A neighbor department is being accused of trodding on the territory of "other" department. The thing is, neigbhor department has precedent and national practice on their side. Neighbor department also has a former debater/debate coach as their chair -- and right about now the other department is seeing the results of his excellent research skills. The other department is out-matched, out-witted and outplayed... and they just don't know it yet. The only question is whether or not the committe hearing the question will see the sense of neighbor department's argument.
My colleagues and I have been complaining about classroom noise for years. The problem is that students congregate in an open area that shares a wall with my primary classroom. When my students are trying to concentrate, their friends outside sound like they're inside the room. Finally I decided to stop complaining up the same tree that was ignoring me anyway... and I decided to get the students involved.
I went to the students outside the room and told them that they were in danger of losing their meeting place, but if they contacted a particular administrator, they might be able to save their hang out place.... and I gave them all of his contact information on a little handout.
I also took a stack of similar handouts to class -- and asked my students to contact him if they've been disturbed by noise coming in from the common area. The point is not to get the congregating students in trouble, but rather to get sound insulation installed on the wall... thus solving the problem.
I'm told that this administrator responds to student complaints -- so, we'll see.
1 comment:
You are an activist at the core. Power to the people!
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