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Last updated on August 9th, 2017 at 11:46 am
Australia’s academics aren’t our brightest citizens, a circumstance that has caused some—like former Queensland University of Technology business student Rohan Duggan—to flee tertiary institutions:
The original marking of a 2000-word paper included a comment from lecturer Edwina Luck advising Mr Duggan to present “more smarter writing”.
Perhaps Ms. Luck was suffering a bad air-pressure day.
After Ms Luck graded the paper at 65 per cent, Mr Duggan questioned the grade and Ms Luck passed it to another staffer, Dr Yunus Ali, who downgraded it to 35 per cent.
In re-marking, Dr Ali questioned the use of the terms “Yin” and “Yang”, a Chinese concept of balance, and said they should have been listed as references in the bibliography (a list of the books used as reference material).
Yesterday, Dr Ali admitted he had “no idea” what the terms meant and thought they were references to people’s names.
“We don’t go into the deeper meaning,” he said.
Further details about Dr. Ali and Ms. Luck may be found here. Don’t send any emails; they’ll likely reply in s-less gibberish:
In response to further queries, Ms Luck sent Mr Duggan a short e-mail which, because her “s” key was not functioning, read as:
“I knew you would be di appointed, o what I have done i taken the middle ground. I am uppo ed to take the econd mark, but I did not want to kill you that much. I do hope that you have learned from thi . Not the point of a king for explanation, but that we a lecturer are not totally illy!! Academic writing i difficult. I hope all our comment can be helpful in the future. Edwina.”
(Via Clumsy Bird)
- Australia does not have exclusivity on educational incompetence/idiocy. It seems to have almost become a point of academic pride at some US seats of “higher learning.”
http://capmag.com/category.asp?action=cat&catID=4
Frank
- There are high-school drop-out rednecks who not only know what Yin and Yang are, but have tatoos representing the concept. Why is a PhD teaching “international marketing” ignorant of it?
I’m beginning to think that all the guff about how parochial Americans are, and how the well-educated are SO MUCH more sophisticated is a big lie.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 02 23 at 12:38 PM • permalink
- #5 almost all universities in Australia are state universities. He would have to climb mount everest on one leg while playing the banjo before he could even hope to get his HECS fees refunded.Posted by daddy dave on 2006 02 23 at 01:02 PM • permalink
- #5 orry , what I meant wa :
almo t all univer itie in Au tralia are tate univer itie . He would have to climb Mount Evere t on one leg while playing the banjo before he could even hope to get hi HEC fee refunded.Posted by daddy dave on 2006 02 23 at 01:04 PM • permalink
Australia’s academics aren’t our brightest citizens
You ain’t then only ones people…catch one of our Einsteins….
New York Sen. Charles Schumer said Thursday he’s worried that if a Dubai company takes ownership of U.S. ports, terrorists might alter what he described as port “manifolds” – an apparent reference to shipping manifests.
NewsmaxAnd this guy’s ethics are lower then his IQ….and his IQ, hovers in the single digits, depending on what his medications do to him, that particular day….What was Mr. Tim Blair recently saying about New Yorkers?….LOL.
In the immortal words Will Rogers…
I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
There ought to be one day – just one – when there is open season on senators.
Will Rogers (1879-1935)
- Benny Hill did several sketches in which he would read a poem as the author initially wrote it—always having had to use a typewriter with a broken letter—an S, sometimes, or in this case, an H:
ow can I enjoy our little cat
Wit your as all over te floor?
Put your as in the astray
Tat’s wat te damn ting’s for!Higher learning imitates Benny Hill.
Posted by Monroe Doctrine on 2006 02 23 at 01:33 PM • permalink
- #17:
Maybe Schumer thinks the port has some ginormous exhaust system with high-performance manifolds (and dual carbs!).
What a guy! A classic example of the slide of our politicoes from the “best and brightest” to the “worst and dullest”. My father is fond of saying that we ought to cancel the next election and have a public hanging instead.
- I thought Indian were uppo ed to be mart?Posted by Jim Treacher on 2006 02 23 at 02:01 PM • permalink
- Those that can DO, those that CAN’T teach, and I had that said to me by my yr 12 English Lit teacher.Posted by artful-dodger on 2006 02 23 at 02:02 PM • permalink
- Isn’t there an old saying that goes something like
“Those who can… do, those who cannot… teach”.
This reminds me of my first (and only) year of university. After receiving an assignment back with a barely passing grade, the lecturer (who just happened to be a mature-age second year student) wrote that I should have followed “his” method for designing a programming procedure (that I thought was flawed), rather than the method presented in the textbook. The textbook method made much more sense to normal thinking people.
- I thought I was reading an urban myth, it just doesn’t seem right. However, there are references to actual people here which urban myths usually dispense with.
Anyway, from the same QUT site:
The School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations would like to congratulate the following:
…
Students’ Choice Awards:
Ms Edwina Luck was presented with the “Awesome Lecturer – Undergraduate” award.In the end, I suppose the student’s yang has conquered the teachers’ yin … or has Edwina’s yin lucked out again?
Gotta go, have several emails from Nigeria in my Inbox to tend to, all with business propositions.
- Edwina’s qualifications are:
B.Bus (University of Queensland), GradDipTeach (University of Southern Queensland), DBA (Southern Corss University, in progress)What all dis about DBA “in progress” at Southern Corss Uni? She spel it wrong, it should be “Southern Course University”. Me have D.Litt in progress ( I attending local book club fortnightly).
btw Is Southern Course Uni the alma mater of Ali G?
- In whatever fairness is due (and I grant that it isn’t much), it’s possible that “more smarter writing” was properly constructed. I’d love to see the context.
I can easily see a witty prof commenting that a paper should have “more smarter writing”, e.g. “more writing” and “smarter writing” at the same time. Sort of a “This food is terrible—and such small portions!” kind of gag.
But that would take a more agile tongue than this character apparently has. Someone more in the league of “unknown unknowns” Rumsfeld or the “duck in a noose” guy, both of whom the media unfairly mocked despite being unknowingly outclassed linguistically by their targets.
Posted by Brian Tiemann on 2006 02 23 at 03:10 PM • permalink
- The academy is a very incestuous and strange place. Having suffered through graduate school, I can say there is no more hopeless feeling than being under the thumb of some asshole professor. My graduate adviser was notorious for washing students out of masters programs by failing them on their orals, because they hadn’t kissed ass sufficiently. Pun intended – take your kneepads to your orals. I nearly bit my tongue off on several occasions when grossly insulted by some Phd’d jerk. Mr. Duggan is damned lucky he could transfer.
A friend of mine went to school in Mexico City and a professor was shaking down all the students for money to avoid a failing grade. The students hired a local thug to threaten, actually promise, to kill him if they weren’t fairly graded.
- Hmmm.
1. Man this farce is incredibly funny. It must have been extremely frustrating for the guy too.
2. Dr. Amanda Bentson is HOT!
Posted by memomachine on 2006 02 23 at 04:08 PM • permalink
- Edwina’s academic quals:
BBus (University of Queensland), GradDipTeach (University of Southern Queensland), DBA (Southern Corss University, in progress)
She needs more smarter spelling. Incidentally, Rohan is more highly qualified than Edwina.
Posted by Oafish and Infantile on 2006 02 23 at 04:09 PM • permalink
- I can easily see a witty prof commenting that a paper should have “more smarter writing”, e.g. “more writing” and “smarter writing” at the same time.
I can easily see that same witty prof being smart enough to use a comma for clarification. No, I’m forced to conclude that this particular case is just due to the person’s stupidity.
As for Yunus Ali, we have the charming word “Fachidiot” in German, which is variously translated as “nerd” but that doesn’t quite seem to capture the full meaning to me. At any rate, it’s basically the one-word version of the adage about the guy who knows more and more about less and less, until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.
BTW, what’s a tech university doing having a school of business?
- The day is surely approaching when Margo will get a position at one of these sheltered workshops and I can start scrubbing for democracy once again.Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 02 23 at 04:53 PM • permalink
- #38 – Southern Corss Grad here. If I could hand back my degree and get a HECS refund I would. It’s that bad.Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2006 02 23 at 05:56 PM • permalink
- I have to de-identify this story to protect the innocent:
The patient of a colleague of mine who was a lecturer at a not so prestigious
child minding centreuniversity stated that students of a middle eastern background were not to be failed despite illiteracy and plagiarism both because of funding implications and also fear of the backlash.
- I can relate.
I was a very early reader and beat my second grade teacher at Scrabble. I met her years later and worked out it wasn’t because I was that smart…
Years later, at High School, an essay came back to me with a number of the ‘big words’ circled and a particularly low mark. When I challenged the teacher (who it should be said wasn’t dumb) she said “it’s obviously not your own work”. I defied her to prove it. She quizzed me on the meaning of several of the words or synonyms for them. I came through nicely and she apologised.
My adjusted mark was promptly unadjusted however as she heard me mutter “lesbian whore” when I walked off.
I think we both deserved it.
- This situation is not at all surprising. There is now strong genetic evidence that social scientists…
http://humbugonline.blogspot.com/2006/02/attempt-to-boost-credibility-of-social.html
…and possibly other varieties of academics are not the full quid.
- #19 RebeccaH
I, too, was proud to work at the University – particularly when I worked with students in the residential colleges of a rural campus. The students were amazing and wonderful and a delight, this was my most rewarding job ever.
Now I have been an adminno for more than 10 years this pride has been replaced with anger and contempt directed at empire builders who employ people for all the wrong reasons (ie. not because they are the best person for the job, but because they have shiny shoes and nice smiles), conseqently the standard of experience of an administrator dealing with students has declined, and also the fact that many academics just hate eachother (professional jealousy? I don’t know).
It’s sad really. Now it’s just a job. I do it well, and they pay me. That’s it.
Though I must say that there are some academics who are great to work with, and who value the students and help as much as possible, then there are the ones who shouldn’t be teaching, to whom student contatct is a nuisance.
- Whatever the broader merits, or lack thereof, of the lecturers involved, it is not unreasonable to require that in an academic paper, Yin & Yang be referenced. (maybe the student is referring to authors of the same name….)
Actually, using Yin & Yang without reference or explanation, in an academic setting, is a good example of a lack of academic rigour.
The student was probably drawing on these concepts in the same way “The Vibe” was used in the film “The Castle”. So now he’s gone and sulked to the media.
Sure, there are some incompetent loons in academia, but this story reeks of “Today Tonight” journalism (TT is a crappy populist current affairs program in Oz).
Posted by closeapproximation on 2006 02 23 at 07:48 PM • permalink
- #44 true, it has that tabloid ring to it. and true, most students that ask for a re-grade have more balls than brains. but it’s tempting to believe him, because of the idiotic feedback he got. our suspicions are made worse by the fact the lecturer in question was no more qualified than the student.Posted by daddy dave on 2006 02 23 at 07:55 PM • permalink
- It aged poor Rohan, too.
he looks 20 years older than 38…
Posted by Honkie Hammer on 2006 02 23 at 08:00 PM • permalink
- #43 Kae
I am pretty much in the same situation and am just organising my move back out of academia back into the private sector. Some academics are great teachers but many are not. Its odd about academics hating each other. I often think it is because they are so used to telling students what to do they simply can’t engage in a conversation with anyone that involves give and take. Also I guess its because many of them are stuck in the same institution so long that there is always lots of old scores that have never been settled.
- I suspect they downgraded the mark to maintain consistency with their rating in the “International Standing of Australian Universities” where QUT scored 46 out of 100. The Southern Corss Uni, (incorrectly referred to as the Southern Cross Uni in the link) where the lucky Ms Luck is progressing with her DBA scores 38 out of 100.
http://www.melbourneinstitute.com/publications/reports/MelbIndex.pdf
DBA? wtf is that – Dead Boring Acronym perhaps.
I suppose I should fess up and admit that I too was a Uni lecturer many, many years ago. And I vaguely recall getting a PhD, but never considered myself an academic – it’s such a pretentious and over used word. So take it easy on us guys …
For the acronym challenged –
PhD – Doctor of Philosophy, Post Hole Digger, Pulls His (Her) Dick. I prefer the first, but take your pick.Posted by Whale Spinor on 2006 02 23 at 09:04 PM • permalink
Maybe Schumer thinks the port has some ginormous exhaust system with high-performance manifolds (and dual carbs!).
Wahoomaloo V8 tugboats! That’s what NY Harbor needs.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 02 23 at 09:04 PM • permalink
- I think Michelle Maklin is HOT HOT!!!!!
I saw her on FOX NEWS once and I have to say she is a FOX herself.
Posted by artful-dodger on 2006 02 23 at 09:16 PM • permalink
- My English 101 teacher circled and put a big question mark next to the word “wraith.” Dork.
A friend who went to Clemson had a Java class, and the teacher was learning Java along with the class as he taught it.
Posted by Sarah Brabazon-Biggar on 2006 02 23 at 09:27 PM • permalink
- This is a bit OM but I just looked at the Leunig site, where you have a chance to “submit your message to Austrtalia’s living threasure” and observe no messages since 15 Feb are available for perusal. Wonder why?Posted by Susan Norton on 2006 02 23 at 09:44 PM • permalink
- With the habit of missing off letters, are we sure she isn’t a relative of Merlin “Free Th Refugees” Luck?Posted by Quentin George on 2006 02 23 at 09:53 PM • permalink
- kae
DBA – Distributor of Bullshit Avalanches, surely?Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 02 23 at 10:07 PM • permalink
- Off Topic
Two excellent postings atIs There Any Method to Their Madness?
What is not rational is some Muslims’ response to the bombing. The photo below is of an anti-US and anti-Israel demonstration in Pakistan. The AP’s photo caption reads:
————————
How It Looked From the Other Side
Austin Bay highlights another captured al Qaeda letter from the West Point collection. This one is dated June 2002; it is a window into the state of affairs as viewed inside al Qaeda six months after the fall of the Taliban. Note especially the statement that the “East Asia, Europe, America, Horn of Africa, Yemen, Gulf and Morocco groups have fallen, and Pakistan has almost been drowned in one push.”
- Fancy a tech uni without the resources to give an academic a new keyboard…
Anyway, remember the 10% budget cuts to all unis in the 90’s? It’s not like uni’s can attract talent with the sort of environment they offer now.
If you’re actually any good, do you really want to go work for peanuts with a bunch of incestuous wankers? No, go into industry or bugger off overseas and do some interesting work.
- Very well, thanks, El Cid. And how ironic that we should be discussing feeble-brained academics. It’s O-day here on the campus of the Univer ity – sorry, University of Western Australia, and there’s a brass band just outside my window. Beats the Michael Jackson records they were playing earlier, though. Who in the hell were they trying to make feel welcome with that?
But I digress. Working here on campus as an employee of a private firm I get email invtiations to the various speeches and lectures. A great many of them sound like explorations of the bleeding obvious. The rest are mostly an opportunity to be bored stupid by some academic who cornered his square inch of the intellectual landscape twenty years ago and hasn’t moved from it since.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 02 23 at 10:44 PM • permalink
- #67 Conditions of work in Australian universities these days are still not all that bad. I guess it depends on your standard of reference. Still they teach 8 to 12 hours a week, for 26 weeks of the year and are largely unsupervised. The pay is moderate, but by international standards OK for junior and middle level staff. The low staff turnover in many departments is not just a result of the low employability of many of them in the “real” world but also occurs because many simply find the lifestyl so good.
- #69
The rest are mostly an opportunity to be bored stupid by some academic who cornered his square inch of the intellectual landscape twenty years ago and hasn’t moved from it since.
I have heard a saying “You only need one thesis, everthing else produced in your academic life is derived from that.”
I think that was it.
- Where is Professor Bunyip in all this? He’s been away since Xmas. Slack.
SCU is not a top-ranking institution. It would be 4th or 3rd tier at best. Specialises in correspondence courses.
I found my post-grad lecturers excellent (Deakin, 2002-2005). The slightest spelling and grammatical mistakes were ruthlessly red-ringed. It was made clear that when you’re writing for business at a high level it has to be perfect. The only way to avoid embarrassment was to print hard copy and proof read two or three times. The spell-check just couldn’t cut the mustard.
Downside: An otherwise excellent marketing lecturer who admitted donating to Greenpeace and showed an anti-Nike documentary as part of a lecture (I dozed off).
Posted by walterplinge on 2006 02 23 at 11:07 PM • permalink
- lecturer Edwina Luck advis[ed] Mr Duggan to present “more smarter writing”.
pffft, that’s nothing. Try working in the public service.
Some time ago, I gave my previous boss a draft of a letter for him to look over. His only comment was “tone it down and focus it up”.
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2006 02 23 at 11:12 PM • permalink
- Oh puleeze. Don’t ask me about my problems with reading “business writing”. It seems that universities, consulting firms, and HR Departments for that matter believe that inserting a bunch of pretentious cliches with little meaning makes a splendid piece of writing.
WRONG!
Want to write a memo? Write it:
—concisely
—easy to read
—easy to follow
—interesting
—without using the words “paradigm”, “right size”, and “leverage our advantages”Otherwise, it’s going into my OUT BOX. It’s located beside my desk and gets emptied out at the end of each day.
Posted by wronwright on 2006 02 23 at 11:24 PM • permalink
- B.A. stands for bloody awful.
Art is a different expressive form of communication. The best bit about art is, seeing work that highlights a time an event and imagination.Can you imagine not having art in your world? Help artists and buy and enjoy the real stimulation. I love art galleries.
I think that’s what some religions would like to see, destruction. What worse in censoring artists and individual works as they are not companies, religions etc They are people making a living stressing points.
p.s. you can correct my typos if you like 🙂
- kae #71 – yep, sounds about right to me too.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 02 23 at 11:27 PM • permalink
- My wife has weathered an Arts degree in a NSW university and what most disturbs her about the place is the numbing group think and intellectual conformity.
Conservative thought is derided or ignored. PC speech and behaviour codes erode free discussion and academics who feel they have all the answers get sloppy and high-handed.
If you love literature do NOT study it at university. It has been invaded by ‘theory’ and leftist politics – and much the same is happening in public secondary schools.
If, for instance, you read Jane Austen and thought you might deepen your understanding of her novels, forget it. You will be told that ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is merely a ‘culturally encoded text’ and that her work reveals nothing more than the prejudices of 18th c. white imperialists. (The historical and political treatment of the time shallow and slogan-driven.) Any other understanding of the novel is naive and merely enlists you in the ranks of the benighted bourgeois, etc. to the point of nausea.
You WILL be asked to revere the work of Jacques Derrida and Michel Foulcault, however. No further reading in the western philosophic or literary tradition required. These men have been to the mountain and you’d better believe it.
Sloppy grammar lies at the surface of intellectual rot.
- wron
Sounds to me like you may need to drill down to your core competencies if you want to be results driven. Going forward, this would be the best practice model that you could bring to the table.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 02 23 at 11:33 PM • permalink
- #71 Swinish
At a function I mentioned that it didn’t matter what you drank, rum and coke, vodka and orange, ouzo and soda, you still got drunk. What was the common denominator in these drinks?
The ice. Therefore, it’s the ice that gets you pissed.
An academic said I had a really good thesis topic there. (I only think he was half joking!)
- Wronwright, as usual, nails it. Eliminating excess verbiage creates synergies of efficiency, obviating the need for peeling the onion, and providing more opportunities for picking the low hanging fruit, resulting in the kind of dynamic tension which affords proactive, total quality service in a team environment. Or not.
- kae – if you didn’t write that thesis, you can be pretty sure that he did. And he probably found a way to work Foucault into it as well.
Foucault must be the greatest intellectual fake of the 20th Century. A dirty old man with a gift for psychobabble, nothing more.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 02 23 at 11:52 PM • permalink
- #86: One day I got the two confused: I peeled the fruit and picked the low hanging onion. Result? Corporate melt-down!
Scott Adams, of Dilbert fame, has suggested a game called -oh, what is it? – Board Room Bingo? Management Bingo? Anyway, the idea is to draw up a list of your boss’s favorite buzz words and stock expressions, and check them off in your next meeting. I guess when you’ve got ‘em all marked, you’re supposed to stand up and shout “Bingo!” If only I had the intestinal fortitude to try that, I, too, could be exploring new employment opportunities at this very moment.
- I attended a prominent university in the Boston area, and although the faculty are stellar, they rarely teach, especially undergrads. Those that teach are invariably less famous and less impressive than the star faculty members. MIT puts far more pressure on faculty to teach.
And PC reigns at the Ivies, too. One fellow student upbraided me for using the term “voodoo economics”, telling me that voodoo was a respected religion in Africa. Oi.
Posted by Bearded Mullah on 2006 02 24 at 12:27 AM • permalink
- Paco — Eschew obfuscation.
If you love literature do NOT study it at university. It has been invaded by ‘theory’ and leftist politics – and much the same is happening in public secondary schools.
— Or, who ever read a postmodern novel twice?
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 02 24 at 12:37 AM • permalink
- How does she keep her beer cold without an s-key?Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 02 24 at 12:40 AM • permalink
- Comment on a thesis which I thought were both brilliant and original :
“Your work is both brilliant and original. Unfortuantely, the original parts lack brilliance whilst the brilliant parts are not original”
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 02 24 at 12:57 AM • permalink
- #73 Where is Professor Bunyip in all this? He’s been away since Xmas. Slack.
Right! BRING BACK the BUNYIP!
Seriously… anybody heard from him?
Posted by Old Grouch on 2006 02 24 at 01:16 AM • permalink
- BUNYIP! BUNYIP! BUNYIP!Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 02 24 at 02:03 AM • permalink
- Paco: “Too bad the guy whose BMW I stole didn’t have the same attitude.”
You flattered him not wisely but too well.
(PINCHED that from Shakespeare, god bless him.)Speaking of stuff to steal, what about
This from my favourite intellectual, Karl Popper:
“… the fight against suffering must be considered a duty, while the right to care for the happiness of others must be considered a privilege confined to the close circle of their friends.”
and G.K. Chesterton:
“The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone. Thus some scientists care for truth; and their truth is pitiless. Thus some humanitarians only care for pity [‘compassion’ shouldn’t we say now]; and their pity (I am sorry to say) is often untruthful.”
Listening Henry Reynolds?
- Wouldn’t it be something if he was listening, Inurbanus! Proof positive that sound waves can travel past the sphincter muscle.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 02 24 at 02:31 AM • permalink
- New York Sen. Charles Schumer said Thursday he’s worried that if a Dubai company takes ownership of U.S. ports, terrorists might alter what he described as port “manifolds” – an apparent reference to shipping manifests.
Typical of U.S. Senators from New York – Jacob Javits is said to have become angry when he was told that, based on intelligence tests, half of the high school students in NYC were below average.
Posted by Bruce Lagasse on 2006 02 24 at 02:54 AM • permalink
- #74 ArtVandelay:
Sorry for referring so far back in the comments, but I just got home from work. You remind me of the time when I left the public service for private enterprise. My new boss had given me a promotion, and then asked me to write a report on some pressing issue. When I very proudly submitted the report, my boss quickly got back to me and wanted to know why I wrote such bureaucratic bullshit, with the statement, “You’re not in the public service now, go and rewrite it with facts and a recommendation.” So I did, and I’ve always remembered that encounter when writing reports.
- Memo to Wronwright:
There is a black helicopter sitting on my lawn. While I do require one for later assignments, an old chinook is a bit big.
Please advise asap.
Nilknarf Arbed
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2006 02 24 at 04:01 AM • permalink
- Well, I’ve just joined the vaunted halls of Academe.
I’ve started a PhD in Computer Science at the ANU.
Wonder if I should add “RWDB” to my profile?
Anyway, I’ve had 25 years in Industry, and a few successes. Enough so they gave me a scholarship, anyway. $28k isn’t fantastic, but it will pay the bills, even if I live on beans and rice for a few years.
If I had my Druthers, no-one could hold a senior post in Academe without at least 5 years actually, you know, doing things. But I wouldn’t compell everyone to teach. There are some brilliant researchers who have no talent whatsoever for teaching. There are also some brilliant teachers whose research skills are less than stellar.
I’m lucky: I enjoy teaching, and student feedback and the fact that the objective tests showed that they actually learned something mean I’m reasonably adequate at it. Most of my teaching has been at ADFA (Officer Cadets), and also in Industry (teaching people to make avionics software where lives are at stake).
You tend not to tolerate incompetence when you do things like that. Personally, if I had my druthers, the two clowns in that marking fiasco would have been ejected PDQ.
The fact that marks for the same thing varied so much ; 65 vs 35 ; without metrics being collected and an inquiry as to how such a ridiculous situation could occur doesn’t speak well for the whole system. Consistency of marking is vital, not just for individual fairness, but to ensure educational quality.
This isn’t Rocket Science. I know, I’ve done that too.
- Zoe
Good luck, not that you need it, apart from living like a monk for the next couple of years. Many of my mates went through ADFA (or UNSW) and they were mostly motivated. Not all were academic, but they got through. I’m jealous because I got through to the last selection board but didn’t make the cut. I then opted for 15 years in the CMF, that was an excellent experience.
Stevo
- #102, Stevo, that’s just so true!
Thankfully I work in an independent agency, so it’s nowhere near as bad as in some departments.
It helps to maintain a sense of humour. I have a collection of incomprehensible and unintentionally hilarious documents from various government agencies (most of which are not up the standards of a high school kid’s project). I keep telling myself I should write a book one day…
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2006 02 24 at 07:27 AM • permalink
#103 There is a black helicopter sitting on my lawn. While I do require one for later assignments, an old chinook is a bit big. Please advise asap.
Memo to: Nilknarf Arbed
From: Wronwright
Subject: Your Status is Basically That of Compost~ Sigh ~
You got what you got. Demand has been high lately, what with all the evil plots and conspiracies being moved from the planning stage to the execution phase (emphasis on execution). Everyone wants a Cobra. They’re all assigned. Everyone wants an Apache. They’ve been taken. Especially those with the double battery of Hellfire rockets. (Note to evil doers: please watch your extravagant use of those Hellfires. They’re expensive and our military contractors are backed up on our order. Please, no gratuitous burning down of large swathes of Federal forests. And yes, I’m including you The Real JeffS. Your cooperation is appreciated).
Nilknarf, I suppose I need to point out that your status is not a high one. Although you are Australian and a fairly evil woman, thereby placing you into a favorable category of neocons, you are nonetheless a minion and accordingly have the status of kangaroo poop. The Evil Ones get first dibs on transportation, the members of the Inner Circle come next, full members of the RWDB follow, henchman, fascists-in-training, pussywillows, minion, scoundrels, rogues, and rabble follow in order of priority. This is all spelled out in your Orientation Manual titled “Welcome to the Very Evil Death Cult Known as Neoconservatism, We’re Going to Have Fun!”
And before you say anything, I am very much aware that we have Cobras and Apaches parked outside our New Orleans Operation Center. They can’t be used yet. Why? Because they’re dirty. Full and Evil Member Richard McEnroe put up such a stink recently to Evil Lord Rove over a helicopter he found a bit too dirty for his tastes that Rove sentenced me to 10 lashes. (Since Achillea and kae administered it, I asked for 10 more. Actually, it was quite nice). So they can’t be let out until they’re washed, waxed, vacuumed, and sprayed with a very lovely Jasmine fragrance illegally imported from the south of France.
Posted by wronwright on 2006 02 24 at 10:05 AM • permalink
- 76 So THAT’s what happened to all those drafts of the Mission Statement that I was supposed to forward up the chain of command! Thanks, pal!Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 02 24 at 10:25 AM • permalink
- 103 Nilk, check the modified Cobra in WW’s hangar. He usually leaves the keys under the floor mat. Feel free to bring it back dirty, empty-tanked, and scuffed. Destroy this note.Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 02 24 at 10:41 AM • permalink
- 83 Kae
ouzo and soda
That’s just wrong.
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 02 24 at 10:47 AM • permalink
- Hey! How come everybody else gets a friggin’ helicopter, and I only got this trashed-up ten-year-old limo with the cracks in the leather upholstery? It doesn’t even have real tinted windows, just tinted film! Film! Which is peeling off around the edges, I might add. The least you could do is give me one of those cool black SUVs. And some shades.
- It’s part of their full-immersion minion-development program, I think. If you haven’t got enough malevolent cunning to simply help yourself to Wronwright’s stuff, you might not, you know, be evil enough for advancement through the minionette ranks. Just a tip. Maybe you should partner up w/ Nilknarf and take that zoomy-looking Cobra out for a spin. Feel free to fill up the cabin w/ empty Bitters cans; WW wreally hates that. It’s so much fun to watch him sputtering indignantly when his precious coptors get trashed.Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 02 24 at 01:46 PM • permalink
- Zoe, have fun. I went back after about 25 years, and my lovely wife (married while I was in grad school) tells me that those years were my retirement. I enjoyed myself (poverty and all—I would have done awful things for 28K—I go way less than half that) so much that she says now I have to work until I drop dead.
Grad school as a real adult, full-time can be wonderfully liberating. I had a few of those bad profs, but I was much more intimidating to them than they to me. I already had survived in systems much more ruthless than a mere university. Word got out. Kick asses where necessary, take names always, ask if the dipwads have big brother who also need a good thrashing. Best of Luck, and have fun.
Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2006 02 24 at 02:59 PM • permalink
- I work in academia; it’s my 2nd career and I really like it. #113 JorgXMcKie is right, it’s a much better experience as an adult with experience in the real world. I had been in some stinking corporate battles and to this day, nothing in academia can measure up to that. In addition, they don’t quite know how to handle somebody who isn’t really afraid of not getting tenure (of course, I’ll let you know how I feel when they actually deny it!)
So far the scariest thing I’m seeing is the attempted mixing of business and academia as my school comes up with a “mission & vision statement” and a “strategic plan” on a going-forward proactive basis. I’m taking my Buzzword Bingo card to the next all faculty meeting!
- 109SDD, Thanks for the heads up. Rebecca, I’ll drop the Cobra by your place when I’m done so you can take advantage also.Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2006 02 24 at 08:44 PM • permalink
- 117 If you really REALLY like the taste of burnt licorice, no make that used licorice, and the acrid ashtray aftertaste, and really enjoy having your hangover start well in advance of your buzz, and the memory gaps, and the … bah! Ouzo is evil. Ouzo with bubbles is more insidious, hence more evil. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil!Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 02 25 at 08:02 PM • permalink
- Nobody remembers that old joke?
“Dear Thir:
I would like to requetht a repair for my typewriter. I’m thad to thay the “eth” key ith broken.”
Posted by Ken Summers on 2006 02 27 at 09:17 AM • permalink
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and are these really the best people to be honing the minds of our young to give us that competitive edge in the future….