It's the end of the semester!!!!

Originally Posted:
Friday, December 8, 2006
9:43:00 PM CST
Feeling Happy
Hearing Chris Isaak's Christmas CD

Yesterday was the last official day of classes on campus and which put an end to one CRAZY week. Sunday and Monday I had to enjoyable days of grading (yes, I used enjoyable and grading in the same sentence!), but Tuesday started three days of straight up craziness. It started with one student uncontrollably crying in my first class of the morning which led to me spending forty-five minutes in my office playing therapist and negotiator between the crying one and her project partner who didn’t seem to have a bit of remorse for not doing any work on the project. Not twenty minutes after leaving the feuding partners in my office did I get stopped by another teared up student who just lost an entire semester’s worth of work because the person sitting next to her in the computer lab accidentally knocked the power cord out of her computer and made it crash. The rest of the day was spent dealing with the “normal” dilemmas, but it was what happened in the evening that set me up for Wednesday’s drama. All I asked for was that the computer lab across from our studio room which is where OUR plotter is housed be left open while my students work late to get their final projects plotted out. About ten minutes after I left the student worker who said she would have to see if that is okay I get summoned to the lab to take a phone call from our Asst. Dean who informed me that NO!!!! The lab WILL NOT be left open. I said, “I understand. Thank you.” And that was the end of the conversation...until Wednesday. Granted I was FUMING about it, but what could I do at 7 o’clock at night? By the time I got home from school at 11 pm, I had a whole list of reasons why I was mad about being told NOOOOO!!!! Long, long, long, dramatic story short, Wednesday, which I declared as “No Tears Wednesday” was positively shot when I got to school at 8 am and the Asst. Dean and I had a run in about the lab which totally ruffled my feathers and sent me on a mission to fight the battle of standing up for my students and our program yet again. Shortly after the early morning Mexican stand off, the water works were back and a student was at my door step crying her eyes out. Here’s the thing, tears don’t work on me. Everyone knows that. I can look a student in the face while they are crying and keep my expression stone cold sober. I’m not heartless, I’ve just grown immune to the sob stories. I feel for them because I know whatever has them so upset to cry is a big deal to them, but odds are that I’ve heard the story before and therefore it’s lost it’s impact value. By the end of the day my Dept. Head had convinced the Asst. Dean that I was indeed responsible enough to close the door to the lab when we were done plotting and therefore we should be able to keep working after the lab closes sometime between 5-7 pm. Seriously, that’s what I felt like it came down to. Is Tracy more responsible than the 18-year old student worker who has to make a phone call to ask permission from her boss before she makes a move, or not? There were MANY other things that were more important on the list of things my college’s administration doesn’t know, or care to understand, about how those “untamed, arm flailing, hooligan pillow-fluffers” (Design students) do their work and the type of projects they produce, but I was most honked off from the sting of the slap in the face about who was most capable of closing a damn door.

Enough venting. I didn’t even get into a quarter of the whole theatrical drama that played out on Tues, Wed and Thurs, and I’m not going to. I’m going to end on a high note. Thursday was a great day. My senior students presented their projects and it was one of the best class sessions I’ve ever had. Not only did they do really well on the details of their projects, but they did a fabulous job of constructivly critiquing each other’s work. The dialog was completly open and professional and they had such a serious air about their comments. There was a different energy in the room yesterday that I hope they took notice of and continue to raise the bar for themselves next semester. If so, I’ll know we’ve been doing something right and the past few years of fretting over making improvements to the Interior Design program are paying off.

We ended our week with a Christmas party at Rebecca’s, one of our students, house. Everyone was a little worn out from the weeks of non-stop work leading up to the afternoon’s presentations, but it didn’t dampen the festive mood. People came in Santa and elf hats, Rudolph noses, and Christmas tree dressings. We brought $5 “Dirty Santa” gifts and a potluck dish. Dinner was a hodge-podge mix of fondue and fixings, mac and cheese, chocolate pie and sandwiches, but it didn’t matter. It was comfort food and could not have tasted better. The Dirty Santa game got down and dirty with a couple hot items being “stolen” umpteen times. We laughed the night away and decompressed over a fun party. The semester could not have ended better.