Friday 27 April 2012

Spot the logic.... or not...

I posted before about  one of the universities that I teach at cutting the semester by two weeks to save power.  Very shortsighted if education is supposed to lead to a smarter country.  Bad planning and passing the buck, but at least from a bean counter's point of view logical.

At a different university (which incidently hasn't increased my pitiful pay despite having published a book and got a masters  but I digress)  I was recently passed an academic calendar for the year.

Evidently there is no correlation between education and intelligence.  I already knew that, but the calendar is defining proof.

The university powers that be are closing the university for two weeks ---- in the MIDDLE of the semester to save power.  A week at the end of June and a week at the beginning of July.  It's not even hot then. They aren't  cutting classes when the aircon will be being used the most....   I cannot find the logic.... and I've looked, hard. And asking why never yields sensible answers .... this was the same university that scolded me for throwing rubbish in the rubbish bin.

Public holidays for the year have been cancelled ... thanks a lot... and teachers will work on public holidays in lieu so that classes aren't lost.

Thankfully I teach at this uni once a week only, and it will be the first to be dumped given the chance.

4 comments:

Rurousha said...

Huh? So they close June/July and again in August? However, no public holid ...

I'm confused.

Then again, that is to be expected, since I'm but a humble pedagogue and not a bureaucrat.

How many different universities on your list?

Cecilia said...

I teach at three unis, all good in their field but only one them has English on their radar.

The uni will close the last week of June and the first week of July and then re-open until the end of July.

They are shut in August and most of Sept.

And to top it off, if they cancel a class, they don't have to pay you for it.... GRRRRRRR....

Rurousha said...

I'm still confused. (It might be my default mode.) If the university is closed, does that mean everybody goes home, i.e. admin staff too? Ditto full-time academic staff? Yikes.

It's SO unfair when THEY cancel a class but YOU don't get paid. Lekker snotklap, that's what they need!!!

Cecilia said...

Yes, everyone goes home AFAIK.
I got a note yesterday saying that on account of the freshman camp, classes would be cancelled....no pay for part time teachers for cancelled classes.
(No refund for students either I assume...)

I am not quite sure what the point of signing a contract is. It really makes me want to dai lekker snotklap the people making the decisions - obviously who are full time and whose salaries are not affected and who just get an extra day to catch up on paper work or take long lunches or go to soaplands ... sigh...
I'm not bitter really... I just am appalled by the base lack of any sense of justice.