Ugh cont'd [teaching]
Feb. 21st, 2021 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterI was so relieved to get that Covid test done last Wednesday. Afterwords they said it could be up to 72 hours before I'd find out the results.
So I waited until Saturday before pulling out the paperwork to check their site. The main page on the site said:
Your important lab results have been delayed by disrupted FedEx operations. FedEx delivery service has been disrupted since 2/13/21 with very few deliveries into our Nashville lab since that date. FedEx informs us they will resume operations as quickly as they can. Our laboratory operates 24/7-once received, all samples will be promptly tested and reported.
When I typed in my number I got a message that read (and still reads): Sample ______ has not been received at our laboratory.
Ugh.
So I emailed my dean to let him know what I know, and the long and short of it is that I am not allowed to go in to campus tomorrow to teach in person.
That's all well and good for Monday, when the main thing on the schedule is a lecture that I can deliver via Zoom.
Not so good for Tuesday's labs or bicycling course, however, nor for the campus critters that need regular food and water. I will learn more in the morning, I'm sure.
Right now I'm just angry about the whole situation. Sure, you could say it's my fault, but there's still the underlying inequity of requiring the specific test type (PCR) that either costs $120-150 out-of-pocket or requires a trip in a motor vehicle. It isn't as though I have any control over where the sample gets sent.
And then, to add insult to injury, this evening I'm discovering that all of the lecture slides I made last spring on the work computer won't back-convert to the older Fruit presentation software version on my laptop. If I wind up stuck at home this week I will most likely just throw up my hands and work off of the pdf handout versions from last spring because I am already over this nonsense and the semester hasn't even started yet.
Clearly it's time to go to bed.
So I waited until Saturday before pulling out the paperwork to check their site. The main page on the site said:
Your important lab results have been delayed by disrupted FedEx operations. FedEx delivery service has been disrupted since 2/13/21 with very few deliveries into our Nashville lab since that date. FedEx informs us they will resume operations as quickly as they can. Our laboratory operates 24/7-once received, all samples will be promptly tested and reported.
When I typed in my number I got a message that read (and still reads): Sample ______ has not been received at our laboratory.
Ugh.
So I emailed my dean to let him know what I know, and the long and short of it is that I am not allowed to go in to campus tomorrow to teach in person.
That's all well and good for Monday, when the main thing on the schedule is a lecture that I can deliver via Zoom.
Not so good for Tuesday's labs or bicycling course, however, nor for the campus critters that need regular food and water. I will learn more in the morning, I'm sure.
Right now I'm just angry about the whole situation. Sure, you could say it's my fault, but there's still the underlying inequity of requiring the specific test type (PCR) that either costs $120-150 out-of-pocket or requires a trip in a motor vehicle. It isn't as though I have any control over where the sample gets sent.
And then, to add insult to injury, this evening I'm discovering that all of the lecture slides I made last spring on the work computer won't back-convert to the older Fruit presentation software version on my laptop. If I wind up stuck at home this week I will most likely just throw up my hands and work off of the pdf handout versions from last spring because I am already over this nonsense and the semester hasn't even started yet.
Clearly it's time to go to bed.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-22 02:19 am (UTC)Well, bother.
All the logistics mechanisms are getting a bit ground down even without freak cold and storms.
(Not only is it not your fault, the idea that you can get useful disease control from something that takes four days to deliver results is risible. So the policy is having serious 'something must be done' issues.)
no subject
Date: 2021-02-22 11:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-02-22 12:52 pm (UTC)Unless this policy is preventing you from taking necessary precautions, I wouldn't be inclined to fight it. Life is sufficiently challenging without trying to make the administration numerate or believe in viruses or whatever the specific cognitive hurdle happens to be.
There's an awful lot to be said for putting low-risk (= no expectation of lasting harm) things in cost-to-solve order. Which is far from great when you've got to manage unexpected remote work, especially teaching work, but at least does put "fix administration policy" at the back of the list.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-22 01:10 pm (UTC)I have been so frustrated with how much money I've had to pay out of pocket over the course of the pandemic just to be able to do my job. It might be a far cry from what many teachers and professors spend in the US, but there's no way of really knowing, and it's terrible that this is what's expected of educators in this country.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-22 01:41 pm (UTC)No argument!
It makes the distinction between the less-than-useful construction of priviledge and the somewhat more useful construction of power with clarity, but that's about all I think could be said for it.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-22 01:16 pm (UTC)And yes, it sucks that your commitment and sense of responsibility has ended up costing you significant bank.