Does anyone know whether the deans were put on PAID administrative leave? It has been a goal of mine to screw up just enough to not be allowed to do my job, but still take my salary and benefits.
Yes! I mean: I don't know, but have been wondering about this for many years, ever since the beginning of my career when an old fart colleague made offensive comments and was offered early retirement, apparently on very cushy terms. It occurred to me that if I did something similar I'd be immediately fired, and started wondering at what point one could offend just enough to be paid to go away.
Gene, I remember reading the column about your father voting, back when it was published. It has stuck with me these past 20 years. One of your best works ever, IMHO.
writing snarky text messages in an open environment and thinking it's private is like watching porn on the subway. Anyone stupid enough to do it should not be administrators at an ivy league college.
One of the five colleges I attended had a scandal many years ago where someone who oversaw grad students was fired when he hit on students and when they said no (they didn't report him; they nicely told him they weren't interested), he told them the department required they write down their email log in and password. Then he logged into their emails addresses and sent out obscene emails from their addresses, reported them to the student disciplinary committee, and demanded they be fired. Of course, he was an idiot and sent the emails from his own computer, so he was foiled by the traced IP address and the fact that the students were actually in class (the professors teaching their classes verified this) at the time the emails were sent. Guess who got fired instead of the students?
When I was an undergrad, my first class of the day was advanced music theory (I went to college without knowing how ot read music and I was a music major. I aced my audition - sight reading from a hymnal I know front and back? They presumed I already read music). The nasty little professor would make a game show buzzer sound if you answered wrong or took too long to answer. He'd go "EEEEEE - wrong answer!" This was not what I needed at 8 am three days per week. I hated him.
He favored the young woman who set behind me. He would ask me a question, and I would try to come up with answer, only to get buzzed. Then he would turn to her and she would answer the question, causing him to applaud.
One particularly bleak morning, I was not feeling well and dragged myself to this horrible class. He asked a question and I said "Why not just ask Kelly and avoid he middleman?" He asked me to leave the class and not return until I could be civil. Gladly - I went back to bed, showed up at my advisor's office later in the day, changed my major to history, and started searching for another college to attend - I left at the end of the academic year.
A friend at that college told me that just before graduation, the professor had left his wife and baby, and filed for divorce. Right after graduation, he married Kelly. I think they're still married. Perhaps she likes the buzzer noises he makes.
and a PS. I went to a school where the president lost his job for making unsolicited obscene phone calls from his college office. Like the Nytimes, now my status has been tainted by their actions. Pooh.
LOLOLOL Yes, that's the one. I barely remember now if he was president while I was there or after. ( my second of three colleges and two graduate schools) And now the Times,which I was so proud of being in, is shaming me as well.
I don’t see antisemitic behavior, but I see unprofessional behavior. If you are a senior staffer with any organization, you attend open meetings, presentations, and events that you may find obnoxious, but you have to suck it up while you are there. All part of being senior staff. If want to tell the boss what a cluster it all was in his office later, have at it. Or if you vent your spleen at someone’s house over a few/many drinks, likewise. But during the event? No. Conduct unbecoming.
The origins of the word “antisemitic” are troublesome, and as the commenter pointed out, inaccurate, however it’s been reluctantly accepted to mean anti-Jewish, even if that is a departure from the word’s roots. Word meanings change, sometimes arbitrarily, and they don’t always stick to their roots (e.g.: terrible vs terrific, as per common usage).
Unfortunately this distinction about "Semites" (those who spoke a Semitic language and were thought to be descended from Noah's son "Shem," as being somehow inferior to Aryans) which, in fact, was the origin of the term in the mid-19th c., escaped another guy who popularized the term in Germany somewhat later. He simply wanted to disguise (poorly, it turned out) his blatantly anti-Jewish rhetoric.
I will always vote - too many women suffered for me to brush their hard work aside for any reason. We've only had the vote for 104 years; if we don't use it, it might easily be taken away, like the rights to govern our own bodies. My father always said "If you didn't vote, don't dare criticize the outcome because it is your fault."
I drive a 2008 Acura TL which has both a CD player AND a cassette player. For a less glib take on netsuke, read The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal.
That which we say to others in messages that are private should not be subject to review by others, not even bosses. Some seem to think these were public remarks. if so, then regulations are appropriate. Otherwise not. If a high school student is critical of the school or teachers in email, that should not be grounds to expel them. (as an example) In some comments the bosses are give powers that not even kings had in the past. Perhaps god like beings had them. (gary4books)
I believe what Biden was trying to say was "I was the first vice president to serve under a Black president and the first president to have a Black vice president."
My dander goes up when someone complains about Jewish students in the context of being "privileged." This is because we Jews were not in the in-crowd during the years that in-crowd American white males were dumping on minority groups; heck, we were firmly in the same category as other minority people, except that many people couldn't automatically identify us by looks.
I drive a 2005 Saturn Vue with a CD player, and yes, we have a box of CDs we take along for road trips (though we haven't actually made any since before Covid). That car replaced a 1978 Chevy wagon bought in 1979, and the CD player was a big upgrade from just the radio.
Let's face it, what we're seeing is the "tabloidization" (or is it the "Enquirerization?") of many legacy papers --- sadly (IMO) your former employer and the one where all the news that's fit to print used to be printed. I also sadly understand survival in a age where the average attention span rivals that of an armadillo with no ant hill in sight, but I don't have to like it.
Does anyone know whether the deans were put on PAID administrative leave? It has been a goal of mine to screw up just enough to not be allowed to do my job, but still take my salary and benefits.
Yes! I mean: I don't know, but have been wondering about this for many years, ever since the beginning of my career when an old fart colleague made offensive comments and was offered early retirement, apparently on very cushy terms. It occurred to me that if I did something similar I'd be immediately fired, and started wondering at what point one could offend just enough to be paid to go away.
Gene, I remember reading the column about your father voting, back when it was published. It has stuck with me these past 20 years. One of your best works ever, IMHO.
writing snarky text messages in an open environment and thinking it's private is like watching porn on the subway. Anyone stupid enough to do it should not be administrators at an ivy league college.
One of the five colleges I attended had a scandal many years ago where someone who oversaw grad students was fired when he hit on students and when they said no (they didn't report him; they nicely told him they weren't interested), he told them the department required they write down their email log in and password. Then he logged into their emails addresses and sent out obscene emails from their addresses, reported them to the student disciplinary committee, and demanded they be fired. Of course, he was an idiot and sent the emails from his own computer, so he was foiled by the traced IP address and the fact that the students were actually in class (the professors teaching their classes verified this) at the time the emails were sent. Guess who got fired instead of the students?
ooh, very good!
a classmate at one of my colleges’ daughter married a prof 30 years older than she who was fired for his behavior. with students
When I was an undergrad, my first class of the day was advanced music theory (I went to college without knowing how ot read music and I was a music major. I aced my audition - sight reading from a hymnal I know front and back? They presumed I already read music). The nasty little professor would make a game show buzzer sound if you answered wrong or took too long to answer. He'd go "EEEEEE - wrong answer!" This was not what I needed at 8 am three days per week. I hated him.
He favored the young woman who set behind me. He would ask me a question, and I would try to come up with answer, only to get buzzed. Then he would turn to her and she would answer the question, causing him to applaud.
One particularly bleak morning, I was not feeling well and dragged myself to this horrible class. He asked a question and I said "Why not just ask Kelly and avoid he middleman?" He asked me to leave the class and not return until I could be civil. Gladly - I went back to bed, showed up at my advisor's office later in the day, changed my major to history, and started searching for another college to attend - I left at the end of the academic year.
A friend at that college told me that just before graduation, the professor had left his wife and baby, and filed for divorce. Right after graduation, he married Kelly. I think they're still married. Perhaps she likes the buzzer noises he makes.
lololo
Wow!
and a PS. I went to a school where the president lost his job for making unsolicited obscene phone calls from his college office. Like the Nytimes, now my status has been tainted by their actions. Pooh.
I remember the case. Berendzen, right? American University. I edited some of the stories about it.
LOLOLOL Yes, that's the one. I barely remember now if he was president while I was there or after. ( my second of three colleges and two graduate schools) And now the Times,which I was so proud of being in, is shaming me as well.
I don’t see antisemitic behavior, but I see unprofessional behavior. If you are a senior staffer with any organization, you attend open meetings, presentations, and events that you may find obnoxious, but you have to suck it up while you are there. All part of being senior staff. If want to tell the boss what a cluster it all was in his office later, have at it. Or if you vent your spleen at someone’s house over a few/many drinks, likewise. But during the event? No. Conduct unbecoming.
The origins of the word “antisemitic” are troublesome, and as the commenter pointed out, inaccurate, however it’s been reluctantly accepted to mean anti-Jewish, even if that is a departure from the word’s roots. Word meanings change, sometimes arbitrarily, and they don’t always stick to their roots (e.g.: terrible vs terrific, as per common usage).
Unfortunately this distinction about "Semites" (those who spoke a Semitic language and were thought to be descended from Noah's son "Shem," as being somehow inferior to Aryans) which, in fact, was the origin of the term in the mid-19th c., escaped another guy who popularized the term in Germany somewhat later. He simply wanted to disguise (poorly, it turned out) his blatantly anti-Jewish rhetoric.
Who’d have thunk it, a racist turns out to be stupid and wrong about more than just their racism. But … the word survived.
Oh, ffs, someone [you] finally pulled the trigger on the Walther PPK pun. Thank you.
I think there is a typo/error above -- where it says "So the Times changed “Won’t vote” to “Don’t vote”" it should go the other direction.
i think you are right!
But it's not a typo, it's a stupid-o.
I will always vote - too many women suffered for me to brush their hard work aside for any reason. We've only had the vote for 104 years; if we don't use it, it might easily be taken away, like the rights to govern our own bodies. My father always said "If you didn't vote, don't dare criticize the outcome because it is your fault."
I drive a 2008 Acura TL which has both a CD player AND a cassette player. For a less glib take on netsuke, read The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal.
That which we say to others in messages that are private should not be subject to review by others, not even bosses. Some seem to think these were public remarks. if so, then regulations are appropriate. Otherwise not. If a high school student is critical of the school or teachers in email, that should not be grounds to expel them. (as an example) In some comments the bosses are give powers that not even kings had in the past. Perhaps god like beings had them. (gary4books)
I believe what Biden was trying to say was "I was the first vice president to serve under a Black president and the first president to have a Black vice president."
I'm not sure he was trying to be that concise, but yes, that is better than my interpretation.
My dander goes up when someone complains about Jewish students in the context of being "privileged." This is because we Jews were not in the in-crowd during the years that in-crowd American white males were dumping on minority groups; heck, we were firmly in the same category as other minority people, except that many people couldn't automatically identify us by looks.
Apropos of nothing, has anybody thought of telling Walther there he really ought to smile more?
I drive a 2005 Saturn Vue with a CD player, and yes, we have a box of CDs we take along for road trips (though we haven't actually made any since before Covid). That car replaced a 1978 Chevy wagon bought in 1979, and the CD player was a big upgrade from just the radio.
Let's face it, what we're seeing is the "tabloidization" (or is it the "Enquirerization?") of many legacy papers --- sadly (IMO) your former employer and the one where all the news that's fit to print used to be printed. I also sadly understand survival in a age where the average attention span rivals that of an armadillo with no ant hill in sight, but I don't have to like it.
If my bosses ever saw what my co-workers and I texted to each other during meetings, we'd all be fired.