October 2, 2012

What I can do to deal with the Obama rally that will shut down central campus here at the University of Wisconsin?

From a missive I just received from Paul M. DeLuca, Jr., Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, who thanks me for my "efforts and forbearance to accommodate this extraordinary event":
Work with a departmental curricular representative to identify an alternative class location for that day, and communicate this change to your students as soon as possible,

Cancel class and adjust syllabus to cover content in future class session, or

Think about ways that will allow you to both fulfill instructional responsibilities to students, and to enable students to participate in the events on campus (e.g., assignment options to replace the day’s class instruction, utilizing academic technologies (e.g., Learn@UW, Moodle, email, or other tools) to deliver instruction for the day asynchronously, or through other approaches).
Of course, I am attempting the first of those options. Even though I can perceive the potential for doing new media reporting from the fringes of the event, I care  — to the exclusion of any other concern — about making my class happen as scheduled. But — on the advice of the higher UW authorities — I could simply cancel the class and "adjust" my syllabus, somehow merge the planned material into whatever else I was thinking of covering this semester. And... what is that third option? Fulfill instructional responsibilities... by... what?? Emailing them my notes? Or to put it professorily: delivering the instruction asynchronously.

For that, they pay tuition? I could email my notes for the whole semester, but these are students who pay $40,040 tuition per year! ($21,350 if they are Wisconsin residents, a break they get because their parents pay the exorbitant Wisconsin taxes that help keep this stellar university going.)

ADDED: There was distracting construction outside my classroom even today:

59 comments:

Anonymous said...

Or you could start an Occupy Our Classrooms movement.

I'm Full of Soup said...

"Extraordinary event" because it has been a whole two years since Obama was there?

_Jim said...

OT; just off Drudge:

"Obama Campaign: 'Vote Like Your Lady Parts Depend On It' "

Comments?

Nichevo said...

As I said if you got to the second page of comments on that other thread, professor: turn this into a learning exercise for the students. Find yourselves a second site, under a shady tree within sight of the rally perhaps, and study this incident, to explore its legal aspects and ramifications.

edutcher said...

Maybe it's the cockeyed optimist in me, but this sounds like we're getting closer to "How The Pipe Dream Of Hopenchange Lost Me" than "How I Deposited The Romster In The Electoral Junkyard".

_Jim said...

OT (but related) off Drudge:

THE ACCENT... THE ANGER... THE ACCUSATIONS... THE SERMON...
FOXNEWS 9 PM ET...

'We don't need to build more highways out in the suburbs. We should be investing in minority-owned businesses, in our neighborhoods'...


Sorun said...

Take the day off. Instead of snow day, it's a snow job day.

Paddy O said...

Teach-in!

Occupy the campaign event.

Take over the Provosts office, use it as a classroom.

Petition the administration to demand every student send their personal information to the Romney campaign.

Riot. That will lead the administration to apologize to you and cancel the event.

Lo Pay said...

What I don't get is why Mayor Soglin is just writing off the additional law enforcement costs. As long as the same courtesy is extneded to another candidate, then fine. Otherwise, aren't the tax payers on the hook for a back handed campaign contribution for the Obama for President Campaign?

Ann Althouse said...

""Obama Campaign: 'Vote Like Your Lady Parts Depend On It' ""

Yeah, that's on my list of things I'm about to blog.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

You should just resign in protest, Althouse. You could live off the big bucks Glenn Reynolds is paying you for guest blogging. Meade can open a pizza shop.

Anonymous said...

Mr. President Eyecandy is gracing you and your ladyparts an audience. Why it is UN American to even question it.

There are plenty of celebrities who pay 40K just to eat dinner in the same room with him. The way the Obama campaign sees it your students are DAMN lucky he's stealing valuable instructional time from them. It isn't as if you (or any other professor, save perhaps Bill Ayers or Jill Biden) has the wisdom of the One, and besides, a girl with Downs whose mom has a great team of writers as a "friend" thinks he's super.

Just make sure you get the phone numbers of all your students to submit to the Obama campaign.

Automatic_Wing said...

Cancel class and let the kids go to the rally, Althouse.

Do it for Brittany.

Bob Ellison said...

The average primary and secondary school public expenditure seems to be pretty near $11k/year/student nationwide. You could use that as a likely comparable minimum of actual costs for UW students.

wyo sis said...

What can you do?
Take it like a man.

Tim said...

"What I can do to deal with the Obama rally that will shut down central campus here at the University of Wisconsin?"

Vote for Obama!

It will piss off Rush Limbaugh, and make the sock puppet "Brittany" happy.

Some would call that a two-fer; others recognize it as doubling down on failure.

David said...

With luck it will rain.

rhhardin said...

Administrators maximize profits to administrators.

kjbe said...

Google+ Hangout

Tim said...

David said...

"With luck it will rain."

...with lightening.

furious_a said...

...aren't the tax payers on the hook for a back handed campaign contribution for the Obama for President Campaign?

DING-DING-DING-DING-DING! See also "dues withholding, automatic"

Tyrone Slothrop said...

Forty percent chance of rain for Madison on Thursday. Yay.

tacotaco said...

OMG JUST DEAL WITH IT.

The President of the US is coming, stop complaining. Hold class, you're a law professor (for some insane reason you're still employed there although all you do is gab about politics and your husband's antics online), and the law students will expect it. I think undergrads can prob be let out of bowling class or freshman biology to go see the president, no matter who the hell he is.

Ann Althouse said...

"You should just resign in protest, Althouse. You could live off the big bucks Glenn Reynolds is paying you for guest blogging. Meade can open a pizza shop."

That would be retirement which I can do now at anytime. Both of us could just do whatever we want, perhaps adopting some pretty, blog gable hippie lifestyle. Is that what you want?

Ann Althouse said...

I have a classroom secured, so my class will take place.

pm317 said...

How many students will attend the class you think?

pm317 said...

Yay! good for you.

Tom from Virginia said...

President Obama made a similar request at Mr. Jefferson's University last month. UVA declined the request for a number of reasons, including its desire to avoid class cancellations on the second day of class and security costs. UVA offerd up the 16,000 seat basketball arena, but that was not the photo op the President wanted.

Bob Ellison said...

As Self-Absorbed and Unaware Chancellor for Commenter Affairs, I would like to thank all of you miscellaneous Althouse commenters, including me, for your efforts and forbearance to accomodate this extraordinary event. You have shown leadership, kinship, decisiveness, gracious silliness, apparent addiction to beef jerky, and many other qualities in helping us achieve this goal. Thank you, and thank me.

MadisonMan said...

I have a classroom secured, so my class will take place.

Excellent!

I do not like compressing my classes because of othe classes that can't happen.

MadisonMan said...

And you know what I notice about the three choices? The third one, the most highly couched in Administrative-speak, is also the most wordy. It also uses my least favorite word : utilize

Why use utilize when use is a perfectly good, and shorter, word?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Althouse is such a party pooper.

Lawyer Mom said...

Cancel class! Seriously? What's the pro rata price each of your students pays for one of your lectures? I'll bet it's a pretty penny.

Curious b/c when I was in law school we had a crazy man visit campus and sit in on law school classes. In ConLaw the guy acted so weird I got scared and walked out. Ran into the law school's dean in parking lot and gave her an earful about why I had to pay for a lecture I couldn't safely attend. She gave me a lecture about my inherent racism and how it's a free country (the school was private).

Speaking of -- which means, what you can do! -- if you don't give your students a pass for your class, you care nothing about making history and you are racist, Ann. Racist! Be politically correct instead.

james said...

You won't get to watch from your windows after all, I guess. All blinds must be closed and anyone watching through a window is to expect a visit from the police. (I read the email too.)

I'm not a big fan of darsan with politicians, so I will be staying far away. Luckily my office isn't on the hill.

KCFleming said...

UW Madison; Obamonym or Obamophone?

Dr Weevil said...

Tyrone Slothrop notes the forecast of a 40% chance of rain for Obama's rally in Madison on Thursday. Compare and contrast: which campaign is more competent? In Fishersville, VA, where Romney and Ryan will be speaking at 6:00pm Thursday, the forecast is "mostly sunny, with a high near 76. West wind 3 to 6 mph", which means the temperature at 6:00 should be just about perfect. (Fishersville is 5 miles east of Staunton on I-64 in the Shenandoah Valley, and 30 miles west of Charlottesville, if anyone here is thinking of going.)

sakredkow said...

I could email my notes for the whole semester

So who's asking you to email your notes for the whole semester?

wyo sis said...

The students who show up for class will be making a huge statement.

Anonymous said...

That would be retirement which I can do now at anytime. Both of us could just do whatever we want, perhaps adopting some pretty, blog gable hippie lifestyle. Is that what you want?

Sure. If you are going to be a self-serving hypocrite, by all means own up to it, and stop bothering us with the pretense that you care about anything larger.

Neutrality bullshit.

Anonymous said...

Oh how will the world go forth when Ann can't guide the masses...horrors.

The thought of a day without Ann holding forth is just an unbearable prospect.

Anonymous said...

Calling all O-B-A-M-A Fans on Althouse Blog:

GO to Madison-UW rally and give every-thing you have - your name, SSN, money, etc.

This election is must win for us. Okay-Dokey?

Please do not go to Drudge. The POTUS is the most careful, caring, accepting man of all races, all religions, all genders.

LilyBart said...

In the News today: From fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2011, according to the U.S. Treasury, the Federal government increased spending on foreign aid by 80 percent

So, we're basically borrowing money from China to give away to other counties.

I wonder how this makes women **feel**?

If they are good women, they are worried about the impact of the growing and unpayable on their kids' future.

sakredkow said...

Please do not go to Drudge. The POTUS is the most careful, caring, accepting man of all races, all religions, all genders.

No, Drudge is the most careful, caring, accepting man of all races, all religions, all genders.

WOW said...

A creative professor would see this as a wonderful and unique teaching opportunity and would exploit it. A creative professor would find a way to weave the experience into his or her curriculum, which of course for a Constitutional Law Professor should not take much creativity. Furthermore, as UW Law professors often due to further their own agendas, a creative professor could decide to schedule a make up class. This way, students could experience hearing a sitting president speak without having to make the decision to miss class. But of course, such decisions would require a professor to consider the students’ perspectives and not just their own political agenda.

Big Mike said...

I have a classroom secured, so my class will take place.

Well done, Professor. I hope you went even further and advised your students that attendance is not mandatory but that they will be resposible for understanding the material you present during that class.

Petunia said...

Have fun! The "doors" open at noon for the Bascom Hill appearance, but the FAA isn't closing the MSN airspace to general aviation until 2 p.m., which means Air Force One isn't arriving until sometime after that, which means The One won't be at Bascom until who knows when? 3 p.m.? 3:30?

Airspace is closed until 5:30. I'm going to go to the airport to watch the plane. Can't stand Zero, but the plane is very cool.

garage mahal said...

How will the handsomely paid, center left faculty deal with this national tragedy? When will it ever end!

purplepenquin said...

Hey! I know that disrupting distraction dude, even from behind.

If I hadn't already had work scheduled for elsewhere, I would've been one of those distracting disruption dude myself. Would you have biked...err, walked away if I called you by name?

bagoh20 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MadisonMan said...

which means The One won't be at Bascom until who knows when? 3 p.m.? 3:30?

When it's raining, in other words.

Venue change. Kohl Center. I'd almost bet on it.

Kirk Parker said...

Let me tell you, the first candidate who proposes doing away with this kind of security excess bullshit--and convinces me they actually mean it--will get my vote, whether the rest of the positions make them the second coming of Fidel Castro, or George Wallace.

Chip Ahoy said...

The debate tomorrow is at D.U. and already signs are up warning traffic will be bolloxed University and I-25.

The signs say that: TRAFFIC WILL BE BOLLOXED

no srsly, that's right where my friend has business tomorrow.

Incidentally, this friend, Joe, I haven't seen for months. Doesn't live here. Flies around all over the place I cannot keep up. He has hummingbird feeder #2 but to give to somebody else and I don't know where it's going to end up, he mentioned three people he intends to foist, I mean present it to, Phoenix, somewhere on the edge of Orange County, or Tahoe. I'll find out later where it ends up later, but a hummingbird place for sure.

Alex said...

How about any student that attends this rally gets an F.

rhhardin said...

It's class warfare.

Rusty said...

Lindsey Meadows said...
Oh how will the world go forth when Ann can't guide the masses...horrors.

The thought of a day without Ann holding forth is just an unbearable prospect.


Nobody's forcing you to show up.

Tibore said...

"...who thanks me for my "efforts and forbearance to accommodate this extraordinary event""...

Ahh, the faux graciousness of the individual (your Provost/Vice Chancellor) who merely pretends to be polite about disrupting the normal and expected execution of your job, but in reality isn't bothered by making vicarious participation mandatory via having to put up with crowds, move your class around, and otherwise deal with externally induced disarray.

But he thanks you anyway. Despite not asking you beforehand.

This is why even benign centralizations of power - in this case, a university administration - can lead to abuses, even if only the petty kind. What your Provost wrote was passive-aggressive arrogance, to be honest.

DDfan1 said...

Ask the university for a refund for the day lost.

mark said...

Give your lecture at the rally. With a bullhorn.

At $40,000/year a student is paying about $250 per lecture day. That is a lot for them to throw away.

So go ahead and teach. And let everyone know about it.

DDfan1 said...

So that $250 per student per lecture day is a political contribution, right?