Eliza the Great/CHARGIN MY BLOGGLES ([info]elizaeffect) wrote,
@ 2008-07-22 19:24:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend  Next Entry
Current mood: cranky

There's a lot of stuff I could be posting about
But I've been tired as hell the past few days and it feels like I'm coming down with the Death Virus for the third time this month, though I hope in a form that doesn't lay me out flat for five days. I still have no cushion of sick leave. I worked on my day off last Friday to make up a sick day, which of course contributed to the tiredness. I may have to give in and start borrowing from future sick leave (you're allowed to borrow up to 30 days' worth per year), but that feels like a cycle I'll never break out of, so I'm resisting.

May take some vacation around Labor Day to maximize time off while minimizing leave days used. Supposedly my family's going to the UK next year, and since I haven't been out of the country since I was, what, twelve? I'm raring to go. Gotta save up those leave days.

Zippy's old foster home requested him back because they love him so much, so now I have a fluffy cutie named Charlotte. Pictures to follow when the room isn't spinning.

Who gave my contact information to the college? Because whoever it is I want to punch them.* I'm going to get so many goddamn contribution requests now, and they aren't getting a cent of my money until I'm rich and disconnected from the world enough that giving to the fantastically-endowed elite school that destroyed my health and my self-confidence starts looking better than, say, sponsoring a hundred children in developing nations, or making sure everyone has a basic goddamn necessity like water to drink..


*Although it's possible I did this to myself by accident. College Alumni Fund letters are like herpes - once you start getting them, there isn't a drug or major address change in the world that will make them go away permanently. If I was sent to Mars on some great mission I have no doubt that they'd start harassing me via email.


(11 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]crystalpyramid
2008-07-23 03:17 am UTC (link)
Did you register for Alumni Weekend? That could do it.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]elizaeffect
2008-07-23 05:12 pm UTC (link)
No, I kept putting it off until registration closed and I ended up going as Arthur's guest.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]uncleamos
2008-07-23 03:30 am UTC (link)
I have debated commenting on that article, because I really think Swarthmore does a lot better in the mind department than the article would make you think. At the end, of course, it acknowledges that some small liberal arts colleges are more resistant to the problem than some large universities.

Mind you, it's possible that Swarthmore in 2008 is not the same as Swarthmore in 2005 or Swarthmore in 2000. 2000 being the year that my high school college adviser went on at great length about how important it was to find a school that was serious about the life of the mind, and the fact that he thought that Swarthmore was such a school.

Also, I would seriously encourage you to give them 5 or 10 dollars. Or 1. I only gave 25 myself this year, but I did it because they are interested in participation. Between matching funds and whatnot, as well as alumni who offer gifts if a given class reaches a certain participation level and the fact that college rankings incorporate participation levels, the first dollar you give them is many, many times more important than any following dollar(s).

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]arctangent
2008-07-23 07:00 am UTC (link)
Swarthmore better be in the business of making minds, because if it's in the business of making careers it's doing a pretty crappy job.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]elizaeffect
2008-07-23 05:15 pm UTC (link)
I dunno, I walked past the ceremony Alumni Weekend where everyone stood around and circle-jerked about how awesome it was that they were pouring money into the college's giant bottomless pit of financial need, and it made me kind of sick to my stomach. It made me even more determined not to contribute a dime until I can think about the school without having an anxiety attack.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]uncleamos
2008-07-23 06:16 pm UTC (link)
Which is why you should skip the bottomless bit and just give them, well, a dime.

Mind you, I respect your decision not to, I'm just saying there is something to be said for a very small contribution.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]elizaeffect
2008-07-23 05:42 pm UTC (link)
I've been thinking about the whole mind-vs-career thing, too, ever since I read this article. My experience with the physics department was that we were being aimed carefully at several top graduate schools - the coursework and the subjects were all chosen to best prepare theoretical physics grad students for the years of work ahead.

Never mind that some of us didn't want to be theoretical physics grad students, but had to take all the courses to graduate. I didn't want to be an engineer, either - I wanted to be an experimental physicist, and there was almost no room for that stuff at Swat. The labs we did were almost grudgingly thrown in as an afterthought and I never learned anything from them.

If I had understood coming in the way the department operated, I wouldn't have gone to Swat, or I would have started pushing for my own special major sophomore year. They really did aim you at a specific kind of career, even if it wasn't necessarily a business/lucrative one.

Or, as Alex put it more generally: We got to ask Big Questions, but we were all expected to ask the same ones.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]arctangent
2008-07-23 08:22 pm UTC (link)
Yes. "Making minds" vs. "making careers" all too often entails "making careers in academia" vs. "making careers in business".

No one can actually be in the business of making minds irrespective of all institutional standards -- then you wouldn't have statistics you could wrap up in a bow to submit for your USNWR ranking.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]dukhat
2008-07-23 03:43 am UTC (link)
I feel like it is my duty to give Swarthmore (and my highschool) at least a token amount of money each year for the rest of my life.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]elizaeffect
2008-07-23 05:15 pm UTC (link)
They have trained you well. :P

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]dukhat
2008-07-23 08:23 pm UTC (link)
No, that is how my parents raised me.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(11 comments) - (Post a new comment)

Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…