(no subject)

[logomancer]

This was posted to the CS Undergrad mailing list yesterday:

Date:    Fri, 25 Jul 2003 08:14:48 -0400
From:    "Libby G. Bradford" <bradfolg@cs.vt.edu>
Subject: BIOLOGY LABS: Latest information on cancelled Biology labs

Dr. Ribbens, Associate Department Head, has asked that this information be
sent to all CS majors.

If you had requested or tried to add Biology 1015 (General Biology Lab), or
were planning to register for Biology 1015 or 1016 in the near future, this
message is for you.

In June the Biology Department announced that all General Biology labs
(1015 and 1016) would be cancelled for the 2003/2004 academic year and for
the foreseeable future.  The Provost's Office approved this decision.  The
Biology lectures (1005 and 1006) still exist and should still appear on
your schedule if you have requested or added them.  However, as you know,
CS majors must complete 12 hours of science, consisting of three 4-hour
(lab-based) courses, two of which form a sequence.  So for all practical
purposes, General Biology at Virginia Tech is no longer an option for CS
majors to satisfy their science requirements.

If you were planning to take General Biology this year, you must plan to
take one of the other natural science courses, i.e., CHEM 1035/1045,
1036/1046; or GEOL 1004/1104, 1014, 1024/1124; or PHYS 2305,
2306.  Drop-add opens on August 4.  Please make changes as soon as you can,
as seats in these other science courses may go fast.

On one hand, I'm glad the CS department isn't lowering their academic standards. On the other hand, it's very sad, this change. I believe the Biology Department's actions have been the final death throes of the canary that is signalling the doom of our education. I believe I spoke earlier on this topic, so I won't bother repeating myself. But I never realized how much on the brink VT was. No wonder every department in A&S was tripping over themselves to get out of there.

My education is fairly well-sheltered, CS having retreated to Engineering. But I fear for the others that haven't been so lucky -- like the freshmen Biology students. Hell, tigerofthewind, for that matter. Plus there's jazzfish, who's in Theatre Arts, a bug fat target for budget cuts. My TA 2024 teacher -- who is the current TA department chair -- told me near the end of classes that she was worried that she may be unable to teach that class this year. Gods help her, since the state government won't.

There is another thing that relates to the point I'm about to get to. I'm working this weekend, to earn a little extra cash. One of the people who's about to leave tells me about how miserable it is to work there. He depressed me a lot. Everything that might contribute to relieving tension and boredom at the workplace -- both of which exist in quantity -- has been banned by management. The prevalent reason is "professionalism" -- it would look unprofessional, for example, for a lab technician to be reading the paper when he had nothing to do. That coupled with some of the most abrasive personalities in existance, and relatively low pay for the work done, makes the place is an utterly miserable place to work. My mom can attest to this.

OK, so you're prolly wondering what I'm on about. Mainly this: people in power created these hellish dystopias. As uilos et al pointed out, these people have never experienced what it's like to be in a failing public school system, or toiling for 40 hours a week plus mandatory overtime in a lab full of volatile personalities, doctors screaming at you to move faster, their patient's about to die. And so on. Our leaders -- the ones representing us -- have lived rich, sheltered lives; most members of Congress are millionaires. I guess I'm saying that if more of our so-called leaders actually understood what it is like to be a college student or a working-class mother or whatever else, maybe they'd think twice before making decisions that are detrimental to those other than themselves.

I've just looked over this whole thing and found it to consist of mere rambling, but I'm posting it anyway, because I need to get it off my chest. If you get annoyed at me, feel free to ignore the whole thing. Thank you.

Comments

[tigerofthewind.livejournal.com]

Simple Solution to your problem is to Take priciples of Bio with lab 1025, its the higher level bio course, you'll learn more, and the mid level lab thus not as intensive as Biological priciples lab 1035 which is taken by Bio majors. Check the scheduling, having 3 bio labs was a bit assanine as it was.

[jazzfish]

I am actually not fearing TA getting the axe, although this may be a direct result of my not having taken any classes in the TA department since 1995. I imagine I'll get to hear more about it this fall.

English is what's got me worried. To paraphrase JoAnn Harvill, they've taken an excellent faculty, one that took twenty years to build up, and are systematically dismantling it, and it'll take another twenty years just to get it back to the point it was at last fall. I don't know of any TA courses that have been axed (in fact, as near as I can tell there are more this year than last), but English courses are getting whacked left and right.

As to the political portion of today's rant... *shrug* Places other than the US have known for a very long time that happy workers == more productive workers == more profits for the company. Check out this article in the Washington Post for coverage of a tangentially related issue.

I'm not really sure why I'm bothering to get a degree. But that's a subject for a meandering entry in my own journal. :)