is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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Come on!
I�ve been undergoing a lot of frustration with academia on many different fronts lately, but most of the incidences I can�t really blog about because it�s all hush-hush or politically problematic. But here�s a funny little low-grade irritation that went on for a few months. I was scheduled to chair and comment on a panel at a conference. That means that I get all the papers from the participants, read them, and comment on them briefly after the participants have given presentations. Not a big deal, really. It is usually not a very labor intensive thing, and can even be fun. But this group, oy. One of them didn�t send me a paper, and also didn�t answer any of my emails reminding her. Until she did, and informed me that she wouldn�t be able to get me anything until a couple of days before the conference. I wrote back to tell her that a week in advance meant that I really would have time to read her paper and comment on it, and any later than that I�d have to see what I could do. She said OK. And then a week or so later she sent me a really really long email explaining in painstaking detail all the work she is currently doing that is keeping her from sending me the paper. Come on! A simple �I�m sorry, I can�t get it to you� would suffice, and be much less selfish than making me wade through five paragraphs about what it is like to be an academic person with a lot of different responsibilities. I KNOW. However, she was able to send me a few paragraphs of description of her project a couple of days before the conference, so I was able to work that into my comments. I didn�t mind doing it, even though I had my own deadlines to deal with. Then she wrote to me the very morning of the panel to say she wouldn�t make it. After. All. That. The whole universe seems to be conspiring of late to let me know that my time and effort mean nothing. But I crossed out the mentions I made of her work in my comments and went forth.
Then there�s the other guy. He is a totally different version of Too Much Information. First he writes to me two months ahead of time to ask if he can send his paper to me then instead of on the deadline I suggested a couple of weeks before the conference. Well, I guess that is polite, but really, a deadline a deadline, not a submission date. You can always send a paper in early. So I wrote back to tell him that of course he could send it in early. He did. Then he wrote a day or two later to ask if I would be circulating the paper to everyone in the panel. My original email had everyone cc�d on it and had asked the participants to circulate their papers. So why would he write to me asking me to do one more thing when he could just as easily spend that time just sending off the paper? I wrote back and suggested he circulate his paper. He did so. Then a couple of weeks later he wrote to ask whether his paper had been circulated. I reminded him that he had circulated it himself. Then he wrote to me a week before the conference to ask what room our panel would be in. I told him that the downloadable program on the conference website currently said room X. Then he wrote to me when the conference started to say that the new conference program said room Y instead of room X, and which room should he go to. I wrote back and told him we should probably trust the PRINTED PROGRAM over the early draft program. Come on!
The third person on the panel was just fine. Except that she sent me a paper that was 62 pages long. For a 15 minute presentation. I wrote back and asked her to specify which part of her paper she would focus on at the conference so I could tailor my comments to it (not to mention that there is No Way In Hell that I am going to read a 62-page paper for what ends up being a 5 or 10 minute commentary on three papers). She wrote back to say she wasn�t sure. Come on!
People, just think a little bit, OK? A great deal of selfish behavior is committed innocently, sure. But that doesn�t render you innocent of being selfish.
In other news, someone whom I work with, but whom I�ve never met because he has never come to any meetings since I began working there (Two. Years.), recently sent a very irate letter to one of the boss-types at my college, cc-ing everyone involved, mad that he had not been included in a particular meeting. But how is a person to know that you want to go to a meeting when in the last two years you have never attended a single meeting? From what I understand, the reasons this person has for not attending meetings are totally valid. But come on! In what world could such a person not see that this was an understandable oversight? And then work it out with colleagues instead of going straight to the top? I ask you. In this case there may be history of which I am not aware, so all I can say is how the thing seems to me. It seems wrong.
The other stories, I wish I could tell you, but I cannot.
11:42 a.m. - April 12, 2009
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