College Daze

It just goes to show one can't caress fragile faculty egos enough. First comes the insistence by professors that classrooms are behind the times: "We need wireless connections because every real college has them." Then when the fragile faculty get what they want, "The students aren't paying attention to me! Whaaaa!!!!" Last week I heard a student bellowing in the hall about being embarressed by an instructor that woke her during a lecture. The problem isn't the student that fell asleep and isn't bothering anyone, rather, the problem is the fragile egocentric instructor sending the message "Pay attention to  me!" Students have lots of reasons for falling asleep: medication, overnight jobs, travel, family emergencies, childrenm, etc. If a fragile faculty person doesn't want to go to work and lecture, the excuse is just a phone call away...an excuse created by labor union negotiators for sick days, personal days, and family leave days. But, let a student try any of those excuses and they get told they will never be able to hold a job if they can't show up  every day. Ah, the Ivory Tower!