If you don’t want to do what I suggest, and you don’t want to do what Schuman suggests, and you don’t want to do anything concrete and practical, then just have the courage of your opinions and say, “I don’t give a rat’s ass about adjuncts, the erosion of tenure, the casualization of academic labor, etc. It’s a dog eat dog world, and all I care about is myself. Everybody else can go jump off a cliff for all I care.”
This, at least, will be honest. This will be a serious, consistent, coherent position. I can’t support it but I don’t despise it as much as I do the hypocrites who are yes-butting every real initiative to death.
Clarissa's Blog 
I do not think Schuman or you really know what you are talking about here. So fine: “I don’t give a rat’s ass about adjuncts, the erosion of tenure, the casualization of academic labor, etc. It’s a dog eat dog world, and all I care about is myself. Everybody else can go jump off a cliff for all I care.”
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Cryptic. . . 🙂
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I am speaking strongly because Schuman’s recommendations are so conservative / timid / etc. Fall on your sword, self-destruct, but don’t do anything constructive … and any new information or different p.o.v. is “mansplaining” … and if you don’t agree, you are a Satan who is against her. I find her view myopic although I can see it somewhat better when I look at the situation at very privileged places, esp. Ivies and places trying to act like Ivies.
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I don’t know what can be done constructively if nobody is willing to say anything. Everybody just meekly accepts and even champions the ridiculous changes imposed by the administration.
Please understand that I’m not referring to you. You do enough. But if it weren’t for me, at my department we would have a language coordinator policing our language courses already.
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Well, I wouldn’t say everyone just meekly accepts although I do know many who do, and I am not against Schuman talking — I was not in the crowd who called her anti-academic earlier on.
I continue to be curious as to how your dept. agrees on language program policy, goals, etc., enough so that students are not entirely confused about what the program is or might be.
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“I continue to be curious as to how your dept. agrees on language program policy, goals, etc., enough so that students are not entirely confused about what the program is or might be.”
– We all use the same textbooks for the same sections. The textbooks come in a sequence, they are all from the same publisher. There is a lab component that is 25% of the final grade in all sections. It’s conducted on the same Quia website for all sections. We all have to cover the same kind of material in terms of grammar and vocabulary every semester. Everybody has the final exam, the oral exam, midterm (although the exercises on them are mostly different.)
The difference of opinion begins when I say that the above-mentioned is more than enough to create uniformity between sections. Other people, however, insist on the same syllabus and a language supervisor. This is what I oppose.
I also have to confess that I barely ever use that textbook and that I offer alternatives to Quia for those who hate online exercises.
But I’m special, so I’m entitled. 🙂 🙂
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Why Don’t You – Yes But
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Yes, you are absolutely right. This is probably the most famous of games described by Berne.
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