Day three of the new semester has ended, as well as my second day of teaching. Things go very well, but things go very tired. Up at 5:00 and in bed by 10:00. You know the routine.

The program assistant job also goes. Well? I’m not so sure. It’s a lot of scheduling meetings, checking schedules, scheduling meetings about scheduling, and meeting about schedules. I should be paid in beer.

Also, two things I would like to address right now. One, even though professors only teach a few classes per semester, there is an inordinate amount of bureaucratic and administrative work to be done, much of it necessary to simply not lose ground. Just because these people aren’t teaching classes or meeting with students doesn’t mean they’re not working. Hard.

Two, the department is so strapped for cash it’s not even funny. Communal three-hole punches. Communal staplers. Two copiers (one of which is always broken) for around 50 faculty members and 70+ teaching assistants, plus administrative staff. Junior woodchuck administrative assistants in the corporate world are far better equipped than the university faculty.

Mind, these aren’t surprises. Just grim reminders. And all of this school and work is cutting into time I could be doing important things, like blogging or watching soccer.

Current Mood: Hanging in Ther…zzzzzzzzz |