RCC is Stupid - Yes, the entire school...
OMG! This is a truly rant-a-litious blog coming your way today. *Warning* In addition to being purely pissed off ranting, it is quite a long blog. I am being driven mad by my employer RCC (Random Community College). Apparently, in this age of technology and communications... they have NONE! Aaargh.
So this is how it all played out yesterday...
I was preparing for class and that means that I need to upload some information onto the class website. I also had to write up this short summary of the grades of my students for the dept. chair. They are trying to revamp the class and need data about the students' and his or her relative amount of experience in chemistry prior to class. Well, I had them fill out this form at the beginning of class that asked them how prepared they were - not whether or not they had taken chemistry. And I had them do it online. So I had to open all of those files and read his or her response and mark it on the grade sheet (guessing sometimes as to which column they would fall - prior chem class or not). Sigh. Of course, the website was slow about moving between pages. Finally finished and sent the summary off. Also dropped a quick note to the "lead" instructor for the course asking where I was teaching lab that night because I still hadn't been given that information. Yes... that's right, I didn't know where I was teaching lab. And ?why? you might ask. Well, because RCC has decided that the best time to renovate the science building is in the middle of the fucking term!! ID-DI-OTS! Yes, with two Ds. You really need to draw out the word for it to mean all it should.
Originally, when I talked with the guys (dept. chair & lead instructor) two weeks ago, I was going to be teaching lab in the building where I give lecture - just a different room than the one we had been in previously. Yesterday, I get a response e-mail at 3:30 PM. Now, remember, I have an hour long commute, have office hours at 5:30, and teach at 6:30. So, yeah, thanks for the timely e-mail asshole. This leaves me a little less than an hour to check out the lab space if I leave immediately. Not a big deal really. Well, shouldn't be. I’m ready to go down, I have read the lab, and feel like I have a handle on the material and the experiment they will be doing. Ah yeah. That was until I got this 3:30 e-mail.
He fucking changed the order of the labs, AGAIN! Earlier in the semester (read - the last two weeks) he switched labs because of the renovation. I, however, noticed that the change would need to be made and asked about it. So I was prepared and also had time to let the students know of the change. Um, not so in this case. The lab I read and the one all of my students (should have) read isn't the one we are doing tonight. Oh, and my key should open the lab in the new building. Why do I doubt this... sigh. Okay, off to school. I have to familiarize myself with a new (lengthy) lab experiment and lab space in addition to getting the take-home exam copied.
Oh, and did I mention, I don't know where the new building is.
I get there, get the exams copied, and go to check out the new building and room. Oh, whaddya know. My fucking key doesn't work! Aaargh. I call the lead and tell him the problem. Oh, just go get security to open it for you. Okay, back across campus to the security office. No one is there. Have the copy lady page them for me. Meet the security officer at the lab. She has to try four keys before one works. Aaah, the quality at this joint just blows the mind. Anyway... I tell the security woman that I will need someone to let me in again when we actually have class here at 8pm. She says she will leave a note for the next shift. Great.
By this time, I have just given up and cancelled my office hours. I prep lab. No problem. Go to class. Class is fine. Off to lab. Get there right at 8pm. Oh, whaddya know... FUCKING LOCKED. I call security. Oh whadday know... FUCKING MESSAGE MACHINE. I go over to the security office. Oh whadday know... NO ONE FUCKING THERE. I call the lead. He ends up coming in and unlocking the door. 8:25pm. I end up cutting over half the lab because it turns out we can't do it in this room anyway.
Oh, and this lab is like a warehouse. There are no sinks, no hoods, no burners, no paper towels, no emergency washes. This is just a lawsuit waiting to happen. What a joke. We are disposing of all of the trash into a bucket and dumping everything into the dumpster after class. Very sketch. Yeah, and did I mention, no burners. So the entire second half of the lab that I worried about reading and understanding and working out the calculations so I was prepared... a big ugly WASTE! He couldn't mention that in the e-mail?? This is a little sidenote - the ventilation system is this: Open the door to the hall on the west side of the room, and open the garage door on the east side of the room. Yeah. Garage door. Told ya it was a warehouse.
So, I find myself teaching biochem for the last three weeks (which I hate and wasn't looking forward to), working in a lab that isn't a lab that's also in a different building so I have to end class early even though we are behind in the material, there is no printer for me to make quick copies or overheads (removed for renovations) and no mailroom (dismantled for a few weeks during the office move), and the lead changing the fucking experiments on me without letting me know. Oh, and here's the best part... I asked why he switched these experiments... because - I couldn't even believe this - because... this lab was easier to set up!!
In summary:
-- The business affairs (ie: mail) aren't available
-- The supplies are not working - the markers for the dry erase board are so bad that I had a student buy me new ones to use, the printer has disappeared because they don't have electicity to the trailers yet, and the mailroom supply cabinets have been emptied
-- The facilities are primitive at best
-- Lab experiments get switched at random from the syllabus schedule without warning
-- Security is incompetent
-- I get paid a pittance
God help me... I'm going to have a brain aneurism!
So this is how it all played out yesterday...
I was preparing for class and that means that I need to upload some information onto the class website. I also had to write up this short summary of the grades of my students for the dept. chair. They are trying to revamp the class and need data about the students' and his or her relative amount of experience in chemistry prior to class. Well, I had them fill out this form at the beginning of class that asked them how prepared they were - not whether or not they had taken chemistry. And I had them do it online. So I had to open all of those files and read his or her response and mark it on the grade sheet (guessing sometimes as to which column they would fall - prior chem class or not). Sigh. Of course, the website was slow about moving between pages. Finally finished and sent the summary off. Also dropped a quick note to the "lead" instructor for the course asking where I was teaching lab that night because I still hadn't been given that information. Yes... that's right, I didn't know where I was teaching lab. And ?why? you might ask. Well, because RCC has decided that the best time to renovate the science building is in the middle of the fucking term!! ID-DI-OTS! Yes, with two Ds. You really need to draw out the word for it to mean all it should.
Originally, when I talked with the guys (dept. chair & lead instructor) two weeks ago, I was going to be teaching lab in the building where I give lecture - just a different room than the one we had been in previously. Yesterday, I get a response e-mail at 3:30 PM. Now, remember, I have an hour long commute, have office hours at 5:30, and teach at 6:30. So, yeah, thanks for the timely e-mail asshole. This leaves me a little less than an hour to check out the lab space if I leave immediately. Not a big deal really. Well, shouldn't be. I’m ready to go down, I have read the lab, and feel like I have a handle on the material and the experiment they will be doing. Ah yeah. That was until I got this 3:30 e-mail.
He fucking changed the order of the labs, AGAIN! Earlier in the semester (read - the last two weeks) he switched labs because of the renovation. I, however, noticed that the change would need to be made and asked about it. So I was prepared and also had time to let the students know of the change. Um, not so in this case. The lab I read and the one all of my students (should have) read isn't the one we are doing tonight. Oh, and my key should open the lab in the new building. Why do I doubt this... sigh. Okay, off to school. I have to familiarize myself with a new (lengthy) lab experiment and lab space in addition to getting the take-home exam copied.
Oh, and did I mention, I don't know where the new building is.
I get there, get the exams copied, and go to check out the new building and room. Oh, whaddya know. My fucking key doesn't work! Aaargh. I call the lead and tell him the problem. Oh, just go get security to open it for you. Okay, back across campus to the security office. No one is there. Have the copy lady page them for me. Meet the security officer at the lab. She has to try four keys before one works. Aaah, the quality at this joint just blows the mind. Anyway... I tell the security woman that I will need someone to let me in again when we actually have class here at 8pm. She says she will leave a note for the next shift. Great.
By this time, I have just given up and cancelled my office hours. I prep lab. No problem. Go to class. Class is fine. Off to lab. Get there right at 8pm. Oh, whaddya know... FUCKING LOCKED. I call security. Oh whadday know... FUCKING MESSAGE MACHINE. I go over to the security office. Oh whadday know... NO ONE FUCKING THERE. I call the lead. He ends up coming in and unlocking the door. 8:25pm. I end up cutting over half the lab because it turns out we can't do it in this room anyway.
Oh, and this lab is like a warehouse. There are no sinks, no hoods, no burners, no paper towels, no emergency washes. This is just a lawsuit waiting to happen. What a joke. We are disposing of all of the trash into a bucket and dumping everything into the dumpster after class. Very sketch. Yeah, and did I mention, no burners. So the entire second half of the lab that I worried about reading and understanding and working out the calculations so I was prepared... a big ugly WASTE! He couldn't mention that in the e-mail?? This is a little sidenote - the ventilation system is this: Open the door to the hall on the west side of the room, and open the garage door on the east side of the room. Yeah. Garage door. Told ya it was a warehouse.
So, I find myself teaching biochem for the last three weeks (which I hate and wasn't looking forward to), working in a lab that isn't a lab that's also in a different building so I have to end class early even though we are behind in the material, there is no printer for me to make quick copies or overheads (removed for renovations) and no mailroom (dismantled for a few weeks during the office move), and the lead changing the fucking experiments on me without letting me know. Oh, and here's the best part... I asked why he switched these experiments... because - I couldn't even believe this - because... this lab was easier to set up!!
In summary:
-- The business affairs (ie: mail) aren't available
-- The supplies are not working - the markers for the dry erase board are so bad that I had a student buy me new ones to use, the printer has disappeared because they don't have electicity to the trailers yet, and the mailroom supply cabinets have been emptied
-- The facilities are primitive at best
-- Lab experiments get switched at random from the syllabus schedule without warning
-- Security is incompetent
-- I get paid a pittance
God help me... I'm going to have a brain aneurism!
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