"Learning Continuity"

In the "Total Administrative Bullshit" category, file this: We are now obligated to fill out a spread sheet with the name, personal email (assuming we know it), phone number (assuming we can find it), and so on for every student who has "stopped attending" class since campus first "suspended" activity on March 10. And we're supposed to do it by Monday. How the fuck would I know? They have been so spotty in their attendance under the best of circumstances, I would have no idea who has actually gone AWOL versus who is just being negligent as usual and could return at any moment.

We're also supposed to write out how we've changed our syllabi and grading policies under the crisis circumstances and have them ready to be electronically filed once the powers that be figure out how to do that. Both of these measures are thinly veiled "bash the teacher" provisions, designed to take us to task for 1. not running all over creating trying to contact every student who's gone silent and 2. not following the same factory-made parameters for our courses so that they'll be "fair." (This is a long-standing battle with the administration: they want to be able to assure students that they will get exactly the same content and experience no matter whose section of a course they take, but short of having everything taught by machines, that can't happen, and in our discipline in particular, the process can vary wildly and achieve the same end result, though we can't persuade non-humanities types, especially corporate-think bean counters, of that fact.)

As for changes in syllabus and grading policy, the answer for me is, I haven't changed anything at all. The only thing I've changed is I'm being less draconian in enforcing my various late policies than I would normally be.

But I'm thinking about my colleagues--especially those who are pretty nearly completely computer illiterate (even now)--who are suddenly having to switch to a completely online modality, and on top of this, they're supposed to chase after missing students and write up syllabus/grading policy changes in a way that will satisfy the administration on top of everything they're doing just to try to keep doing some semblance of teaching? Not to mention the fact that they're in the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis: we all see the news about what's happening in NY, and although our campus isn't in the City, a lot of our students are, and it's close enough to the City that the number of cases in Nassau County alone is more than some entire states are seeing.

I had a great talk with Paul yesterday, but he did share with me that the lawyers have taken over just about everything, so that way of thinking--trying to fend off any possible ambiguity or cause for a law suit--is trampling all over academic freedom and faculty professional autonomy. And again, I am grateful beyond words that I retired when I did, so I receive only glancing blows from the rampant corporatization of the campus. I do not envy my colleagues who are still in there, trying to fight the good fight.

Meanwhile, it's early enough in the day that I certainly could do some evaluating of discussion board posts, plus I think there's one more quiz ready for me to grade--but I'm too cranky to read anything they've written in the spirit of providing learning opportunities. I'd just want to smack them all with a two-by-four. Even the good ones. (And can I just say, thank god for the good ones. I know I can read at least three things--discussion board posts, essays, whatever--that make sense and are not filled with sentence-level errors.)

Gah. I'm cranky. I'm done. Stick a fork in me.