Today was a landmark day at the gym for me because it marks a milestone in my renewed interest in working out. My workout this afternoon marked six days in a row that I’ve gone to the gym. Sure, it’s no big thing and there are many people reading this who go to the gym religiously everyday and that’s awesome. However, I went back through my Google Calendar and it seems that the last time that I worked out for even five days in a row was May 2007 (and only two of those days were actually spent at a gym). Today I beat my May 2007 numbers.
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Posts Tagged ‘Full Time’
Unnecessary Complications: Ridiculous Student Excuses
Sunday, December 7th, 2008So this is an interesting entry to write and I think you’ll understand why after a few lines (read on). Being an adjunct professor at the local college puts me in a weird situation where I am now the person standing in the front of the classroom. It’s awkward at first, but you get over it in a matter of minutes. In fact, I find that I actually love teaching and if the pay was respectable (it is not), I would pursue it full-time. For some reason I don’t think that it’s logical to pursue a doctorate at this time so I can enter a profession what would require me to take a major pay reduction.
Not a smart move, right?
Anyway, now that I’m the guy in the front of the room I have a much greater appreciation for what professors have to go through. As the title of this entry suggests, I now have an appreciation for some really ridiculous student excuses when it comes to handing in their work on time. Some background information: my students are made aware that an 8 – 10 page paper is due on November 26. And since we don’t have class on that date, I even told the students that since November 26 ends at 11:59pm, they have the entire day to send me the e-mail with their paper attached. What a nice guy!
My students are also made aware that every day the paper is late, the student loses 10 points from their grade (some professors say that you lose a letter grade for each day that a paper is late, but I prefer to use points because it gives the students more time to send in the paper and still earn some credit). All of this is spelled out in the syllabus as is required by the university. So what can you expect between 11:30pm and 11:59pm on November 26? That’s right – tons of e-mails from the students. And I’m fine with that! It’s part of the deal – I get it and I understand completely.
But what I do not understand is when students hand in a paper 5 days late and expect to not lose 50 points from the paper’s final grade. I repeat in every class that if the paper is late, you lose points. Yet when points are lost, students are confused…which, in turn, confuses me. And what really gets me are the students who give me ridiculous excuses as to why the papers are late. The most ridiculous excuse that I get these days is, “I sent my paper by e-mail – I KNOW I did! But I don’t see it in my sent folder, so here it is again. Please do not mark it as late.”
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!
Riiiiiiiiiiiight! And I’m the Easter Bunny! What’s great about these students is that they send you a Microsoft Word document that actually tells you when the document was created. In other words, I can go in to an area of Word and have it tell me that the document was created on November 30. This is the same document that was due four days earlier!
I felt compelled to write this entry because when I was an undergraduate I never handed in anything late. And if I had a problem getting something in on time, it was a real situation and I was sure to get the item in on time by any means necessary. Who spends all of that money to go to college and then doesn’t actually hand in a damn 8 to 10 page paper on time – especially when you have three months to write it?!?
It’s amazing, really.
The NJ Province Scholarship Established
Wednesday, February 14th, 2007A few weeks back (early December), I wrote a post talking about a scholarship fund that I helped establish for brothers of Sigma Pi Fraternity at Monmouth University. Well, I’m at it again, but this time on a bit of a bigger scale.
I’m proud and excited to announce the creation of The NJ Province Scholarship Fund with the Sigma Pi Educational Foundation. This fund will award an annual scholarship to a deserving brother of Sigma Pi Fraternity who attends school in New Jersey. The exact criteria for the award is listed below:
The NJ Province Scholarship will be awarded to an active, full-time member of any of the active chapters located in the state of New Jersey. This award will recognize the initiated member who most exemplifies the ideals of Sigma Pi through academic excellence, chapter leadership, philanthropic service, and community involvement.
I’m very excited to be working on this fund for many reasons, not the least of which is my own history with student loan debt. If one of my legacies in life can be that I helped start a fund that helped one more kid afford going to college in America’s most expensive state, then I’ll be happy with that legacy.
At this time, we are in the process of raise funds for the scholarship. We’re grateful and happy to take donations in any amount from alumni, friends, family, and local businesses who believe in making college more affordable for New Jersey students. If you’re interested in making a tax-deductible donation to this fund, please contact me and I’ll be more than happy to assist you.
The Delta-Beta Chapter Scholarship is Established
Monday, December 4th, 2006Obviously, no one knows what it’s like to have a ridiculous amount of student loans to pay off more than I do. That’s why I’m pleased to announce a new scholarship that has been established for my fraternity brothers at my undergraduate institution, Monmouth University!
The Delta-Beta Chapter Scholarship will be awarded to an active, full-time member of the Delta-Beta Chapter of Sigma Pi Fraternity at Monmouth University. This award will recognize the initiated member who most exemplifies the ideals of Sigma Pi through academic excellence, chapter leadership, philanthropic service, and community involvement.
We hope to award this scholarship as early as December 2007!
And if any of you are interested in making a donation to the tax-deductible fund, let me know!
Update on Updates and TBL @ 10
Saturday, April 8th, 2006I’ve obviously been very busy lately as you can tell by the lack of updates on this blog. I missed the entire WrestleMania weekend on the main TBL site and I didn’t even get predictions up or help Eddie out at all in the planning or updating for that weekend (perennially the biggest weekend of the year for this site). Sorry Eddie!
This past Thursday I met with my boss about full-time employment after graduation (I graduate with my Master’s Degree on May 14th). The result was what I expected it to be – I low-balled my overall yearly salary with him and he agreed to the number I put out there, but he wasn’t able to say yes or no because he’s waiting on some funding proposals that are out there. Some of the many joys of working for a nonprofit!
The one interesting thing that came out of the entire interview was that he said in the unlikely event that he cannot hire me full-time, 1) he would be willing to give me an insider’s edge on some other state jobs and 2) he would be willing to keep me on doing something similar to what I’m doing now, which is working only a few hours a week at an information center that they have for a pretty solid wage. I guess that’s something to keep in my back pocket…
Usable Web Solutions is starting to get bigger than I expected at this stage in the game. I have, thankfully, gotten a lot of requests for work and web site management, but my hands are really tied since I’m in my last month of schooling. If I didn’t have to spend so much time on school work, I wouldn’t be at the point with UWS where I’m at now: actually turning away prospective websites because I don’t have the time to do the jobs.
I’ll get that shit figured out, though. There’s a bit too much potential with this company to keep putting it off. Another major project that is coming to an end is the TBL @ 10 series. Take a look at some of the columns posted there and be sure to read them when you get a chance. A lot of history of this website (and its preceeding versions) are in those articles. I hope that you enjoy the final product which should be out on TBL’s 10th birthday: April 14th!
That’s all that I’ve got for now. I have a bunch of fraternity events coming up this weekend ranging from a chartering at FDU tomorrow to a ritual review with my new initiates at Monmouth to a meeting at William Paterson with their chapter on Sunday night. And at some point this weekend I have to stop in at my parent’s house and drop off information for my taxes.
As a bunch of my undergraduates have been telling me…I need a vacation.
Anyone want to go to Nashville?
