writing center director researching early career leadership development; dabbles in the 18c; runner, violist, and product of public education (she/her)
Universities can advise students to stay home when they are sick all they want but if professors are requiring attendance, penalizing absences, and/or expecting students to do work while sick, that messaging is basically meaningless. And students know it.
I really wish people would quit saying “it’s going to work out” to people looking for academic jobs. You can’t possibly know that. Instead, just say “I’m thinking of you. Let me know what I can do to support you.”
In writing studies all I hear is that we should be teaching students how to use AI ethically—but with ZERO consideration of its environmental impacts or the labor issues related to training LLMs. We cannot ignore those ethical dimensions!
That academia is embracing AI use for course content creation over improving labor conditions for faculty and requiring pedagogical training in all graduate programs is both unsurprising and incredibly depressing.
So I spent 7 years training to be a scholar of 18th-century literature. I’m now a writing center director. I basically spent 5 years doing a DIY PhD do-over. Who else is only in academia because they changed course completely? I feel like there must be a lot of us...
A word on the Duggar doc from someone who grew up in the area...while a lot of the Duggars attend mainstream churches now, know that those churches preach patriarchy and 100% working to eliminate the rights of gay and trans people...1/4
Working 60 hours a week is not a pedagogy. Forgoing sleep and meals and exercise and time off is not a pedagogy. Putting work ahead of family and friends is not a pedagogy. Martyrdom is not a pedagogy. Pass it on.
I see people getting worked up about students passing off ChatGPT written material as their own and...Ya'll. You don't have to prove it's academic dishonesty. It almost certainly doesn't meet the assignment guidelines effectively or at all and you can just...grade it that way.
@ashleyrattner
In academia: Full prof = area code they are currently in because they got a cell phone when they started as Assistant prof; Associate prof: area code from where they went to grad school; Assistant prof: area code of their high school. Not that I’ve ever thought about it before.
The only answer to preserving academic integrity in writing courses without policing student behavior with AI is SMALLER CLASSES AND FAIR LABOR PRACTICES. Any discussion that doesn’t center this is just arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. And y’all…I’m so tired of doing that.
Just gotta say it’s confusing/enraging to see people vacationing in Cancun while I’m sitting around doing research to decide if it’s safe to have a drink on the patio at a neighborhood restaurant IF it’s a weekday and IF I go when they open and IF I stay only an hour.
Well, did not expect my observation/subtweet of most of higher ed to explode...I've gotta mute this convo so I can get some work done! Sending good thoughts to everyone for a safe semester. Here's to getting learning accomplished despite the odds...
Pro Tip: If you must send an email telling people no changes will be made in response to Omicron, acknowledge that members of your community are scared and angry and struggling. And for ffs don’t be self-congratulatory about your OPTIONAL mitigation efforts.
These churches prey on people. And there aren't many other options in NWA, and those that haven't been hoodwinked feel abandoned (Methodists, I'm looking at you). The point is that fundamentalism went mainstream a long time ago. Welcome to the fight against it. 4/4
@FromPhDtoLife
That you can change your research focus after grad school. The PhD teaches you how to do a big independent project, and you take the skills and experience and apply them however you see fit. You are not your dissertation!
There isn't a need to be as radical as Gothard these days. Churches like Cross Church and Fellowship Bible have found how to make fundamentalism socially acceptable to the educated and affluent. I'm no longer in contact with most of my childhood friends for this reason. 3/4
The thing to understand is that the core beliefs a la Gothard and the Quiverfull movement are shared by many mainstream denominations and bible churches today. Over the last 20 years, those mainstream churches have gotten bolder. 2/4
And not that we need another reason to celebrate but...
First President and Vice President since 1976 with NOT ONE IVY LEAGUE DEGREE between them.
THIS is America today.
Good evening friends,
You’re welcome. Please remember who ensured Dems held the Senate next time your reflex to discourage people from working, living, and doing business here kicks in. We’re fighting for a better South…are you?
Hot take: More non-academic roles in higher ed administration need to be held by people with academic training and experience as teachers and scholars. I value Ed leadership degrees but that is no substitute to experience in the classroom/lab as teacher or researcher. 1/
@NaomiRendina
Yep. My students do get points for attending but there are other things they can do for points as well. Attendance is just one way to engage w/the course. I keep getting emails about how to make up missed classes. Just shows how rare this approach is—even two years into this.
Well today my students read about early online Jane Austen fan communities. And you wanna know what the showstopper of the chapter was for them? DIAL UP INTERNET.
While I do not have tenure news to share like many of my friends and colleagues, I am pleased to announce that I remain on track with my plan to ascend the heights of academic middle management without ever earning tenure.
I'm just spitballing here but maybe the solution to the AP problem is for colleges to stop offloading gen ed to secondary ed and corporations. Reign in your engineering schools that think students need 60 hours of coursework for a 4-year BS...
@CJHemphill4
They did a makeover with her for an episode of the TLC show once…I forget when but I do very clearly remember she looked great and was clearly very happy with it but then Jim Bob said he liked her hair better the other way and she went back to that.
#iwasanenglishmajor
because it was my English teachers who taught me the power of listening, of empathy, of imagination, of communication. I declared my major at summer orientation where the advisor suggested I couldn’t possibly know what I wanted to do yet. I declared anyway.
Pro Tip: If you’re a tenured professor who wants to help other faculty curate their Zoom backgrounds, the best way to do that is to fight for higher salaries and job security for your NTT colleagues so they can afford homes with dedicated office spaces.
And here it is. The campus does not belong to the students and faculty—it belongs to the state/donors/board. And they can remove you, legally. But what is using that power in service of? Because it’s not education.
Some other unsolicited advice? Apply and take seriously NTT opportunities if you want to stay in academia. Tenure doesn't mean security anymore. NTT vs TT means very little these days. Look at what each job and institution offers.
@kevinrmcclure
All of them that require you to sign up for some third-party platform and provide personal information in order to do activities in order to "earn" small amounts of money that are then paid in your paycheck and thus taxed.
This, exactly: “Do. Not. Sexualize. Your. Students.”
And while we’re at it, that goes for colleagues too. Different situation, yes, but it can undermine accomplishments in the same way. Particularly for early career women.
If you can provide evidence that something is plagiarized, do that, of course. But it is just not worth taking this personally and being constantly paranoid and distrustful of students.
I know it’s really common in writing center circles but I wonder where else it’s common...We talk a lot about leaving academia but there is a lot of career shift that happens within that is probably overlooked.
To be clear, I'm not saying make up a reason to give a failing grade. I'm just saying you should have your own clearly stated guidelines and/or rubrics that you can use to assess what is submitted.
About conference cancellations....any consideration for grad students, contingent faculty, and faculty from small schools who might lose money if a conference is cancelled? Have seen a lot of discussion from TT faculty but not grads/NTT and curious. 1/2
I just realized I’ve chosen to watch a panda in labor rather than attend a department gathering. This...will...surprise absolutely no one who really knows me. Paws crossed for
@NationalZoo
and Mei Xiang.
#pandastory
@jshelat1
@icpetrie
The inclusion of a research statement is the tell…that doc only makes sense for jobs where you have time to do that research. Here it’s just a signal of commitment to the field. So, they want to exploit people who will do anything to keep the TT dream alive.
I think I’ve settled on my core reading list for my Jane Austen Major Authors course
@gt_lmc
for Fall 2022. We’ll be thinking about Austen and celebrity, influence, and media 😎
#1
) There is nothing pedagogically sound or ethical about limited-term faculty positions.
#2
) Explain to me again why I should be impressed by elites that rely on contingent faculty? My alma mater may not have social clout but at least my profs are still employed there 🤷♀️
@akbarjenkins
Not entirely shocking but I’ve had a not insignificant number of students since the pandemic started that say a prof doesn’t give feedback only for me to discover they did but the student didn’t know where to look in canvas…
Beware saving the humanities with a return to “great books” and “classical education”—anyone who has spent time around the Christian fundamentalist movement knows these are dog whistles.
One remedy for the crisis of the humanities is to return to a robust, unified gen ed curriculum that centers the classic texts of our inherited intellectual tradition. It interesting that many professors would rather go down in flames than do what we know works.
As we enter a period when many new and soon to be be PhD grads start preparing for the academic job market, a few things:
To new job seekers: You’re going to get the best guidance from people who have been on the market within the last 6-8 years…1/4
And students have been kept in the dark about issues dictating decision making in higher ed. I’ve had colleagues tell me “they aren’t interested.” But I’ve taught courses introducing issues of curriculum, cost, academic labor, etc. and I assure you they are interested.
With all due respect, students don’t know who the Dean of Students is. Nor would they likely just go up and start complaining to him, especially if they are freshmen. They know us. The instructors. And I’ve gotten nothing but questions.
CBUS! This is the
#SaveTheCrew
Sundae, and it's available now (but only for a limited time!) at all of our Columbus scoop shops. 🍋 BFY, 🍍 caramel sauce, salted virginia peanuts, finely chopped unsweetened 🍫. Proceeds from this sundae will support
@Save_The_Crew
!
A new project is moving to top of my list for summer…I’m going up for promotion early. It’s roughly equivalent to going up for tenure, and y’all—I just can’t believe I have this opportunity after so many years as contingent faculty. I’m so pumped and ready!
People ask me why I like being on committees and in admin so here it is: you’d be surprised the difference you can make just in pointing out a new perspective or raising a question. 1/5
Yeah, all of this. ALL OF IT. Producing scholarship on personal time is a hobby and even in finance your don’t put your most recent golf scores on your resume. Get it together, higher ed.
Super unpopular(?) opinion: We need to stop expecting anyone without a TT position to publish. Really tired of academia using up and spitting out so many grad students and adjuncts who think One More Publication is going to make a difference on the market.
So…we’re a “public Ivy” now. To be totally honest, I don’t see any value to gain in claiming the “Ivy” title. I’d rather us just be a public research institution that makes a world-class education accessible to the students of Georgia. And I want every state to have one of us.
Just joining the crowd to say 1) a MA in English is VERY useful, worthwhile, and practical and 2) many public universities have affordable options. In fact, if you aren't looking to enter academia, a state university where you want to live is exactly what you need.
My WSJ investigation w/ the inimitable
@anfuller
shows master's programs at prestigious private universities often leave grads in worse financial shape than those at for-profit colleges. 1/
Once again…there is a whole freaking field of study dedicated to this. We don’t need AI for this. We need to give faculty resources and time to do the work that is MISSION CRITICAL.
Is there a secret to not feeling absolutely exhausted every day after work? Or is this how it is from here on out? Because I’ve felt better during and after half marathons than I do at the end of a work day.
@devoneylooser
@crystal_b_lake
Yeah, this…I’m embarrassed to say I’d forgotten these policies were a thing. I went to “by appointment only”years ago and—that was as a NTT lecturer! Requiring set hours and being physically present is the exact opposite of being accessible.
And yet the majority of women in these fundamentalist cultures do not have the means for this lifestyle. None of my hs friends who became SAHMs because of patriarchal beliefs had husbands in high paying jobs. This deception is intentional.
One thing about the current popular trad wife/housewife depiction is they aren’t actually doing hard, essential domestic labor — you rarely if ever see them clean their own giant sparkling kitchens or bathrooms or cook substantial food beyond desserts or special treats.
How AI works for course design is being explained to me rn and it sounds 200% more complicated than just reading Wiggins and McTighe or literally any of the many pedagogy guides/handbooks and applying those principles.
I’m coordinating a mask donation project for the
@cwru
Writing Resource Center, and we finally have our first batch ready to deliver to the Tink (student center)! Free disposable and cloth masks for anyone who needs one.
@ashleyrattner
Even better…still being on the parents’ plan. My dad’s name comes up in caller ID. The usefulness/entertainment of that outweighs the potential for embarrassment.
Academic women of twitter, I need fashion advice. Getting a professional headshot. Look needs to err on business casual and be admin appropriate. Ideas for making a blazer look young and stylish?
So, a thread that has been simmering lately. I’m tired of college faculty talking dismissively about high school teaching in public schools. I’m about ready to start calling that shit out. 1/7
No idea why I saw this but the whole thread was deeply triggering. I will not step foot in a church that does not clearly state on their website that they 1) marry LGBTQIA couples, 2) ordain women, and 3) offer open communion. None of this sneaky “all are welcome” business.
If you ask a church for their stance on Queer folks and they respond with “Let’s get coffee and discuss it!” They are NOT affirming. DO NOT go get that cup of coffee. Especially if you yourself are queer.
@argella
A big thing that has helped me with this is giving the students a sandbox of articles and letting them choose what to engage with—a set of journals, a curated list, etc. Gives them a sense of purpose and creates buy in. I do a whole paper around the work.
“Because if I wasn’t you’d be the most popular history professor at the University of Wisconsin.”
Maybe I’m just not THAT ambitious but that sounds ok?
#HATM
The time to defend academic publishing norms was when your administration started taking away your TT lines and telling you to staff your core courses with contingent faculty. While you get around to solving that problem, maybe don't dismiss applications with few pubs.
In a decade in NTT roles, the problem I've seen throughout is that people making high-level decisions have no real understanding of what it is actually like to be doing the core, mission-critical work of the university. We need experience, not empathy in those people. /4
@Emily_Brier_
I request students email me 🤷♀️. It’s too easy for Canvas messages and notifications to be out of sight, out of mind. I’m not logged into Canvas 24/7 like I am email. In email, I have a system that keeps those messages front and center so I don’t forget those new submissions.
Pretty excited about what arrived in the mail today! Thank you
@ZooATL
for all you do for education and conservation...and for taking such great care of our pandas!!
In academia we need to:
-Normalize taking breaks.
-Normalize taking days off to rest, rejuvenate, and reset.
-Normalize emotion and crying.
-Normalize mental health.
-Normalize struggle, rejection, and failure.
-Normalize being human.
We are NOT machines.
I’m not impressed with development folks. If they were worth a damn, they’d incentivize athletics donors to give to academic units as well. If you can fund this, you can get someone to pay for fixing the leaks in the library basement.
@dowellml
Yep. Cutting programs/extending scholarships so that students can take no more than 18 hours a semester would do more for well being and learning than anything else. If your program takes 150+ hours to graduate, then you need to make that a 5-year program w/5-year scholarships.
Punitive class policies like “miss no more than 3 classes or else” are for the professor not the student. That’s not how learning works. That’s not how life works.
For anyone interested in a traditional 4th celebration, Boston Pops is on Bloomberg. Streaming through the free app now. Also, anyone else old—and dorky—enough to remember when Keith Lockhart was the new, hot young conductor?
18 days before our first day of class and sophomores and juniors have been told they won’t be able to live on campus...Why are we doing this to students?
I might end up leaving this place, but I don’t know if I’ll go anywhere else. I don’t want a faculty lounge. What I want is a campus bar—a little shop talk, sharing weekend plans, exchanging beer recs, talking shit about the Patriots. Twitter was that.
Starting my day right by unfollowing the Chronicle of Higher Education. I have zero interest in what Steven Pinker has been saying or what Brian Rosenberg thinks. CHE has always been bad but it's now the WSJ of higher ed. No thanks.
@erin_bartram
And even when you do know well in advance…when exactly do you work on course design during a semester? I used to do it on weekends and holidays but after ten years, I finally realized that was at the cost of my health and well-being. No more.
As frustrating as it is to work in public higher ed, I see how much our students accomplish and how much they grow intellectually because of the opportunities we provide, and it reminds me why I'm here and inspires me to move forward--for students, for society, for the future.
For the record, here at Georgia Tech we had a number of students carry a Palestinian flag during our 5 graduation ceremonies. And 5 times I heard Institute officials affirm their right to do so. There is always a choice, and I’m glad to say our leadership made the right one.
Bravo to the Boston Pops for an inclusive and thoughtful Fourth of July concert, including the performance of the Ukrainian national anthem and framing of the 1812 Overture.
@jaxwendy
In undergrad they skipped us right to Craft of Research—helpful but did nothing to teach me how to be clear and concise. They Say/I Say did. I’m a fan.
Sydney Ellen Wade at the White House gate is 100% me at passport control at Heathrow explaining my dissertation research in-depth in answer to “What kind of research do you do?”
#HATM
@GongDonkey
It’s too big of a place for me to know for sure but anecdotal evidence from students suggests there are still plenty of profs who penalize absences in one way or another, unfortunately. Sometimes just not thinking—like going over exam material only in class or study sessions.
@vjoshuaadams
You aren't applying for the only job you'll ever have. Anything with resources, good enough pay, and a renewable contract will help you develop into an even stronger candidate in 3-5 years' time.
@thephdstory
I know it doesn’t make it any easier, but make sure they know why you are turning it down. Not “I make more as an adjunct” but “This salary is just not financially feasible.” If the department/program is trying to change things, they can take that to their Dean.
Just thinking this morning how little it takes to end a NTT faculty member's career and how much you can destroy and move on to another job if you are a dean, vp, provost, or president. Happy Thursday!