Ark-type weather

Will you look at this fucking rain?



Bob Proto's letter in the YDN is a much better and more eloquent response to Keith Urbahn's ridiculousness than my rant (though this should surprise no one who's ever heard Bob speak)- as were the letters by Jay Driskell and Theresa Rundstettler yesterday.

How dare Keith Urbahn suggest in his column ("Earth to GESO:

Efforts to unionize are a lost cause," 1/12) that racial discrimination at Yale

is only "tangentially related" to the missions of our unions? For years, Yale's

increasing use of casual workers hurt black and Latino workers more than anyone

else. Our union fought to stop this abuse, and we demand that Yale provides

everyone with equal opportunity regardless of the color of their skin. So when

Yale's graduate teachers see the same thing happening in the classroom -- Yale

hiring more and more women and people of color into "casual" teaching positions

while reserving the good tenured jobs for white men -- then it's natural that

they would turn to Local 35 to learn how to fix the problem. Stick together.

Stand strong. That's how you get Yale's attention

And Evan's guest column ties it all back to the classroom

In a few weeks new surveys will go out, and just as I have for the past

three terms, I will declare that, no, my job description isn't accurate at all.

And just like in past terms, I'll hope that somewhere, in the spirit of making a

contribution to the academic mission of the university, an administrator will

see this problem and find a way to solve it. But perhaps more disturbing than

the problem itself are the solutions Yale administrators have already proposed.

In response to my survey answers last semester, Yale College Associate Dean

Judith Hackman wrote to me to explain that language teaching is supposed to be a

half-time commitment and that I should meet with my Director of Graduate Studies

"to adjust [my] teaching responsibilities." When administrators would much

rather ask teachers to plan less, prepare less, grade less attentively and spend

less time with students, instead of dealing with a broken pay scale, it becomes

clear that the system is broken. The very deans who are supposed to be guarding

and securing excellence in education are actively encouraging its

detriment.