Anonymous
04/29/2014 15:28
Subject: Professors - here is why you have a bad reputation in the public at large
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Yeah, this person sounds like a moron.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:OP, I'd love to hear your views on the big donors you work with. You make it sound like everything is the profs' fault.
No, some of them are jerks too. But saying, to a potential donor who is also a parent, that you would be making so much more progress on your research if you didn't have to teach is just boneheaded. I mean, really. And I prep these boneheads, but they never listen. And then they bitch to me when the gift doesn't come through. Well, try not offending the donors as tip number one!
But she's a GENIUS! A genius, I say. Who doesn't need someone like me - who isn't even a PhD (egads!) - to help her. To which I replied that she is welcome to try fundraising on her own from now on if she feels she would be more successful (she won't be). My dean agrees. She's the kind of person who would be fired if she wasn't protected by tenure.
So... this person made her own bed. Now she has to apply for NSF grants instead. The dean agrees with you. You have the option of telling this youngish PhD candidate where she screwed up, and maybe she'll learn a lesson here.
So why on earth are you carrying on for 4 pages like this?
Anonymous
04/29/2014 15:26
Subject: Professors - here is why you have a bad reputation in the public at large
Anonymous wrote:It's a deal only if you drop it and go away.
You think you own the internet? Huh? Huh?
Anonymous
04/29/2014 15:24
Subject: Professors - here is why you have a bad reputation in the public at large
Anonymous wrote:Yeah, this person sounds like a moron.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:OP, I'd love to hear your views on the big donors you work with. You make it sound like everything is the profs' fault.
No, some of them are jerks too. But saying, to a potential donor who is also a parent, that you would be making so much more progress on your research if you didn't have to teach is just boneheaded. I mean, really. And I prep these boneheads, but they never listen. And then they bitch to me when the gift doesn't come through. Well, try not offending the donors as tip number one!
But she's a GENIUS! A genius, I say. Who doesn't need someone like me - who isn't even a PhD (egads!) - to help her. To which I replied that she is welcome to try fundraising on her own from now on if she feels she would be more successful (she won't be). My dean agrees. She's the kind of person who would be fired if she wasn't protected by tenure.
Anonymous
04/29/2014 15:15
Subject: Professors - here is why you have a bad reputation in the public at large
It's a deal only if you drop it and go away.
Anonymous
04/29/2014 15:14
Subject: Professors - here is why you have a bad reputation in the public at large
Yeah, this person sounds like a moron.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:OP, I'd love to hear your views on the big donors you work with. You make it sound like everything is the profs' fault.
No, some of them are jerks too. But saying, to a potential donor who is also a parent, that you would be making so much more progress on your research if you didn't have to teach is just boneheaded. I mean, really. And I prep these boneheads, but they never listen. And then they bitch to me when the gift doesn't come through. Well, try not offending the donors as tip number one!
Anonymous
04/29/2014 15:13
Subject: Professors - here is why you have a bad reputation in the public at large
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:OP, I'd love to hear your views on the big donors you work with. You make it sound like everything is the profs' fault.
No, some of them are jerks too. But saying, to a potential donor who is also a parent, that you would be making so much more progress on your research if you didn't have to teach is just boneheaded. I mean, really. And I prep these boneheads, but they never listen. And then they bitch to me when the gift doesn't come through. Well, try not offending the donors as tip number one!
You need to learn to shrug this stuff off. In the end it's the prof's fault and it's their loss, not yours. Wouldn't it be more productive to relay to the proff all the comments the parent donor made after the meeting? Then the prof might learn something, including the fact it's his/her own fault.
Coming on to DCUM to sound deranged isn't going to help with this. Also, water off a duck's back, and all that.
Honey, I do let most of it roll off my back or else I'd be on here every day. And I do relay this shit to them. But the ingratitude, the arguing, and the petulance gets to me sometimes. Especially when I am sick, like I've been for the past week, and still working hard for an entitled, pompous ingrate who wants to blame me for losing a gift instead of their own rudeness and stupidity in dealing with the donor. I'm entitled to vent. If you don't want to read it, go pick another thread. Bye!
OK! But when you draw a lot of snark because you sound like a 12-year-old who can't handle people maturely, don't blame us! Deal?
Anonymous
04/29/2014 14:47
Subject: Professors - here is why you have a bad reputation in the public at large
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:OP, I'd love to hear your views on the big donors you work with. You make it sound like everything is the profs' fault.
No, some of them are jerks too. But saying, to a potential donor who is also a parent, that you would be making so much more progress on your research if you didn't have to teach is just boneheaded. I mean, really. And I prep these boneheads, but they never listen. And then they bitch to me when the gift doesn't come through. Well, try not offending the donors as tip number one!
You need to learn to shrug this stuff off. In the end it's the prof's fault and it's their loss, not yours. Wouldn't it be more productive to relay to the proff all the comments the parent donor made after the meeting? Then the prof might learn something, including the fact it's his/her own fault.
Coming on to DCUM to sound deranged isn't going to help with this. Also, water off a duck's back, and all that.
Honey, I do let most of it roll off my back or else I'd be on here every day. And I do relay this shit to them. But the ingratitude, the arguing, and the petulance gets to me sometimes. Especially when I am sick, like I've been for the past week, and still working hard for an entitled, pompous ingrate who wants to blame me for losing a gift instead of their own rudeness and stupidity in dealing with the donor. I'm entitled to vent. If you don't want to read it, go pick another thread. Bye!
Anonymous
04/29/2014 14:44
Subject: Professors - here is why you have a bad reputation in the public at large
Anonymous wrote:Those who can, do and those who can't, teach?
Something like that. Every one of the bad eggs wants to think their research is indispensable when yeah....no. And because it is unacceptable to them to admit that they are anything other than brilliant, they can't understand why everyone else doesn't agree, why donors aren't tripping over themselves to throw money at them, and why they have to waste their precious time teaching 101 instead of focusing on their "groundbreaking" research. Honestly, if you had to deal with egos this big every single day, you'd have days when you lost it too. The ones like this have the social graces of a bridge troll.
The ones I love the best are the ones who love to teach, brag about and help guide their students, enjoy involving students in their research, are happy to explain what they do in plain English, don't think that everyone who isn't an expert in their field is an inferior human, and who can express disagreement or disappointment without sounding like my preschooler on a bad day. Thankfully for me, that describes most of the ones I come into contact with.
Anonymous
04/29/2014 14:41
Subject: Professors - here is why you have a bad reputation in the public at large
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:OP, I'd love to hear your views on the big donors you work with. You make it sound like everything is the profs' fault.
No, some of them are jerks too. But saying, to a potential donor who is also a parent, that you would be making so much more progress on your research if you didn't have to teach is just boneheaded. I mean, really. And I prep these boneheads, but they never listen. And then they bitch to me when the gift doesn't come through. Well, try not offending the donors as tip number one!
You need to learn to shrug this stuff off. In the end it's the prof's fault and it's their loss, not yours. Wouldn't it be more productive to relay to the proff all the comments the parent donor made after the meeting? Then the prof might learn something, including the fact it's his/her own fault.
Coming on to DCUM to sound deranged isn't going to help with this. Also, water off a duck's back, and all that.
Anonymous
04/29/2014 14:35
Subject: Professors - here is why you have a bad reputation in the public at large
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I still don't get it. It sounds like OP is angry that (1) fewer than 100% of profs have winning attitudes, and (2) fewer than 100% of profs understand the importance of their own research in the scheme of things. (Actually, sometimes donors and even fundraisers fail to understand what's important in a complex issue area, but I digress.)
So the problem is, you work with human beings? And this is ruining your life?
I love how people I'm DCUM project. I never said it was ruining my life. I was venting. You NEVER vent about the frustrating, irritating and irrational people you work with?
Another poster already suggested you go back and read your own posts. Then you will understand why we think you have big issues with anger, not simply "venting."
You're right. I'm a ticking time bomb rageful beast....RAWR!! Watch out!
Anonymous
04/29/2014 14:34
Subject: Professors - here is why you have a bad reputation in the public at large
Anonymous wrote:OP, I'd love to hear your views on the big donors you work with. You make it sound like everything is the profs' fault.
No, some of them are jerks too. But saying, to a potential donor who is also a parent, that you would be making so much more progress on your research if you didn't have to teach is just boneheaded. I mean, really. And I prep these boneheads, but they never listen. And then they bitch to me when the gift doesn't come through. Well, try not offending the donors as tip number one!
Anonymous
04/29/2014 14:24
Subject: Professors - here is why you have a bad reputation in the public at large
Those who can, do and those who can't, teach?
Anonymous
04/29/2014 14:01
Subject: Professors - here is why you have a bad reputation in the public at large
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I still don't get it. It sounds like OP is angry that (1) fewer than 100% of profs have winning attitudes, and (2) fewer than 100% of profs understand the importance of their own research in the scheme of things. (Actually, sometimes donors and even fundraisers fail to understand what's important in a complex issue area, but I digress.)
So the problem is, you work with human beings? And this is ruining your life?
I love how people I'm DCUM project. I never said it was ruining my life. I was venting. You NEVER vent about the frustrating, irritating and irrational people you work with?
Another poster already suggested you go back and read your own posts. Then you will understand why we think you have big issues with anger, not simply "venting."
Anonymous
04/29/2014 14:00
Subject: Professors - here is why you have a bad reputation in the public at large
OP, I'd love to hear your views on the big donors you work with. You make it sound like everything is the profs' fault.
Anonymous
04/29/2014 13:52
Subject: Professors - here is why you have a bad reputation in the public at large
Anonymous wrote:OK, OP, this I can relate to. Your initial post made it sound like you were blaming all professors for the attitudes of the assholes you have described. That just wasn't fair.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:The public looks down on professors?
+1 I am a professor. I did not know that the "public" looked down on me. Most people are very interested in talking to me when they find out that I am a scholar.
Do you live in DC? If so you are in a nerd bubble, doesn't count. I used to work for universities there but have since moved....people are not as impressed everywhere.
Do you read comments on articles about college costs? 90% of the time there are rants all about how faculty "only" teach two classes a year, don't work summers, and are grossly overpaid. Now, I know this not to be true, but again, as I said, I am a university fundraiser and I hear this crap all the time. Alumni want to know why their university is so much more expensive than it was when they were students, and they assume faculty salaries are to blame. I refute this argument constantly, because I know that is not true. And that most faculty work hard. But some are just assholes, and they do not care to hide it. My argument is that the bad apples poison the bunch because their attitude permeates everything they do and people know they have a superiority complex and a disdain for students and teaching when it is student tuition, after all, that pays the lion's share of the cost of their salaries and benefits, as they do mine. I never forget who I really work for.
So you're angry that you have to do your job - which is to refute untruths about the rising cost of higher education? Sounds like it's time for you to change jobs.
No, I just loathe the ungrateful assholes amongst the faculty that I have to work with. Who are ALWAYS unhappy, feel entitled to large donations (as if donors care that they just think their work is worthy and are pissed when they have to justify a request), who only talk about what they're not getting, how their research isn't being supported, how they are angry they have to teach a full course load, blah blah blah...
I work long hours with minimal staff to support over two dozen departments. I travel 1-2 times a month, attend a ton of evening and weekend events. I don't complain because it is the job I signed up for -I simply offer that to show that I too worked hard. And I'm also not getting rich. I put lipstick on the proverbial pig when they offend donors by complaining about teaching in front of them. Lucky for me, the good outnumber the bad and I can choose not to work with the bad ones unless I uncover a donor with interest in their specific area of expertise. I love my job most days, but on days like today I just want to throat punch the pompous energy vampires on the faculty who do nothing but shine like children ad nauseum.
Of course I'm not blaming all professors for the actions of the deluded and self important among them. But I was saying that the bad ones give the profession a black eye...and give those who want to hate on all profs examples they can point to to justify their beliefs that profs are overpaid, narcissistic and lazy.