Thursday, January 21, 2010

collegiality schmollegiality

I love how I offered (and followed thru) on posting links for other overseas programs on my homepage and spreading info far and wide in my classes and via the student listserv and yet when I ask those other program directors if I can come speak briefly about my program...

One person says, "oh yeah, come anytime," so I suggest a specific time and she again assures me it's fine. I arrive and she's in the middle of an activity, which is fine except that I'm supposed to speak the last five minutes of class. Instead her activity lasts until the end of class and then she directs all the students to sit still and listen to me (of course they proceed getting their backpacks together, etc., and the amount of brain power engaged in what I was telling them probably hovered around 15%, if that).

Another, historically not only unhelpful but actually anti-helpful on a few occasions so why am I surprised, ignores my email for 5 days. When I ask again he writes back pretty much ignoring my query and says instead, "Just leave brochures in my box and I'll distribute them in my classes." {beat} Oh really? And I can just trust that you will get the students excited about going overseas and that you will tell them all the things I would have told them real quick, etc.

I think the stress of being treated like an afterthought by my colleagues might come back and distract me when I overhaul my homepage after returning from Europe this summer (assuming I have enough students for the program to fly that is). Gee, I hope I don't forget to link their programs on the new version of the website.

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