The Mentoring rock star

In terms of my "seminar hours" obligations, I am turning out to be something of a rock star. Of course, a lot of my appointments are taking place outside the "grid" of when I'm technically available--and if I were to put down the actual amount of time I spend with some of them, I'd be putting in even more time than is appearing in the formal records. But not only do I enjoy those one-on-one conversations with students, they also seem to be very beneficial to the students.

I'm thinking in particular of one young man from the SF class. He's pretty bright--though he's seriously fucked up his transcript, through a lot of unofficial withdrawals (and a few too many F's)--but he hit a serious snag in his personal life a few weeks ago, and I've been helping him figure out how to handle the class (and his academics in general) while he's dealing with it. I do believe him, too; I know I tend to be a soft touch when it comes to students who talk about a crisis in their lives, but this young man is a little older than the run of the mill, and he was clearly, visibly shattered. In any event, I'm offering him an incomplete for the semester, and today we talked over the timeline for his completion of the work. He's not going to get the kind of grade he'd normally deserve, but he will complete the semester, and he'll pass the class. And he's truly grateful that I'm willing to work with him, spend the time with him as an individual. Which is, of course, one of the things I usually love most about this job.

I also met with two young women during my seminar/office hours today. One is the former "salon" member (and I guess I'll be seeing her pretty much every week now); the other is a student who was in a 101 class last semester (in the good 101, not the train wreck). Either one of them would have been happy to talk with me for the entire time I had and then some; I had to cut both of them off short.

Further, a student I mentored several semesters ago--one who was never in any of my classes, just a mentee--is coming to see me next week to say goodbye, as he transitions into the engineering program at Stony Brook. And several other students from the SF class will probably come to see me next week, about their essays.

Forget what happens in any of the classes; that stuff is good meat.

And for the record, the class today went very well. We didn't talk much about the book, but we talked about the Hainish "matrix" and the other novels set in it and some of the deeper philosophy that goes with it, especially in the conceptualization of the Ekumen. (If you don't know Le Guin, most of that won't mean anything to you, but trust me, it's good stuff.)

Now, however, I need to zip out of here to meet the colleague who wants to start up a journal on American mystery. I'm looking forward to that--and to the accompanying adult beverages, which will be just what the doctor (Ph.D. variety) ordered.