No court in the land, I tell you.

[stillane]

Dear whoever it was that decided that there should be a symposium fusion (yes, Bowie, I'm looking at you),

Please do not breed.

I'm sure this seemed like a great and wonderful idea, and I'm sure it will work beautifully once the kinks are ironed out, but... I would prefer not to be among the test subjects. In particular, it would be very nice if you would check in with the science students and properly explain that this is not, in fact, a new and optional event. This is the blob that ate the science symposium; a mutant, if you will. All of which would be fine and good, no doubt fascilitating intercourse among the departments and producing cute little baby interdepartmental projects, were it not for two facts: 1) your email gave both advisors and students alike the impression that this was a separate entity only based on the first, and 2) this led to them discovering one hour in advance that their abstract was now due a full two weeks ahead of the previous schedule. And for science students, no part of this is optional. No presentation, no thesis, no honors.

Not cool. Not cool at all.

It is done, and I love my advisor to pieces for taking one look at my wide-eyed terror and saying, "So, okay, we write fast. Grab your laptop and let's toast this badboy." For future reference, though, please remember to phrase things very simply for the scientists. We deal with many dangerous chemicals, and our cognitive powers may be somewhat hindered. Small words and visual aids are advisable.

Slightly dysfunctional love,
Stillane


I'm going to go take a nap now, but when I get back those missiles are so fired. Or, you know, I might just put on some good music and play with the website. I feel I've earned the right to veg.

ETA: Or maybe I'll work on that proposed moodtheme. This one is wholly inadequate.

Comments

[enname.livejournal.com]

(as a random blow in)

Yikes, they are insane failing to mention those small contingencies about the symposium. I am currently organising one for history and those were the first things we cleared up. Eep. I don't think it is just the scientists who would have trouble - anyone without direct access to their brains might.

[stillane.livejournal.com]

Yep. The big problem arose from the fact that this was a mid-year add-on. We started out with the usual schedule, wherein research becomes science symposium presentation becomes thesis. We got all the usual paperwork, too, and marked calendars accordingly (abstract due March 17th). Then this new system is introduced, only it isn't clear that it is, in fact, the new system, rather than just a secondary one to run alongside the old. The two-week window kind of evaporated and left me and my adviser going, 'Buh?'

All settled now, though, thankfully. Hope your symposium goes far more hitchlessly than this one has thus far. Best of luck!

[eccentric_hat]

I feel some fraction of your pain. The communication about this thing has been absolutely awful. Here's to awesome advisors, and here's hoping the event is worth the panic.

[stillane.livejournal.com]

Fingers crossed on that last one. I've seen you mentioning the tension, and meant to wish you luck. I've just been bopping along, thinking I was fully separate from the whole mess and plotting for my own version of it in a few weeks. Silly me.

Such glorious advisors are worth their weight in gold. I may need to break down and acquire chocolate for mine. She deserves it.