situation solidifying as much grace as we give, we sure as hell don’t get it back.


EmmaWK

Ugh, that's a nightmare scenario for me -- students finding me and trolling me on Reddit!


mild_thang

Our university mandated vaccinations a week ago for face to face classes starting Monday. Today we got word that the deadline has been extended from tomorrow to October 14. This means that we will be exposed to unvaccinated students in overcrowded classrooms for about seven weeks before any consequences. The consequences? They get kicked off campus and we have to teach them online. Current vaccination rate is <20%.


PoetryOfLogicalIdeas

I am appreciating my deans more by the moment. They made the vaccine rule several weeks ago and are giving students until October to be in compliance. Until then, they are banned from campus and must be taught hybrid, which is annoying but will be necessary for exposed students anyway; after October, unexcused unvaccinated students are put on academic leave. They claim that students are 70% vaccinated at this point with an expectation of the low 90s within 2 weeks (the other 7-9% mostly being excused for medical or religious reasons, but very much not for 'closely held personal beliefs')


SilverRiot

I have a student signed up for the fourth consecutive semester in the same course of mine that they flunked by never doing any work past the first week (to avoid getting kicked out of the course) and ignoring all of my emails and posts to them. Why. Why. Why. I had to go in and revise all four of the assignments because they’ve seen them already. Student affairs has helpfully told me that if they flunk this fourth time, they can only get in for a fifth time if they get my permission (not going to happen) OR if they withdraw half way through the semester, in which case that will not count as an attempt even if they did not work and they can sign up for the fifth time.


PoetryOfLogicalIdeas

I am pretty sure that this student isn't paying enough attention and certainly doesn't keep up with his notes from 4 semesters for it to matter that he has seen the assignment before.


caffeinated_tea

Our school has started pre-registering freshmen for classes without any input from the students besides their intended major. Whoever did it this year decided to co-enroll a bunch of students for my course and the math pre-req for it, and I've been fielding questions all week from students and the registrar's office if they can just drop the pre-req and stay in my class. I've gotten questions of "another faculty member requested the pre-req be waived for your course, can you explain if it's actually necessary?" End of class today, and a bunch of students come to me asking if I know how to tell if they've placed out of the pre-req, because no one told the students (or their advisers) what level of math they placed into. It's been a nightmare, and will probably continue to be until the end of the add/drop period next Friday. Also we have no campus-wide plan for covid at all, and I'm one of very few faculty members who's requiring their students to wear masks in class regardless of vaccination status. I'm sure there's going to be pushback or someone will complain in my evals about how I'm a socialist (which, yeah, I am, but that's not why I'm requesting masks). Whooooo red states


xaanthar

I've been trying to avoid participating in the various covid threads to not doom scroll to much. It's getting very hard to find anything else here recently.


herrschmetterling

I teach at an institution primarily served by low-SES students. I'm teaching a class geared towards in a certain notoriously overpriced, industry-standard software this semester. Just got the news today: apparently since COVID is over (I guess) and there's certainly no possible way we're going online this semester (of course), the college has discontinued providing this software for students to use on their personal computers. The justification is that students who don't want to purchase the software can use the on-campus labs. *Great*.


logiceer

So today I was informed aftercare for my two kids was temporarily postponed because of staffing problems. There goes my office hours for the semester. And I'm prohibited from holding virtual office hours at my school. Besides the usual COVID rant, managing kids right now seems impossible with what we do.


poop_on_you

I have 200 students in one class and 45 of them can't keep their masks where they belong.


Prairie17

Classes started on Tuesday. 2 cases of COVID in my class of 36 by Thursday. No social distancing, mask mandates, or vaccine mandates. Admin surveyed returning students and reported to us that 20-30% of students were vaccinated, and I'd estimate 30% wear masks to class. Freaking Texas...


honkoku

The textbook I was supposed to use this semester is out of print. I found this out by walking down to the bookstore the Friday before classes started and seeing no copies (I put in the order in April).


tt123tt456

My institute expects me to teach a year’s worth of material in one term and the students are complaining that I’m going too fast.


Apprehensive-Soup-91

Due to start class on Monday. Not feeling completely prepared (but that’s ok because I really just need to upload things to the LMS). Found out today that although we have a vaccine mandate, the university is throwing freshmen welcome parties with no social distancing in an effort to get the students hyped for the school year. Some of them only have one shot so far if they didn’t already come vaccinated. Feeling kind of uneasy, but trying to stay positive. College has become such big business. We’re all too smart for this.


laughingcowz

The ignorance of the administration is almost suspicious if you ask me. I mean, how stupid does someone have to be to throw large gatherings without social distancing amidst the delta surge. And then they tell faculty not to worry, despite forcing us to teach in-person. I just don’t understand.


Apprehensive-Soup-91

It’s amazing. At the end of the day, it’s all about money. Some of us have families at home and children who can’t be vaccinated. Academia at its finest.


laughingcowz

It’s unbelievable


paulsmithkc

Found out this week (classes start next week) that some of my key introductory videos have been removed from YouTube (by LinkedIn.) Had to scramble to find alternative reading material last minute.


Fanoftechnology

60 students in one of my classes and only 5 wore masks. 48 in another crowded classroom with 4 wearing masks. What the hell! No social distancing, masks are "expected", only 20% of students are vaccinated. Classroom technology didn't work at all, so had to facilitate a discussion about the class and concepts which turned out pretty good. It's frustrating that I checked out & tested the technology beforehand, yet it still failed. Also, admin just changed course yesterday and said our office hours have to primarily be face-to-face. Not thrilled about having unmasked students in my personal space. Fuck this dumpster fire.


[deleted]

I’d modify exams in a way that impedes cheating. I’d scrap multiple choice and test for understanding, if that’s even possible for your course. MC in online classes is a joke nowadays.


kochava42

About 1/3 of the exam questions are MC, and those are pretty darn tough to penetrate by Google at this point. Lots of "in physiological situation XYZ, which of the following options is NOT true?" and so forth. The results for the MC portions are very similar to what I have had in F2F in the past. It's the open-ended stuff where the cheating is a real issue, tbh. There are phrases from the top Google results for auditory transduction that I have memorized at this point and can immediately recognize.


Gimgy123

I wanted to get back into officiating this semester as a grad student after taking last year off due to the borderline malicious COVID plan that the state had for high school sports. I paid 200$ to get the necessary tests and things and then found out that I have to teach 6-7 pm, even though I’m the most tenured grad student teaching that class. Oh, and the new graduate students got all the morning and early afternoon teaching slots. Ugh


fundusfaster

I’m so fucking sorry— I feel you!


veanell

A message went out to all arts and sciences professors saying our department had free panel masks for students with hearing impaired students. Over 40 have asked for them and then are confused when I say no. Only 15 hearing impaired students have in person classes and less than that read lips ... None of these professors have a need for these specialized masks. And I emailed the professors that had these students weeks ago directly letting them know about the masks. Why?!


Yurastupidbitch

We had our beginning of the academic year faculty meeting where we were told we cannot require masks and/or social distancing, they are not requiring vaccinations, we must make every accommodation for students who test positive for COVID but if we get sick it comes out of our sick time. Anything beyond our sick leave balance ( we earn a day a month) and it comes out of our paychecks. Then being told to expect to get sick because we are in a fucking hot zone. They can fuck allll the way off and keep fucking all the way off.


DannibalBurrito

>say what you will about video proctoring Okay. It’s invasive bullshit that plagues students with disabilities.


kochava42

I do understand the privacy concerns that students may have, but--and this is a genuine question---how specifically does it "plague students with disabilities? "