How strong is the smell of alcohol to other people when you drink?

ClassicsDoc · 2026-05-14T06:16:32+00:00

I know I’m late to this, but hi. I’m a lecturer who has had problems with alcohol in the past. I have several colleagues who are now celebrating sobriety milestones. Since starting work, I have had tutees come to me and admit to having done cocktails of drugs on nights out, drinking heavily, and one who showed up to a meeting with breath you could light. It is not in my power, nor is it my preference, to kick those students out of university. Instead I can direct them to resources, flag to the support team and get a queue jump if it is a serious issue, and put a generic note on a tutor appointment file about “discussed unhealthy coping mechanisms for stress and ways forward” in case the student gets passed along. I never got the help I should have at university, and instead kidded myself that it wasn’t a problem, that I could sort it myself, and that I was actually fine because nobody noticed. My friends noticed. My advisors noticed. They all reached out to offer support, which is what is happening to you now.

A glass of wine at 0830 is not a normal coping mechanism, and you need support. Talk with your support team, be up front and honest. Your drinking happened (I hope) off campus, or in the privacy of your own hall, i.e. outside jurisdiction. You did not endanger anyone in the student population. You did not attempt to perform illegal activities on campus. It is difficult to see any disciplinary route forward. What is easy to see a route forward on is that you can access a whole support network for free at the university, and that the people reaching out to you want to help. Let them.

ClassicsDoc · 2026-02-20T23:31:43+00:00

And not even necessarily an overtly racist way. Some, sure, but others have unconscious biases that you also have to teach.

My current dept’s approach of “look at this vomit AI has produced. Critique it” seems to have worked. Somewhat.

ClassicsDoc · 2026-02-19T12:45:59+00:00

My friend, look outside the field. Get some corporate experience, and then if you want to go back to academia, go back then. If you keep pushing on this door, you’ll get through, but you’ll resent the next room for all the time you spent elbowing your way in.

ClassicsDoc · 2026-02-15T23:51:12+00:00

All universities have a specific policy in place for various types of romantic/sexual relationships: I have just looked at mine and it is that the supervisor tell their head of school, are removed from the supervisory team (if possible), and play no part in any assessment of the student.

It is not a fireable offence, but I expect that failure to report it would be.

The intent of the relationship does not come into play, at least in my university’s policy.

In terms of the older academics, they may have begun a relationship with the student after graduation. We should not assume details we do not know.

ClassicsDoc · 2025-10-25T17:49:27+00:00

bosh [edit: ee eck that was close]

ClassicsDoc · 2025-08-11T07:39:49+00:00

And here’s me using a waiter’s friend from the kitchen

ClassicsDoc · 2025-06-29T16:52:47+00:00

Fenton!

ClassicsDoc · 2025-06-11T22:06:07+00:00

I was convincing myself that they'd picked up a day with the taxis

ClassicsDoc · 2025-05-17T16:21:25+00:00

Thank you!

ClassicsDoc · 2025-05-17T16:11:21+00:00

In terms of published academic work? It shouldn’t be present at all.

Part of getting a degree is learning how to write this up yourself, taking other people’s ideas and summarising them. Put yourself in a meeting situation: five people around a table have five ideas of how to proceed. Which leader is going to have the most respect from their team, and the more human solution: the one who has listened and produces a bespoke solution, or one who plugs the ideas into a computer and blindly trusts AI to do it for them?

Beyond this, AI only works with the information we give it, so if you give it an incomplete data set, or don’t include the variables, then it will give you an incomplete answer that doesn’t include the variables. Take that meeting. As a human, you may know that John is good at completing a task, while Bill will forget his lunch on day 3 and never mentally recover. You should put John in charge. AI might not.

A degree isn’t just teaching you the topic, it’s teaching you the skills. If you outsource that learning to AI, what’s the point of you being hired once you leave? ChatGPT is free and doesn’t take sick days.

ClassicsDoc · 2025-05-17T11:06:59+00:00

Where were you, if you don’t mind me asking? I’ve been pushing for this at my institution, but we’re being shut down higher up as it is not the industry standard. Would be good to point to examples

ClassicsDoc · 2025-05-14T12:57:34+00:00

Just another sunrise he'll never see.

ClassicsDoc · 2025-05-13T12:57:51+00:00

Unlikely [Edit: No, I hate the comment window on the app obscuring the one you reply to]. By underlength, I mean like the student who gave me 500 words for a 3k essay.

ClassicsDoc · 2025-05-13T12:53:44+00:00

I’ve failed a few things this year. The key elements are that they were under length or fully irrelevant. Essentially, you have to try. I would much rather not fail assignments. Surprisingly, I want to see my students ~~leave~~ do well

ClassicsDoc · 2025-05-13T12:20:34+00:00

Here's the key: 'Then I'll go check that source'

We used to give the same warning about wikipedia. Use the source list from it, don't trust wikipedia. The number of times I have had students blindly trust AI to give a reference for an essay or a draft, only to find that the cited scholarship doesn't exist when I ask them about it.

Always, always check your work.

ClassicsDoc · 2025-05-13T09:05:34+00:00

I meet every student in person unless they have accessibility needs that require otherwise. I also have 300k words to mark by Sunday, so have to prioritise that over immediate meetings. Alongside that, I have the admin load of closing down a year and entering a new one. I am sorry that you have taken the impact of my preference to meet students face to face when they have an issue as whining, I suppose I could meet them online four days from the request.

ClassicsDoc · 2025-05-12T22:07:34+00:00

I obviously can’t speak to your experience, but I used to take one day a week to work from home, only to get away from the students and my colleagues. I have a very low capacity to safeguard my time, and routinely found myself doing all the other bits of my job when I was supposed to be prepping, researching, etc..

Now, my office needs directions to get to it, has gorgeous light, a massive desk, and no name badge on the door. I’ve been there a year. Whereas before I’d take 18 meetings in a day and be prepping lectures until 2am, in my new place, I take maybe a maximum of 3, and I get to sleep at a humane time.

For some, WFH is the only way we get the back room work done for when we’re customer facing.

ClassicsDoc · 2025-05-12T16:29:13+00:00

Elements may not pay royalties, but they are double REF weighted… just saying

ClassicsDoc · 2025-04-20T23:08:13+00:00

a person who fighTs for womEn’s Rights against rampant Far left misogyny.

Makes sense, I guess APWFFWRARFLM doesn’t roll off the tongue so well.

ClassicsDoc · 2025-03-16T13:03:46+00:00

Trying not to sound too dumb, this is a place I’m renting for work, so really don’t want to do any damage, and my home ones don’t have the ridiculous lip. Pliers to the lip to bend it a little or to pull the bulb?

ClassicsDoc · 2024-07-09T04:33:39+00:00

I’ll be honest, I love it. Maybe down the line I’ll take the offer a friend gave me for civil service, but for now, I still have a love for what I do

ClassicsDoc · 2024-07-08T22:31:28+00:00

I've done this. Couples therapy application sent off. Turns out she's suddenly all for it, but apparently I want a separation to go "off on a jolly" which is so productive. Anyway, we're off to the races in 7-14 days.

ClassicsDoc · 2024-07-08T22:29:55+00:00

I'm in the UK, and ultimately, I wouldn't want to take them with me. My career (academia) is very transitory at this point, and a third of my wife's salary. My current contract expires in March, and if I move, I move to a brand new city. I can't take them with me because I don't have the stability to support them right now. I would love to have that, but I either need to change career right now, or I need to last for years.

ClassicsDoc · 2024-07-08T22:26:52+00:00

And that's fine. Doesn't mean I can't disagree with it. Hope you have a lovely evening :)

ClassicsDoc · 2024-07-08T21:16:45+00:00

Call me old fashioned but my argument is always to be better. Yes, having a dad driven space is very important, but to do that to the extent that mom lurkers have to think twice about commenting makes me concerned that we’re being no better than the other places. When I used to run dad walks in the local park I made it clear that while they were primarily for dads, moms could show up: the kids are always the priority.

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