Thoughts and Interesting Stories---Jeff Clark

The commander-in-chief today told all military commanders to obey his orders to attack American citizens he doesn't like or to quit. There is a third option, of course, the only honorable one. Not to obey an illegal order nor abandon your subordinates by quitting, but to resist.

Our university like many others offers programming for families who visit about a month into the Fall term. There are events intended to give families a feel for what the university provides; part of that has always included a time-slot on Saturday morning to meet with the faculty. There are two ways these meetings can go. During my first decade or so family members pressed for details about their student's class attendance, participation, grades, etc. At some point the university put its foot down (possibly before federal privacy laws required it) and said that those kinds of conversations were off-limits. It became easier to refuse those questions with the university making it policy and explaining it in opening ceremonies for the families. The other way, the fun way, is for us to give some sense of our classes to the families. I like what I teach and I like teaching it, so the word fun is appropriate. After all these decades I don't get tongue-tied and can go on at length ab...

Exams are stressful for students. This plays out in all kinds of ways. Compassionate proctors try to help rather than ridicule. I proctor my own exams as do most of my colleagues except for instances of illness, family emergencies, etc. I have a lot of students come up to ask questions during the exams. Occasionally an exam question really is worded poorly, although as I grow in experience this happens less frequently. Most often my answers fall into two categories: repeating something that I have said when handing out the exams (thus missing latecomers) or requests to help answer a question.  In both cases it is my responsibility to treat the question seriously and with respect, even if, as in the latter case, my answer is "I'm sorry but I can't answer that right now." Many years ago a number of my colleagues and I attended a talk at a conference wherein the speaker addressed the fact that most students by the time they reach us in university classes have been humili...

My university announced plans earlier this week to merge with another university in a different part of our state. I've been there, it's nice although less than half as big as we are. There are tons of issues to work out before it is approved but our community is trying to take in what our trustees worked on in secret over the summer. As with most colleges and universities we've seen for a while the demographics coming----the continual increase in students of age to go to university is finally backing off. Coming after the damage that the COVID pandemic did, a lot of schools are hurting financially. We are in a good position:  no unnecessary hiring, budgets cut, but no layoffs. The school we are merging with took a bad hit from the pandemic, and are trustees feel expanding into this part of the state and pooling our risk (both of us are heavily dependent on tuition) will keep us sound going into the next century. Right now all of the discussion has been about finances, lega...

Charlie Kirk made a career of bigotry and encouraging the targeting of people that he didn't like. He had many followers and in that sense he was very successful. He was assassinated this past week in the sense that he was killed (apparently) because the shooter thought that his views weren't extreme enough. I don't care to add much to the vast amount of reactions to this killing other than two points, one logistical and one deep from my heart. First: early news about assassinations is almost always wrong. Period. That is how it works. Consumers of information want that information immediately and many people who don't care about the truth are willing to make up stories that they think will satisfy that hunger, for (sick) fun and profit. If you care about the truth it is a right and moral act to refuse to consume inaccurate information about such events but to wait until there has been time for law enforcement and journalists to uncover the truth. Nothing, repeat, nothi...

As a teacher a large part of my job involves behavior modification, rewarding useful study habits and not rewarding useless ones. We don't talk about it much but I am aware how much I try to modify the behavior of my colleagues and superiors, and how they try to do the same with me. This is not evil; it is how we advance our priorities.  In academia we (truly or otherwise) tell ourselves that we achieve this through making arguments with merit based on research. We are also part of an organization with superiors and occasionally subordinates, where we attempt to modify behavior, nominally in support of the institution's mission. We are human and all fall short of the ideal. I am often wrong but having nothing else to work with I base my goals on my sense of what's right in attempting to modify the behavior of others. Every now and then I run into a colleague who does not think in these terms. They tend to be less successful. I think the key is to face it head on as part of ...

I have found it useful to act as if I believe what I am being told by people who are part of my life. I don't extend this to sales people, politicians, etc.; I am referring to folk who I will interact with over time and whose behavior I am capable of modifying. I do not always believe what I am being told by this group of people. That sounds cynical and I find cynicism to be incredibly lazy as an approach to life so I hope that my judgment is more than automatic rejection. I know that my memory of what I have said and done often improves with age as a fine wine or cheese does. Perceptions, particularly of one's own actions, are very doubtfully completely accurate in the aggregate. I aim to score in the high 90's in my life but I'm not the one who can do the grading. Sometimes there is evidence of intentional dishonesty. I catch students cheating from time to time, and denials fail in the face of clear evidence.  In every other context in my life strong evidence of inten...