You’re the United Nations!
Most people think you’re ineffective, but you are trying to
completely save the world from itself, so there’s always going to be a long
way to go. You’re always the one trying to get friends to talk to each
other, enemies to talk to each other, anyone who can to just talk instead of
beating each other about the head and torso. Sometimes it works and sometimes
it doesn’t, and you get very schizophrenic as a result. But your heart
is in the right place, and sometimes also in New York.
Take the Country Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid
Does this surprize anyone? Duh…
Well, I have had a lot of kind words fgrom folks about my recent decision (much love Alex, Talia, and Sheila) and I wanted to go into more details about what’s going on and how this happened.
My official position (according to my advisro and the dept) is I am in the process of taking “time off”. That is what I am telling most people, but some know the real reason: I was burnt out by my advisor. She just got to me, wore me down to the point that I didn’t care. Apparently I was not the only one with issues. On a somewhat ironic note, her retension hearing is this fall, and gues who was in charge of gathering student input on her. Here is some comments from people that were NOT advised by her. Some were good:
“She is a very responsible person and tries to give every student an emphasis according to the main interest of the student. Her classes are really organized and every topic is covered by the handouts she fixed for every class.”
“[She] is organized and approachable.”
“[She] is an excellent professor and certainly should be retained. She is also an excellent industry contact and has helped keep several companies interviewing on campus. She gives the U more exposure with things such as joint field trips with Chevron and Stanford.”
“She is really good teacher and always tries to give a better class.”
Other comments… not so much:
“I have serious reservations about [her] committment to education of graduate and undergraduate students. Her approach with her graduate students takes a “research first” approach characteristic of a young faculty member worried about tenure review, yet she does not invest similar time into advising and educating her grad students to make them better researchers. I hope she can evolve into her own academically, but particularly in her views toward education and graduate student advising, I don’t like what I’ve seen.”
“She is extreamly moody! I don’t always feel I am learning anything new in her class (over what was covered in [another] sed. strat. class). She doesn’t feel approachable and can make students feel uncomfortable. She isn’t concerned for her students (unless it is something that makes her look good or bad to the department). It feels like students are secondary to her committies and research.”
“I don’t know, but there can definately be real improvement in her dealings with students (I’m sure there’s better out there).”
” I was hoping to leave the class with some experience with the literature and a working understanding for how different researchers approach basin analysis. I was disappointed to say the least. My time would have been better spent reading on my own.”
“I’ve found her to be following her advisor’s syllabus too closely, not flexibly engaging the class, and frankly just doling out information…..clearly she in knowledgeable, but her
effort in the class room is at the level of junior college instruction. Never are ideas entertained, perspectives considered, problems engaged……her advisor’s mantra is repeated, repeated,
repeated. “
“The students were not engaged at all. Few questions were asked. There was little discussion. Why not raise the standard, go into depth with the information and require these graduate students to meet a higher bar? Graduate students should be challenged. We’re at the point where we can access the information for ourselves if we have a reason to use it. [She] did not view the graduate students in the class as having those capabilities and consequently she did everyone in the class a disservice.”
This does not include my comments, which were less than possitive.
“As her student, I feel that she has very high expectations but is unwilling to help you achieve these goals. She extremely hands-off, but at the same time, wants things done her way and will be upset when they are not. She makes enemies, and holds grudges. There is a constant uncomfortable feeling with her, because of her obvious disappointment and my lack to read her mind and do things her way. I can not remember once receiving positive reenforcement, but can remember several times her saying something along the lines of “improve or you will fail out of the program,” with no guidelines or assistance regarding how this improvement should be accomplished. She needs to be more personable; at times, she can be so standoffish that I don’t even want to see her in the hall. She has made it clear that she not only does not like me as a student, but also as a person, and this has truly hindered my educational experience.”
The other foot has still not dropped about this turn of events, so it may get ugly (once she knows what people said about her). I’m not looking forward to it.
Now, what I will be doing is I will be a half geo student in the Spring. I will take a few classes (including my “advisor’s” Seismic/Sequence Strat class. I will also be taking a few educations classes. My new goal is to teach 8th-9th grade Earth Science classes. There is a great 1 year M.A. program in teaching here at U of Utah that I will apply for. I still may decide to go to teaching ASAP and get an emergency credential, but I’d rather get the degree first, if possible.
I have always wanted to teach, I feel it’s my best skill, and I may actually help/inspire people. These are the reasons this is so appealing to me. Also, I can teach anywhere I want, I’ll get good benifits, and I’ll have months off while you all slave away. I will eventually tell my advisor that I will not come back to work with her, but for now, I will be in limbo. There is always a chance I’ll finish my PhD somewhere/sometime, but I’m not banking on it.
On to brighter pastures…
Aly and I had a fun-filled weekend, with lost of much-needed unproductivity. On Thursday night, we went to Logan, UT to see the amazing all-vocal group Rockapella, famous from their role on “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” and their Foldgers commercials. They were AMAZING!!! I would highly recommened seeing them in concert if you have the chance. They have great new material, but they do plenty of classics like My Girl, Up On The Roof, Under the Boardwalk, Dance with Me, Love Poition #9, etc. The lead tenor is probably the best voice you’ll every hear. The bass is just rediculous… he has the range of a basson in his chest voice, but can match Whitney Houston on “I Will Always Love You” with his head voice. I’d sell my soul in a heartbeat to sing like him. They also have an amazing vocal percusionist, who did an astonishing 5 minute “drum” solo with his mouth.
From there, we rushed to Lava Hot Springs, ID. After driving in my first snow of the season, we got there at 11:45 PM. It was too late to swim, but in the morning, we soaked and loved it. From there we headed to Pocatello, ID to see Aly’s older bro Adam. He’s the last of the family I had to meet, and now I know them all! We got along great. It was great talking video games, drugs, Chinese candy, techno, cats, global weather conspiracies, and old family stories. We drove home that night back to the SLC, ending our mini-mini-vacation.
On saturday, we went to the Ute’s 43-13 crushing of Wyoming (dulls the pain slightly from UCLA’s embarrassing loss). At the game were friends Aaron, Katrina, Steph, and Garret, and Aly’s dad, brother Andrew, and sister Liz. After that, we watched I heart Huchabee’s with Andrew, Liz, brother Ian, and Aly’s mom. Sunday was for working and will be striken from the record.
It was a fun weekend… hope the next is just as fun.
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