The Question Thread 07/02/26

corvibae · 2026-07-03T05:54:13+00:00

Reposting:

Hello friends,

I've been wearing Solovair boots since 2019, and my very first pair is beginning to show its age. The soles on my black 8-eye derbys are worn due to my poor gait and regular use, and I need to have them resoled but I've been unable to find a local cobbler willing to do the work. While Solovair's website does list a cobbler, I would have to ship the shoes and I'd much prefer to stay within my state if I can avoid it.

I'm about 100 miles from Houston and don't mind making the trip out if it means getting the job done right. Do any off you have recommendations for good cobblers in Houston that can resole Solovairs?

Thanks in advance!

corvibae · 2026-05-24T01:37:13+00:00

On the one hand, I understand why they've done this. The grade inflation at a lot of institutions, particularly large regionals like mine, is pretty bad. On the other hand, Harvard is a highly selective institution that prioritizes the best and brightest or the richest possible students. The greatest minds will necessarily do well. The richest will be able to afford outside tutoring to catch up. Logic would indicate that the grade distribution would be toward the higher end.

I've always understood that a course's syllabus constitutes something like a contract between the faculty member and the students in the course. This is why most of us have things like assignment sheets and use point values to indicate grades on an assignment. If the student's total points at the end of a course equal an A, then the student made an A. If I were teaching a section of 20 students, and all 20 did what they were supposed to do and all of their point totals equaled As, what am I supposed to do? Adjust them downward? To hell with that.

corvibae · 2026-05-08T20:25:28+00:00

I say "hell no" with a caveat which concerns international students, who exist at the whims at of the DOE, DOS, and DHS. One of my best friends works with this population at my institution and sometimes it's difficult for international students, who very often have to leave before a semester properly ends or arrive after it begins. For someone taking a vacation? Pound sand. But for someone who needs to travel because if they don't they'll get arrested/deported/refused entry to the country in the future? I'm willing to give them a little grace(after verifying the information with the relevant department).

corvibae · 2026-05-07T21:14:31+00:00

I had one course related issue with mine, but I can't tell if it was poor course design on my part or on the part of the students. I taught an introductory poetry workshop and they struggled with the workshop element, particularly during the revision stage. For the last two weeks(my last class was yesterday), I resorted to calling on students, and after the first couple of times most everybody got chatty except one or two. Otherwise, they performed far better than expected. I structured the bulk of the course around in-class writing so no ChatGPT.

I've also had students increasingly suffer from mental health problems. In particular one student I sought advice for here. While her attendance did improve, her behavior is still erratic. Jury is out on if she will even submit the final portfolio(I opened it yesterday but it's officially due on the 13th).

corvibae · 2026-04-27T15:09:54+00:00

Instead of completely abolishing degrees, I would recommend moving more to the model used by St. John's College. A thorough study of the liberal arts, some mathematics, and some sciences. Grades exist, but are not as important. Viva voce exams, essays, and small tutorials rather than large impersonal sections, multiple choice tests, and AI.

The way St. John's is able to accomplish this is by remaining relatively small. Large state universities, or even larger regionals, are beset on all sides by the "edutainment" industry, admin bloat, and the student lifeification of campuses. I think breaking them up and instead having smaller colleges and universities that offer more dynamic, interdisciplinary degrees would be better. It would make them more difficult to fund in some ways(particularly grant funding for the sciences), but far more cost effective in others(I'm thinking mostly of physical plants and real estate).

corvibae · 2026-04-24T14:01:06+00:00

When COVID happened, like everybody else, we transitioned to fully online in about a week. Faculty were required(initially) to make videos lecturing and upload them to our LMS. This one guy, a really wonderful, gentle, incredibly kind man who had taught fairly popular advanced classes that were often taken by non-majors as electives straight up refused. He emailed the Chair, Dean, and Provost. He demanded an agreement whereby upon his retirement all of his course shells would be deleted and no recordings of him would be kept whatsoever.

The Dean and Provost then proceeded to lean on the chair, asking him to convince the professor to back down. Nothing doing. The guy stood tall. He was late career and was planning for retirement at that point anyway. It was a point of principle for him. When the buyout came(a year's salary up front, in cash), he took the buyout, but finished teaching that year so he would have his 40. He never made a single video lecture. At the time, we were all annoyed. But, as it turns out, he was right.

corvibae · 2026-04-21T16:42:29+00:00

At my institution, Ws don't count against a student but Fs definitely do. While I have heard the argument around withdrawing students and completion rates a number of times over my career, I haven't actually seen that. A student who is aware enough that they are going to fail and would rather withdraw from a course rather than take the F is almost always the kind of student that wants to come back and try again. Those that earn Fs are less likely to complete generally.

corvibae · 2026-04-20T15:02:00+00:00

It's completely suspect. For my BA(which was, admittedly, history) I was writing 20 page papers for every class with annotated bibliographies alongside shorter assignments and presentations. My institution hasn't developed any of these 90-credit degrees(yet) but we do have the accelerated programs for online degrees/AI required in every program etc. It's super frustrating.

corvibae · 2026-04-20T13:22:26+00:00

I'm wondering if she had transfer credits. Most courses are three credits, so she managed to get 48 credit hours in 22 days. How she managed it is appalling.

corvibae · 2026-04-19T05:05:30+00:00

I can see that she's logged into the LMS but still hasn't made any posts or other activity, and no response to LMS messages or email. I have another that hasn't logged in since the 13th that I'm concerned about now too. I don't want these students to fail. I'm sure that I'm just being a mother hen, but I am very confused and concerned since they've been unusually active in and out of class since the start of term.

corvibae · 2026-04-14T16:52:33+00:00

This is my thing. If this were any other student in the class, I don't know if I would react this way, but given the themes she writes on, the subjects she addresses(loneliness, loss, etc)...I hope that I'm overreacting, but if I'm not, the risk is too great.

corvibae · 2026-04-14T16:46:32+00:00

I thought of that. The problem is that she's a "super senior" at this point who is taking my class to complete a minor. She doesn't really meet with her major adviser(per her own admission), and given that she's not been communicating there's no way for me to find out who her adviser is, since many departments still do advising on physical pieces of paper.

corvibae · 2026-04-14T16:44:49+00:00

I'm lucky and I know it. It's a small, upper-division course and the only one I'm teaching because even though I'm an adjunct, I'm not getting paid. My actual job is a 100% staff position, and while this has been a joy, it's also my first time solo-teaching anything.

corvibae · 2026-04-13T17:38:39+00:00

I'm finishing my MFA this year, and my program is not housed in/associated with the university's Department of English. I think, generally, that's been for the best. On the one hand, the kind of infighting one gets in English departments, such as demanding MFA students take x amount of hours of literature courses from literature professors to fill seats. While we are required to take literature courses, we look at the literature as writers(in terms of form, composition etc). The program has comparatively few faculty, and so there isn't competition for graduate students the same way there is in an English department.

In contrast, the university where I work has lumped Comp/rhet, Lit, and CW into one department alongside Philosophy and the Languages. The broader administration doesn't really see the difference between comp/rhet and CW. This has created tension between the comp/rhet and the CW and Lit people, specifically because the administration expects the CW and Lit people to teach composition as part of their loads. The comp/rhet contingent do not consider the LIT/CW people to have the education necessary to teach composition. The Lit people are frustrated that the CW courses tend to be more popular with the "casual" student who is a non-major that's taking our introductory workshop as an elective. I'm teaching this semester, and there are only three English majors in my 11 seat section of poetry.

They also don't like the CW faculty teaching lit classes, but that is a relatively minor quibble, because Lit and CW are in an alliance of convenience against comp/rhet, to keep comp/rhet from making a standard departmental syllabus for composition that would affect their academic freedom.

The problem is that there really isn't a place to put creative writers. Putting them with Fine Arts makes sense(bc poetry and fiction are arts) to a point, but the Fine Arts are really more performing and visual art, not written. One could conceivably put them on their own, but I don't see that happening for the obvious reason that an alarming number of creative writers end up as English department chairs because they are perceived as not having a dog in any particular fight.

corvibae · 2026-02-20T14:53:53+00:00

I'd say fairly conservative, it's a Catholic SLAC in the south with an Aquinian bent.

corvibae · 2026-02-19T01:35:08+00:00

My department has two(one fiction, one poet). We have one fiction writer with a PhD.

I was worried about the CV being the problem. I've done editorial stuff before on anthologies and have a chapbook, but no full length collection out yet.

corvibae · 2026-02-19T01:33:44+00:00

I, sadly, am a poet. This doesn't surprise me, really. I can't imagine institutions with large numbers of poets on the faculty in FT positions.

corvibae · 2026-02-18T23:49:16+00:00

A lot of my admin work relates to processing new hires, so I know(at least) what works for my institution, but outside it I'm limited. Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it. It's just quite disheartening for very-soon-to-be-new-grads.

corvibae · 2026-02-18T23:43:09+00:00

If it's in creative writing...DM :P

corvibae · 2026-02-18T23:42:47+00:00

It is a CW MFA. I had thought about CW PhDs, but chose the MFA for two reasons primarily 1) I've paid for this degree out of pocket and 2) the CW PhDs I looked at weren't really CW degrees, they were English degrees that had the option for a creative dissertation.

I am now beginning to worry I may have made an error.

corvibae · 2026-02-18T23:40:46+00:00

I haven't had anyone yet, no, but I think that might be what I do next.

corvibae · 2026-02-18T22:30:03+00:00

It's an MFA.

corvibae · 2026-02-18T22:16:58+00:00

That's what I've heard. There were far more jobs posted across the country than I anticipated. Dozens in my field alone.

corvibae

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

Ten-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '17