What Made you Smile/What Ticked you off Today?

[Jagosaurus]

Smile:
Alright! My Southern Live Oak Trees are thriving through this hot Texas summer. I have two young oaks planted last year & they almost didn't make it due to being transported & planted during the summer.

Nice! They look good.

I'm 50/50 on that though, I love trees, and once a Live Oak gets set its hard to kill... but the rancher in me has a knee-jerk hatred reaction to those damn things.

Just don't ever plant a cedar. That's just a crime against nature.

I'm cajun, liking Cedars are in my blood . I wouldn't want one in my yard. Shooting for a Magnolia. They provide a lot of shade, full leaves look great, & the flowers are amazing when they bloom.

Regarding college failing... back at my new student orientation at Texas A&M a speaker said: "Look right, look left, only 1 of 3 incoming students will graduate with a degree from this institution."

Wow... sure that counts ppl who transfer out, fail out, just leave college, etc but dang... 33%. It's a tier one institution but I thought it'd be a lot higher. At least 50%.

[Luke]

No exam or presentation = no attendance from Luke. One day when a decent game wasn't on (mlb.tv is crazy addictive) I went to a marketing class and the students and I waited for at least fifteen minutes before the professor finally came in.

He waltzed in, slammed down his briefcase, shouted "FUCK IT!", picked his briefcase back up and left the room.

I decided right then and there I would never miss another one of his classes. Even if I had to drive to campus, find a parking spot, and walk to the building, it would be worth it to see this guy spaz out.

I'll call this professor "Chaz" after the cologne, because he left a trail of cologne wherever he went. A common joke with students and professors was "Chaz was here". Dead serious, you could enter an elevator and know Chaz had recently been in it.

Anyway, I went to Chaz's office before the next lecture and asked him why he flipped out. He told me that he was guaranteed tenure, but on that day was denied it. As soon as he started to talk about it his eyes bugged out and there was a weird vein in his neck that started to throb. He told me, "Luke, I deserve tenure. I deserve it. But people here just don't like me".

The situation sucked, because he did deserve tenure and people didn't like him. He was a great professor, but he bathed in cologne, was short, had some rough patches on his face, wore clip on ties, and was basically bullied by his peers. There was also a wide spread rumor that he spent most of his earnings on prostitutes. Think of DeVito's character on Always Sunny.

Next class Chaz didn't apologize. Instead he ranted, and it was great. Chaz basically did Scarface's quitting scene from Half Baked where he named all the jerks and nice people in the entire school of business. So refreshing. This was a class worth attending.

To wrap this up...My friends and I usually have the "classes are worthless" discussion. Most professors could just tell you to "buy this book" and "here is your assignment". If you are capable of reading, there is nothing to gain by going to class. Especially in the case when a professor uses power point. Dude, just send me that presentation to me as an attachment as I can read it myself. These professors are also usually the one trying to make as many publications as possible, as that is their true goal.

So I say skip school as much as possible unless you find one of those professors who is a bit "off". My favorite professors have always been the ones most students hated or feared. For me, when a professor says "Most of you will get a 20 out of 100 on this exam", I get excited and motivated. And while not appropriate, if a professor says "Fuck a Scantron, you're going to have to write down your answers" go to his or her class.

[dsheinem]

What are the rules for tenure? I've seen some incredibly crappy professors get it and some wonderful processors not get it and have to move elsewhere. Is it based on publications?

I also think that system is flawed. Some of my best professors in college werent tenured while some of my worst dont give a F profs were. Some seemed to look down upon teaching an undergrad class and probably more interested in research and such.

Tenure being granted is generally based on a combo of teaching performance (classroom evaluations by students, colleagues, etc.), publication/scholarship record (number, length, quality, and significance of publications in your field, conference presentations, etc.), and service (committee work, advising, etc.). Teaching and Scholarship are generally weighted most heavily, with teaching-focused schools (e.g. most small to mid sized schools) weighing that record more heavily while research-focused schools (e.g. most larger institutions of 15K-20K+ students) tend to emphasize the publication record...but both are always in the mix. Usually tenure is granted by a review of your record by your department, university administration, and (sometimes) outside reviewers. Tenure is typically granted after 5-7 years of successful full time work at the Assistant Professor level. Any good department will be able to let someone know after a few years if they are on the right track, if they need to pick things up, or if they need to seek a job elsewhere.

Getting tenure is about more than job security - it is not so much a "reward" as a granting of responsibility. Typically it comes with greater expectations for leadership and involvement in the life of the university (e.g. long-term planning, curricular matters, etc.) and, most importantly, it affords a degree of intellectual freedom for research that takes a long time, may be more experimental in nature, may be riskier, and/or may be more sophisticated and advanced than what one can do pre-tenure because of the nature of the machinery of publication, of funding/revenue, etc. It also protects faculty from the whims of historically more transitory administration and from the shifting tides of public and political opinion about the place of higher education in any given decade.

Here's a reasonably good defense of tenure from a few years ago if you want to read more.

[Ziggy]

I am so sick of shitty service every where I go.

My car:

So a couple of months ago I got a new car. When I was getting the car, I originally said I wanted auto start installed. I was told it was $300. I changed my mind and wanted to pick up the car asap and get auto start installed at a later date.

So when I was getting the car, we discussed pickup time. I was told they would have the car ready at 10AM. I'm suppose to be to work at 10AM, but I decided to go in a little late so I could pick the car up that day. So I showed up at 9AM, and it turns out they weren't gonna have the car ready until 11AM. WTF! OK, so I had to wait around the dealership for another hour after getting all my paper work done. In turn, I was another hour late to work. Grrrrr, but whatever.

So fast forward a couple of months. My parents, brother and sister gave me $300 for my birthday to get the auto start installed. Excellent. So I go down to the dealership to get some more minor details and make an appointment. The finance manager comes out and I say, "Yeah, I wanna get auto start installed." And right away he's like, "Yeah, it's $399." So I say, "Uh... What? I was told it was $300 when I was buying the car..." He asks, "Who'd you buy the car from?" (What does it matter?). I say, "Jack." He says, "Well you're gonna have to talk to Jack." And yeah, Jack isn't here right now. Hahaha. OK.

So I call the dealership a couple days later to speak with Jack. I like Jack, by the way. I got my last car from him, and I went straight to him for this car. He's a no BS car salesman. So I call to speak with him... Yeah, Jack's on vacation this week. Awesome!

So the week before last I was off from work. On Wednesday the 5th, I went down there to speak with Jack. When I got the car, I was told I'd get my first oil change for free. So I figured I'd talk about auto start and get an appointment set for the oil change. So I find Jack and tell him that he told me auto start was $300 but the finance manager told me it's $399 and I'd have to talk to Jack... What's the deal? Jack tells me we're gonna have to talk to the finance manager, and he's not here right now.



OK... OK... Um... So, what's the deal? Jack told me that maybe he was wrong when he said $300, so maybe it is $400. I ask when would be a good time to come back when the both of them are there. He said Saturday, the 8th. I said OK, I'm gonna make an appointment to get an oil change and while I'm waiting we can talk. Perfect.

So I go to the service department. I tell the guy I get a free oil change and I wanna make an appointment for Saturday. He says, "Sure, what time?" I set a time for 9AM and I'm on my way.

Then later, I'm looking at the receipt he gave me... It's for Saturday the 15th!!!! I know, I know. It's MY fault, as the customer, for not specifying WHICH Saturday I wanted. I an idiot for thinking if it's a Wednesday, that if I say "How about Saturday?" That would automatically mean THIS FUCKING SATURDAY, and if not I would be informed. My bad. What an idiot I am!

So I call them up and tell them I need to switch my appointment. Now, normally I work Saturdays. I made the appointment for THAT Saturday because I was off from work that week. So, I ask for Monday. They tell me it's drop off only. I ask what that means. They tell me it means you drop your car off then it can be done any time between then and 5PM. So I have no choice, I'm already a week past when I needed it changed. I drive 70 miles a day to and from work, I don't really wanna go ANOTHER week. So I say OK, I'll be there at 9:30AM. When I got my email receipt, it was for 10AM. Whatever, no problem.

So I just went down there to drop my car off. Of course, I needed someone to come with me for a ride back. So my ride is waiting outside. I have an appointment, I just need to drop off my keys. Some how it took a good 10 minutes before I even got help, even though there's two people behind the counter and only one is with a customer! So I finally get help. I say, "Yeah, I'm just dropping off my keys for an appointment." The guy says, "Sure, what's your phone number?" I give it to him, thinking that'll pull up my appointment in the computer. Nope. A good minute goes by before he finally says, "OK, and what are you here for?" WHAT THE FUCK? I say, "Uh... an oil change?" More minutes go by. He says, "You spoke with Joe Shmow?" (I don't remember the name). I don't fucking know the guys name that made my appointment! Why the fuck do all these people keep asking me who I spoke with. You need to speak with this guy, no you need to speak with this guy. WHAT THE FUCK?! So I see the guy I made the appointment with and I point to him and say, "If that's Joe Shmow, then yeah." He says OK, then another minute goes by before he says, "And how much did he tell you it was gonna be?"

At this point I'm past the point of getting mad, I'm just flat out mad. Why the hell wasn't my oil change in your computer? Why does it matter who I spoke to? Why does it matter how much he told me it would cost? Do you not charge the same price for an oil change for the same car between ALL customers? Also, why don't you know that's it's FREE.

So I tell him it's suppose to be free. He says OK, then more minutes go by. At this point I'm thinking, great, my ride is waiting in the car all this time. I'm just suppose to be dropping off fucking keys. More minutes. Finally he comes back from the printer with some papers and asks, "Are you waiting while it's getting done?"

Now at this point, I'm stuck. I need to speak, but I can't possibly control the tone of my voice. So I speak to him, and very noticeably angry. I hear it in my voice, but I can't help it. I know I sound like I'm about to explode, and I'm sure he has no fucking idea why. So I say, "I was told when I made the appointment that it's a drop off, and that it'll be done any time between now and 5PM. Is that not the case!?" I can tell he notices I'm angry, and that he doesn't know why. He says, "I can check and see how long it will take." I say, still angry sounding, "No, don't bother, that's fine. Just take me cell phone number to call me when it's done." He takes my number and says, "OK, you're all set." And I have to ask him, "Do I get a receipt?" Then he hands me the receipt.

Someone, please let me know if I'm just being ridiculous or if this is in fact enough to make a normal person angry.

Luckily, the last time I spoke with Jack I also asked him about getting auto start installed some where else. He said it wont effect my warranty or anything as long as the place is insured. So I already got a quote from another place I used a few times before. $300 for auto start AND Viper alarm installed (the Viper alarm is better than my car's factory alarm). I just figured for the same price, get it installed at the dealership to avoid any headaches since it's a lease. But if it's $300 no maybe $400 well actually we don't know come back and talk to Jack but he's not here, and all that other bullshit, I'm just gonna get it installed somewhere else. Fuck those people.

Guitar Center:

I ranted about this after it happened in my musicians thread, but I'll sum it up here. About a year ago I went to Guitar Center. I wanted to trade in a few effects pedals and buy a few pedals. I was trading in a phaser, and I wanted to buy a different phaser. And I wanted to buy a chorus pedal. But there's like a million different kinds for each. I've already narrowed it down to 2 or 3 of each pedal before I went, but I had to demo them in person to know which one I wanted. So first it took me FOREVER to get help. I told the guy, here's the stuff I wanna trade, and I want to buy a couple of pedals. I like to let them know right off the bat that I'm intending to spend money, because 99% of people that go to Guitar Center don't actually buy anything.

So luckily, they had the BOSS pedal rack set up, so I got to try the two different chorus pedals there. Now I want to compare it to two other chorus pedals, but they're in a locked case and I need someone to get them for me. Also in the locked case are the 2 or 3 phaser pedals I want to demo. Only the manager has the key, and of course he's off doing something, so I have to wait for him. I finally get a pedal, I try it out for a few minutes, now I wanna try the next one. I have to wait for the manager again. Repeat this process over a few times. I finally tell the manager, "There's a bunch I wanna try out, can you just give me all of them at once so I don't have to wait?" He tells me no. Fuck, so I have to wait like 5-15 minutes in between each pedal, while trying to remember what I did and didn't like about it in order to compare it to the next. Fuck you guys.

Long story short, I settled on two pedals and left. Turns out the chorus pedal I got I don't actually like. I preferred another one better, and I have since bought a used one on eBay.

Now back to the week I was off from work (two weeks ago). I got my brother some Guitar Center gift cards for his birthday. He recently got a new drum set and has been wanting to replace cymbals. So we went to Guitar Center, and there were a few things I've been wanting to check out and possible buy. I have a shitty $100 bass that I brought along, thinking I don't care if they'd give me $20 for it.

So I walking around and notice they have a used Squire Jazz bass for $200. Awesome. I play guitar, but I like to fool around on bass, so this is an inexpensive one that I've been eyeing. They're about $300-350 new. So $200 is great.

There's ONE guy in the guitars department and he's helping some one already. There's more people already waiting. So I went to the accessories department and got someone behind the counter. I told him I'm interested in buying a bass and also trading one in. He told me I'd have to talk to someone in guitars.... OK genius, but that's fucking IMPOSSIBLE! That's why I'm over here. I knew he wouldn't be any help, so I just say OK. But I also ask him about the vinyls. They have a display set up with a lot of new vinyls, I ask him how much. He's shaking his head and says, "They're all different prices." OK, sure buddy, but they're not individually marked. Am I gonna wait in line for each one I might want to ask you how much it is? Fuck you guys.

So I'm waiting for the guitar guy to help me. He notices me waiting and asks what I need (he's still helping the other customers). So I tell him buy bass trade bass. He says OK, grab the bass you wanna buy and show me the one you wanna trade. So I go out to the car and grab my shit bass. He says take it out of the case and let me see what it is. OK, he looks at it briefly, sees it's a Bridgeport (just some cheap bass) and says, "I'm gonna have to research this." Then he looks at the bass I wanna buy and tells me he can't sell it to me right now because of the police date.

For those that don't know, places like this are required to hold used gear for X amount of days in case it was stolen. But some genius at Guitar Center decided let's put this shit out of the floor anyway, so when people wanna buy it we tell them they have to come back at this date to pick it up.

OK, so I'm waiting and waiting and waiting.

Finally a guy comes out of the back room and the first guy says, "Hey are you busy?" He says, "Yeah, kinda." That really grinds my gears. What are you so busy with in the back when there's a ton of customers waiting with only one guy on the sales floor? Get your ass out here and help! Customers come first! IDK, maybe that's just me.

So I decided. I'm not fucking coming back to buy this bass. So I told him, "You know what? I changed my mind, I don't wanna wait." I was about to say, "I might buy a new one so I can get it now." (They have the same bass there new). Before I can say that, he says, "OK, well it's probably not gonna last the weekend." I'm thinking in my head, "..... FUCK YOU, ASSHOLE."

Finally, he takes a real look at my bass. He places like 2 frets and notices the input jack nut is loose (two seconds to fix) and then tells me "I'm gonna have to pass. The vibrations are making everything loose and with the cost to repair it, it's just not worth it." At this point, even though I was trying to keep myself calm, I'm getting to the point of boiling over. I told him, "Look, I know it isn't a great bass. I wont be insulted if you make me a low offer." He shakes his head. I say, "$20???" He says, "No, I'm gonna have to pass."

I'm thinking, you fuck, what cost of repairs? Give me fucking $20, have your IN HOUSE tech tighten the input jack nut, put a fucking price tag on it for $50, and sell this stupid thing in a day. Any number of people would buy this thing for $50. A beginner, some one that wants a spare bass to keep at the girlfriend's house, or bring to the beach, whatever. But you're such a stupid fuck that you think it's gonna cost money to "repair" for some reason. AHHHHHHHHHHH!

So I just say OK and walk away. Fuck you guys. You almost made a sale for $300. Probably more if your vinyls where fucking priced.

I walk to the keyboards room. I've been wanting to get some sort of synthesizer keyboard to mess around with recordings. Of course, the ones I wanna demo aren't plugged in. I realize that it'll probably take another hour of my life to get some ass hole to help me out, and it's not worth it. So fuck you, Guitar Center. I was willing to give you my money, and you fucked it up.

Guitar Center has officially become to me what Best Buy is to Amazon to many people. Go there to demo the shit, then go home and order it online.

/rant

[Ack]

What are the rules for tenure? I've seen some incredibly crappy professors get it and some wonderful processors not get it and have to move elsewhere. Is it based on publications?

I also think that system is flawed. Some of my best professors in college werent tenured while some of my worst dont give a F profs were. Some seemed to look down upon teaching an undergrad class and probably more interested in research and such.

Tenure being granted is generally based on a combo of teaching performance (classroom evaluations by students, colleagues, etc.), publication/scholarship record (number, length, quality, and significance of publications in your field, conference presentations, etc.), and service (committee work, advising, etc.). Teaching and Scholarship are generally weighted most heavily, with teaching-focused schools (e.g. most small to mid sized schools) weighing that record more heavily while research-focused schools (e.g. most larger institutions of 15K-20K+ students) tend to emphasize the publication record...but both are always in the mix. Usually tenure is granted by a review of your record by your department, university administration, and (sometimes) outside reviewers. Tenure is typically granted after 5-7 years of successful full time work at the Assistant Professor level. Any good department will be able to let someone know after a few years if they are on the right track, if they need to pick things up, or if they need to seek a job elsewhere.

Getting tenure is about more than job security - it is not so much a "reward" as a granting of responsibility. Typically it comes with greater expectations for leadership and involvement in the life of the university (e.g. long-term planning, curricular matters, etc.) and, most importantly, it affords a degree of intellectual freedom for research that takes a long time, may be more experimental in nature, may be riskier, and/or may be more sophisticated and advanced than what one can do pre-tenure because of the nature of the machinery of publication, of funding/revenue, etc. It also protects faculty from the whims of historically more transitory administration and from the shifting tides of public and political opinion about the place of higher education in any given decade.

Here's a reasonably good defense of tenure from a few years ago if you want to read more.

After a professor gains tenure, is it possible to lose it? For instance, if a professor were suddenly to stop publishing, or if their teaching performance were to drop, or if they were to suddenly emphasize one aspect considerably more than another(say committee work at the expense of publications), do universities have any means by which they can discipline such a person?

[dsheinem]

After a professor gains tenure, is it possible to lose it? For instance, if a professor were suddenly to stop publishing, or if their teaching performance were to drop, or if they were to suddenly emphasize one aspect considerably more than another(say committee work at the expense of publications), do universities have any means by which they can discipline such a person?

Generally, no - there are no mechanisms in place to fire someone who might be "slacking" in one or some areas after tenure. This is by design. People can still be fired after tenure for gross misconduct or the like or subject to retrenchment if a department closes, but what exactly might be deemed "poor performance" in teaching/scholarship/service is often entirely too subjective to let some transitory administrator or constantly shifting committee determine. In addition, the requirements for tenure tend to change over time, and it isn't reasonable to hold a faculty member who was tenured 30 years ago to the same publication standards as one hired in the past year or two if the field has changed dramatically in that time. It just gets too murky, and there's more harm than good that would come from imposing some set of "requirements to keep tenure" when there's not a lot of evidence to suggest tenured faculty are a statistical or logistical problem but a wealth to suggest that they are vital for the health of a university. Introducing requirements kind of kills the point of what tenure affords.

Yes, this means that some faculty will be "dead wood" so to speak - but the benefits of tenure to the institution greatly outweigh those drawbacks.

[MrPopo]

For instance, if a professor were suddenly to stop publishing, or if their teaching performance were to drop, or if they were to suddenly emphasize one aspect considerably more than another(say committee work at the expense of publications), do universities have any means by which they can discipline such a person?

I think they used to have a means to discipline them, but it got thrown out as a casualty of all the anti-hazing stuff.

[Forlorn Drifter]

I'm cajun, liking Cedars are in my blood . I wouldn't want one in my yard. Shooting for a Magnolia. They provide a lot of shade, full leaves look great, & the flowers are amazing when they bloom.

Regarding college failing... back at my new student orientation at Texas A&M a speaker said: "Look right, look left, only 1 of 3 incoming students will graduate with a degree from this institution."

I came to hate cedars because of family and personal experience. You can't get rid of that stuff in some places. Plus, two generations of family that were cedar hackers made sure there was a nice hatred of them.

And they still say that at A&M. I got that at NSC, and then it was pointed out that the majority, probably more than 2/3rds of my major would drop out of the Science option for the degree and end up in the Production part of the degree. I was never science option though, so I didn't care.

[Ack]

After a professor gains tenure, is it possible to lose it? For instance, if a professor were suddenly to stop publishing, or if their teaching performance were to drop, or if they were to suddenly emphasize one aspect considerably more than another(say committee work at the expense of publications), do universities have any means by which they can discipline such a person?

Generally, no - there are no mechanisms in place to fire someone who might be "slacking" in one or some areas after tenure. This is by design. People can still be fired after tenure for gross misconduct or the like or subject to retrenchment if a department closes, but what exactly might be deemed "poor performance" in teaching/scholarship/service is often entirely too subjective to let some transitory administrator or constantly shifting committee determine. In addition, the requirements for tenure tend to change over time, and it isn't reasonable to hold a faculty member who was tenured 30 years ago to the same publication standards as one hired in the past year or two if the field has changed dramatically in that time. It just gets too murky, and there's more harm than good that would come from imposing some set of "requirements to keep tenure" when there's not a lot of evidence to suggest tenured faculty are a statistical or logistical problem but a wealth to suggest that they are vital for the health of a university. Introducing requirements kind of kills the point of what tenure affords.

Yes, this means that some faculty will be "dead wood" so to speak - but the benefits of tenure to the institution greatly outweigh those drawbacks.

Interesting. That might also explain the schism in the Auburn University math department back in the 1980s. A rivalry started between two camps on whether to use discrete math or theoretical geometric problems, and it got so bad that the university decided to create two math departments for a time. Untenured professors left because they felt they couldn't make it in such a system while the tenured folks all dug in their heels. It apparently got so bad, when a professor in one camp would die, the other side would refuse to attend the funeral or even acknowledge the loss.

[KalessinDB]

Ziggy, man... That sucks. Come visit Rochester, you can buy whatever you want at the great great House of Guitars here. Check YouTube, you'll love it.