Cookies. I\u2019m trying to figure out what\u2019s next on my list but am having a hard time figuring what is next \u2014 ah, yes, the adjournment motion and the second and vote. Perhaps the best way of saying this is to record this conversation I had with Kris on my way home yesterday after our Faculty Meeting. We were both on our new cell phones: Cookies. I\u2019m trying to figure out what\u2019s next on my list but am having a hard time figuring what is next \u2014 ah, yes, the adjournment motion and the second and vote. Perhaps the best way of saying this is to record this conversation I had with Kris on my way home yesterday after our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nKris: \u201cHow was your Faculty Meeting?\u201d
\nScot: \u201cTotal chaos.\u201d
\nIf ever the Genesis 1:2 tohu va-bohu<\/em> has crept back into the order of humans it has to be in committee and faculty meetings. End of the year meetings, to begin with, can become intense because we have to approve graduates and some issues need to be dealt with \u2014 and we\u2019ve got to get them done or folks don\u2019t graduate and we don\u2019t get to leave for the year.
\nYesterday we had a major faculty initiative proposed, and it came with plenty of forethought and planning and thinking, but whenever you present a new idea to faculties they get to thinking \u2014 and that is what we do best \u2014 and the best thing for committee meetings, in my estimation, is non-thinking, genial, discursive sorts. Well, we are not always that way: and yesterday was a good example.
\nWe beat the proposal up a bit, adjusted it to the new light, then upon further refraction, readjusted it, and then we had to vote on some amendments to it, and then we couldn\u2019t always figure out if we were talking about the amendment or the proposal, and some of us don\u2019t know the difference (yours truly) and some don\u2019t really care (yours truly) since all that matters is that we discuss our way through the issue. We did this for about 50 minutes, and then one of our veterans, who always has words of caution and care about new proposals, suggested that we weren\u2019t really ready \u2014 which, as it turns out, we weren\u2019t. And all at once, 50 minutes were gone and we had gotten ourselves no further down the path than when we began.
\nHere\u2019s my theory: make a proposal, move the thing and second it immediately, and then just vote. 99% of the time the immediate vote will be the same as the vote after 50 minutes of conversation and debate. Someone wrote a book called Blink<\/em> that basically proves that point.
\nSo, what do I like about the meetings? Cookies.
\nAllan Bloom once said that he could think of nothing good that came of the 60s, suggesting obviously that whatever good came out of there would have been there anyway; I say the same for Faculty Meetings. My suggestion: instead, encourage two departments to get together and discuss something interesting \u2014 like Quintillian\u2019s theory of education. Save us, O Lord, from the perfunctory Faculty Meeting \u2014 and soon.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"