The View From Kalamazoo

insane road trip done. 20 hours on the road over 2 days suuucks. I do not care for Waffle House omlettes.

clothing, supplies, whatnots delivered. I don’t think we could have fit another thing in that Durango – it’ll all piggie-back on another trailer caravan scheduled to head down to Ocean Springs this week sometime, I understand. Red Cross still hasn’t made it to their area, nor have any other fed or state aid, and they shelter a massive portion of the Biloxi area. for shame.

my nephew is crawling.

Saving babies the medieval way

This response to Tribble is a beautiful thing.

I said I’d be blogging ADHD next week here.

I will, but will start Tuesday. I’m filling a friend’s Durango to the ceiling with the clothing drive results and as much extra water, hygeine items, etc.. we can stuff between the boxes and we’re making a mad road trip Sun-Mon down to Nashville (where it can be loaded into vehicles bound for Christus Victor in Ocean Springs) and back.

Wed. I’ll do my gig in Emma’s class, will report.

And I still have to finish writing an abstract. Uuuuuugh.

I posted on the new Tribble Drivel on the fly yesterday and (not that I’m less swamped. shhh, don’t tell) I want to return to the subject for a bit, if you don’t mind. (or if you do, I’m still typing. nyah nyah) I find it interesting (and darn convenient) that Tribble zeroed in on the weakest arguments (IMO) that appeared in response to his first piece. The comments on free speech that I read were mostly afterthoughts to meatier postings that discussed the professionalism of dirt-digging on Google and the state of the academic hiring committee in general. And his response to those worried about Googlers running into name-alikes and making wild assumptions? Disavow?! On a CV?!?! WTF? “Or you could choose to trust the discretion of the hiring committee members” Like you, Ivan? As if public mocking of applicants is professional, discreet?? Clearly no trust whatsoever can be placed in those hands if you are, as you seem to assert, a fine example of a hiring committee member. If I was John Smith, Ph.D. applying for an English position I’d be damn worried if there was a John Smith who posted pictures of soft-core bondage porn on this site because clearly the hiring committee can’t be trusted to be discerning or professional. I don’t have a common name (or so I thought) particularly since I’m an Elisabeth-with-an-S, not an Elizabeth-with-a-Z, yet Googling my name will also bring up the activities of another me, in Scotland.

And that brings me to the real rant portion of today’s posting: as I thought more on the newest Tribble Drivel it occurs to me that Tribble is a fine example – a fine example of why academia, and academic hiring in particular, is seen as so capricious, so arbitrary, so Ivory Tower. If Tribble is right then every epithet aimed at academia, every accusation of parochialism and elitism is smack on. Is this just a great spotlight on a system that is broken (or, at least, badly mangled)?

Going back to the original Drivel, Tribble’s committee tossed out the application of “Professor Turbo Geek” because the blog showed an interest in “the minutiae of software systems, server hardware, and other tech exotica” that the committee assumed meant that the applicant wasn’t academic enough and would be “ditching us to hang out in computer science after a few weeks on the job.” And if another applicant, when Googled, didn’t have a blog but was mentioned in a handful of newspaper or magazine articles as a fine marathon runner, that same committee could easily come to the same sort of wild conclusion: that the runner wasn’t committed to academia, either.

Oh, the places we could go! Consider an applicant who has a hobby of writing (rather bad) Christian-themed poetry for their church newsletter…and the church newsletter is online. Can this application be tossed under the assumption that the rest of the applicant’s writing must be as bad? Or worse – that a primarily Atheist committee can decide that the applicant won’t be a ‘good fit’?!? To continue in the area of ‘questions you can’t ask legally via form or interview but can be Googled’, now consider another applicant who does have a blog (not advertised on the CV, of course, as the vast majority are not), and it’s focused on his child, specifically a special needs child. It details day-to-day struggles (doctors, specialists, the schools) as a single parent…Tribble’s committee can assume the applicant would be far too busy with his family responsibilities, too distracted, and he, too, dismissed out of hand, no, or the applicant without a blog, but who had written a book ten years ago that described her debilitating post-partum depression, dismissed because she could get pregnant again, after all.

Applicants know their capabilities – how can a committee like Tribble’s assume they know better? The father could have a super live-in support network that allows him to spend as much time as necessary on professional matters, the runner could be involved in only summer races, or could have since ended all such activities. “Professor Turbo Geek” could have an interest in developing a technological project that would serve others in his academic field and put the department on the map – the question is, why is it the applicant can not be trusted to know what is expected and whether they can do it?

Let’s see…religion, family status…politics! A lot of bloggers, academic or no, give some indication of political leaning even if they are not specifically politics-focused. Perhaps there is a letter to the editor out there somewhere, a newsletter entry, or (in my case) maybe they wrote op-ed columns for a school paper a decade earlier that sit in a cache somewhere. How easy it is for a committee like Tribble describes to quietly wean out applicants who don’t lean in the direction they lean – and that may not even be a simple case of conservative v. liberal…maybe they prefer a yellow-dog Democrat, or perhaps they’ll not want to consider a vegan Green. What if they’re OK with a feminist, but not with a Feminist, hmmm?

Tribble’s earlier assertion that “past good behavior is no guarantee against future lapses of professional decorum,” clearly should be applied towards academic hiring practices. And admissions, for that matter. I have to wonder – is it the quality of the materials in the professional dossier that matters, or is it just about the dirt-digging? Has anyone considered the dangerous place Tribble and his committee are going if they’re online trying to get around the legal (and ethical) no-no questions in an interview by digging online? This isn’t about ‘free speech’, Ivan, it’s about total lack of professionalism, ethics, regard for or respect of the candidates and the laws protecting them.

Tribble responds – terribly troublesome Tribble drivel

Rather weak, frankly. The condensed version:

Although academic bloggers defended blogging by noting examples of blogs as Good Things (Ivan blows these off, in large part.),

Ivan still sees them as Bad Things. (he personifies search committees, therefore so must they)

The job market is tough, so mind your Ps and Qs. (note the shades of revisionist [self] history. different verse, same as the first…)

And he doesn’t ‘get’ it. (no kidding)

I’m not sure what to say, really – this is an example of ‘quit while you’re ahead’? (except that he wasn’t); ‘better to burn out than to fade away’? (fading would have held a bit more dignity, IMO); ‘stupid is as stupid does’? (ok, maybe that was harsh).

I’m not sure why he’s so proud of the clear message he’s sending: “my colleagues and I don’t understand this blogging thing and we feel threatened by applicants with any computer savvy whatsoever, but we can still say it’s all your fault for having one in the first place!” Smokescreen about content aside (no one has really disagreed with the advice ‘be careful what you say, where you say it, and to whom’) it’s a comment about electronic media and information and their relationship to academia (and to age v. change arguments, although is “tenured” an age, Ivan? What age is that, anyway?) Ivan doesn’t understand nor like this newfangled stuff these crazy kids are into these days. Ivan may be my age, and the crazy kids tenured Professors, themselves, but that doesn’t slow him down any.

Aaaand a few responses to the response with more to say than I. (my favorite bits included for your convenience):

• This and that from Cliopatria
• Thanks for Not being a Zombie “Tribble assumes that “many in the tenured generation” think just like him. “Many” is a useless word to job seekers. “Many in the tenured generation” haven’t kept up with the scholarship in their field, either. Should job seekers try to appear to be equally clueless about the latest developments? “Many in the tenured generation” don’t like people who drive imports. “Many in the tenured generation” have model train sets. Who cares?”
• Trench Fever “It would be an awful thing if Tribble’s article put off a generation of younger academics who might be tempted to dip their toes into the blogging waters. Come on in, guys and gals. Just keep your bathing costumes on.”
• Little Professor “But if you wouldn’t trust a blogger, does it make sense to trust a CoHE essayist? I fail to see how the combination of print and payment makes the latter any more (or less) attractive than the former.”
• Matthew G. Kirschenbaum has promised to re-visit. Stay tooned.

I’d love to know who Ivan really is. I want to Google him.

About a month ago I mentioned my intention to join in a special needs blog round. That proposed date is September 26 – more about that when I hear more. I’ll have something to add that day, I’m sure.

September 14 is ADHD Awareness Day.

I usually do a school visit, read a book to the class, answer questions – be available. That week I will focus on this topic here – educational stuff, ranting stuff, and some of what’s it’s like being Emma’s Mom. (I’ll never claim I have the worst lot, that there aren’t families struggling with more…but some of my scenery, as I walk my path as a Mother, is different, and my kid is different – and that’s important, and worth a mention.) I try to educate her class because I hope that knowing why Emma has bad days will inspire a little more charity on their parts, that the reactions will be a little less harsh. And something that is out in the open is less likely to be attractive as a weapon later since there is nothing secret or shame-laden about it.

And Emma’s Mom is big. And looks kids right in the eye. And that’s important, too. I’ll take the fear-factor advantage if given.

Much more response than expected to my clothing drive.

Do I need to rent a minivan or u-haul and take a drive?? ACK!

There’s a lot being said about Katrina all over. I have nothing more to add there.

I suppose this should be obvious, but I encourage y’all to check in with your houses of worship (or a local if you are not otherwise attached) to see if there are efforts under way for their sister churches in Katrina affected areas. I hope there are many who are able to donate much-needed funds to the Red Cross or other agencies of choice, but I know many are scraping by (lord knows I am) but still would like to offer some help. My solution is to run a clothing drive in my department (and the information is going through a neighboring, very large, department as well) for a church in the Biloxi area. My sister’s MiL and FiL are ministers (ELCA) and had for some time been assigned to a church down there (Ocean Springs). They are now (since last month) at a church in TN, but will be driving down to help – while the church made it through the storm (good thing – it’s a local designated shelter) upwards of 75% (or more, information still coming in) are homeless. I’m sending the clothing to my sister in TN, and it will be personally transported by her MiL (since no mail is getting to the affected areas, and who knows when it will) – it’s one church, one shelter, group of people suffering among so many thousands upon thousands…but it’s something I can do.

So I hope you’re doing what you can do, whatever that is.

And if you’re a victim of Katrina – my heart goes out to you. I wish I could do more.

These are the days I hug my children extra tight. I’m overwhelmed with sadness.

Medieval appetite suppressant could be new slimming aid

Ok. Being so panicked about your Latin exams or an upcoming conference paper that you can’t eat for days works, too.