I wrote this entry at the end of November and revisited it a few days ago. Things have changed with my job and it’s time to update.
BMCC’s Spring Semester started yesterday, Friday January 28th. The run up to the start of classes got a little more complicated than I thought it would be – but I had plenty of time to prepare so it is all working out pretty well.
First, the department teaching staff are required to give me copies of their course syllabi. Getting 18 different people to get me syllabi for 40 different courses during the winter break was a little bit more work than I expected. I’m still missing some. So I had to send out the syllabi templates, and then make sure they got back to me, then organize them electronically and physically, and make sure that each teacher who submitted a syllabus had enough copies for the first day of class.
Second, the department hired two new adjuncts who had to be led through the “new adjunct” process – getting college IDs, getting e-mails, access to rooms, keys, slots in the mail box rack, sample syllabi and course materials from previous teachers of their courses, and copies of text books. One of the new adjuncts didn’t yet have her ID yesterday – and her class starts on Monday. I don’t know how she’s going to get into the classroom. >sigh<
Third, the department also hired a new full-time Assistant Professor – nice lady with a Ph.D. in Education. But she was hired a mere three days before classes began! So the new assistant professor process – comparable to the new adjunct process on steroids had to go quickly. It wasn’t too bad, as anticipated, her information is not yet in the CUNY computer system so she cannot yet be issued her BMCC ID and access card.
Fourth, some of the courses – eight or nine, I think – have class activities that don’t take place in a BMCC classroom; rather, the activity takes place in the field at various schools and preschools throughout New York City. Yet they still need to meet in a classroom the first couple of days – so I had to get rooms scheduled through the registrar’s office for just a couple of classes. But the campus is so crowded – what with one of our buildings being destroyed on 9/11 – that rooms are at a premium. All classrooms were assigned for the first three days of classes. So the Department Chair worked some magic and got extra rooms from somewhere or another – friends of other departments who have classrooms that for some reason aren’t on the registrar office’s radar.
Fifth, I had to make up a sign to tape to the department office door so the students would know where to go for those first couple of classes – but the information was slow in coming so it didn’t get put up until Thursday afternoon – and then had to be revised twice on Friday. Adding to that complication was the fact that the Department Chair – and we’ve laughed about this – forgot to include two courses for one of the full-time assistant professors! So it was a scramble to get that taken care of.
Sixth, I didn’t know that “W****” where * = an integer – indicated a classroom in a building BMCC leases a few blocks away from the main campus! So I gave out wrong information about where a few (okay, six) of the classes will be held! That information has to somehow get corrected before classes start on Monday morning. >sigh<
Seventh – there are handouts that have to go to various teachers of various courses – and stacks and stacks of thousands of pages of syllabi and course materials. I have no idea how these things were handled before I took the job, but I had everything planned out and organized and ready to go before classes started. All of these things had to be organized and tracked and copied and stored for the teachers to pick up on the first day of class.
Eighth – I had to make up “Program Cards” for each full-time teacher that indicates where and when and what each is doing on a weekly basis. This includes course numbers, room numbers, days of the week and times. This also includes professors’ office hours. I finally got all of that information given to me on Wednesday and got everything double checked and delivered upstairs on Thursday – with the exception of the new Assistant Professor who’s card got delivered on Friday.
Ninth – I had to make up “Door Signs” to tape to each professor’s office door which indicates where and when s/he is in class, and what time they have office hours. Those also got finished on Thursday, and the last one put up on Friday. These are very much like the Program Cards but contain less information.
The point of all of this is that I did most of this on my own and it turned out beautifully. Everyone’s happy and pleased and impressed.
The coupe de gras was scheduling and delivering a laptop (from the media department) for the professors who got stuck at a table in a room for six hours at a time talking to students about what courses they should or should not be taking. If there were no students things would get hugely boring – so the laptop was a nice diversion. Besides, they could get work done! BMCC has a truly righteous wi-fi system that supports any wi-fi enabled device throughout the campus!
So I am no longer a flunky – instead I’m creative and efficient and well organized and thoughtful.
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