Month: November 2011

A Weird Defense of Communism

~ Clarissa ~ 41 Comments

I think that any defense of communism is weird but there are really egregious attempts to defend this horrible, inhuman system of beliefs. I encountered one of them in this discussion. To spare you the pain of reading so much utter ridiculousness, here is a pertinent quote:

Yes they were ultimately failures because they aren’t around anymore (Russia free-marketized totally, China is state capitalist, etc.), but that still does not mean these weren’t the greatest moments of human freedom the world has seen: first places where women had equal rights, access to birth control, for example, first place [Soviet Union] where same sex relationships were legal [then removed when it degenerated, but still we’re talking about decades and decades ahead of everything else], not to mention so many other social/economic egalitarian programs that made the capitalist world look utterly backwards.

Women had access to birth control in the Soviet Union? As one of those women, I’m very surprised to hear this piece of news. After abortion stopped being punished by death in the USSR, there was absolutely no access to any means of birth control. Except abortion. I know women who had over 30 (THIRTY!) abortions because there was no other means of contraception available. Instead of birth control, we had forced gynecological exams. We also had no access to any hygienic means that would allow us to preserve some dignity during menstruation.

Oh, it was amazing to be a woman in the USSR. Especially if you were a victim of rape and were subjected to so much shaming and persecution for this horrible failing on your part that you’d try to kill yourself or, at best, choose to keep quite about the crime.

Same sex relationships were legal? Tell that to all those people who were put in jail for practicing gay sex. Homosexuality was only decriminalized in 1993.

Social/economic egalitarian programs? Like what, for example? Paying a pittance that was barely enough to survive to everybody except the party apparatchiks? I can’t come up with any other “egalitarian” social program in the USSR.

Do people even understand how offensive they are being when they spread such egregious lies about other countries? Countries that they never even visited, let alone lived in? A horrifying reality that so many people were trapped in should not be used by some bored pseudo-intellectual who is too lazy to read at least a couple of articles about the Soviet Union.

Should I Complain?

~ Clarissa ~ 21 Comments

I take the bus to and back from work almost every day. We don’t have bus stops, and passengers just wait on the sidewalk, wave to the bus, and it stops. I’ve been doing this for over two years and never had a problem.

Now, however, a new driver has joined the group of our bus drivers. And she refuses to stop for me, even though I’ve seen her stop for other people. She just passed by me, waved at me, and left me standing there in a piercing wind. Now I’m frozen to the bones. And I will be late for a meeting with a student.

On the one hand, I feel bad about putting anybody’s employment in danger in these difficult times. On the other hand, this is very aggravating.

What do you, guys, think? Should I complain about this driver?

A Really Offensive Student Evaluation

~ Clarissa ~ 109 Comments

A female prof just posted the following excerpt from a student evaluation:

I learned so much about research and writing in this class. However I have to say that as a man, I found her big boobs to be slightly distracting during lectures. Now I don’t mean this in a bad way, cause what straight man doesn’t love big boobs? Professor [comebacknikki] taught me that I should say things directly and assertively in order make a point, but to not be offensive. I hope this isn’t offensive, but rather an indication of my appreciation. I wouldn’t write this if it weren’t anonymous, so I guess I’m not as assertive as I think, but still… big boobs are both hot and distracting, FWIW

Would you like to guess what the post’s title is? It’s “Thanks… I think?” The comments people left for the post are of the “Congrats!” variety.

It’s sad to see that some people are so insecure and attention-starved that they would take something this offensive and disgusting as a compliment.

I hope my readers know me well enough by now to realize that it isn’t the reference to “hot big boobs” that I find offensive. If the student just stopped at that, I’d simply dismiss him as a stupid idiot. What I find really egregious is the attempt to manipulate a prof into accepting this piece of ridiculousness as an example of honest self-expression that this very teacher had tried to promote in the classroom.

It isn’t a good sign when students attempt to manipulate a prof in such a blatant way. If you can’t make yourself even marginally respected in the classroom, why teach at all? When students start to ridicule you in such a direct way, it’s a sign you should reevaluate your entire teaching philosophy.

Very Creepy: MyEdu Website

~ Clarissa ~ 20 Comments

Has anybody heard of the website myedu.com? A colleague just mailed us a link to it and I’m completely creeped out by it. The website claims to provide grade averages for courses at pretty much every university in existence. How does it get access to grades, exactly? Does anybody know?

The colleague who sent out the link says that the grades in his courses are reflected correctly. I looked at my courses and the grades don’t look like my grades. It’s hard to say, though, because the website doesn’t specify which semesters of instruction are included. I also have no idea why some of my courses as opposed to others got on the list. The frequency with which I offer the course or the number of students that enroll in it don’t seem to be the decisive factors.

Does anybody have any idea how this website works and where it is supposed to be getting the grades? The U of Texas apparently just hands over the grades to that website (well, it’s Texas, what do you expect?). Do all universities now do that?

I’m a tough grader and I hand out Fs like candy. I’m not worried that students will stop taking my courses after consulting this stupid website but I’m wondering why universities would want to hand over the data about the grades to some shady organizations that can’t be trusted to be even marginally decent about what they do with that information.

Through the Eyes of a Stranger: American Radio

~ Clarissa ~ 60 Comments

Back in Ukraine, I used to be a huge fan of nighttime radio shows. I find something very comforting in the idea of voices speaking softly in the background as I work on the computer, informing me of the news and not trying to invade my field of vision. In the US, however, I never had a chance to listen to the radio. Since I don’t drive, it didn’t feel like it made sense for me to buy a radio.

Now, however, I finally decided to familiarize myself with the American radio, especially as so many people rely upon it as their main source of news. I had no idea how to choose a radio station or which stations are good. I think I vaguely heard something positive about a radio station called the NPR. I seem to recall a former colleague of mine telling me that his first action as a finally employed professor was to donate money to the NPR to support their progressive activism.

I have no idea if the NPR my colleague supported is the same NPR that I’m listening to but I have to say that I’m a little confused. As I said before, I have trouble determining what counts as news as opposed to humor among the American news sources. This is why I’m now confused as to whether this NPR channel is supposed to be humorous or serious. The very first two pieces of news I heard about from this radio station were:

1. A Tea Party group in Florida is protesting against fluoridated water because they believe it is a governmental intrusion into the lives of citizens.

2. The Obama administration and the Congress can’t reach an agreement as to whether pizza should be considered a vegetable.

I know there is a lot of insanity going on in the world but, surely, things can’t be that weird. Can anybody enlighten me as to whether NPR is a humorous radio station?

If there are radio stations you particularly enjoy and listen to often, please recommend them to me. I’m planning to take up radio listening seriously since it does wonders for my grading. I want talk radio, though, not music channels.

How To Choose an Interviewer?

~ Clarissa ~ 6 Comments

One thing that made a really negative impression on me during last night’s event with Mario Vargas Llosa was the low quality of questions the interviewer asked the writer. The entire event was structured as an interview that a professor of Hispanic Literature conducted with the Peruvian writer. Mind you, the event took place at a university, and quite a prestigious one, too.

“So how did you feel when you got the Nobel Prize?” the interviewer asked Vargas Llosa.

The writer shared a funny, detailed story in response.

“So how did you feel when you got the Seix Barral Prize?” the interviewer asked after Vargas Llosa finished the story.

The writer provided a shorter and less interesting response.

“So how did you feel when you got the Romulo Gallegos Prize?” the interviewer asked immediately after that.

At that point, I started to fear that the poor writer would be asked the same question about every single one of the numerous prizes and awards he had won in his long and productive literary career. It’s possible that Vargas Llosa feared the same thing because his answer was a lot less inspired this time.

Eventually, it began to feel like the interviewer was about to ask the writer what his favorite color was.

Vargas Llosa is an easy person to interview because he is a great story-teller and a skilled public speaker. In response to every question, he launches into a fascinating, detailed discussion that the audience follows with bated breath. All that was needed for this event to work out much better than it did was an interviewer who’d taken the trouble to prepare question that were less in keeping with the Cosmo style of interviewing celebrities.

The Latter

~ Clarissa ~ 15 Comments

“What kind of female clothes were promoted by the Franco dictatorship?” I ask in class.

“Latter!” students answer in unison.

“What is that?” I ask.

“A type of clothes?” students respond.

This makes me feel very perplexed. “I’m sorry but what are you talking about?”

“Well, it says here in the text that women were encouraged to wear polka-dot dresses and priest-like cassocks, especially the latter,” I student explains. “So “latter”must be a type of clothes.”

Vargas Llosa and Pushkin

~ Clarissa ~ 8 Comments

So we went to Mario Vargas Llosa’s event at St. Louis University today.

When I saw Vargas Llosa right in front of me I became very agitated. I tried explaining to N why I was getting so emotional.

“Imagine if that was live Pushkin sitting there!” I said. “How would you feel?”

“Pushkin already is sitting right in the middle of every Russian’s soul,” N deadpanned.

The last time I saw a queue as long as the one people formed to have their books signed by Vargas Llosa was in 1990 in St. Petersoburgh when people were lining up to buy ice-cream in the -30 C weather.

When I came up to the writer and gave him my copy of one of his books to sign, I got so nervous that I suddenly spoke to him in a strong Spanish accent.

“You are from Spain?” Vargas Llosa concluded. “I love Spain.”

I’ll post more on the actual event tomorrow.

A Breakthrough With Freshmen

~ Clarissa ~ 2 Comments

So do you remember how I told you about my bored, indifferent freshmen? I tried everything to connect with them but nothing worked. Until today. I shared this story with them (only I substituted blogging with texting, for obvious reasons), and finally, almost at the end of the semester, they woke up.

I guessed they identified with the perennially texting part of me and managed to see me not as one of those obnoxious, anti-cell phone adults but as one of them. And we finally managed to share a laugh and have a lively discussion.

You just never know what’s going to help you break the ice.

Is Anything the Matter with Higher Education?

~ Clarissa ~ 48 Comments

The reason why I don’t participate in the current flurry of posts that try to answer the question of “What’s the matter with higher education?” is that I don’t want to become part of the academia-bashing movement. The seemingly progressive bloggers who have jumped on the bandwagon of studiously listing all of academia’s ills don’t see that the only goal they achieve is helping the cause of those who hate the very word “education.”

As my regular readers might have noticed, I don’t enjoy wallowing in the doom-and-gloom scenarios my fellow academic so often relish. Of course, there are problems in academia, just like in any other area of life. But the idea that academia is getting worse is preposterous. The number of disabled students and students from ethnic minorities keeps growing on campuses across North America. The number of women who graduate on all levels has also exploded in the recent two decades. Professors don’t come almost exclusively from the ranks of the upper middle classes any more. When I read scholarly articles in my field, I always feel impressed by how much more rigorous the scholarship is becoming. Electronic publishing makes reading more accessible for everybody. Doing research is much simpler today when we have global communications and electronic access to archives halfway around the world.

If all of this isn’t progress, then I don’t know what is.

Yes, there is adjunctification, and it’s obviously not a positive development. But the tenured and tenure-track faculty at my college is at least 40% female. Adjuncts are also mostly women but when exactly would they have had better jobs? In the 50s and the 60s? They probably wouldn’t have any jobs at all. Of course, the situation of an adjunct is far from perfect. But it’s in any case better than the life of a miserable 50s housewife.

So I’ll be damned if I lend a helping hand to the ultra-conservative forces whose greatest dream is to rob academia of its prestige and destroy our progressive campuses. The servility of academics who fall over themselves in their hurry to dump on a great system of higher education that we have in this country and to debase themselves to serve some very dubious political goals is astounding. In this boring self-flagellation, I see nothing but the same old pseudo-liberal guilt that is now riding even higher than usual on the wave of the 99% vs 1% movement.

I say let’s stop wallowing in misery already and start concentrating on all of the amazing achievements of our academia in the recent decades. This will allow us to achieve even more, instead of promoting the misguided belief in the academia of the past that somehow managed to be so much better than the kind we have today, in spite of being all-male, all-white, and all-upper-middle-class.