you can no longer send group emails to your students because of legal issues

WTF? What kind of legal issues? How odd. Are you allowed to send individual emails?

We had no frats/sororities at my university, but my best friend from high school was in a sorority at UMich, and I stayed with her one spring break, and went to a frat party with her. One was enough.

I started grad school at UW-Madison and took part in Take Back the Night rallys that marched down Fraternity Row.

But, one of our best, nicest, most versatile undergrad theatre students had swithched his major from Agriculture to Theatre and still lived in the AgFrat house. And one of our best volenteers was a sorority house mother.

WTF? What kind of legal issues? How odd. Are you allowed to send individual emails?

Exactly. It's getting ridiculous. As far as I know (I've been away this semester and have to check on the exact details of the policy) we can still send individual emails and, in most cases, group emails. We just have to check to make sure none of our students is on a special list. The idea is that if, for whatever reason, a student does not want his or her address known, it should not be on any documents other students might see (such as the list I normally distribute to my students at the beginning of the semester so they can, say, contact each other outside class!). What is really ridiculous is that my school is so small and follows a standard formula for addresses based on your name, so, unless it is a really common name, you can pretty much guess everyone's address.

Most of these policies (that have developed in the last 4-5 years I'd say) aren't based on legal requirements so much as the fact that schools are trying to cover their asses in case the extreme happens. So, we have to turn in absence policies for all our classes to the Dean at the start of the semester, document all failures and provide explanations for the failing grade, etc. That's why scenes such as the Criminology professor announcing students' grades are so laughable to me. They stopped posting (anonymous) lists of grades 10 years ago at NYU (hi AmyLiz, go Violets)!

hi AmyLiz, go Violets

Heh. I always that was the most embarrassing name for a team ever. With the shrinking and all.

Couldn't you blind CC everyone to do a group email, though?

I'm not sure how I feel about a season of stand-alones. Actually, yeah, I am sure -- I don't like it. I like this mini-arc thing better -- maybe a bit shorter than the rape one, but not by much.

I understand what RT means about it being harder to draw viewers in that way, but a season of stand-alones gives them no good reason to come back, aside from the ongoing relationships. And the ongoing relationships have (so far) been very much affected by the mysteries, which I think is a good thing.

Then again, I'll take what I can get. There is no one on TV like Veronica and Keith. (I'd say Logan, but I'd be lying. Of course, Jason Dohring isn't playing any of those other wounded bad boys, though.)

Couldn't you blind CC everyone to do a group email, though?

Oh, of course, and if you email through Blackboard it does it automatically. One can work around many of these policies. They just all add up to a lot of time I could otherwise use to prepare my classes.

They just all add up to a lot of time I could otherwise use to prepare my classes.

So many policies are like that. I always found, when I worked in an office, meetings were the thing that kept me from actually doing work. Especially when we had meetings to schedule other meetings.

::headdesk::

You teach ... French? French lit? I think?

I had the coolest, if the most burnt out EVER high school French teacher senior year. He was so bored with teaching, and with our apathy, he used to let us get by with writing grammatically correct sentences in French on the quizzes, even if we didn't know the answers. (It was lit, so we were supposed to be reading Les Mis, etc.)

I cut so often, when he saw me in the hall he'd say, "Hey, Amy, there's a quiz Thursday if you want to stop by." He was a sweetheart. He died of a brain tumor not long after I graduated.

t /pointless off-topic nostalgic rambling

The idea is that if, for whatever reason, a student does not want his or her address known, it should not be on any documents other students might see

Oh. OK, that makes sense...except you could just say you have to BCC everyone, no?? Good grief.

So many policies are like that. I always found, when I worked in an office, meetings were the thing that kept me from actually doing work. Especially when we had meetings to schedule other meetings.

So true. Don't even get me started on the meetings! Academics should never be allowed to run them. I come from a business background and it's a source of eternal frustration.

You teach ... French? French lit? I think?

I teach a bit of everything. Technically, I'm an historian of French culture, specializing in the film industry. All my jobs have been centered in language departments, although I often teach cross-listed classes in English.

My dad was a KA.

Actually, him being a coach let me see how many different colleges function. Greek system at Ole Miss and Florida were huge. Colorado, NSM.

It is indeed huge at Ole Miss. Not small at Mississippi State, either, but not quite as dauntingly important.

My sister goes to Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and apparently it's quite horrendous there, especially the sororities. WAY too many Southern Belle princesses.