Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

This really is a full service blog.

So fucking stupid, and still doing a tremendous amount of damage.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Finding joy where we can, and muddling through where we can’t.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Semi-Respite Open Thread: Handling Academic Stress

Semi-Respite Open Thread: Handling Academic Stress

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Hard-earned tips from “Int’l Security prof @UTSC & @UofT, Chair WIIS-Canada, boxer. Author of award-winning book Jihad & Co.” —


Reader Interactions

15Comments

  2. 2.

    PenAndKey

    “Accelerate research”?

    Seriously, what world is that dean living in where someone who doesn’t usually work remotely is going to manage that from home?

  3. 3.

    TriassicSands

    I just listened to an interview with Dr. Fauci and he’s sounding more and more like a Trump apologist. I guess the word that Trump is losing patience with him got through. What’s next: Fauci appearing publicly wearing his bright red MAGA hat?

    Obviously, the top — only? — priority is keeping the sociopath healthy.

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    @PenAndKey: I’m blessed with sane deans/higher-ups, which helps a lot. It also helps that most of our research is laboratory based, and hence even the densest dean (which, again, mine is not; she’s been very good so far through this crisis) would be forced to understand that things have to hiatus. Most of the scrambling has been to ramp up remote teaching, since that will start on Monday.

  6. 6.

    Immanentize

    I am writing an amicus brief to the SCOTUS right now.  It is hard without access to my office, books, the library, research assistants, etc.  It won’t be my best ever effort, but by gum it will be filed on time! (April 1)

  9. 9.

    BGinCHI

    The hardest part of working from home right now are the endless “helpful” emails with 1001 strategies for doing something with technology that will make things better only after I spend hours on trial and error getting it to work.

    No thanks.

    I’m feeling better about getting work done by doing it in the way that it works for me right now.

    Yes, I am an old curmudgeon thanks for asking.

  10. 10.

    zhena gogolia

    @BGinCHI:

    Yes, I agree. I feel a lot of the faculty are disconnected from reality. I wish I could achieve that.

    I did four classes this past week. They were weird. I wonder how long we can sustain this. It was nice to see some sweet familiar faces, though.

  11. 11.

    BGinCHI

    @zhena gogolia: I’m going to give them guided work to do, with clear instructions, study guides, and reading questions. Then I’ll do some chats and threads like here on the blog.

    I’m not planning to record lectures, or do anything fancy.

    I think a lot of that works for people who live to perform, and that’s fine. I’d rather them accomplish something that adds to the first 2/3 of the course. I want them to be able to do it and then move on with the many other things they have to do, and not constantly be hassled by my endless technological displays.

    Both my classes (my third class was a semester in 8 weeks that I thankfully finished before all this hit) are drama courses, and we only have 3 plays left in each. So….simpler is better I think.

  12. 12.

    Feathers

    Very bad advice, because men will be able to do this in a way that women can’t. And before you go on about how great and involved a father you or someone you know are, there was a study that showed granting paternity leave to male faculty worsened their female colleagues tenure chances, because the women took maternity leave to care for their new baby, while men used the time to up their publication rate.

    But yeah, having done faculty support, the dean is probably seeing someone who is grinding like grad school and trying to warn the others. Or there is some asshole breathing down their neck. Or they’re the asshole.

    I love that Apple’s predictive text suggests Ashley when I’m typing asshole.

  13. 13.

    artem1s

    But this morning’s work session is completely blown by an email from my Dean telling faculty to “accelerate research” during this period.

    This is probably a pretty common request right now.  Had a meeting myself with my PI about research revenue for the next few months.

    Lots of institutions are dealing with reduced revenue from tuition, room & board, and donations. The one place they may be able to maintain some cash flow is by completing existing research contracts and grants. Our tenured PI will get paid regardless. The rest our staff, not so much, if we can’t maintain some sort of product and revenue from our existing contracts.  Keeping the work going where we can is our first priority.  We are all making adjustments to our productivity but slowly figuring out what we can and can’t do, with an eye on keeping people employed for the duration (with healthcare benefits and sick leave if needed).  It will be an added bonus if we can help keep cash flowing into the university and help them from having to make deep staffing cuts and layoffs – and to our subs who depend on our pass thru for their livelihoods. Of course the trick is all in the messaging and how you communicate that urgency to those who salaries aren’t grant dependent.

  14. 14.

    zhena gogolia

    @BGinCHI:

    I might retreat to this. I’ve been having discussions online, and I think some of the students are enjoying it but others look terribly bored. I’ll probably try to get some kind of response from them soon as to whether we should continue this way.

    At this point they are not going on the blog-like forum at all. I was hoping to reproduce BJ but it isn’t working yet.

  15. 15.

    Lyrebird

    @Immanentize: You are a wonder! And my school would hire @raven:  in a snap, yes.

    I do know that many people teach excellent courses online, but they usually plan them that way, and having the kids at home… I have now posted a teaching video where my students can probably make out the “potty!” announcements in the background.

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