Good, bad, and ugly

Today's email.

Good: "The Spring fellowship checks are here! Come pick yours up." I never get a fellowship, didn't apply for one, wasn't told I'd have one, and generally assume I just don't get them. I wrote back and confirmed it though. I do indeed have a fellowship check. Whether it is meant for Spring or Summer is anyone's guess (this is how our department works) but hey, free money. So yeeha for me.

Bad: "There is no longer pre-reimbursement for the cost of your airfare." That was from a message about travel funding for grads. There are two or three bad things about this. One is that it makes it sound as if we all get any imbursement at all for travel. That is not true. Only some people get it, and then only some of the time. The parameters are often murky thus if you wish to travel to a conference, you need to pretty much be able to swallow all of the cost yourself lest you end up with a bill you can't afford and which there are no funds to cover even in part. Two is that anyone who will get money for airfare now has to wait until they get back, with a boarding pass, to get reimbursed for the cost. Grads have so little money that this might make the whole thing cost prohibitive even if there is money available. Three is the word "Pre-reimbursement" - which is nearly as annoying as the word "irregardless".

Ugly: My fella A___ inquired about a job as grad coordinator for one of our department's more popular courses. This job would entail running the TA meetings, helping get shit done, pretty much all the nuts and bolts of supporting TAs in a thankless and over-burdened job for a class which has far too much material and product for the time allotted (on the undergrad and grad side of things). My fella wanted to do it because as a TA for this class, he's seen a lot of things he thinks could be improved with a few measures or changes. He's worked as a TA for the class, worked as a GA for a university department which supports the class (it's a writing class, he worked for the writing people developing measures and evaluations of the efficacy of writing training, teaching, and learning in the class). And he's spoken with faculty who administer the course (mostly in name) about the class. So he applied. Makes sense. And he got an email today from the faculty member in charge of the course saying he could not have the position since it was apparent he wanted to "take control" of the entire course.

A lesson in all of these: Don't ask, don't speak, sink into the background as much as possible, and put yourself and everything you have out on a way over extended limb and ye may be rewarded. Make any kind of noise whatsoever or have the audacity to ask for something in advance and ye shall be spanked.