And if it does you'll hear the cries and know the meaning of black butter

[austin_dern]

Community colleges can go stuff themselves.

Maybe that needs a little unpacking. No, strike that, it doesn't. I appreciate the college in Connecticut at least sending out a mass e-mail to everyone rejected so our applications don't just vanish into the night, but, hey, every community college everywhere: I can teach any mathematics, computer science, or physics course you offer or are planning to offer at least as well as anyone you are currently employing or plan to employ. I've done it, and I can put you in touch with students who still like to say hi five years after the fact. I'm doing my part: I'm applying to you and I'm jumping through the many, many, many hoops on your crummily designed web forms to apply for any kind of overworked underpaid job that gets me back to working somewhere with a .edu e-mail address. You're the ones making the mistake and I'm tired of covering for you.

By the way, you regular colleges and universities: I can teach almost any mathematics, computer science, or physics course you offer or are planning to offer at least as well as almost anyone you currently employ or plan to employ. So don't think you're off the hook for this either. It's at least as much your fault too.

Trivia: When Rutgers College introduced the ``Latin-Scientific Course'' in September 1901 the only differences between it and the classical program were that Greek was no longer required for undergraduate admission, that French and physics took the place of Greek in the first two years of study, and that the degree awarded was a Bachelor of Letters rather than a Bachelor of Arts. Source: Rutgers: A Bicentennial History, Richard P McCormick.

Currently Reading: The Darkest Jungle: The True Story Of The Darien Expedition And America's Ill-Fated Race To Connect The Seas, Todd Balf. The Darien fiasco of 1854, not the earlier or later ones.

Comments

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, dear. I hope some of my advice will be helpful.

As a side note, I am shocked they sent a rejection letter. I don't always get rejection letters even from tenure-track jobs that I've actually gone so far as to interview for, let alone community college jobs. That seems like an unusual level of courtesy by academic standards.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

I sympathize. And agree. Would that I had any power to help smack these colleges upside the head for you.

[oliver-otter.livejournal.com]

Maybe you need to stress that you can teach any of those courses passably well, but certainly not as well as their tenured faculty, and pose no threat to their jobs or promotion schedules. :-/

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

Job market is bad, everywhere. The last time I attempted to enter on a professional level I wanted to cry over the lack of responses or blanket rejections for those jobs I felt especially and uniquely (and damned) qualified for. Many of the jobs turned out to be "mandatory postings" to satisfy tenure requirements or union statutes when they had already picked someone from within anyway.

Keep at 'em. Find people inside to get you heard :o)

...you know all this, but I figured I'd say it anyway.