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College and Free Time

May 8, 2009 | 2 comments

I’ve successfully made it through another semester. Technically, it’s not over yet, but all I have left to do is proofread a paper and email it to the prof, so I’m labeling this semester as officially “done.”

Based on my last check, I’ve fulfilled all of the requirements for my degree in history, except for a number of a few electives. 30 some odd hours of them, more specifically. If I’ve figured things up correctly, I’ve got 2 semesters left. 2 semesters – the end is in sight! Very vague and indistinct, to be sure, but I can at least see it.

Thinking about that, I wonder if I’ll have more free time once I’m done, or whether a full-time job – assuming I can find one – will eat up just as much time. I’m thinking I actually will have more free time. At least with a full-time job, I can be assured that, barring overtime, the job will use up 40 or so hours a week. With college, I’ve no idea how many weekly hours I pour in. Certainly my actual time in class is much lower than a full-time job, but there are plenty of things to do outside of class. Sometimes it feels like my days are nothing but a long spree of reading, studying, and writing. Of course, I bring a lot of this on myself, because I genuinely hate to get anything other than an A, but still – lots of stuff to do.

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Spring Break and Losing My Wisdom (Teeth)

March 12, 2009 | 6 comments

Spring break is thankfully on the horizon, a little over one week away. I need it. While I love college (seriously), a brief respite from reading schedules, paper deadlines, and other such things is always welcome. The weather has been getting increasingly nicer, and that coupled with lots of bird singing has been making me want to spend less time in the classroom and more time outside. Soon, soon.

Unfortunately, not all of my spring break plans revolve around lazing in the sun with a good book. I recently went to the dentist complaining of some sharp pain in one of my molars. The verdict? No cavities, but it’s time for my wisdom teeth to be taken out. My top wisdom teeth have been in for years now, hanging low and generally being a pain to keep clean. My bottoms are just now starting to come in, which is apparently what was making my tooth hurt. My bottoms are laying almost completely horizontal rather than vertical, so “coming in” really translates to “ramming into the rest of my teeth.” Ow, in other words.

So as to not miss any classes due to pain medication or other such issues, I’m scheduled to have them out on Monday, the 22nd – the first real day of spring break. What a way to celebrate, no?

I’m nervous about it; the dentist told me that as long as I do what they tell me to, it won’t be too bad. Of course, on the flipside of things, whenever I’ve told anyone else about getting the teeth removed, their first response is a grimace, followed by something like “I had mine out when I was X years old, it was awful.” Thanks for the encouragement, folks. ;)

My other, more enjoyable plan for spring break is to read The Third Reich at War by Evans. It’s the follow-up to The Third Reich in Power, which I thought was excellent. The Third Reich at War comes out on the 19th, but for some reason, a number of libraries in the OhioLINK system already have copies. I’ve already requested one. :)

What are your plans for the opening weeks of spring?

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Overheard in Class

October 23, 2008 | 14 comments

I was in Cultural Geography class yesterday morning, and overhead a splendid little conversation between two girls (who, incidentally, text almost constantly during class):

Girl 1: So, did you finish your response for ethics?
Girl 2: Yeah, finally. It was such a pain in the ass.
Girl 1: Yeah, I know. I don’t get why the professor wanted it typed.
Girl 2: I know. I didn’t type mine up, though. I had my mom do it.

… She had her mom do it. The girl is in her twenties, in college, and her mother is typing her work for her.

I must admit – I briefly considered tackling her, but then thought that such an act would probably be taken badly by the campus administration, particularly the security branch thereof.

Then again, I don’t know why I was surprised. These are the same girls who never take notes, instead opting to text in class, and then act shocked when they get Cs and Ds on their exams. Oh really? I never would have imagined such a thing would happen.

Me? Bitter? No, not at all.

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The Flood of Freshmen

September 1, 2008 | No comments

This past week was the first week of fall semester at university, and it proved to be interesting. Apparently, the school received more new freshmen this semester than they ever have in the past – over 1000, I believe. This led to there being lots of freshmen in the library, with lots of questions. Most of the questions were fairly mundane – “how do I log onto the computers”, “where’s this classroom”, etc. – but there were also a few gems.

One was from a guy who apparently thinks that those of us at the reference desk are omniscient. He walked up to me and said, “Hey man, I need the book for my English class.” I looked at him and waited for some elaboration, such as what class he was in, or perhaps even the title of the book. He just stared at me. “Can you get that for me?” he asks. “Well, I need to know the title of the book to look for it. Do you have that?” “Well, um.. no, hang on. It’s for class.. uh, the intro English class, yeah.” “I’m sorry, we don’t keep a list of all of the textbooks that professors use.” More staring. “So you can’t get me the book?” “Not without the title, no.”

At this point he sighed, and started digging through his backpack. A few moments later, out came a crumpled piece of paper – success! It was a syllabus. He reeled off the course title and course number to me. I repeated the fact that we don’t keep a list of textbooks in use for each class. More staring… “Um, it says on here, something about it.. he said it was supposed to be like.. on hold.. or something.” “Ohh, okay. You mean it’s supposed to be on reserve?” “Yeah, that’s it. How do I get it?” “Come over here to circulation with me, they can get it for you.”

I walked him over and asked him who the professor was. After a bit more staring, he gave it to me, which I then passed along to the circulation person. They got the book off the shelf for him, and informed him that it could only be used in the library. At that point, he said he didn’t want it, and left. Sigh…

The second fellow wasn’t “difficult”, just humorous. He needed some help finding a book on the shelf, which I was glad to help him with. He acted, however, like I was doing him a wonderful favor – he kept thanking me over and over. And then he thanked me some more, and apologized for being such a bother. I told him to relax, that it wasn’t a big deal at all – most people don’t understand the LC system when they first come to the school, because they’re used to the Dewey decimal system. I also told him that it was my job, after all, to help him. He just kept saying he was sorry, and thanking me.

As we were walking back upstairs, he said, “So, you’re a, um, um.. you’re a… senior?” The way he said “senior” made it sound as if he was addressing some ancient god from Rome or something. I laughed and told him I was a junior. He said “Oh, okay, well thank you again, so much!” – and then he shook my hand. He shook my hand for helping him find a book. It was really quite peculiar, but it made me smile nonetheless. The guy certainly needed to relax a bit, and to stop treating upper classmen like gods, but it made me happy that he was genuinely appreciative of my help. Would you believe that we get a lot of people that ask for help, and then show no appreciation whatsoever? ;) Shocking, I know…

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How Should Academic Dishonesty Be Dealt With?

June 15, 2008 | 4 comments

Last week, I spoke to one of my history professors who I’ve had for many classes. He was telling me about how in the class I had with him last semester, four people turned in plagiarized papers of the blatant sort – they went online, copied, and pasted.

In this professor’s syllabus, he outlines very clearly how he deals with plagiarism: you flunk the course. He attempted to flunk all four of them them, but the students got around it by simply dropping the course, as the withdrawal date had not gone by yet. He went to the dean, hoping to get some support on keeping their grades as Fs; however, the dean ended up backing the students. They were allowed to drop the course and simply get withdrawals on their audits, rather than the Fs. His line of argument was that they were still being punished, as they had to pay for the course anyway, and they’d have to retake the course.

I think such an argument is bogus. Yeah, they had to pay for the course anyway, but shouldn’t there be more punishment than that? Aren’t universities supposed to represent a bit of integrity? Allowing them to drop the course and simply get a “withdrawed” on their degree audit allows them to more or less erase the fact that they tried to cheat. Having an F on their audit wouldn’t broadcast the fact that they tried to cheat, I realize, but at least it would affect their GPA, which in turn might have effects down the road if they wanted to go to graduate school.

How do you all think academic dishonesty should be dealt with? Is receiving an F for the entire course too drastic? Perhaps an F on the assignment would be more suitable, but I think plagiarism (especially of the deliberate sort as described above) is a serious offense, and should be dealt with with a serious response. Admittedly, though, I’m biased – I work my butt off to do well in my classes, and it drives me up the wall to think that people are getting similar grades simply by cheating.

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