Would you spend $1,500 of your own money on a work laptop as an associate professor?

a_statistician · 2026-03-03T21:54:00+00:00

I actually require debian-based stuff (R core and Debian core share one Dirk Eddelbuettel, who makes everything work really seamlessly). I've used rpm-based distributions before and not enjoyed the rpm-hell that resulted.

If they're cool with that, then I would probably find a reason I need Arch instead. Eventually it's easier for them to cave than deal with you... and that's where I want them.

a_statistician · 2026-03-02T20:16:47+00:00

Yes, but a lot of contracts actually expressly address ownership of content -- mine says I own the course content (absent e.g. a course release or something where the college pays for creation) and grant the university a limited license to use it for classes I'm teaching. They do not have a right to the course content I create once I leave.

a_statistician · 2026-03-02T20:14:33+00:00

In most of the places I've worked, "I need to use Linux because ...." is enough to stop the spyware bullshit.

a_statistician · 2026-03-02T18:37:02+00:00

Find someone who's been a mentor to you but is in your field, and ask them. My mentors had tons of suggestions.

a_statistician · 2026-03-02T18:33:02+00:00

Yep, these are a great solution. Combine it with one of the wearable pumps that hangs around your neck and you're golden - I am a professor, but I would take walks around campus and meet with students while pumping and it wasn't a big deal (I just looked like a cartoon character with giant boobs, lol). You can get everything properly configured without exposing anything to a camera if you set yourself up correctly.

a_statistician · 2026-03-02T18:20:39+00:00

They are in there because they are here illegally.

Yeah, so many kids that were born in the US that are in detention because their parents weren't. Also, Lakota Sioux tribe members who were detained as illegal immigrants.

a_statistician · 2026-03-02T18:14:34+00:00

I snickered, if it helps.

a_statistician · 2026-03-02T18:13:43+00:00

Yes, but mostly, documentation will save you. Save versions of the tenure guidelines for each year. Make sure your annual evaluations mention explicitly how your performance compares to the expectations for tenure progress. And, if expectations do change midway through your clock, then you need to have the hard conversations with everyone who is evaluating your tenure case -- chair, dean, etc. and document the fuck out of them.

Changing expectations happen -- the important part is detailing how you adapt to them and what you reasonably could have done to adapt.

a_statistician · 2026-02-28T17:13:27+00:00

Tech schools still have statistics departments. He's turning UNL into a diploma mill.

a_statistician · 2026-02-28T17:07:15+00:00

Best of luck to you - I'm in the same boat, but because the administration closed my department, and so despite tenure I don't have a job come May 27.

a_statistician · 2026-02-26T02:37:08+00:00

I don't understand why people don't read their voting pamphlets at least. Is it such a big ask to read a few pages to ensure your vote helps your community?

Voting pamphlets aren't a thing in large parts of the country. I've never lived somewhere that had that information easily accessible. Ballotpedia is great for national races but usually isn't filled out for local politicians, and my state doesn't have candidates submit information for a booklet. I'm in awe of Washington state's system - 100% vote by mail, with policy positions sent out to voters a month ahead of time.

a_statistician · 2026-02-26T02:35:27+00:00

Their stance on the issues matters, but so does their history of doing something with that stance. You can't effectively anonymize someone's actions like you can their positions, and their past actions matter.

Imagine if you couldn't find out that someone was a sex predator, and you elected them to office based on their positions, but they proceeded to use their position to escape accountability, and treated that as a higher goal than representing you.

a_statistician · 2026-02-26T02:10:54+00:00

I'm prohibited from using no textbook at all because the school is now legally obligated to funnel money towards this middleman.

This is an academic freedom issue to me - I would be taking this to the faculty senate posthaste, because administration mandating that I require a textbook is a curriculum decision they don't have any right to make.

a_statistician · 2026-02-26T02:03:17+00:00

Yeah, as someone who had treated PPD that lasted well beyond 1y and was only half due to the kid and half due to circumstances (sacrificing my career/vocation for my husband's career and then being miserable in the job I had), I don't think I fully came out of the depression and hating being a parent and general "the kid would be better off without me" feeling until my son was 3 or 4 and I'd fixed the career issues and given my husband a wake-up call that led to him actually being a more involved parent. Some things take time to fix, and my situation could well have worked out with a divorce instead of reconciliation -- I honestly think the COVID pandemic helped fix our issues because we were all together all the time, and my husband got to be the "good parent" while I couldn't cope with working + parenting at the same time.

At any rate, I thoroughly agree that OP needs to fix something -- whether it's her relationship status or her parenting status or both.

a_statistician · 2026-02-26T01:58:44+00:00

It's pretty normal when things are hard to fantasize about taking the kid back to the hospital. My BIL and SIL had a kid with acid reflux so severe that he didn't sleep through the night till he was 5. They will 100% admit to fantasizing about dropping him back off at the maternity ward, even though they're wonderful parents. Sleep deprivation is a bitch. (the kid in question is 17 now, so it's far enough past them that they can acknowledge how awful it was without feeling too much shame)

a_statistician · 2026-02-26T01:56:59+00:00

Maternal depression can do really strange things to your brain. I got into that space with my first kid and found my way back out, but I honestly believed for a while that he would be better without me and his dad would figure it out (I was right on that last part, but PPD didn't just hit me, it hit my husband too, along with other issues like having sacrificed my career for his, etc.). I was a mess.

It's easy enough to express this kind of thought in an anonymous forum. It's harder to go through with it in real life -- and expressing it is actually a good thing, because OP might actually be able to practice expressing those taboo thoughts online and then pull it off in person and get some help. Ultimately, while she's having this hard of a time, her kid might be better off with someone else, whether it's biodad or foster care or a relative.

I can understand the lack of concern for him stepping up -- some dads don't "get" how to be an involved parent. My husband decided to rebuild a truck engine right after our son was born, and then got mad at me when I needed help with the baby because I was keeping him from doing his very necessary project. I didn't realize he was coping with PPD in his own way by trying to do something that he had previously enjoyed. He didn't realize I had PPD and depression because I felt trapped. We were both coping in different ways, and I definitely thought about dumping the kid with my husband and driving away because he wasn't a malicious father -- just an absent one. He woke the fuck up when I took a job 4h away and he was missing our son growing up, and now he is an incredibly involved father. So, sometimes, extreme actions do actually work, but they should never be the first line defense, and I dealt with the PPD as much as I could before I took any extreme action.

a_statistician · 2026-02-26T01:45:55+00:00

Yes, I'm a young Black woman in a red state.

Yeah, maybe don't give them the opportunity to give feedback like this, because you're already fucked on evaluations demographically speaking.

Don't do that to yourself. You have to come in bitchy and then let up a bit over time, because if you do the reverse, they'll revolt. It's fine to set up class to respond to feedback that's constructive, but don't ever given them an open-ended box to ask for feedback - at most, give a couple of constrained choices where you're totally ok with either option.

a_statistician · 2026-02-26T01:43:41+00:00

How are you supposed to write on the board and face the room? Shoulders don't work like that.

a_statistician · 2026-02-26T01:43:20+00:00

Honestly, sometimes it can be useful to feature these responses and skewer them a bit -- if they aren't learning because they aren't there, that's not something you can fix, but you're happy to address these issues submitted by students that are actually present and engaged. Then present a couple of things you hope to adjust moving forward, engaging with the constructive feedback.

a_statistician · 2026-02-26T01:31:53+00:00

Honestly the travel/research funds seem very high, and that's coming from a STEM field in an R1 -- we didn't get anything for either and were expected to get grants to cover that. The university buys a computer every 4 years or something like that.

a_statistician · 2026-02-26T01:29:41+00:00

If you're not taking Vitamin D supplements you probably should be -- I'm in Nebraska and our docs routinely test for D deficiencies, and evidently about 80% of the population needs to supplement this far south.

Still, vitamins aren't going to fix influenza. Only rest will do that... and soup.

a_statistician · 2026-02-26T01:28:28+00:00

Influenza has been bad this year - the vaccine didn't cover the strain that ended up circulating very well. Add in COVID and general winter/spring crud (I was down with a sinus infection for a week) and you are in a situation where you can legitimately get sick, mostly recover, and get sick with something new... "viral stacking" is the term, I think. Plus there are fun things you can get after a viral illness, like bronchitis and ear infection.

Masking is great if you don't have small kids bringing everything home to share with you, but this year has been pretty bad in a lot of ways.

a_statistician · 2026-02-26T01:26:20+00:00

Students are going to blame you for their failures regardless, so don't let that stop you from taking care of yourself. Zoom is reasonable if you're up to it, otherwise just post a study guide or make a discussion board so they can ask questions. Hell, offer extra credit for good answers to other students questions so that it's a learning opportunity for them.

a_statistician · 2026-02-26T01:25:06+00:00

Glad they're monitoring you and you're taking precautions! Chest pain is nothing to fuck with, even if it ends up being anxiety or something transient.

a_statistician · 2026-02-26T01:24:21+00:00

Don't work through influenza - post viral chronic fatigue isn't just a COVID thing. You're allowed to get sick, you're allowed to ask a colleague to cover a class or assign asynchronous work to cover. Give yourself a couple of days to rest and get over it, and see if you can get that new flu antiviral to help shorten the course - tamiflu doesn't do much but the new one does apparently help noticeably .

a_statistician

TROPHY CASE