So weird. In the complex of offices near my office, someone keeps
just SLAMMING their door. It wasn't me.
Then I hear lots of very loud shoes that sounds kind of like my shoes.
Then I see professors walking around in their stocking feet with their
very loud shoes off. Huh ? What is that all
about ?
posted by Dr. Hahn at 2:02 pm 5/9/16 while making up final exams for my
Organic I Lecture and Organic II Lecture while finishing up assembling
excel spreadsheets for the Organic I Lab and Organic II Lab.
There are a bunch of faculty office close to my office. There are
also a bunch of Math graduate student offices near my office as well.
I will often get a couple of students who thinks that my office is maybe
the Math departmental office. I also think (from what I am
hearing from some students) that I am Mary Kinsel. I am not
sure why. I am sitting in my office with my name all over my
office. I even walk around with my name on my handbag and
some students will see me with my name on my bag and still think that I
am Mary Kinsel. One professor down the hallway made an
appointment to meet with a student on Sunday in her office.
She said she was coming in anyway. My position is strictly
teaching. I get paid to teach and only teach. I
really don't want to do research under some other professor.
I don't want to turn over the research that I was doing in my former
faculty positions as principal investigator ( only boss in my own
research group) to some other professor. That would not be
in my best interest.
I can make up exams, grade papers anywhere so I don't come to campus
unless classes are in session so on business days and non holidays.
If I wanted to get some graduate student or undergraduate student to
help me grade, I could do so but I would never turn over my grading work
unless I was absolutley positive that the grading would be handled with
utmost integrity and fairness. A lot of my word
problemy kind of exams can have multiple wrong answers that could be
correct. For instance in a synthesis problem if someone
answers molecule A wrong but then does the next reaction correctly , the
student would get partial credit so it is not just matching the blank so
the person grading has to really know the material. Also
there is the problem that if more than one person graded a paper, there
would be "strict graders" and "non strict graders". There is
also the problem of if a student is friends with a student whose paper
they are grading, even if the grader was trying to be as fair as
possible, the grading would be unfair.
I actually had a student in my Organic II Lecture class in the Fall 2015
semester who volunteered (no pay, no formal appointment) to help me
grade Organic I Lecture exams. She was a
postbaccelaureate student who was potentially a chemistry graduate
student. She would often hijack my Organic II Lecture class
in long discussions of how I graded her quizzes and exams.
There was no doubt that I had graded her correctly but she would spend
my lecture class time and waste the student's time in long discussions
about how I was grading her paper. One time she said that
she had drawn a one mm arrow to one answer but not the other
answer and this invisible 1 mm arrow (partially erased) and under some
other writing was her indication that her answer was correct.
I would say no it is not correct if I can't see it.
She would say no it is correct. Why can't you see this 1 mm
arrow partially erased and under some other writing.
This discussion went on for some 15 minutes. I would
say no. She would say yes.
I would never want to have such a person be my grader. If
she thinks an invisible arrow shows the correct answer, the grading
would be so horrendous as to be downright non sensical. Actually
it was almost as if she thought that if she critisized my grading (
knowing fully well that she was talking nonsense) that I would ask her
to help me grade and that this would somehow lead to some sort of paying
grading job. I suppose it is possible that someone would
hire her to grade papers but I would never ask such a person to help me
grade my exams. I could not stand behind the integrity of my
grading if I has such a person help me grade even if it was something as
silly as adding up points.
posted by Dr. Hahn at 10:50 am Tuesday 4/26/16 from her SIU office
Neckers 255 on
***********
Interesting: This semester I am teaching 4 classes as the
primary instructor of record - meaning I am the person who will be
submitting the final grades for these 4 classes. The classes
are: Organic I Lecture (CHEM 340, about 70 students),
Organic II Lecture (CHEM 442, about 120 students), Organic I Lab (CHEM
341, about 70 students, 2 graduate teaching assistants) and Organic II
Lab (CHEM 443, about 90 students, 4 graduate teaching assistants).
So I see a bunch of teaching evaluation envelopes in my mail box and see
only 3. Two of the envelopes were for the CHEM 442 Lecture
the same class. Apparently the office assistants were told
that I am only teaching CHEM 442 and CHEM 340 so that is all they gave
me. So I know I am teaching the CHEM 341 and CHEM 443
( I meet with the labs students in the prelab class which meets once a
week. I am holding teaching assistant meetings.
I am writing up / modifying lab worksheets and writing up a summary of
what they need to do for the lab as the cover sheet for the lab reports
but according to the Chemistry department, I am not teaching those
classes ? I am posting spectra and deciding if the students
need to do all parts of the labs, etc. I have not turned
over any of my teaching so what is going on ?
So if I am not teaching those classes and full time teaching says that I
must teach those classes then am I getting paid half as much or perhaps
out of the goodness of someone's heart they are letting me do only half
the work but they are still paying me my full salary ? I
know that I AM teaching all 4 classes. Teaching those
classes is sucking up every little bit of time that I have so that I am
barely getting enough sleep and I am now resorting to eating only if it
can be heated up in the microwave or stove top for less that 5 minutes.
Last semester they didn't give me teaching evaluations until Final Exams
time. The office assistants said they put it in my mail box
and I didn't know to expect them in my mail box because this was my
first semester here last semester. I know I did not take
them out of my mail box until my students asked about evaluations.
So they made up new ones and put them in my mail box very late in the
semester. So teaching evaluation irregularities.
.
posted by Dr. Hahn 4/20/16 at 5:05 pm from her SIU office
It was so odd but I saw bright red cars all over the place this weekend.
I park in the Chemistry parking lot - there is a red car parked next to
my car as I leave for the day Friday. I park at the
Walmart to grocery shop. I see no red cars as I go in but
when I come out there is a red car parked next to my car. I
park my car in front of my apartment over the weekend in the coin
operated parking meters that they do not give tickets for on the
weekends and I see 2 or 3 bright red cars near my car. My
car is a bright red Honda Civic. It was as if I was seeing
myself still there as I left the Chemistry parking lot, the Walmart
Parking lot and maybe going somewhere exciting as my car was sitting in
front of my apartment parking lot.
Turns out that my apartment is on the SIU bus route. I can
park in front of my apartment from 5 pm to 8 am weekdays without putting money
into the meter. If those few parking spaces are full then I
can park on the campus parking lot overnight because I have a faculty
parking sticker - I found out that I can even park in commuter student
parking spaces with my faculty parking sticker overnight on the
university parking lot.
I have noticed that the bus stop sign is right next to where I normally
park my car. So I am sitting at my desk working on something
and I keep noticing this girl who stands on the street side waiting for
the bus.about a car length away from the bus stop sign. She
does not stand on the sidewalk in front of the bus stop sign. like
everyone else. I looked out my window and I see this
girl and I thought that she was standing next to my car driver's side
door as if she had just gotton out of my car. She stands
around there waiting for the bus for 30 minutes at a time.
I thought to myself now why is thir girl standing next to the driver's
door of my parked car in the street instead of standing in front of the
bus stop sign about 10 feet away on the sidewalk like everyone else.
This girl stands waiting for the bus it turns out almost every weekday
around 5:50 or 6 pm waiting for the crosstown bus that goes to the only
mall & Walmart that I am aware of in town. I
wouldn't do that because why would I not just drive my car to the
shopping area and why would I come home at around 5:00 to 5:30 pm from
teaching at SIU and then take the bus to go shopping. I am
guessing that maybe she works at the mall ? Walmart ? is a
waitress at some restaurent ? I remember at one of my other
faculty positions this blond waitress who did not look anything like me
and lived right above my apartment in a large apartment complex was
mistaken for being me. I don't know why. We did
not look anything alike. We had nothing in common other than
for the fact that she lived right above my apartment with a bunch of
girls. I can imagine someone saying "... Ah
there is Dr. Hahn standing next to her car for 30 minutes waiting for
the bus to waitress at the mall after teaching ~200 Organic Chemistry
students and 160 Organic Chemistry lab students during the business day
..."
posted by Dr. Hahn on 4/18/15 at 11:30 am from her SIU office
*******
I was sitting in my office, Neckers 255, and I hear a woman's voice out
in the hallway loudly saying that "...yes, I am a chemistry
professor...." The woman had no dicernably accent - not
foreign - not southern. (I also have no accent- my accent is
sort of Manhattan or upstate NY accent - not Brooklyn or Queens).
Then this voice says "... Yes, I am old....". So I am
sitting in my office and thinking to myself how many female professors
are there in chemistry who have no foreign accent and is old.
I don't know anyone like that. I don't consider myself old
so I would never say that I am old. The only thing that I
could think is that perhaps it was some professor who was here before I
got here who I have never met ? I considered running out
into the hallway to see who it was but I was doing something like making
up an exam and didn't want to leave my laptop unattended so I did not .
posted by Dr. Hahn at 9:22 am on Thursday 4/14/16 from her SIU
office, Neckers 255
*************
***********
I have now had 2 students tell me that they thought that my new office
was near the Chemistry department office. Nope.
My office is on the same wing as the offices for Dr. Michelle Greene and
Professor Kevin Smith. My office is NOT next to the
secretaries office and my office is not where the undergraduate office
assistants sit. I do copy my own exams so that the first
person who sees an exam are my students. I do have around
200 students between my Organic I and Organic II Lectures. I
do give 6 quizzes, 3 exams and a final exam. My exams are
around 10 pages long so I do spend a lot of time copying but I am
copying exams that I have made up myself for my own students.
It usually takes me a couple of da;ys to make up an exam because my exam
is NOT a test bank exam.
I have been so busy since moving to SIU that I have not had a chance to
join a church. I did join a Baptist church in Florence when
I taught at Francis Marion University although my parents are
Presbyterian. There were some people sitting outside the
courtyard of my apartment complex having a cookout last Sunday -
it looked cold. I avoid sitting out in the apartment
courtyard because there is this weird guy who smokes who hangs out there
all the time as if he does not have a regular job. He will
stand around in the courtyard for hours even on a really cold day.
If I see this guy in the courtyard, I go in the other door because he is
so weird that it gives me the creeps. Then also once in a
while I see this woman who even on a kind of warm day goes in and out of
the apartment buidling with a hooded tan coat so you can not tell what
this person looks like at all. I thougth that it
looked as if the woman did not want anyone to see her face.
My apartment is not that big and I have a nice view so I have my window
blinds open almost all the time and my desk is next to the window so I
see out my window all day if I sit and grade by my window all day.
posted by Dr. Hahn 4/6/16 Wedneday at 11:20 am from her SIU office
Other things I am not: I am not working as a departmental
assistant copying exams for other professors. I am not
working with the guy who handles chemistry finances. I am
just trying to get reimbursed for (a) spending $70 because the copy
machine was broken when I came in one weekend last semester to zerox an
exam (b) they promised in writing to reimburse me for moving
expenses up to a certain dollar amount (c) when they
moved my office I requested to get some long power cords because my new
office has ONE power outlet. I have not been traveling out
of the country recruting graduate students or anything like that.
I have not gotten a new job where I purchase things for the department.
I do know that there are some 3 or 4 undergraduate office assistants but
I am NOT an office assistant. I also am not a medical doctor
who works part time at some hospital. My doctorate is in
Chemistry NOT any kind of medical degree. People never think
that I am me and they always think that I am some secretary or graduate
student. I am neither a secretary nor a gradute student.
posted by Dr. Hahn
I am NOT a Math graduate student. I am NOT a Math lecturer.
My new office is in the area with some other Chemistry Lecturers.
There are also a few Math graduate students down the hallway from me.
In fact at the end of Spring Break, I went to the post office and ran
into a couple of them. I went to the post office to mail out
my Tax forms. I had to buy the envelope for the tax forms on
the same day that I went to the post office so I was standing at the
table writing the address on the envelopes with my tax forms out all
over the table and these 2 guys came up to the table close enough to
read what I had on my tax form. These were tax forms
so I moved to the next table because I happen to know that my parents
have had their taxes stolen from them for a couple of years because
someone apparently stole some information from them. These
two guys followed me to the new table. I moved again
to another table and they followed me again. This happend about 4
times. I was thinking to myself "... Boy what kind of weird
stalking guys are these..." Usually if you overtly
move tables one time, people normally leave you alone.
I thought that the guys looked kind of familiar. I come back
to my office and I ran into these guys. Turns out the
"...what kind of weird stalking guys are these..." are actually Math
graduate students. I don't really know them. I
only know that they are Math graduate students because I saw their
picture on the Math department website listing Math gradute students.
I am not a Math graduate student. I am not a friend of
a Math graduate student who only visits campus because I am one of their
friends.
So what did I do during Spring Break? I gave 160 x 7 page
all non multiple choice exams before spring break to my Organic I Lab
and Organic II Lab prelab class so I spent almost all of Spring Break
grading those. After that I came up with the clicker
posting. After that I did my taxes myself using online
software. I came out of my apartment one time to grocery
shop and mail my taxes but other than that I never left my apartment.
I did not come to campus because it is easier for me to grade in the
comfort of my apartment than in my office and it always feels weird to
be on campus during official school holidays because the students are
all gone and the univeristy is half locked up.
posted by Dr. Hahn on 3/28/16 Monday at 4:10 pm from her SIU office (no
lab prelab meeting today because today is the continuation 2nd week of
the same lab that the students started last week)
On Tuesday (3/22) in the afternoon around 2 pm, I got an email from the
chairman about some student regarding the lab grade adjustment between
sections issue and the "flimsy excuse" issue. I wanted
to meet with him before I went in to teach again at 8 am on Wednesday so
as soon as I saw the email, I went to see him. He had
somebody in his office (for maybe an hour or so) so I went back a few
times and finally managed to meet with him at around 4:15 pm 3/22
Tuesday. I didn't think I needed to talk for more than maybe
15 to 20 minutes. When I went into his office the office
manager (main assistant), student office assistant, the guy who manages
the finances were all around and the chemistry office doors were all
wide open. I could actually hear them moving around next
door while I was talking to the chair. I finished
talking with him at around 4:50 and I came out of his open door office
and noticed that all the doors to the main office were all locked.
I am not sure how long I was talking with the chairman in a locked up
room. I am not sure but I think even the lights in the outer
office where the student office assistant sits were all shut off.
It was a little creepy although of course there was nothing out of the
ordinary except that I think the office assistants all leave at 4:30 pm.
posted by Dr. Hahn at 9:20 am 3/24/16 from her SIU office Neckers 255
The reason why I eat in the school cafeteria every day that school is in
session is because I really don't have the time to make some sort of
decent lunch for myself and it is a lot easier to eat at the McDonalds.
If I am spending all day grading an exam, if I am at home, I continue
grading while eating at my desk so I take my exams with me and continue
to grade while eating in the cafeteria. If I spend all day
grading, I get so sleepy sitting in my office that I start to make
mistakes so I coffee up during lunch and I am good for a couple of hours
after that.
I really hate to sit near my students when I am grading papers.
It looks odd plus I don't really need students to make comments about my
grading while I am grading. So if any of my students
sees me grading in the cafeteria, please don't sit near me.
I hate, hate, hate that. In fact you will see me avoiding sitting
near anyone especially when I am grading. I actually avoid
sitting near anyone when I am not grading because I think it looks very
odd to eat lunch with students especially since I eat lunch at the
cafeteria every day.
posted by Dr. Hahn on 3/11/16 at 3:50 pm from her SIU office
I am sitting in my office and I smell some sort of tropical fruit - like
coconut or mango or something like that. I don't think I
have smelled this before in this office. So I sniffed all of
my drawers in my file cabinet and desk and none of the drawers or file
cabinets smell like fruit. I do have apples and oranges in
my office but that does not smell like the tropical fruit. I
thought maybe I had a coconut flavered lip gloss get all over my drawers
but I don't think that is it. All I can think is that maybe
one of the offices nearby has that scent ?
I do have enough graduate coursework to teach a variety of classes.
That ability is especially useful in a very small Chemistry Department
where you need a person who can teach a lot of different classes.
For instance if there are only 2 Chemistry faculty, then each person
would need to have the ability to teach a number of clasess.
In a medium sized department, my ability to teach a variety of classes
is good because I can be the second person who teaches a particular
class so that instead of hiring a specific person who can take over that
particular class, you have a person who can sometimes teach a class.
So instead of hiring a person who can only teach Organic and then hiring
a second person who can only teach General, if a department hires me
then I can do both so I won't take over a particular class because I can
teach a variety.
Of course in a largish department like SIU, they would not ask me to
teach things like Advanced Organic or Analytical or Biochemistry because
there are about 2 or 3 people who teach those specific classes.
An interesting phenomena though is that sometimes there will be rumors
that I will be teaching a particular class and for some reason the
enrollment for those classes will go through the roof. I am
and have always been a very popular teacher. Actually the
Organic II Lecture class was estimated to enroll 80 students from prior
semesters but I have 120 students officially still enrolled in the class
this semester as of now.
I have never actually taught Analytical or Biochemistry. I
have taught graduate level (PHD level) Advanced Organic, Bioorganic,
Organometallics and Organic Spectroscopy. However it takes
the least amount of time if I repeat teaching the same class such as
Organic I and Organic II Lecture multiple times rather than teaching an
entirely new class. Plus from the standpoint of the
university budget, if you count money brought in by student tuition, it
is probably more cost effective for the university to have me teach
large section classes. Then you can have people who bring in
money by getting large research grants (tenure track faculty) teach the
small section classes. It is universally acknowledged that
the easiest classes to teach are upper level and graduate classes with
low enrollment and it would not be fair to have professors spend hours
and hours working on research proposals AND teaching multiple huge
classes.
But in any case my job at SIU is "Lecturer" so my job is to teach large
classes. My job at SIU is not tenure track so I have no
obligation and no reward for writing research grants or for doing
research with students. In fact if there was any reward
because I cannot officially write research grants under my own
name as Lecturer at SIU, any research proposals funded would go to
whomever had their name on the research proposal and nothing would come
to me. If I do research with students at SIU because I am a
Lecturer, I could only do research under the supervision of some other
professor. Even if I worked on my own research ideas
independently the research lab "boss" would get credit for any work
accomplished so once again there is no reward for me to produce any
research at SIU in my position as lecturer.
There was a rumor that I was going to leave Francis Marion to open my
own company to produce some chemical thing - like solar panels or
something like that. I am not a start my own
company/business kind of person. I think that rumor started
because there was an undergraduate student who often visited a professor
whose office was next to mine and talked all the time about opening a
company. That was not me.
posted by Dr. Juliet Hahn on 3/9/16 at 4:10 pm from her SIU office
******************
I was sittiing in my office Neckers 255 this morning and before my 8 am
class (at around 7:40 am) some young guy comes to my office and asked if
a lot of people had come to look for him at his old office.
There is a note on my door that says where the previous office user
moved to and his name. I had looked him up and it said that
the guy was emeritus. I told the young guy that I
thought you were some old guy who had retired. His answer
was so odd as to be downright bizarre. He said that his father was
the guy who had retired and then he said that the young guy standing in
front of me was the son of the guy who had retired. So I
said the exact same name not even Junior or I, II, etc. and he said the
Exact Same Name.
I know that sometimes people think that I am my own daughter (I am
guessing because I look young for my chronological age). So
I guess some people think that there is a little old Dr. Juliet Hahn who
is maybe too old to even walk around (maybe a 70 year old woman)
and I must be the daughter of Dr. Juliet Hahn also named Juliet
Hahn. NOPE. I am both Dr. Juliet Hahn and the
"apparent" daugher of Dr. Juliet Hahn named Juliet Hahn because I
have no daughter and I do look young for my age. I have my
name on my purse, my car, my briefcase etc because people never think
that I am me.
They always think that I (my physical self) am some undergrad who is the
office assistant for some little old lady named Dr. Hahn. I
always hear that Dr. Hahn is a 70 year old woman and they always think
some random little old lady is the actual me, Dr. Hahn. I am
NOT 70 years old. I will also sometimes hear that I, Dr.
Hahn, was seen partying until dawn and drunk and out to all hours of the
morning. NOPE. I do not drink at all because my
mom doesn't drink at all - it is a Christian-religous thing.
I was writing up exams until all hours of the morning. I was
grading papers until all hours of the morning. I was writng
up the lab report forms until all hours of the morning. If I am
especially tired, I sometimes fall asleep at 9:30 pm while
watching TV and then I wake up at 2 am and then turn off all my lights
as I actually go to sleep. But no I was not out to all hours
of the night partying.
posted by Dr. Hahn at 9:50 am on 2/29/16 from her SIU office Neckers 255
*********************************************
I was googling one of my prodessors at SIU and ran across an interesting
comment on one of those websites which allows people to anomiously post
comments about college professors. I don't pay much
attention to those things because anyone really can say anything about
anyone and I almost think it is a form of online bullying.
One comment said that this person had teaching assistants grade all the
exam papers and also that this same professor was so stupid that the
prof had to ask colleagues for answers about Organic. That
comment was about someone who was at SIU before I arrived.
In any case, I DO NOT need to ask colleagues questions about Organic
Chemistry & I DO NOT ask teaching assistants to grade all my exams.
I may be a little sensitive about this but somebody will start a rumor
that they are grading all the exams and all they have to do is do
exactly what THEY tell the students to do - such as beat up the
professor and they are assured an A no matter how badly they do on the
exam. NOT true. I grade my own exams AND
your grade is directly proportional to whether you answer your questions
correctly hard copy on the actual exam. I don't know
and I do not care who you are, who you know, what your major is.
All I am going to do is look at what is on your exam hard copy and THAT
IS ALL. Reasurring isn't it - if you are a hardworking, good
student.
posted by Dr. Hahn 2/25/16 at 3:30 pm from her SIU office, Neckers 255
**********
So my apartment is on the SIU bus route - I can actually walk from my
apartment over to the SIU campus just by crossing the street although I
never do. Lately I am parking my car in front of my
apartment in the metered paring spaces because they don't ticket you if
you park there after 5 pm and before 8 am and on weekends. I
can see my car from my apartment window. So when I am look
out my apartment window and when people wait for the buses some people
will wait for the bus while standing right next to my car.
Most of the time when people wait for the bus they stand on the sidewalk
near my parked car on the passenger side of my car.
This Saturday I think it was towards the evening, I see this dark
haired girl (about shoulder length hair) standing by my car as if she
had just gotten out of the driver's seat of my car. She was
standing there a long time. It looked as if she had
gotten out of my car. My car has license plate "Dr.
Hahn" so you can tell just by looking at my car that it is my car.
I almost did a double take thinking to myself - oh my god, I am up in my
apartment doing the grades to post for my classes at the same time that
I am standing out in the street next to my car waiting for the bus.
At one of my former positions there was this female professor I had
never met in person. I had seen her picture on the
departmental website. I kept running into this woman around
the chemistry office all the time and I was convinced that this woman
that I kept running into near the chemistry office was this female
professor. I am not sure why I thought that, I forgot
why I thought this woman was the female professor.
However I went to the seminar given by this female professor and the
woman who I thought was the female professor was not the professor.
Once I saw the female professor, it was obvious that the other woman was
not the pictured person on the website. Turns out the person
who I thought was the professor was one of the departmental secretaries.
The professor and the secretary did not look anything alike - different
length hair, different height, very different face.
I have no idea why this girl was standing next to my car for 15 minutes
right next to my driver's door. But I never take the
university bus and I am not that girl. If my car is in front of my
apartment, I am at my apartment. If my car is in front of
the Chemistry building, I am at the Chemistry building.
posted by Dr. Hahn on 2/22/16 Monday at 11:20 am from her SIU office
Neckers 255
********************************
Boy, what a week. I gave Exams to Organic I and Organic II
Lecture on Wednesday. I always give a quiz about a day
before the exams. The quizzes are supposed to help students
study for the exams. I always use my quiz information to
somewhat effect the exam making so I can't make up the Exam in advance
of grading the quizzes. It is always very hectic for me the week I
give Exams. I have 70 students in Organic I lecture and 120
students in Organic II Lecture. I am also teaching (with 6
graduate teaching assistants), the Organic I Lab (70 students) and the
Organic II Lab (with 90 students). I am coordinating the
teaching assistants and also have to present the Prelab lectures.
So Mondays I teach the Organic I lecture at 8 am to 8:50 am, I
teach the Organic II lecture at 1 to 1:50 pm, the Organic II
Prelab lecture from 3 to 3:50 pm and the Organic I Prelab lecture from 4
to 4:50 pm. Fortunately the Organic II Labs are almost
exclusively one experiment done in 2 weeks so I only have to do the
Organic II Prelab lecture on alternate weeks. On Friday I
have to do the 8 am lecture the 1 pm lecture and then have a TA meeting
at 2 to 3 pm (no other time when most of the TAs and I could meet at the
same time).
They gave me a new office about 2 weeks ago. I like the new
office. It is in an individual office in an office
complex with the other 2 Lecturers who teach a lot of the large lecture
sections and with a lot of other professors. The old office
was in a hallway with labs mixed in with offices and I always felt as if
everyone thought that I was part of the research staff of the professor
closest to my office. The only problem with the new office
is that the electricity is connected to the neighboring office so if
both I and the neighboring office have the space heater on at the same
time, my electricity shuts off. It looks as if everything is
OK because my office overhead lights still stay on but the computer,
printers and plug for my laptop all shut down.
Boy what a day yesterday was. I went to the Chemistry
seminar which runs from 4 to 5 pm yesterday. I was using my
desktop (I don't keep grades, exams and stuff like that on my desktop -
it is all either on the USB or laptop) with a USB attached up the the
last minute before the seminar after my TA meeting ended.
After I came back from the seminar, I tried to get into my office and
realized that I had left my USB attached to the desktop in my office.
OK so the USB is in my office SO WHAT you are saying. Last
semester I kept leaving the USB with presentations stuff and clicker
stuff on the presentation computers in the lecture hall so I got into
the habit of attaching the USB to my office keys because I was concerned
that I would lose my USB with exams and grades & stuff on it.
So I could not get into my office because my keys were inside attached
to my USB with my lecture notes, my partially graded exams, my laptop
and everything that I did not have in my purse (which has almost nothing
in it) that I had taken to the seminar.
It was 5 pm Friday so of course everything was closed. I
usually go to the stockroom to ask for keys but they were gone (I
realized after I got home that the chem stockroom doesn't have the keys
to my new office so even if they were open they would not have had my
office key). After a lot of walking around
probably looking very upset asking for the phone number of the campus
security (at FMU, campus security always let me in whenever I had some
sort of key issue), one of my neighboring very nice professors gave me
the phone number of the maintenance people. Thank god for
the maintenance people. I finally got into my office
and sure enough there was my USB attached to my desktop attached to my
office key. Boy what a day. I also did this one
morning last week except that time I took my laptop and everything home
with me and then realized that my USB was attached to my desktop
when I couldn't get into my office at 7:10 am when I got to campus to
teach my 8 am class.
I made up a long string to attach to my USB (I didn't have time to shop
for some weird thing that I could attach between the USB and maybe my
car key chain. You try to find something weird like that you
spend hours trying to find it.) and I hope this does not happen again.
It was very nerve racking. posted by Dr. Hahn at 6:15 pm
2/20/16 from her Carbondale apartment
Students are always bringing me "lost and found items" from whatever
room I happen to be teaching in. I am kind of
amazed at the kinds of things that students lose. This
morning one of my students brought me a complete set of keys at the end
of my 8 am Organic I Lecture class. Last semester
someone had left an entire wallet and someone found it at the beginning
of my Organic Lecture 5:00 pm class. I usually take
these things and deliver them to the Chemistry office and students know
I guess to go look for "lost and found" items from there.
Last semester some students in my 5:00 pm class knew who the wallet belonged to and
one of the students wanted me to to go to the floor where this student
was taking his last class and deliver the wallet to this student because
the Chemistry office was closed.
I didn't do that because I just thought it would look weird. I just asked one of the students who knew who
this wallet belonged to to take the wallet to the student. I
just thought it would look odd for me to go chasing after some guy that
I do not know carrying his wallet at 6:30 pm after the end of my Organic
lecture class.
I don't know why I am supposed to function as the designated "lost and
found person". I think in the future if someone brings me
someone's keys or someone's wallet, I will just tell them to take it to
the Chemistry Department office themselves. I think I am too
nice and I sometimes feel as if people try to take advantage of my
niceness.
FYI: I am NOT TOO STUPID to make up a difficult exam.
It is actually easier to make up an exam which will flunk out the entire
class. It is much harder (& takes more time) to make up an
exam which is just difficult enough to help students learn but not so
difficult that students stop studying and give up. I believe
that taking exams and quizzes is part of the learning process.
posted by Dr. Hahn at 2:50 pm 2/10/16 from her SIU office Neckers 255
*****************
So I have to wear comfy shoes (no 5 inch stillettos for me) because I
walk around enough while teaching that if I wear uncomfortable shoes, I
end up hobbling around. So my comfy shoes that I can wear
when it rains makes this very distinctive clacking sound.
These shoes are really comfortable but make so much noise that people
can hear me walking down the hallway maybe 200 yards away.
It was so odd but I am sitting in my office and I swear I hear my shoes'
twin shoe. I swear I thought that I was walking in
front of my office while I was sitting in my office. Turns
out it is a male grad student. Usually women wear noisy
shoes and guys wear such quite shoes that you can't even tell when they
are 5 inches from you because of the quite shoes. There you
go doppelganger shoes. I think that perhaps I will be
clacking away down some hallway when I am nowhere nearby.
I came home a little early because it is final exams week.
Usually universities become half populated during final exams week so I
don't like hanging around late because it feels unsafe.
Anyway classes are done but I still have a stack of my Organic II exams
still to grade (14 pages x 2/3 not multiple choice x around 50 exams).
I still am in the process of writing the Final Exam for my Organic I
class (I have to make up 3 versions). I can't teach from
home but I certainly can make up exams and grade at home.
posted by Dr. Hahn at around 4:30 pm 12/16/15 from her Carbondale
Apartment
*********************************
Thanksgiving holiday started on Wednesday (11/25) at SIU. It
is possible that the offices might have been open but since there were
no classes to teach, I did not go into my office. I did ask
at the beginning of the semester while in an HR start of job meeting in
which faculty were mixed in with Illinois public service workers "You
mean I am suppose to come to campus and sit in my office twiddling my
thumbs because there are no classes to teach but I am not officially
supposed to be on a holiday ?" to which the reply was use your good
judgement.
So here was my Thanksgiving meal: You think I am
kidding, right ? Nope. This was it.
OK, I did put some canned chili, lettuce and canned diced tomatoes with
chili on top of it. This is my annual celebration of
eating whatever I feel like eating rather than doing a bad imitation of
a Thanksgiving dinner. No one would eat a plate of chips for
dinner unless you are eating by yourself. So I can either
feel sorry for myself or I can celebrate "my annual celebration of
eating whatever I want to eat".
I considered going home to my parents in Columbia, SC for Thanksgiving
(& I would have eaten a normal Thanksgiving dinner there) but it is a 10
hour drive and I would have to spend 2 of 5 holiday days driving by
myself and I also had to make up 2 exams for my 2 Organic Chemistry
Lectures which I am giving on the Wednesday after Thanksgiving.
Also if I drove 20 hours, I would have been exhausted from all the
driving. I do have my Exam III for both my Organic I
and Organic II Lecture classes almost all done.
I also went shopping on Saturday. I considered going
out on "Black Friday" but you always see all those people fighting each
other for deals & I really didn't have any real "Black Friday"
doorbuster needs. I did have to go grocery shopping or I
would have run out of milk for my coffee, OJ, lettuce, etc so I did have
to go out since I last grocery shopped on last Friday. I
went to the Mall & grocery shopped / neccesity shopped at the Walmart
and picked up a few "Black Friday" deals. I bought
"thermal curtains" (on sale at Walmart) for my apartment because
the windows are not well insulated and it is getting cold and my
apartment manager said that if I bought window hardware, the apartment
would install it.
I can always tell when someone confuses me for someone else because
people will act weird in a way that does not fit with the way that I
actually act. I don't know why but people would go into fits
of giggles whenever my grocery cart was next (within 6 inches of)
to some "studentish types" grocery carts. I have no idea
why. It was a little unsettling. I
felt like slapping total strangers but I didn't.
I do believe that there is some undergraduate student who doesn't have
much money and no car (as would most students) who looks sort of like me
and perhaps wears a skirt suit like I do. I wear skirt suits
because I need all the authority that I can muster because I am afterall
teaching ~250 premed type students. I am not an uppity
undergraduate or graduate student who goes around wearing a skirt suit.
I also heard early in the semester that I was seen exercising at the
University gym. I only went to the University gym one
time and that was to get the free flu shots for University employees.
I do not exercise at all at the University gym. I do video
excercies at my apartment if I excercise at all. Most people
think I excercise a lot but I really don't. I'm usually too
busy making up or grading the 12 quizzes and 6 exams that I am giving my
2 Organic Lectures this semester. posted by Dr. Hahn
on 11/29/15 Sunday at 12:30 noon from her SIU apartment
****************
After teaching my 5 pm class (ends 6:15 pm) on Wednesday (10/28), I ran
into about 10 people (graduate students, undergrad research students ?)
all leaving at the same time for maybe a seminar or meeting ? (I don't
really know.) Then I hear very clearly the maintenance guy
on his phone calling his wife (?) saying see you soon or something like
that and then some other guy all the way down the hallway (talking to
someone that I can't see) says OK, I'll meet with you tomorrow.
I was not involved in any of these conversations but it almost sounded
as if I was talking to these two guys although I was not.
Yesterday the UPS guy tried to deliver some box of chemicals to me.
I told him that those things get delivered to the stockroom and he tells
me that he knows nothing about where they make deliveries.
If I was being nice, I would have signed for it but really I don't know
who ordered this stuff and I don't want to be responsible for someone's
chemicals so I sent the UPS guy down to the departmental office.
I thought it was a little odd that a UPS guy did not know where the
chemicals are delivered in the Chemistry department.
On the same day one of the grad students thanks me for emailing him
about his box being delivered.
I did not email him about the box being delivered. Actually I
don't even know the name of this grad student. I have
seen this grad student walk around outside my office all the time and my
name is prominantly displayed on my office door. I did nto
email him because I am not the secretary and I don't even know who this
guy is. I am not the departmental assistant. I
am not the stockroom guy. I don't work for the stockroom
guy. I have no idea why this grad student would thank me for
emailing him about his chemical having been delivered unless he confused
my name with the name of the person who did email him.
Although I think even that sounds a little far fetched.
My parents did send me two packages by FEDEX in the last two weeks and
it did get delivered to the stockroom. One package was a
Halloween Gift and the other was stuff I needed which I forgot to bring
with me when I moved. My father is Dr. Hahn so the stockroom
log said delivery from Dr. Hahn to Hahn. It almost sounded
like Dr. Hahn is actually in South Carolina right now and maybe I am
Hahn who is not Dr. Hahn but maybe is either Dr. Hahn's wife or Dr.
Hahn's daughter who does not have a doctorate. Actually my
father is Dr. Hahn (doctorate in Physics) and I am Dr. Hahn also
(doctorate in Chemistry). It was not a deliverery of
chemicals or biological supplies from some Dr. Hahn in SC.
My parents live in Columbia, SC. Yes, the Columbia SC with
all those floods and failing dams. They called me around
flood time by cell phone and they said that their telephone land line
was dead because their electricty was shut off because of the flooding.
But they live in a part of town that never floods so they said that
nothing happend where they live except for the electricity being out for
a full 10 hour day.
No, I did not start working as a secretary. No, I did not
start working in the stockroom. No I did not start doing
research under the supervision of some other professor. So
if you want to get a good grade in my class, students should just study
hard. Doing research with some other professor will have
absolutely no effect because I am not doing research under anyone and I
wouldn't know if you were in talks to do research with some other
professor because that has absolutly nothing to do with me.
posted by Dr. Juliet Hahn (chemist) from her Carbondale apartment on
10/29/15 at 9:30 pm
Odd: I walk down the hallway the same time as some guy that
I do not know and oddly the guy walks at the same rate as me and follows
for a really long way. If I was looking at us walking down
the hallway and knew nothing about the guy and me, I would think that I
was walking down the hallway together with the guy although I have no
idea whatsover who this guy is because I have never met the guy before
in my life. Some person who works at the cafeteria sits at
the table next to me and talks that they are going to go to work at 3 pm
to another cafeteria worker. It almost sounds as if I said
that to someone because it is the next table. Someone talks
about cooking while standing next to me and then I hear that I am a
fabulous cook and that I am in consideration for some sort of cooking
job - no one would even think to say something so silly about a man with
a PHD in Chemistry. Besides I don't cook that well - fortunately I
am not that sensitive to food flavors or I would not even be able to eat
anything I cook. Apparently someone is spreading the rumor
that the girl carrying all those exams and grading is some sort of
undergraduate intern - non essential employee of the university.
My goodness if some undergraduate student could teach 250 Organic
Chemistry students, grade 250 Organic Chemistry exams, zerox 250
exams, make up the exams and cook up
fabulous seminar snacks, my what a good deal for the university.
But no - an undergraduate student cannot teach 250 Organic Chemistry
premed/ prepharmacy students, and undergraduate students cannot grade
Organic Chemistry Lecture exams. I can't cook to save my
life and I did cut my finger to the point of having to go to the
emergency room while trying to cook so no I am not the person who makes
up the Chemistry seminar snacks. posted by Dr.
Hahn at 10:20 pm 10/27/15 from her Carbondale apartment
Friday (10/16/15) was really busy. I had a line of students
waiting to ask me questions during my office hour from 10 to 10:50 am
and then I taught Organic I from 11 to 11:50 am (the 130 student class
in Neckers 240 - the speaking podium is on the first floor) and then I
had to take the elevator up to the 2nd floor to teach my Organic II from
12 to 12:50 pm (the 50 student class is in Neckers 218). I did not
have my 5 pm to 6:15 pm Organic I class (with about 70 students) on
Friday because that class only meets on Monday and Wednesday. I
had to take the elevator because I was returning Quiz III in my file
folder boxes (2 of them) which is organized by first letter of last
name. This was the second day of returning quizzes but a few
people always miss the first return day. There was an exam
in the class before my class in Neckers 240 so there were 5 graduate
students and while I got set up for my projection system, the last class
kept taking their exams.
Then I always get student who ask me questions at the end of my 12 pm
class so I usually get out of that class between 1 and 1:05pm.
I usually have students who want to continue to ask questions but I
always ask them to come see me later because if I don't eat lunch then,
I end up eating lunch at 2 or 2:30 pm or some ridiculous time like that.
Then I had to adjust my quizzes because of how much class material I
covered on 10/16 so my quiz was ready to xerox at around 3 or 3:30 pm.
I scheduled all my quizzes for all 3 Organic sections to be given on the
same day so I have to make up 5 different quizzes (there are 2 version
in the 11 am and 12 pm class because they are packed in like sardines).
I scheduled almost all the exam and quiz days for Monday because I
thought that the exam making schedule would be kind of tight.
Almost every Friday around 3 pm to 4 pm, I am zeroxing my quizzes and
exams. (I try not to do it on the weekend because I had copy machine and
paper finding problems when I did it early in the semester and narrowly
missed having no exam on the scheduled exam day) I did not
know when I scheduled my syllabus but there is a seminar almost every
Friday. Seminar snacks are in front of the Chemistry office
(where I zerox my exams) and the student assistant sets up snacks around
the same time that I end up copying my exams. It usually takes
about an hour for me to copy my exams and it usually takes the student
assistant about an hour to put out the snacks.
So while I almost always end up talking to whoever happens to be in the
chemistry office while I am copying exams/quizzes for an hour sometimes
with the seminar snackers outside the office eating. For
instance this time I was mentioning that I had a cold because my office
was really cold. I have had 2 colds since being in that
office in 2 months so far. I bought a heater and brought in
an actual winter coat. I am always the coldest person in any
room full of people anyway but I am also usually sitting at my desk not
really moving much. Fortunately I am pretty healthy so usually I
just cough and wheeze trailing tissue paper everywhere for a week and
then I am OK (knock wood).
I hand out the answer key to the quiz/exam when I return the exam with
common mistakes and common points listed on it so that if I make a
mistake on my partial credit exam/quiz the students can correct me.
One student asked me why they had not received the other versions of the
quiz/exam. I would like to copy and hand out the other
versions to everyone but then for one 10 page exam each student would
have to have received a (30 page answer key x 200) & (20 page key x 50)
= 7000 pages for one exam.
My answer was that it was too much copying. I copy so much already
(I do give 6 quizzes and 3 exams and a final exam to each of my lecture
sections) that everybody thinks that I am the office worker who copies
exams for some professor already. I do look awfully young
for my chronological age that people always think that I am the little
girl who works for Dr. Hahn. If I walk behind some older
woman at the supermarket towards my car, I think people think that I am
actually the little servant girl who works for Dr. Hahn who cooks and
cleans for Dr. Hahn (some elderly woman). I actually think that some
people think that I am an undergraduate student assistant or that I am
maybe a partime professor (who maybe teaches one class) who also cooks
and makes the snacks for the chemistry deparment seminar and copies
exams for all the other professors. Nope. I am a
full time Lectuer teaching ~ 250 Organic Chemitry Lecture students.
This is the Organic Chemistry for majors, pre-meds and pre-pharmacy
students not the "Chemistry Lite" for nonmajors.
My mom and several people have told me that I should be really happy
that I get mistaken for being an undergraduate assistant but I am
telling you it is no fun. People always underestimate me.
They think oh all we have to do is just be a little mean to her and she
is going to cry and quit or something like that. Nope.
I may look like that itty bitty little slip of a thing but you should
treat me thinking of what a person who looks like the fictional
Gibbs of the TV show NCIS would react because on the inside, I really
look and think like that.
I got back to my office after copying all my exams on Friday and then it
was really noisy around my office. The professor who has the
office next to my office was perhaps expanding his lab into the lab next
to my office (I am not really sure what it was) but there was a lot of
furniture moving and students running around and talking a lot.
I couldn't really concentrate in my office so I left my office a little
earlier than normal and went grocery shopping.
I was parking my car in the faculty parking lot about a half a block
away from my apartment but I found that I can park in front of my
apartment building because almost nobody parks in the metered spaces
on the weekends so nobody enforces the parking on the weekends.
But I am looking out on my car in front of my apartment building but I
see that some other red car is parked where I normally park in the
faculty parking lot. Normally nobody parks there on the
weekends. Then I also see another red car parked 2 spaces
back in the metered space in front of my apartment. Usually
you don't see so many red cars. Yesterday I came home and
almost all the metered spaces were occupied so I had to park a little
back from my window so I moved it this morning after the space in front
of my window became empty.
I "talk" (blog) too much don't I. Oh well.
I do talk to my mom almost an hour a day by phone when I am not too
busy. posted by Dr. Hahn on 10/17/15 at 6:30 pm
from her Carbondale apartment updated 10/22 Thursday by Dr. Hahn at 9:30
am from her SIU office