Tuesday, June 22, 2004
PH.D stands for what again?
OK....for those of you not engrossed in the hallowed halls of academia, let me lay a little wisdom down upon you (now would be the time to grab your stone slabs and chisels children). It appears, the more education one aquires in their life, the more common sense they loose in the process. Maybe the human mind is indead like a cup. You can only fill it so much before it begins to, in fact, spill. This causing a big ole mess, and inevitably, someone will slip and bust a hip.
Case in point. I was recently privey to a story of a faculty member at my university who, in her infite wisdom, sent an email to computer support to tell them that her email wasn't working. Thank God that little pony express guy that lives in your computer was able to run that message over to us. These are the kinds of people that caused there to be a need for warning labels.
Oh, but it does not end there...I can further defend my case. In my building, we have two departments who both use one workroom ( a reciepe for disaster, I agree, but also a source of countless hours of aggrevation, so it's all worthwhile). Now, in order to prevent the grubby little students (as a recent graduate, I can honestly say that is the best way to describe them) from plundering the offcie supplies as they walk down the hall, we ask all of the faculty and staff to please shut the door after they use the room. First, we simply verbalkly asked them. This seemed to not seep in. They gave us the same look a 5 year old gives you when you try to explain to them exactly where the water in the toilet goes and why it's not a good thing for keys to go there was well.
Second attempt, we sent a mass email to everyone reminding them to keep the door shut, in addition to posting a neon green sign over the light switch which says "Shut off the lights and close the door". That worked for about a week. Then, mysteriously, the door started leaving itself open and the light left itself on (this must have been the case since none of these PhD possessing people would admit to being the culprit).
In a final feeble attempt to get them to shut the door, we made a HUGE, neon orange arrow which points to a newly enlarged Neon green sign asking them to shut off the liughts and close the door. That worked for about 2 weeks.
My next step involves electricity, a sponge, and a lot of duct tape.
Case in point. I was recently privey to a story of a faculty member at my university who, in her infite wisdom, sent an email to computer support to tell them that her email wasn't working. Thank God that little pony express guy that lives in your computer was able to run that message over to us. These are the kinds of people that caused there to be a need for warning labels.
Oh, but it does not end there...I can further defend my case. In my building, we have two departments who both use one workroom ( a reciepe for disaster, I agree, but also a source of countless hours of aggrevation, so it's all worthwhile). Now, in order to prevent the grubby little students (as a recent graduate, I can honestly say that is the best way to describe them) from plundering the offcie supplies as they walk down the hall, we ask all of the faculty and staff to please shut the door after they use the room. First, we simply verbalkly asked them. This seemed to not seep in. They gave us the same look a 5 year old gives you when you try to explain to them exactly where the water in the toilet goes and why it's not a good thing for keys to go there was well.
Second attempt, we sent a mass email to everyone reminding them to keep the door shut, in addition to posting a neon green sign over the light switch which says "Shut off the lights and close the door". That worked for about a week. Then, mysteriously, the door started leaving itself open and the light left itself on (this must have been the case since none of these PhD possessing people would admit to being the culprit).
In a final feeble attempt to get them to shut the door, we made a HUGE, neon orange arrow which points to a newly enlarged Neon green sign asking them to shut off the liughts and close the door. That worked for about 2 weeks.
My next step involves electricity, a sponge, and a lot of duct tape.
