Teaching -- last minute Nelly

At my CC the chairs are kind of like administrivia assistants to the deans. Their only real task is to organize stuff and transmit information. Our current chair has a bad habit of doing it poorly as often as she has done it well.

A case in point...

A while back, while at a debate tournament, I get a flurry of e-mails about appointments with the architects for our building. They are planning a remodel and need our input. We are instructed to make appointments to see them, by department, ASAP. We are not told why or how to prepare for this meeting. When we get there, they ask us some basic shit like "where is your office" and "where do you teach" and 'can you get from your office to your classroom" and "how many students do you have in your classes". ALL of this info is on BNCC's website -- ALL of it. They didn't need us for that -- I did get to suggest a debate squad room, but that is the sum total of the new information they got from my department. We spent 20 minutes as a group -- when it is nearly impossible to schedule us at the same time -- and that time was wasted.

Come to find out, department chair had the info on the meetings.. nature, purpose etc -- and neglected to share.

Now today, I get the following e-mail...
"Don't forget to turn in your Spring 2007 schedule by today".. HUH?????????????

I've been out of town for less than a week. I've been planning this trip for a couple of months. It is not news to her, my senior person in the discipline nor my dean --- SO -- why did none of them mention the schedule discussions that would go on while I was gone? My guess is that chair had her head up her ass again.

This is a huge concern to me, simply because I need a particular schedule to travel with debate. I have to be able to be off campus from Thursday afternoon until late Monday afternoon. Thus, I can teach in about 5 total time slots -- M/W 2:00-3:15 & 4:00-5:15 and T/Th starting at 7:45, 9:30 and 11:00. Debate is M/W nights. If this gets out of whack, then Spring 2007 debate travel requires me to cancel classes -- which is an unpopular option all around.

Dammmm this woman really irks me. I don't often say a colleague isn't bright, but she isn't -- at all. She's a leftover from the tech school faculty and has been around forever. She's a nice woman, but dumber than a box of rocks.

I'm sure the wonder dean will take care of me, but it is stupid that I have to resort to that option because they can't figure stuff like this out.