academic

When I was an undergrad in the 90s, one of my professors told us about a time he caught some grief from the administration for swearing, and proudly recounted how he blew them off. He repeated the swear word in question in the course of telling his story.

@Younes How well are your students learning, based on your evaluation of their homeworks, exams, or other written work? Has this gotten better or worse over the last four years?

I fear that it won't be enough to slow down climate change; we will have to figure out some way to reverse it and undo the damage. Which means scientific research, and a PhD is training in how to be a scientific researcher. In your shoes, I might keep my eye on long-term goals of making a positive difference, and think about what you can do to get there. Very best wishes

@Buffy What rules are you arguing are immoral here?

@IanSudbery Really? You are openly admitting that you would cheat on an exam?

@CaptainEmacs I disagree. My undergraduate institution had a strong honor code, where pledged three-hour take home exams were common. We all got the message that we were being trusted, and in return were expected to behave honestly and police ourselves. A very positive message in my view, and I don't believe cheating was common. Moreover, 3 hours is an appropriate amount of time for a STEM exam, and that's usually impractical to proctor. If trust breaks down, and cheating becomes widespread, then you can't hold on to this system -- but it's great if you can keep it.

@laputalanglang I would recommend you only act trollish with people who are your friends, and whom you know will understand and appreciate your sense of humor. With others, and especially with university administrators, I recommend a more polite and serious tone.

@RaghuParthasarathy I certainly agree. But which people? How do I find out? This would be my first time trying to push for significant changes outside my academic department, or "playing politics", and I'm looking for advice on how to do that.

@user111388 My colleagues regularly complain about problems with the bookstore. As for my dean, I don't know, but to be blunt he doesn't seem to care much about faculty concerns in general.

@user111388 I don't know what the agreement says. Once I asked to read it and had my request refused. I can, and usually do, suggest to my students that they buy elsewhere -- but this is one section of a large calculus course, which uses a "custom edition" of the book, which is bundled with software that the students need. So in this case buying elsewhere is somewhat complicated.

Your employer is also telling its math department that it can't use MathJobs for hiring, and that applicants and rec letter writers instead have to use a stupid homegrown website.

At my university (a public university in the US), the choice to register as a special needs student lies entirely with the student, and not with the parents. Indeed, their explicit policy is to not share information with parents except in emergency situations.

@darijgrinberg:OP might be able to check now if any students have enrolled in more than one of the classes. If yes, that's a smoking gun; if no, then OP's suspicions on this matter are either incorrect or irrelevant.

@darijgrinberg: OP was handed a pre-written syllabus, which specifies that the course is not to require any actual academic work at all. Sounds like a smoking gun to me.

If these exist at your university, the ombdusperson and the faculty senate chair might be useful people to talk to.