LY #135 Following Directions and Dissertating

A. Ray Olpin Student Union, U of Utah

Today is the first day of my last spring break.  I just posted my grades into Banner, now operating under the friendly appellation of "Bobcat Web."  (Banner is the super software that runs the school.)

Although I had many friendly, likable students, this wasn't my favorite quarter ever, as previous posts will attest.  Besides the poor choices I made in delivering my classes, I also had students who were making poor choices.  For example, the failing students who asked me to clear them to drop the class.  I did so and then sent them emails telling them that they had to finish the process by contacting the admissions office.  They never did so I was giving out Fs this morning, something I don't like to do.  Or the student who wanted an incomplete but who was not willing to fill out the incomplete contract form in order to get the "I" on the transcript.  And finally there were the students who seemed to choose not to read the directions for assignments. 

Why do people choose not to read the directions or not to follow the directions?  I  usually put everything a student needs to know about what is required for an assignment in the assignment directions.  When I don't, I'm always ready to hear student arguments about their grades.  I used to work with another teacher at COCC who would say, "I can't say what an 'A' speech is but I know it when I see it."  I thought this was and is a deeply immoral way of managing classroom economics.  Students should be able to figure out just what they need to do to get an A.  What I can't figure out is why students with grade concerns don't read the directions.  So, this wasn't a great quarter.

But it doesn't compare with the horrible winter of 1993.  I was reminded of that quarter last night when I went out to dinner at the Tumalo Feed Company with my friend Carolyn.  She said when we first met, "You didn't like me."

I begged to differ.  I said, "I may have been brusque and rude, but I didn't not like you.  I can just be an asshole sometimes."

She said that at the time I was really focused on my dissertation.  And then I remembered that period and realized, though I didn't want to say, that I probably wasn't thinking about anyone but myself at the time.  That was the winter when I got my worst ever student evaluations.  I believe that one reasons for the low evaluations was that  I was focused on defending my doctoral dissertation and also editing my only journal article based on one of its chapters.  

The defense marked the end of a long struggle with my doctoral committee and chair.  I wasn't sure I was going to make it.  The academic hazing that would not be complete until I survived two hours of questions.  I knew that the 350 pages of writing weren't going to stand up for themselves and that I  needed to prove that I was worthy of entering the gang.  Even as I was flying down to Utah (not as fun as Flying Down to Rio) my Chair was calling my spouse trying to get him to stop me because one member of the committee was having a family emergency.  Once I got to Utah and checked in I found that the defense had to be moved up a day.  So I unscheduled and rescheduled a room in the Olpin Union and ordered coffee and a fruit and pastry plate.  Then, on a Friday or Saturday morning (I forget which) I got to the union early and placed 4 talismans (good luck charms) in the four corners of the room.  Oh, yes, I was calling on all possible forces to aid me in my endeavor.  I remember that Dr. Fox met me at the Olpin coffee shop both before and after the defense, each time giving me a hug - the first for good luck and the second as "Congratulations!"

So the academic pressures I was under that winter sadly slid into my classrooms.  I was quite cranky and sarcastic at times.  Oh my, did I get some low low scores.  Deservedly so.

This morning after I input grades I looked for those two-decades-past evaluations so that I could share them with you.  A cursory examination of the appropriate file drawer did not reveal the 1993 forms.  I did see some from earlier and later in my career.   That led me to think about what I'll be doing with those files.  Perhaps I'll share some on my return from break and then burn them.

On Monday, March 31, I'll start the final countdown of my last 55 working days.