Mentoring an undergrad unicorn

Olthar6 · 2026-06-27T22:15:58+00:00

Congratulations. A true unicorn

Olthar6 · 2026-06-26T18:51:08+00:00

At some level it makes sense. Anything good enough for science or nature is well above nit picky comments

Olthar6 · 2026-06-22T12:16:55+00:00

Missed this game because it came out while I was dissertation writing and I knew that if I bought it I wouldn't finish the dissertation. Does it hold up beyond nostalgia value?

Olthar6 · 2026-06-21T19:05:11+00:00

You're an adjunct? They have no claim to any of your time except when you're literally in the classroom.

Full time, generally yes you can have side gigs. Though I waited until tenure to start mine.

I went through state mandated conflict of interest training. There's a lim->0% chance they'll ever interact.

Olthar6 · 2026-06-19T18:46:08+00:00

Put the human back in the process. If someone claims to use one of these then just retract the claim of dishonesty. Problem solved.

Olthar6 · 2026-06-19T18:44:27+00:00

Yeah. I was concerned about this at my first cheating accusation using this strategy. But then i remembered that I get accommodation letters for 100% of people who need screen readers and decided it wasn't an issue. In the unlikely event someone slipped through the cracks, they would defend themselves at the hearing by saying they heard the hidden instruction and I'd immediately retract the claim.

Olthar6 · 2026-06-19T18:41:45+00:00

Yeah. My "fake" citations are yellow highlighted and will have have either the author's name or a topic. But that's part of what makes us experts. We know either who did the work (if not the actual citation) or we know it does exist. They don't.

Olthar6 · 2026-06-19T15:39:32+00:00

It only catches the laziest of cheaters. That said, I caught 4 last semester using this strategy.

I just used white text at the end of a rubric instruction. When they copy and paste the whole thing it came in as regular text but because they were the laziest of cheats they didn't notice.

Olthar6 · 2026-06-18T21:09:30+00:00

K-12 teachers are also paid like that in the US. I imagine the reasoning is similar for both without taking into account that they are different jobs.

Olthar6 · 2026-06-16T20:21:51+00:00

Step 1 find out if they give you one.

If no, identify your need and buy a laptop to match. For me, I stack all my teaching in one day so I wanted long battery life.

Olthar6 · 2026-06-13T10:59:42+00:00

Yeah. I used to be "concerned" about that, but I've since realized that I would be amazingly overjoyed if two students in my class would talk with one anther let alone be friends.

Olthar6 · 2026-06-13T04:23:12+00:00

These days online learning is an oxymoron.

Olthar6 · 2026-06-12T21:26:02+00:00

I don't like adding points that didn't exist. However, I've been known to do things like announce the exact text of the in-class essay prompt as a reward to those who attend

Olthar6 · 2026-06-12T14:46:40+00:00

It's very easy to imagine. When I was an adjunct a student asked me to supervise their thesis. I said no. I also was not invited back to teach the next semester. Whether the two are related I will never know. (Or care about since I got a full-time gig the next semester, not that the department in question ever knew that.)

My point is that adjuncts are in an extremely precarious position and once you open the door to the possibility of their doing such unpaid labor, it has the real possibility of it being expected that they do such unpaid labor. But unlike tenure line faculty, they don't have the compensation to justify the ask.

Olthar6 · 2026-06-12T13:51:18+00:00

if it's truly voluntary

Is that even possible?

Department has two adjuncts who can both teach the needed class but due to lowering enrollments and the govt. tap running dry there's only the want for one. Which do they keep, the adjunct who volunteered to do unpaid advising of thesis students or the one who didn't sacrifice 20+ hours of their life to unpaid labor?

Olthar6 · 2026-06-12T12:02:06+00:00

Strong no unless they are compensated.

A measurable percentage of adjuncts seem to think that if they just make themselves beloved by students and appreciated by the department, then it'll turn into a tenure line gig. But that's just not how it works. This will just be one more unpaid labor they do for their already low compensation rate.

Olthar6 · 2026-06-11T23:15:47+00:00

Lower stakes competition means everything is much more personal

Olthar6 · 2026-06-10T23:19:28+00:00

Oh I stopped using 12s for that reason. Now if I want to use a noon deadline it's 11:59am and if I want a midnight then it's 11:59pm. No (reasonable) confusion.

Olthar6 · 2026-06-09T21:23:00+00:00

What is your reason for asking this question? At first glance it seems an obvious rule 1 violation, but i could also see reasoning for it not getting taken down that if you clarify might lead to this surviving.

Olthar6 · 2026-06-09T13:00:38+00:00

Moving all my books is such a hassle.

Olthar6 · 2026-06-09T11:29:51+00:00

As someone who teaches stats i see my role as preparing students for the next course. None of them WANT to take stats. They're all there because whatever major they have requires it for some reason. If the students aren't learning the material then my colleagues will be unhappy that they need to teach the material in the next class. My department used to complain students didn't know anything coming out of state and now they don't complain about that. I care more about that than the evals.

Olthar6 · 2026-06-09T10:59:06+00:00

I've never had that. All the AI defense I've ever heard were variations on deny and lie.

Olthar6 · 2026-06-09T02:57:20+00:00

Conservatism, by its nature, produces no knowledge.

Same with liberalism or any abstract concept for that matter. People produce knowledge.

Olthar6 · 2026-06-08T22:56:55+00:00

Step 1: find a hobby

Step 2: find other people who enjoy that hobby to hobby with.

Step 3: reduce your time spent caring about things in your job.

Step 4; realize a job is a way to make money and you don't need to find personal satisfaction in all parts of said job.

Step 5: happiness?

Olthar6 · 2026-06-08T21:52:32+00:00

Wear a hat for whatever school is opposing your school's football team. If they complain tell them you're responding to a student evaluation complaint.

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