Frustrated?

So are we.  You can add "burnt out from struggling to voice our opinions" to that.  

All too often, graduate students get stuck in the uncomfortable position of not wholly being students and certainly not being faculty.  The ideal graduate experience includes a community of academics that provides support and advice as you navigate through the early stages of building a career.  Unfortunately, as many of you know, this is not always the case.  

Stuck in a world where some issues either inappropriate or risky to discuss with your advisor or where your fellow colleagues have hounded you for daring to have an opposing opinion, many grad students become lost in frustration. 

In order to encourage an actual interplay of ideas on college campuses, we're seeking to build a community that will facilitate discussion on difficult issues, provide a forum for rants and raves (whether they be about students, faculty, administration, or just life in general), and in general act as a support system when you just feel like you can't deal with your university any more.  

Welcome, and we hope we can all help each other provide a proper introduction to true academic discussion.  

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Another Introduction to "A Proper Introduction"

Introducing . . . "A Proper Introduction", a blog that lets grad students (and undergrads if you're so inclined) discuss issues pertaining to higher ed in an open forum. You can vent about classes or professors (in a courteous manner, of course), the philosophy of your department, funding questions, teaching problems, books you've been forced to read, discussions from class that never added up, accountability . . . anything. We'll also be posting our thoughts (soon to come: my rant on the Kaplan University TV commercials) as a way to start discussions going.

So . . . where do you come in? Well, read the blog, make comments if you feel like it, and tell your friends. Bookmark it. The more traffic we get, the better (hopefully) the discussion. Ideally, all students doing graduate work should be getting a proper introduction to the world of academia, of ideas, and of professional scholarship. However, the fantasy of unfettered study and complete academic freedom can often be just that . . . a fantasy. At "A Proper Introduction" we're hoping to change that by giving students the opportunity to vent their frustrations and provide support and advice. Join the conversation now! Thanks!

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)