We have two courses that have been severely under enrolled both times we offered them. They don’t go towards any degree requirement. As a result, the Dean’s office decided not to offer them in the Fall. The people teaching these courses are understandably upset. They are not tenured, and the absence of these courses means they make less money. They started pressuring me to open these sections. I explained to them that this is not a decision I am authorized to make. There’s no procedure by which I can open any courses without the signature of the Associate Dean. I promised the colleagues to argue their case to the Dean. I immediately did exactly that and sent all of the paperwork. The Dean’s office informed me that they have taken the issue under consideration and will let us know the decision soon. I communicated that information to the colleagues involved.
Immediately after that, the colleagues organized a pressure campaign on me from the students. I started receiving dozens of messages, spamming my inbox. Teary delegations of students started showing up at my office and classroom and interrupting my teaching.
I wrote a very kind message to the colleagues involved, explaining once again that there’s nothing more I can do and kindly asking them to stop. As we all know, I have a bit of a temper. It took a lot of self-control to write a kind, polite message. This is the busiest time of the academic year. I’m drowning in paperwork and email. But I overcame my deep desire to call these colleagues absolute walnuts and egregious numbskulls. In response, they told the students to badger me harder. The obvious result is that I’m not motivated to do any favors to these colleagues at all.
My question is, under what theory of the mind do such people operate? These are both very middle-aged people, not excitable kids. They should have found out by now that the only way to interact with somebody on whose goodwill you depend for many different things is by making yourself agreeable. I have gotten an enormous lot of good stuff for my colleagues at the department by cultivating goodwill among the administration and support staff. I’ve smiled, I’ve been patient, I’ve thanked for every little bit. People are stunned by how much I managed to wrangle out of the cold, steely jaws of the administration. I’m naturally not given to any of these behaviors. I’m naturally grumpy, cantankerous, and with a tragically short fuse. But I overcome these inclinations because if I gave free reign to them, my department would be where the Physics department is now. Which is not in existence.
It is not my decision whether to open these sections. But it is 100% my decision whether to make the position of one these colleagues permanent. The next Chair is a very close friend of mine which is widely known. Am I extremely motivated to inflict the colleague who is being an absolute walnut and acting like a total brat on my own close friend as a permanent hire? Clearly, not. Why is she tanking her chances for a permanent job over something that cannot bring any gain? There’s got to be some reasoning behind it but I can’t figure out what it is.
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