A heartbreaking trip down memory lane.

Recently, one of my teeth was giving me fits, and my local dentist sent me to the Big City Dentist for consultation.  Turned out, I only needed a crown, but that's another story.  The Big City Dentist has a very interesting waiting room, including old Saturday Evening Post magazines from the 50s and 60s.  I picked up one from the 60's that had an article about the Vietnam War, which was just getting started at the time the article was written.  It reminded me of that heartbreaking time. 

It is very difficult to communicate to those who are either significantly older than I am or younger than I am the impact of the Vietnam War on this country.  For younger generations (not yet draft age when the war ended) it was just something on TV, and they tended to echo their parents views on it.  For my generation, it was heartbreak. 

When the war started, my parent's generation, who had lived through WWII, saw the war the same way they saw WWII.  If the President said it was a good thing, then it was a good thing.  If your country called you to serve, and it did draft a LOT of young men, then you served.  Any other attitude was treason.  But soldiers came home with a very different account of the war.  The generals gave orders that seemed to guarantee defeat.  It wasn't uncommon for an army unit to spend time, energy, and soldier's lives to take a hill, only to abandon it the next day.  The government we were propping up was corrupt, and not much better than the government we were fighting.  It was impossible, in many cases, to tell friend from foe. And, in the end, why were we there?  We had no national interest in that fight. In short, it was a huge mistake. 

But talking about the war in these terms only angered our parents.  My father screamed at me and slammed his fist down on the table when I attempted a discussion.  The next day, he installed a permanent flag pole in the front yard, and hoisted an American flag on it.  This, he said, was for my benefit.  What I learned was to never again attempt any kind of serious discussion with him on any subject, and I did not, from then until the day he died.  Also, I can't fly the American flag on my front porch.  Too many bad memories.

This family argument was repeated in MANY homes throughout this country.  It created a generational rift that I believe has never been duplicated, before or since.  The interesting thing is that this rift created an attitude in the younger generation that, if our parents believe it, it must be wrong.  This expanded to the younger generation's attitudes about many, many things.  It spawned the women's movement, the gay rights movement, the trend away from organized religion, "free love", the drug culture, and lots of other societal changes, some good, some bad.  By the time the war ended, most of the older generation came to agree with our assessment of the war, but it was too late to stop the other societal changes that were well underway. 

More later on Vietnam.

Adventures of a department chair.

I was department chair before - in my previous job at another college, so I knew a lot of this was coming.  But this is a different school, and certain things are different. 

First, there seem to be a lot more meetings that the department chairs need to attend.  I went to some of them in the spring, and another yesterday.  Two hours long and very tedious.  There are some old and pompous chairs whose purpose in life seems to be to split hairs about certain decisions.  I think I will need more caffiene next time. 

Second, the forms are different.  I have already sent forms to the wrong people, and I think someone re-did the form, as well.  That's OK with me.  I am sure whoever did it did a better job.  

Third, there is a program here called dual credit, in which certain high school classes follow the syllabus of a freshman college course, and receive college credit.  Due to the numerous staff changes, the dual credit procedures here are so disorganized and confused I could NOT find out what my department's dual credit offerings were supposed to be from anyone here!  So, I send emails to the high school principals, and got good, up-to-date information. 

So, what is the same?  Confused students are confused students everywhere.  A student came to me last week seeking permission to take a certain course for which he did not have the prerequisites.  As we usually do, I sent him to the course instructor to discuss it.  The student could not find the instructor (as classes had not started yet, this was not unusual), so I told the student to simply go to the class and talk to the instructor after class.  He came to me distraught yesterday, saying the professor did not appear for class.  The problem?  The class was a Tuesday/Thursday class, and he went to class on Monday, then wondered where everyone was.  After we discussed the problem, he agreed to attend the class on Tuesday morning.  He came to me again today saying the instructor was not there.  Turned out the class started at 8:15, but he didn't go until 9:20.  Duh.  This trend does not bode well for the student earning a good grade in the course (or any other). 

Don't fence me in.

I hate generalizing philosophies.  I hate the "ism"s that generalize, also.  I hate categories and tests that put you in some category.  Generalizing categories may or may not apply to any particular person or situation, so why go along with something that could badly mislead you?  I hate people that say small government is always better.  I hate people that say big government is always better.  They are both wrong.  It makes as much sense as saying a semi is always better than a motorcycle, or vice versa.  Look at the particular need, for God's sakes!

I hate people that ask me if I am a feminist, as there are thousands of different defitions of that.  I'll tell you what I believe...if there is something I want to do or be, stay out of my way and let me do it.  And by the way, it would be great if you could treat all other females the same way.  Since I am female, maybe that makes me a feminist, maybe it doesn't. 

All of my life people have made wrong assumptions about me and deniet me opportunities just because I am female.  For instance, the assumption is that girls have less ability and/or interest in math than boys.  Maybe that's true for girls as a category, but it has never applied to me as an individual.  From the time I was in the first grade up to and including my senior year in college (as a math major) I usually made the best grade in the room on all math tests.  Better than the boys.  I was never very competitive, but there were a few boys that seemed to be, and they found it very irritating that I made better than they did.  The fact that they were irritated amused me greatly! 

When I was in grade school I had a teacher than allowed the boys outside during recess on cold days, but not the girls.  When I was in high school band, I wanted to be in the pep band also, but was not allowed to because I was a girl.  I tried to find out why but ran into a brick wall.  I understand that barrier is down now.  Good! 

When I was a programmer, I applied twice for the job as computer center director, and was denied twice. 
Both times, they hired a complete idiot.  One of the people that was on the search committe told me when he retired that the reason I was denied is that a vice president blocked my promotion because I was female.  I guess I could have raised a fuss, but that's not my style.  I was on my way out the door to get my Ph.D. by that point, anyway.    It's ironic that since then, I have been an academic department chair for 3 occasions now, a different but equally demanding management position.  And I did fine. 

I don't want to be a man.  I just want to be a person. 

No good deed goes unpunished.

The joys of being chair keep piling on.  In addition to sections with low enrollments, we had a new problem hit us.  One of our math teachers is also a part-time rancher.  He was out on his tractor last Friday and managed to roll it over on top of himself.  Lots of broken bones, but he is expected to pull through.  But, to make sure his classes are taught (all had substantial enrollment), more class juggling is needed.  This is a small school, and not a lot of majors in either math or computer science.  However, we have a lot of "service" sections.  I went through and counted the sections this dept. staffs, and there are more than 40, not counting internship and independent study sections. 

One good thing...now that I have had a chance to work with the dean and get to know him better, I found out he is a very congenial and easy-going person.  Makes my life easier!!

Haulin A** - Again!

I officially started my new job as department chair this week.  The first order of business was that the former chair and I spent a lot of time switching offices.  Faculty have lots of stuff in their offices!  We all MUST have our own libraries, as the school library simply cannot stock all the books we need for our particular needs for our particular courses.  So, the former chair had a substantial math libray, and I have a substantial computer science library.  More haulin' a**.  But, thank goodness, there were no stairs involved.

Then I found out that a lot of the math books that he had were really not his at all.  They were left over from when the department had its own "library" of sorts, and he simply never did anything with them.  He did not take them, as he figured they were the dept. chair's problem.  They took up all of a huge metal floor-to-ceiling bookshelf, which I could not use for my own books until I figured out something to do with them.  I temporarily put them on top of a row of 4 filing cabinets, but that wasn't enough room.  The rest went to the conference room cabinets.  More haulin' a**.

A week or two after school starts, I plan on putting all of them in the middle of the conference room table, and tell  my faculty to take what they want.  After the faculty takes what they want, the rest will go to the table where students can take books for free.  More haulin' a**.  

The former chair has a bad heart, and the chairman job has affected his health.  He was actually singing while we were switching offices, as he is SO glad to be out from under this job!  He was a good chair, and he will be a hard act to follow, but I'll do my best.  Already, there are problems to be tackled.  Due to the scandals, our enrollment is projected to be down a LOT from the last few years.  What do we do with the courses that only have 2,3,4 students enrolled?  A meeting with the dean must happen soon.