Email Etiquette for God’s Sake!

How do you feel about others forwarding email that you intend for just them? I was shocked when Boobie forwarded – to all of Library faculty- a conversation that she and I were having through email. This was a conversation that she initiated encouraging me to attend a presentation about student evaluations (obviously a patronizing reference to my failure to acquire those evaluations last semester).

The exchange took a turn when she became condescending and I countered with my strong feelings about the biased manner that those in Library use to distribute student evaluations in their attempt to look like other faculty. She then forwarded the email chain to all in the department.

Lovely… Does it make a difference that she initiated the email? Maybe that was why she felt free to share it? I think she was just being a bitch…

And the punishment is…

Twitchy sent me a copy of an email to the provost stating the issue with my student evaluations and proposing as a solution that I would distribute 100 evaluations for this semester. Makes sense – 5 times the alloted number should make up for last semester. Whatever…

A few inconsistencies -

• Twitchy told the provost I forgot to do the evaluations (a lie) .
• Provost noted the lack of communication of Library chairperson to new faculty (he knew the truth).

How many evaluations?

Today I was told , by a wigged out Miserly, that I was in violation of the CBA. He had steam coming out of his ears as he charged into my office so it took a few moments to determine what he was so flustered about. It seems that that he had just found out that I did not have 20 student evaluations returned for the Fall semester. Having never heard this magic number before, I maintained a quizzical demeanor and requested an explanation as to what it all meant. All I could get out of him was that this was BAD and that BAD things could and probably would happen as a result.

As an explanation Miserly began to frantically search online for the line in the Governance Manual which stated this requirement – it wasn’t there… Miserly then dashed to his office and returned with a print version of the CBA and frantically searched in there… No luck for a good 15 minutes of searching but really, showing me now is moot with regard to last semester.

Student Evaluations Library Style

I was surprised to learn the manner in which student evaluations are distributed by the faculty librarians. The librarians are responsible for handing them out to anyone that they wish. They can be distributed in a class, which provides some objective sampling, or at the reference desk to anyone you think might leave the desk smiling. I have also seen them given to librarian’s student workers and even to other librarians. Seems a bit sketchy to me – certainly not scientific method.