Sunday, November 12, 2017

Holding academia to account, Bingo version

You know those bingo cards that appear every so often on Twitter or Facebook? The one I usually see is for department meetings.

I wonder if we could have a scorecard with Bingo squares or points for the times we hear and see things like the following, either stated or implied:
  1. "He should still get the award, because his personal life has no bearing on the tremendous contribution he has made to scholarship. Aesthetics and the life of the mind is important; what happened to that grad student was beside the point. Besides, that incident was years ago."
  2. Woman faculty member is interrupted and talked over.
  3.  Woman makes a point,  and it's ignored; man makes the same point two minutes later, and it's brilliant.
  4. "It wasn't such a big deal. She should get over it." 
  5. Faculty of color asked to be on a zillion committees or outreach projects and then criticized for producing less scholarship.
  6. "He's going to retire soon, anyway. There's no point in pursuing it."
  7. "That's just how he acts; the bullying and yelling isn't about you personally. Stay out of his way and you'll be fine."
  8. "This whole process will be a lot easier if we just give Professor Y what he wants in terms of this time slot/this course assignment/this committee assignment/this candidate for admission. Otherwise, he'll pitch a fit and make our lives miserable. Professor X won't complain about teaching at 8 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. MWF, so let's give that schedule to her."
  9. "If he leaves the department, he'll take that big grant/that journal/that prestigious reputation to another university. He brings prestige, so we can't make waves."
  10. "[Women faculty] should be in their offices more, in case students need to talk to them; they need the emotional support.  As for me, I'm not going to the meeting. I have writing to do." 
 Any more for our scorecard?

5 comments:

heu mihi said...

OMG #8.

Although I do know a few female faculty who fit that bill, too.

Anonymous said...

All so true.

N.B. I was just asked to take over the service responsibilities of 2 men who have refused. They would take the percentage out of my research percentage. I am not joking.
It wasn't put to me in these terms, there is deniability, but it is what it comes down to. (I am going to say I will *consider* this if it comes with a promotion, and a course release instead of research time reduction, but honestly I think it is a Title IX issue... we'll see)

undine said...

heu mihi--I do, too. That particular brand of entitlement is an equal (gender) opportunity employer.

My chair asked me once why I wanted to have the particular administrative office(s) that I have held. My answer was "Justice." That sounds grandiose, but what I meant was that I was sick and tired of watching the person who could be the biggest pain in the keyster get the biggest perks just because they could unleash a nuclear level of unpleasant behavior if their wishes weren't heeded. As an administrator, I can see to it that they get the same treatment as everyone else, because I don't give a @#$$ what they think of me and don't scare easily.

profacero--say no! (Unless, of course, the opportunity allows you to mete out justice :).

sophylou said...

11. "Oh, yeah, I know that's one of our required individual goals, but I don't like it, so I'm just not going to do it," followed by no consequences whatsoever. Corollary: "That category of documentation listed in the online filesharing space isn't in the official document governing promotion, so I'm just not going to do it." :/

xykademiqz said...

Re No 3: Apparently, there is a term for that --- hepeating!

I know it happens to me a lot in faculty and various committee meetings -- I say something, if I manage to finish my thought without interruption I get ignored, and then a male colleague says the exact same thing and all of a sudden it's gold.

https://www.bustle.com/p/what-does-hepeated-mean-this-term-might-be-the-new-mansplaining-2437535

Also like this cartoon:

http://punch.photoshelter.com/image/I0000eHEXGJ_wImQ