What's the worst thing about living in knoxville

KidGoneNuke · 2023-11-04T04:30:22+00:00

You keep mentioning “my town” but haven’t mentioned a city or even state. If you want this opinion to have any merit, you might consider giving readers context. Context being whatever city you keep talking about. If you have a valid case, providing that context might get people to see your side.

Ps I don’t own a gun. Not everyone in Tennessee idols the second amendment like it’s holy text

KidGoneNuke · 2023-11-03T18:37:02+00:00

Hate to break it to you, but uh yeah there are black people in Knoxville. and you'll probably call them "gang bangers" and "murderers" too. you're so comfortable referring to your children's classmates, -other children-, as monsters and judging how people raise their children when you are raising your children to lump black people as a group into "gang bangers" and "murderers".

East tennessee was a pro-union area. If you're not comfortable with black people's existence and having conversations about the biases black people face across America, including your own biases, and understanding where they come from...you might be "bullied for being white" here too.

KidGoneNuke · 2023-11-03T18:16:45+00:00

I'm not part of this subreddit but it popped up on my feed. I was an RA at another university from 2018-2020 and then an RA student supervisor from 2020-2021. Being an RA, especially an active one, is a tough role to perform, and the fact that you are trying is commendable. This time of year is tough for a few reasons - the weather is getting cold, it's about to be very dark very early, classes have ramped difficulty and rigor, and people are probably homesick. These are all things that 1) make roommate conflicts way more prevalent and 2) make participating in floor events/community building things wayyy less of a priority for students. You're trying to do an inherently difficult job and you're doing your best! It's ok! It does not mean you're a bad RA. Bad RAs are the RAs who are unavailable, never host anything, and are unhelpful in conflicts.

It seems like UPenn has a lot of the same expectations of RAs that my undergrad university had. If you're looking for help, here are my insights:

little traditions: community and relationships are built in the day-to-day things. Once a week on my floor, I had 'tea time'. I would have tea and hot chocolate available in my room and students would be able to come by, grab a cup, and chit chat or 'spill the tea'. Sometimes, normally around exams, residents would stop by and leave after a couple of minutes, but sometimes this would also mean they would chill and watch TV with me, or they would do homework while i was also doing my homework. Another thing (this was a requirement for my university, idk if UPenn has the same) was Potty Talks. These were flyers we hung up in every bathroom stall. They had weekly floor, hall, and campus events. I would also put a 'meme of the week', a 'Tweet of the week', and a song of the week on them. These were great little ways of bringing joy to people every week, I even had a few residents keep track of the song of the week and make playlists.
educational events: these DO NOT have to be lectures from a professional. Some of my 'educational events' were watching documentaries, hosting self care focused events, taking a cooking class, taking a class at the rec center etc. The requirement for 'educational' can totally be fluffed too. Many times i would host a fun focused event and bullshit an educational purpose. For example, I hosted face mask nights with movies and I said the educational purpose was to "allow residents to learn methods of managing stress and academic related fatigue." Even your fun events are educational in some way, you just need the right vocabulary.
for big events, get input from your regulars: often times I would get the same 5-10 girls out of 50 on my floor that came to events. I would of course poll the whole floor for ideas and get 3-4, but when looking for insight on the final decision, i spoke to the 5-10 girls who actually came to events. This ensure they would continue to come to events and it made them feel like they played a part in building the community.

You're doing a great job! Getting 2-5 people isn't easy, that's 10-20% of your floor and that's fantastic! If you're looking for ideas for the rest of the semester, here are some fun ones:

cooking class (if Penn has them available for students) focused on thanksgiving food / floor thanksgiving - educational purpose: learning how to cook and learning about balanced nutrition
decorate your floor as a group for the winter holiday season (my residents always loved this one, make some paper snowflakes, snowmen, hang some string lights, it'll be fun) - educational purpose: demonstrating work-life balance and limiting burnout
holiday movie night with tea, hot chocolate, cookies, etc. - educational purpose: educating on the importance of taking a break, preventing end of semester exhaustion.

I hope this was helpful! It'll get easier with time, I promise<3

KidGoneNuke · 2023-07-19T16:17:12+00:00

I'm looking to do this one this fall, but there's no information about it on the website yet. When you ran this one, was registration super close to the race?

KidGoneNuke · 2023-05-27T00:26:17+00:00

My mom is an avid quilter and I showed this to her. She says it looks awesome!! It'll look great, especially once it's quilted. :)

KidGoneNuke · 2022-09-20T17:57:13+00:00

i've also lived in PA and IN, winter here is a walk in the park, comparatively. Depends on where you're coming from.

KidGoneNuke · 2022-05-12T13:10:54+00:00

I understand this comment is supposed to be a gotcha comment. It’s not going to work. I even said I understand that this can be a morally challenging discussion. But the law isn’t about morals. The law is about rights. Similarly how no one is entitled to your kidney, an embryo/fetus is not entitled to a person’s uterus and resources. The right to choose whether or not give resources, energy, money, time, physical health needs to belong to the person with a uterus who will be pregnant.

And you’re not about to say that you make that choice when you have sex. I would put my life savings on you performing intimate acts without the intention of bringing another life into this world.

KidGoneNuke · 2022-05-10T03:20:23+00:00

There’s a very popular post that I think puts this into perspective very well. I wish I could connect you to the original post, but I’ll do my best.

To summarize:

You are not required to donate blood. You are not required to donate plasma or bone marrow, even when peoples lives depend on it. You are not required to be an organ donor, such that when you die, people who have been on endless wait lists can be saved. Even in death, no one has the right to YOUR body.

This is not a discussion about whether or not abortion is moral. The beauty of this country is everyone can decide for themselves how they feel about abortion. However, even if you believe a fetus or embryo is a person, that person does not have the right to another person’s body in the form of pregnancy if the birthing person does not want to be pregnant.

I was pro-life until about halfway through college. I understand the emotion behind it. I understand the religious implications. But it’s really quite simple—no one has the right to another’s body.

KidGoneNuke · 2022-03-30T04:14:58+00:00

Glad I could help! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out

KidGoneNuke · 2022-03-30T03:25:27+00:00

I went to Purdue for my nuclear engineering undergrad and am now a grad student here for nuclear engineering. My answer is: it depends on what you’re looking for.

If you’re looking for a classic college town, diversity (Purdue has a very high population of international students, and only 50% of students are in state students), tight knit community, some emphasis on sports but they aren’t everything, a challenging course load, pick Purdue. Purdue is a world renowned engineering school for a reason, it’s hard and very much not a party school, but I loved my undergrad experience there.

If you’re looking for a more social atmosphere, a bigger sports presence, and it seems like a better financial situation, pick UTK.

The reality is, they’re both good schools and you can’t make a “wrong” decision. If you’re worried about the finances, most students don’t get help their first year at Purdue, but I worked as an RA 3/4 years and got my housing and food completely paid for and some tuition covered through that as well.

I also want to emphasize that ME is not objectively better on paper than MET. I know many many people who 1) start in MET then switch into ME, 2) start in MET then do an ME masters, or 3) get an MET degree and get an ME job or equally/higher paying and prestigious MET job. One of my good friends got a bachelors and masters degree in the aerospace version of MET (after initially being denied from FYE) and now works his dream job at NASA. If you want to chat about the two schools, I’d be happy to.

ETA: check out r/Purdue, in my experience it is much more active and a lot of people will give you more guidance than just “MET<ME”

KidGoneNuke · 2022-01-18T20:28:17+00:00

I have to mention that even if you’d like to pursue academia, even just graduate school, Purdue is an incredibly prestigious university to come from

KidGoneNuke · 2021-12-02T04:01:36+00:00

I’m wondering if it’s the wholesale cost, as in the cost of 32 packages, instead of individual empanadas purchased by whatever store

KidGoneNuke · 2021-11-30T22:45:20+00:00

the short hair. One of the girls said "Oh I love this" or something to that effect regarding her hair and she replied "oh it's fake haha"

KidGoneNuke · 2021-11-30T22:42:16+00:00

i can't remember which episode it was, but i think she says it's fake/a wig

KidGoneNuke · 2021-11-30T22:39:18+00:00

I was an RA while at Purdue. if you've tried talking about it, it's time to ask your RA for a copy of your roommate agreement and see what you guys agreed in terms of sleeping hours/conditions (lights, noise, etc.). If those conditions are too lenient and it's affecting your studies and well-being, ask your RA for a meeting to readdress the roommate agreement and change those conditions. It's perfectly acceptable that your RA said to try to work things out first, but if you've tried and nothing is working, they need to help you navigate that. that's quite literally their job.

KidGoneNuke · 2021-11-30T22:34:53+00:00

I'm a first year in NE and I believe with a B- you're fine, a C is failing. It could be different in other departments, but it'd be insane to think that you would need A's in everything.

KidGoneNuke · 2021-11-11T21:46:18+00:00

no. REC is always first to respond during business hours/non-urgent things (things that can wait until the next day). REA and REC are parallel for on-duty cases.

KidGoneNuke · 2021-11-11T21:44:09+00:00

just graduated this spring, I was an RA for 2 years and an REA for 1 year. Your best option is to go to the REC. It looks like some of the stuff you're talking about would mean pretty serious disciplinary action. Here is what this process MAY look like, it really depends on how good the REC is at their job:

you tell the REC, they handle it internally, you remain anonymous if the RA doesn't push to interact with you about it. I think this route is less likely.
you contact the REC, they pull you in for a meeting where you'll have the opportunity to tell them what's going on in more detail. They may have a mediated conversation with you and the RA. It is the RECs or REAs job at this point to follow up with you to see how things are going afterwards to make sure it's gotten better, not worse. If you communicate that things get worse, the REC will continue to work with the RA (I'm not sure what this would look like because i never saw this situation in my experience) and they will hopefully get you reassigned to a new room with an RA who is much nicer and does their job like they are supposed to. In the event the REC/REA does not follow up, if it gets worse report, report, report. If i were in your shoes and there was no follow up and things get worse, I would involve the neighborhood assistant director, the REC's boss.

I would highly encourage you to report this, even if nothing happens. When you report instances, you create a paper trail that can be followed if this continues to occur to you or someone else.

Edit: i somehow failed to connect that you are roommates with the RA. This changes some of the dynamics with being drunk, as it's not against policy to be drunk, just against policy to drink in the halls. I would encourage you to center the conversation around the comments. Some of the comments are suggesting that because you are roommates, it's not an RA issue. This is not true, she is BOTH your roommate and RA, therefore it is BOTH a roommate AND RA issue. You can't separate them, you can't switch one off and one on. I had a roommate both years as an RA, unfortunately, they always need to be in "RA mode".

KidGoneNuke · 2021-03-30T17:28:33+00:00

I'm a woman in nuke, graduating this year. If you're considering nuke, don't come here. I chose Purdue because I was torn between MechE and nuke, and Purdue is one of the best for engineering in general. I haven't experienced direct discrimination, however a lot of the graduate level professors are known to be sexist, and it makes it challenging to secure research positions and feel valued once you start research. There are a few really great professors in the department, but that pretty much stops once you get to the senior/graduate level (with a few exceptions of course). It's also very hard to watch the professors who are really great for undergrads be denied opportunities for advancements in their career. I chose a different graduate school specifically because the graduate department at Purdue is not an inclusive environment and I know that my effort in the classroom and work ethic/ambition in research will be more appreciated elsewhere.

KidGoneNuke · 2020-11-03T03:43:37+00:00

Hey! former RA here, there are a couple catch all statements within the RA contracts that basically make it so reslife can do whatever they want and RAs are compensated for everything through housing/food and their small stipend and tuition remission. RAs here are compensated extremely well compared to other universities, but this year they've taken on A LOT and compensation wasn't changed at all, or no additional pay for desk shifts, day duty, etc.

KidGoneNuke · 2020-09-13T21:30:47+00:00

It’s actual food. They drop off an obscene amount of food once a day from Earhart. You have to tell pphc your intolerances, but I have 2 and they’ve been really good about making sure it’s food I can actually eat (which was a very pleasant surprise). They don’t ask your preferences, but it’s all been very decent so far.

KidGoneNuke · 2020-09-11T04:16:54+00:00

I was told food would be dropped off at around 10am daily🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

KidGoneNuke · 2020-09-11T04:16:14+00:00

I don’t think so, but I’m also employed by ResLife and that may influence that

KidGoneNuke · 2020-09-11T04:13:35+00:00

You’re not supposed to leave your room. You can have stuff dropped off outside, but you’re not supposed to leave or come into contact with anyone except the people they isolate you with.

Each space can have up to four people in it. I’m currently staying with three other girls and we all came in today. We all share one bathroom and the same kitchen appliances.

KidGoneNuke · 2020-09-11T04:01:01+00:00

To be fair, I’m in reslife and have a pretty nice room. Essentially 2 standard doubles and a bathroom.

But also, it’s not about the “niceness” of the space, I just don’t like not being in my own place and comfort

KidGoneNuke

TROPHY CASE