| harvest moon |
[23 Oct 2004|08:35pm] |
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| friggin' pissed |
[19 Oct 2004|08:36am] |
just read an article in the university paper that boiled my beans.
this university, mr. jefferson's university, functions under a strict honor code: no lying, no cheating, no stealing is tolerated. there is only one penalty for these offenses, and that is expulsion. why, then, are those found guilty of sexual assault subject to a range of penalties, including disciplinary probation, suspension and expulsion?
well, according to the senior associate dean of students, the university is committed to the education of both the victim and the accused. if the accused is not "a calculated perpetrator" but "someone who didn't understand what they were doing," it may be better not to expell him on the condition that he doesn't do it again.
by this reasoning, if a student were to assault a non-student in this town, there wouldn't need to be any punishment at all. moreover, it often means that women either have to keep walking around campus with their attackers or leave school themselves. it also means that the university's policy sends the message, "you can't lie, cheat, or steal even a little bit, but you can rape one of your classmates."
there is an undergraduate on the sexual assault leadership council who wants to change this. she proposes that we add a category of offense called sexual misconduct to include less serious offenses (like bad touch) and to carry the lesser penalties of probation or suspension. then all sexual assault perpetrators could be subject to expulsion.
i have already contacted her to ask how i can help.
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| oooooh! look at the pretty colors! |
[19 Oct 2004|08:31am] |
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How common are orkid's interests
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| while reading holy the firm |
[18 Oct 2004|04:01pm] |
remembering the cathedrals and small parish churches of spain, sitting in one of the plainest of them, feeling the sanctity of the space. i thought it was a holy place, not because someone declared it was, but because so many had believed it was. i felt that our centuries of walking the same path to the same city through the same towns and villages was what had made all of them — the path, the city, the villages and towns — sacred. our searching was what created the something we all sought.
note to self: start actively collecting intensely lyrical explorations of spiritual matters. better yet, write your own.
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[14 Oct 2004|09:38pm] |
i made my "virginia's for all lovers" bumper sticker. it's for sale, but not for profit, at cafepress.com.
feel free to pass the message along if you know someone who'd like to support gay rights in virginia with a fabulous sticker.
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| a moment of silence for derrida |
[13 Oct 2004|02:34pm] |
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...
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| mean people |
[13 Oct 2004|05:10am] |
i came home from a relaxing weekend away (despite a lot of driving) to find that the people i work with are mean.
one of my fellow grad student instructors and his class were arrested a couple of weeks ago for trespassing on what they thought was university-owned property. the class was about detective fiction (including the stories of Poe, who lived here for a time), and the place was an abandoned hospital now rumored to be haunted. the charges were dropped. despite the students' efforts to protect their teacher (over 700 signatures), he was fired for the semester.
fair enough. he can teach again, probably next semester. he can work for the department in another capacity in the meantime. he is not expelled.
but the other grad students in the department have shunned him. his fiance wrote a very eloquent plea for support, and received insults for being too personal. alex wrote a message seconding her concerns about where we stand as grad students - apparently outside the protection that either undergraduates or professors would enjoy - and about the fact that the administration's decision to keep everything secret has fed the rumor mill and made everyone more uneasy about what kinds of mistakes could cost us our jobs. he too received insults in return. then the grad student in question wrote his own message saying thanks for the support he has received and talking about what he's trying to learn from this. another grad student wrote in response, "i feel physically ill."
who are these people? why aren't they embarrassed to make such mean-spirited comments that contribute nothing to the discussion? where is my community? do we really live among people who would shun us for making a mistake?
i feel physically ill.
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| 'til tuesday (like the band, but not) |
[09 Oct 2004|07:30am] |
finished grading around 3am, did something nice for a student who's having a hard semester, went to bed, slept about 5 hours, got up and packed and put away the rest of the laundry.
whew! i feel rested already.
now i'm off to charleston to visit my zaniest friend...
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| another stellar day in the classroom |
[08 Oct 2004|01:23pm] |
preface: there was a football game last night. this is a big football school. we also have a short reading break that begins tomorrow (or today, depending on how you look at it).
writing class: one of the students who showed up immediately asked if i would cancel class. i asked him why he came if he felt that way. he asked if he could leave. i laughed and advised him against it. only two were absent, and legitimately. the rest did a pretty good job of giving each other feedback on their papers in a vaguely distracted sort of way.
lit class: several students absent. of those whose bodies were present, only about four seemed to have read the material. of those, one refused to see the point of my having them look at early drafts of chapters from persuasion and read an article about what textual editing is. the rest sat in their chairs and refused to make eye contact. no one looked up the word mantuamaker, even though they don't know what it means, even though i told them i expect them to look up unfamiliar words when they read.
and now i have to read their paper proposals and attempt to be objective. i hate grading.
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