Early Post

I have back-to-back-to-back appointments of various sorts immediately after class this afternoon, so if I don't blog now, I won't get to it. And I like to end the work week with a post of some kind.

The thing I'm most proud of at the moment is that today's displacement activity was writing a letter to Gov. Cuomo. There are now two vacancies on our Board of Trustees, and Paul has been saying for some time that he wanted to write a letter to Cuomo urging the appointment of actual educators to the Board. Because apparently all my best ideas come from Paul, I stole a march on him and did precisely that today. It was also a palliative against the guilt I was feeling for not going to the picketing during "club hour" today. I even suggested that we postpone a committee meeting so people could attend the protest--and then I didn't go. I also have a strong suspicion that I won't do anything (or anything that counts) to follow up on a suggestion I made about an alternative to a protest at graduation. Things are rapidly going to hell at this institution, and I know I will be self-castigating if things get truly bad (which is likely) and I haven't at least tried to do something to change the situation for the better (which is unlikely, at this juncture at least). But I only want to apply my energy where I feel I can contribute something of substance. My letter to Cuomo isn't much, but it feels like it has the potential to be more significant than simply being another body on a picket line. Whatever else I contribute to this ongoing fight, I have to feel like I'm making the most of my energy, that I'm doing something that I can do particularly well and that it will have impact.

Paul put the overall situation very succinctly today. He said that other than our colleagues on the faculty (and not even all of them), no one here wants what we have to offer. The students think we're torturing them for no reason, that there is nothing of value to be gained from the experience we provide. And the college president and board think we're useless, if not an actual impediment to their goals (which clearly aren't about actual education, but I digress). So, as Paul said, "Cannons on the left; cannons on the right." We're being bombarded from all directions; no wonder we just want to take cover.

But about those students. Thinking about Nature in Lit, I realized that the first versions of final papers are due on Monday--and the students still haven't submitted the essay that was due three weeks ago. I'd told them before that I'd scrap it, but I'd have to reweight other assignments to compensate--and they didn't like the idea. Today, it happened by fiat. I told them that they have until the Thursday before the end of semester to turn in any revisions or any missing journal-logs. Using whatever I have at that point, I will take their three best mini-paper grades and average them together to be their essay 2 grade. They were relieved. The Actor (have I talked about him? I don't remember) is cruising for a mercy D: he's not turning in anything at all. He only submitted two (of four) minis and hasn't turned in a journal-log in forever--and the ones he has turned in have mostly been D's. I can't tell as clearly with the other two what they're likely to get at the end: it's all riding on their final papers and what they manage to turn in by May 10th.

But they had done more reading for today, which was better. We actually had some stuff to talk about that was pretty good. A relief.

Funny how my mind sometimes does something subconsciously that benefits me: on Tuesday, I hustled the Native American Lit students through the pages we'd read for the week, as if it were Thursday and we had to get through those pages before the next bunch were due. As class was coming to an end, I thought, "Whoa! Oops! Now what are we going to do for Thursday? We've kind of covered everything." I told them we'd dig in deeper to the pages we already covered--but I'd forgotten that the syllabus has a video scheduled for today. I remembered that much later in the evening, and it's rather a relief. The video is about storytelling in Native literature generally (and several of the authors they've encountered are among those who are interviewed)--and there are some bits specifically about Ceremony. So that will take a good part of the period; consequently, it's actually a good thing we already covered the pages they read for this week. I hope we have time to dig a little more, and I hope we have time for them to ask questions about the papers coming up. But if the video pretty well covers it, no harm, no foul.

I also can't remember if I said here that the Whiner is withdrawing. So I'm down to three in that class, too. When the Whiner wasn't whining, she was great--but since that better side of her contributions had pretty much disappeared by last week, I'm just as glad she's gone. I'm over getting excuses.

Speaking of which, it's almost 2 p.m., and I've not gotten papers from the students in 102 who have to get something to me by that time today or fail the class. One I know is at least working--though he's resisting the requirements of the assignment like mad, so heaven knows what the end result of this will be. The other? I hate to say it, but I yesterday I had a pretty strong feeling that she wouldn't pull it together. I hope she surprises me. She has made great progress this semester, and I'd hate for her to fall apart so late in the game--but she told me yesterday that she has a ton of other stuff due this week, so... her English class might fall by the wayside. It's a shame, really.

But speaking of whining (as I was a while back), I'm wishing like mad I didn't have to be here tomorrow for the stupid faculty development thing--but right now, we are contractually obligated to attend two each year. I didn't do any in the fall, as there was nothing appealing, and this semester's opportunities have also lacked appeal--until this one. And next week is the Assessment Symposium, which I attend mostly because I'm on the committees. I hate having to set an alarm on Fridays--especially two in a row--but ah well.

But here's the amazing thing: three weeks from today, I'll be submitting grades and final paperwork. I'll have to do scheduling for a few days the following week--but then I'll be done with this place until August. We really are on the down-slope of the roller-coaster now.