Liberation Day

Sitting
in our office at 7:30 in the morning, waiting for the shit to hit the
fan. The Bright Boys in IT have moved our academic
program over to a File Maker Pro database with a browser-based interface.
Unlike the staff, who use Filemaker every day, faculty only use it
twice a semester, to write midterm and final evaluations.
The idea was, with a browser based interface we could work from home.

We are sure the webberized version worked fine when the boys tried
it out in their alpha phase, but today is the last day of the first
half of the semester (Spring Break starts tomorrow – go figure) and
last night when all 32 faculty got on-line at the same time to write
their evals, the whole thing broke.

Everyone hoped the problem was just THEM, or that the computers
in their offices would be unaffected, so the office is crowded with edgy
irate teachers swilling caffeine and hovering in the hallways, waiting
for the techies to come in and feel their wrath.

It is an especially poignant moment for the Dowbrigade, as we
are teaching in a special, intensive, six-week program and so today
is OUR LAST DAY teaching until June. OUR students will not be
coming back following break. And good riddance. There have
been numerous incidents over the
last
six
weeks which have shaken our dedication to the vocation but which we
have been unable to blog due to our strict policy against writing anything
about current students. Perhaps, now that they are EX-students that
will change, but give us a few days to recover and think about it.