Headphones in the Office - 29 August 2011

Headphones in the Office


My first use of office headphones took place several years ago when I attended an international online conference on online teaching, and – ever since – their use has become multi-purpose, including selection of video and audio material for courses and listening to background music while I work.

In this blog post I would like to focus on the latter application: background music. What is it for? Well, calm music can create a mildly stimulating yet relaxing atmosphere. I’ll have to admit though that I find it more appropriate when involved in routine, simple office work such as straightforward typing than when the work requires deep concentration or focused reading. The headphones also help muffle any intruding noise from corridors, neighbouring offices, etc.

Before AUB subscribed to the online Naxos music database, available on campus through the University Libraries, one would have to play audio clips (or CDs) over and over again, but now one has a wider choice from the database. The bulk of the music seems to be classical/ instrumental though one can still find other genres such as opera. Search for Pavarotti, and you’ll see. Searching for Fairouz though won’t deliver any hits, nor will searching for pop groups such as ABBA, which you’ll have to find on sites such YouTube; any accompanying videos should preferably be kept in the background away from view as they can be distracting!

Basically, when there is external noise in the office, rather than ask people to be quiet, one can try to muffle the sound – but should one have to? When people take a break, talk in the corridors, or chat loudly with their students, shouldn’t they remember that someone else is working and may need to concentrate? Or is the “real” work of a teacher supposed to take place at home these days, with the office being a mere transitional stop between the classroom and the home? Deliberate noise should, in my view, be considered a form of harassment, but most workplace noise does not seem to fit into that category. Disturbance from campus construction and student events is an example I’ve encountered complaints about in faculty emails.

Am I recommending the use of headphones as a solution? Yes, it could be a partial solution. One must be realistic though: it won’t block out all the noise and may be interpreted as burying one’s head in the sand rather than confronting the source of the problem.


Posted by May Mikati on 29 August 2011, 11:28 AM

Workplace Etiquette/ Netiquette - 21 August 2011

Workplace Etiquette/ Netiquette


Etiquette is a broad subject relevant to various aspects of one’s social life, including school, air travel, driving a vehicle, sports, and of course the workplace. Workplace etiquette is important because it helps people avoid misunderstandings by encouraging organization and effective communication. It also fosters a less stressful, more productive workplace atmosphere. In one way or another, the subject is relevant to all employees, regardless of their field and where they have been placed, or misplaced ;-), on their institutional hierarchy. For example, emoticons such as the one I have just used may be considered a violation of the workplace code, depending on the type of communication. They would definitely be frowned upon in formal correspondence, whether in the form of letters or e-mails. You need some guts to break some of these taboos, but in an informal, semi-professional blog such as this, it wouldn’t be considered too eccentric to use them – or at least one would hope not.

Netiquette is only one small part of workplace etiquette. One would need several blog posts to touch upon other important aspects of workplace etiquette, which encompasses peripheral matters such as gossip, written and unwritten dress codes, and various issues relating to sight, sound, and smell, as well as core matters such as punctuality and productivity, and avoidance of discrimination: nepotism, sexism, racism, looksism, ageism, discrimination based on lifestyle or irrelevant disability, etc.

Back to netiquette then. Since a considerable proportion of workplace communication takes place through electronic means (e-mail, web postings, teleconferencing, etc.), the topic is not to be taken lightly. For example, researchers have noticed that people tend to be more spontaneous in electronic communications than face to face. While this is commendable in some situations, rash messages are to be avoided. With one click, your message is irreversible, while face to face you may more easily clarify it if it is vague or patch it up if it is regrettable. The use of rude, angry messages known as “flaming” is a well-known problem in internet messaging. Online, people more easily forget the human at the receiving end, or misinterpret messages due to the absence of nonverbal cues such as tone of voice, facial expressions, and posture. Special care is therefore necessary.

Lack of concision, rambling on and on, is yet another violation of workplace rules of conduct as in terms of efficiency, it wastes your audience’s time, affecting their productivity. It may also be interpreted as a personal insult to recipients if they sense that their time is not being valued. Caution is necessary: whether in writing or verbally, give your audience what they need, no more, no less.

Furthermore, electronic communication renders the disclosure of information to third parties much easier. Inappropriate forwarding, cc’ing and bcc’ing of messages are unacceptable, as is misuse of company resources such as computers, e.g. in playing games while on duty. Yet the worst type of violation of all in my view is hacking into personal or sensitive information, especially when accompanied by further illegal or unethical use of the data, as in plagiarism or selling of content to third parties.

The list of subtopics is endless – and of course no one is perfect, especially since people may say or do things under stress that they would never accept under normal circumstances. Still, as a language teacher I’d like to stress that minding your language is an essential part of minding your workplace manners. For more insight into the topic of netiquette, see Virginia Shea’s famous book, The Core Rules of Netiquette, which I have recommended to my students; it is an EXCELLENT resource.

P. S. Please excuse the capital letters above; I didn’t mean to shout!


Posted by May Mikati on 21 August 2011, 10:29 PM

Soaking Up the Sun, and Not Just for Fun! - 12 August 2011

Soaking Up the Sun, and Not Just for Fun!


How could sunbathing help with your career? Isn’t the idea a little far-fetched – possibly outrageous even? Not really. You’re only going to sunbathe in your vacation time, so – unless you overdo it – there’s no negative impact whatsoever on your work performance. On the contrary, you may be relaxing, recharging yourself for work, and possibly even reflecting on your work as I am doing now while writing this at the beach – if you’re not actually getting some work done there that is!

Reading work-related material and writing while at the beach is easy if you’re not distracted. I’ve done it repeatedly and successfully in the past though I’ll have to admit that this vacation was so seriously busy that half the summer slipped by before I finally got to the beach.

Scientifically speaking, the sun can give you a useful mood lift too, especially if you don’t normally get much sun due to the nature and environment of your work – e.g. if you’re in a closed office most of the time. Depression is a top enemy of productivity and creativity. Haven’t we all heard of people who became depressed and much less productive partly due to insufficient outdoor exposure? Haven’t we also heard of people in Scandinavian countries who have committed suicide partly due to sun deprivation? Clearly, if you’re living in Lebanon you’re not likely to be that deprived of the sun, but you may still need more of it, depending on your lifestyle. In any case, everyone needs to get away from the office every now and then, even if only for a change of scene. Monotonous work routines are notorious for killing creativity.

The sea and wind can give you the perception of an added energy boost at the beach. It’s windy today although the temperature is over 35 degrees C. Water is spraying from the waves, reaching me, a dozen or more meters away. The sound of the waves crashing and the wind humming stimulates the mind in an unusual way. The cooling effect of the wind, along with the water spray, will keep me in the sun a little longer than initially anticipated. A second application of sunblock will allow me to finish this piece in one sitting. I’m running out of paper and my laptop isn’t with me; I’m not in the habit of carrying it to the beach though I do envision a paperless beach, in parallel with a paperless office, in the not too distant future.

On a still lighter note, come to think of it, a tanned co-worker or teacher may be perceived as a less boring, and possibly less threatening character – someone to listen to and cooperate with. Who wants to be around a serious, pale-looking teacher or colleague sitting at their computer day in, day out, year after year? Very few I would think. Wouldn’t you agree that a bronzed employee tends to be perceived as more fun to have around than a nerdy looking one, who is more likely to give the impression of being strict and mean, possibly even nit-picking, if not ruthlessly competitive (and hence to be fought and, whenever possible, humiliated)?

Appearances can play a role in one’s career, and they can be surprisingly deceptive, so one must unfortunately pay attention to them though of course not at the expense of one’s time or dignity. Not that everyone around is superficial in judging others; rather, it is more of a subconscious matter. Everyone knows that even intellectuals are affected by appearances though I suspect few would want to admit it. Sad, isn’t it? Well, cheer up, there’s much more to life than this superficiality. Get out and get some sun, and (forgive the pun) - who knows? -perhaps you’ll remember this post the next time you roast!


Posted by May Mikati on 12 August 2011, 10:33 PM

Connecting With Students - 10 August 2011

Connecting With Students


If you are a university teacher these days, you are likely to find yourself connecting with students not just during a course but before and after it. This has become much more common in the past ten years, first with e-mail and now, additionally, with social and professional networking. How does one manage this upsurge of communication and all these “contacts”?

Before a course, you are likely to receive enquiries about the content of the course, the assessment methods used, as well as your grading range. Some students like to fathom the likelihood of their scoring high with you well in advance; some will explain that they are, for example, pre-med students in need of high grades – as if you’re supposed to promise these before you know them. While explaining the syllabus in advance is fine, giving promises is completely inappropriate. Others will simply ask you to raise capacity in your full section, so that they can register, even though they don’t know you and they still have years to graduate. Their persistence is usually unjustified and is not always flattering. Rather than feeling flattered one may rightly wonder whether these students have been told one is an “easy” teacher.

Technology facilitates interaction during a course as well though it can be abused at times. Some of the enquiries one receives are completely redundant, such as questions about assignment deadlines and presentation dates. These are usually posted on the course website – and often in more than one location. Still, one finds oneself answering one such question after another on a weekly, and sometimes daily, basis. Other enquires revolve around “why did I get this grade” when the posted scoring rubrics or checklists clearly indicate the required criteria – and these have already been explained in class. While it is commendable for a teacher to be responsive to student enquiries, some of them are frankly a waste of a teacher’s time, and I wouldn’t blame you if you were to ignore the redundant ones though I haven’t had the nerve to be so mean yet.

After a course there may also be questions of “why did I get this average” when simple calculations would explain it – or comments such as “I didn’t know we had to submit a reflection at the end” when it is clearly indicated on the schedule and elsewhere. On the other hand, if you are a member of a professional network, such as Linkedin, you may receive requests to connect with students there. I don’t find it inappropriate to accept such requests from former students, and actually consider it wiser to add them as contacts there (where one can follow their career progress) rather than as “friends” on Facebook, which can get a little too informal at times. This is of course a personal choice for a teacher though I’ll have to confess that one of the few students whose friend requests I did accept on Facebook graduated this year with the highest average in the history of AUB, and this wouldn’t have come into the light if it hadn’t been for Facebook. What a double-edged sword!


Posted by May Mikati on 10 August 2011, 11:49 PM

How Jogging Can Jog Your Memory - 23 July 2011

How Jogging Can Jog Your Memory


No, this posting isn’t about the fitness or weight loss benefits of jogging – that’s really old hat! What I’d like to reflect about are the mood and memory boosts associated with jogging/running, as there is interesting new scientific research in this field, and anything that can enhance one’s mood or memory should definitely enhance one’s work.

Psychological research has proved that running can be addictive because some related chemicals produced – mood enhancers – are just like those that drug addicts take when they want to get “high”. Take a look at this article on “Endocannabinoids and Exercise”, from the British Journal of Sports Medicine. It emphasizes the sedative, anti-anxiety effects of exercise such as running, along with the general sense of well-being produced. While it does mention the “impaired working memory ability” and “difficulty in time estimation” associated with the “runner’s high”, these effects appear to be temporary; one may compare these effects to the rise in pulse which is reversed after exercise (Olympic athletes, for example, are known to have very low resting pulse rates – around half of the normal person’s).

Here is a 2010 Guardian article discussing the link between running and the brain: “Start Running and Watch Your Brain Grow, Say Scientists”. It revolves around a study claiming that aerobic exercise triggers new cell growth, and that the region of the brain affected is linked to memory: “Neuroscientists at Cambridge University have shown that running stimulates the brain to grow fresh grey matter and it has a big impact on mental ability….The work reveals why jogging and other aerobic exercise can improve memory and learning, and potentially slow down the deterioration of mental ability that happens with old age.” The study compared two groups of mice: a sedentary group and a running group. The latter showed better memories and sharper perception when objects were switched: “Brain tissue taken from the rodents showed that the running mice had grown fresh grey matter during the experiment. Tissue samples from the dentate gyrus part of the brain [one of the few regions of the adult brain that can grow fresh brain cells] revealed on average 6,000 new brain cells in every cubic millimetre.”

The Cambridge study appears to corroborate findings from an earlier Columbia study involving 11 volunteers: “Aerobic exercise—an hour a day, four days a week for three months—led to changes on brain scans that seemed to indicate the birth of new neurons in the hippocampus” (Anne Underwood, “Jogging Your Memory”, Newsweek, Dec. 1, 2007).

So if you haven’t started jogging yet, what are you waiting for? On the other hand, if I see you at the track some day soon I might assume that you’ve read this and caught on. See you there!


Posted by May Mikati on 23 July 2011, 3:20 PM

Long Summer Holidays - 18 July 2011

Long Summer Holidays


Long summer holidays can bore one to death if unplanned. I don’t often opt for a long vacation in summer, but when I’m not teaching I’m usually busy with something else: working on a publication, preparing new material for the following year, etc. I might get to travel a little but cannot rest for long without the sense that time is being wasted. Do I consider myself a workaholic? The Merriam-Webster definition of a workaholic is simply “a compulsive worker”, so I assume I’m probably a borderline case though this self-assessment is rather subjective! Luckily, workaholism is not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), so one may safely assume that it is not an illness though the “compulsion” part does have a ring of OCD to it (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)!

Besides, there’s a difference between merely working/ being busy and being productive. It’s good to find tangible ways of measuring one’s own productivity, for the sake of self-fulfillment. One’s self-esteem must not depend on what others think, however, but rather on one’s conviction that one has done one’s best. The quality of one’s work and efforts should matter the most. One must never be proud of high quantity poor quality work output no matter what pressures one is under.

In the end, it remains true that “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Vacation time is important for refreshing oneself and zesting up one’s spirit. One can be more physically active in the holidays than when one is glued to one’s desk or in front of a computer all the time. Without vacations we would all be duller, and probably fatter and much less healthy as well; and vacation time needn’t be all play: it can be partly productive. Just consider this blog, for example. It wouldn’t have started if it weren’t for the summer holiday that triggered it. Instead of silently ruminating about one’s work, one can blog about it, reflecting and sharing one’s experiences for the benefit of others.


Posted by May Mikati on 18 July 2011, 11:18 AM

Head in the Clouds - 22 June 2011

Head in the Clouds


The internet has transformed teaching at AUB to such an extent that one may safely claim our heads are now in the clouds. Ever since the learning management system WebCT (now called BlackBoard) was adopted at AUB, our lives have been taking a different turn. The chalkboard and class handouts have been replaced with online course material within a much more interactive framework. Although we have not yet reached the stage of the “paperless faculty” envisioned by a former dean, teaching and learning will never be the same again at AUB.

Back in 2001 I took to WebCT like a fish to water although my computer experience was quite limited. I was the first teacher to use an LMS in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences though I’ll have to admit I didn’t plunge deeply into it till 2004. By that time my teaching had become substantially web-enhanced.

This year – after years of training in online and blended learning (most of it voluntary) - I have finally transformed one of my courses from face-to-face into blended/hybrid format, meaning I have placed enough material and activities online to actually eliminate more than a quarter of class contact hours in that course. Moodle, the LMS AUB now uses instead of WebCT, has definitely made its mark. Lecture notes and assignment submission, glossaries and discussions, team projects, wikis, videos, and other supplementary material are now all accessible on or through Moodle. Without it, most faculty and students would be like fish out of water.

I enjoyed teaching online – and still do – and when the process was still new, I researched it thoroughly, giving conference presentations and publishing a number of articles about it. The next step after web-enhanced and hybrid/blended courses would be a far riskier one: 100% online course delivery. I doubt that AUB will ever want to reach that stage. Besides, from my latest continuing education interactions with Illinois Online Network participants, I have gathered that many blended courses were created as a step back from the fully online format rather than the other way around.

Having one’s head in the clouds does not mean floating in the cloud altogether. One’s feet must be kept firmly on the ground.

Note: While the term “cloud” is used metaphorically here, “cloud computing” in the strict technical sense of the term could mean hosting of data and applications on remote servers such as those of Google and Microsoft. See, for example, this InfoWorld definition of “What Cloud Computing Really Means” and this University of London Computer Centre blog entry: “Moodle in the Cloud”.


Posted by May Mikati on 22 June 2011, 4:07 PM

To Blog or Not to Blog - 16 June 2011

To Blog or Not to Blog


The democratic nature of the internet is well-expressed through blogs. Ever since blogging came into fashion, I have admired bloggers for their initiative and courage, and for sharing valuable information and experience with readers. Such participation of ordinary people in the shaping of trends and opinions globally was still a dream a decade ago. Thanks to the internet, the dream is coming true.

Although I admired blogging, I was not enthusiastic about starting a blog myself initially – whether professional or personal. A professional blog would be time consuming – too much of an additional responsibility. It would require research, substantial investment of energy, and constant updates and follow-up. A personal blog would be – well – too personal; only extroverts would go for that kind of thing I thought, and I shrank from the idea. I do enjoy writing, however, so I finally started this blog: a record that is neither intended to be professional in the sense of a conventional “niche” blog nor strictly personal or diary-like, but rather a synthesis of the two extremes. I decided to focus it on my work and workplace in general rather than on anything else. Relatively unknown among colleagues despite decades spent at AUB, this could be a chance for me, I thought, to step outside the realm of anonymity. The text could also enlighten readers less experienced with AUB, and possibly provide a different angle on things to fellow old-timers.

As this blog evolves, it may drift from its initial purpose, but if it does, I hope it moves more in the professional direction rather than the personal direction. I also hope it becomes interactive, so please feel free to post your comments.

Finally, here’s a funny YouTube video on blogging: "To Blog or Not to Blog!!"


Posted by May Mikati on 16 June 2011, 9:52 PM

The Feline Population of AUB - 11 June 2011

The Feline Population of AUB


In my student days, the campus cat population was much smaller than it is now. No one ever really seemed to take much notice of the cats, let alone feed them as I occasionally did with “Picon” cheese while waiting for early morning classes. Their presence did not seem obtrusive, either, but you can’t really judge till you have an office where they can barge in uninvited. Why do they barge in if I longer feed them? Do some of them still remember me from back then? One would doubt that as they don’t live that long. It must be because others feed them, and they get used to it.

Times have certainly changed. Lately, the AUB cats have become a prominent campus phenomenon, something of a trademark. Having multiplied over the years despite seemingly serious efforts to curb their numbers, they now feature on university post cards and calendars, and in various publications, such as the student yearbook. They sleep in office buildings, such as Fisk Hall. One also suspects that they will soon outnumber the faculty members; as if it’s not enough that faculty have to compete with each other, they now find themselves competing with the cats for attention and recognition! A special cat budget was announced once, at a time when budgets were being tightened in other areas.

When the AUB administration decided to organize cat feeding, this seemed ironic: how could feeding the creatures help AUB? Wouldn’t it attract more of them to the campus? The answers are found in former AUB president Waterbury’s new book, A Photographic Remembrance of Lebanon (p. 138). He states that well-fed animals are less likely to fall ill and spread disease than neglected, sick ones. Besides, he confirms that many cats were spayed/ neutered over the years under the supervision of a university vet. Waterbury admits though that, after the 2006 war, AUB suffered from the effects of “a new surge in cat dumping”.

Personally, although I don’t like the creatures, I can easily recognize some of them. There’s an attractive white cat which, on close inspection, has different-colored eyes; you can see it on the 2010/11 AUB calendar. Sadly, a particularly charming grey Persian disappeared a couple of years ago; when I mentioned this to some animal feeders, they commented that its disappearance was a good sign – someone was probably taking good care of it.


Posted by May Mikati on 11 June 2011, 4:04 PM

AUB Campus Parking - 06 June 2011

AUB Campus Parking


There isn’t much to be said really about parking on campus except that it’s been a controversial issue ever since I first heard about it in 1992 when I applied to park on campus. The November 1991 College Hall disaster was still fresh, and although all my colleagues were still parking inside the campus (outside Fisk Hall) back then, I was told that for security reasons everyone would be moved to the peripheral parking areas soon, and I was one of the first to have to park in the periphery. Only deans and chairs kept parking in the same old spots for a while after that. My fellow instructors resented having to park in the periphery, especially when years later the convenient peripheral lot behind Fisk was completely evacuated (also allegedly for security reasons), but with some exceptions of course. Many English Department faculty members were then asked to park in places such as the lower campus, and later an area closer to the Medical Center, now used for public parking.

In case you’re wondering why I walk up and down the campus stairs every day, peripheral parking is the answer – very peripheral in some cases! My colleagues prefer to park on or near Bliss Street – and those who live near by just walk.

A very new development is student parking on campus. Though expensive, the possibility now seems to exist in the Olayan School of Business. One wonders how many students are using the facility and how many waste time daily looking for a place to park outside. From what I’ve seen, parking is a nightmare for some students.


Posted on Monday, 06 June 2011, 3:16 PM

Flashback Three: To Publish or Not to Publish? - 03 June 2011

Flashback Three: To Publish or Not to Publish?


Well into my thirties, I was often mistaken for a teenager on campus. Around the year 2000, during a Student Representative Council voting event, a student asked me whether I was a sophomore when I was merely passing by on the way to my office in Fisk Hall. Similarly, a year later, while queuing for an event outside the Assembly Hall, the then-Head of Public Relations at AUB pushed me forward in a manner that a military officer might use with an impudent teenager. I don’t know if anyone noticed or reprimanded him, but when he passed by me at the next such event, his expression was one of someone whose head had just been struck with a hammer. It was clear to me that something was amiss, and that I’d have to work doubly hard to prove myself in the workplace.

One way of proving oneself in an academic setting is through publishing. At the very beginning, no one ever told me to conduct research or publish, and the idea of academic publishing did not cross my mind. Being young and relatively naive, engrossed in teaching and marking, and from a non-academic family background (though academically inclined since early childhood), the closest I got to publishing was flirting for a while with the idea of writing a novel about AUB – something akin to George Orwell’s Animal Farm, except revolving around aliens from another planet landing at AUB and reporting about it.

In the mid-to-late nineties an opportunity finally presented itself. Along with a number of other AUB faculty members, I was selected to work on a national curriculum English language textbook committee. Over the next three years most of my energy was focused on this project, and by the end, I had emerged as the published co-author of a number of English language textbooks, each with its workbook and teacher’s manual. At an early stage in our work though we were advised to withdraw from the project or remain only as individuals rather than as representatives of AUB; tensions had developed between the university and the National Center for Educational Research and Development, and although the nature of the tensions was not disclosed to us, it later dawned on me that foreign publishers had opposed the project as they wanted their books on the Lebanese market instead. When we finished the first book, a couple of outside “readers” were hired to edit it before it was released. Luckily, I got a chance to see their work just before the book went to the printers. Those “readers” had clearly left certain things unread: they had modified the student book without making the necessary parallel adjustments to the workbook or teacher’s manual, leaving a trail of discrepancies behind. “They’ve messed up their book!” exclaimed an NCERD employee when I brought this to their attention. A compulsive perfectionist by nature, I volunteered to repair those discrepancies after everyone else on the committee had disappeared for the summer holiday, the co-authors and the so-called “coordinator” of the textbook.

The episode with the government textbooks was a great learning experience though I’m not sure I’d want to go through that kind of tunnel again. Since then, I have published only teaching-related articles, many of which were initially presented at English teachers’ conferences. The course material one posts on course web sites is also a form of publication, albeit much less formal, and I’ve been involved in that for years, initiating and contributing to various English Department metacourses - sites available to multiple sections.

It is easy to begin slacking after such accomplishments, deluding oneself that there is nothing more to be done, but complacency is the enemy of progress. For the motivated, new vistas are always on the horizon.


Posted by May Mikati on Friday, 03 June 2011, 1:06 PM

Flashback Two: Coordinating the Extension English Program - 01 June 2011

Flashback Two: Coordinating the Extension English Program


A few months after joining the English Department, I was asked to coordinate the English Program for the AUB Extension (now known as the Continuing Education Center). That was over and above my full-time departmental teaching load. I was grateful for the opportunity, and I did that for three consecutive years before finally extricating myself.

The Extension job involved dedicating afternoon office hours to seeing Extension English teachers and coordinators, checking all exams, and revising the curriculum. I wrote detailed course objectives for the five levels, changed all the textbooks, and produced an elaborate new placement test, along with placement criteria. I was also involved in the placement of students; while most of the questions were multiple choice, there was a writing component that had to be checked before finalizing every student's placement. Additionally, I was consulted regarding the aptitude of instructors.

Did I leave a mark on Extension? Probably, because I was told that the then-Director of REP (Research and External Programs), the higher body in charge of Extension, was surprised I had left them. Additionally, a decade later, one of the Extension instructors brought to my attention that the placement test I had created was used for ten years after my departure.

The then-Director of the Extension, Antoine Kassab, also an Arabic Department faculty member (now deceased), had informed me that I had been asked to coordinate the Extension Program as a form of preparation for coordinating the English Department's Communication Skills Program in the future. Was I ever asked to do that? Never formally; rather, the possibility was flung at me very fleetingly and somewhat comically (in question form) once in the Department, a year after leaving Extension, when we were being individually consulted regarding the rotation of the Department's program coordinator - and you can imagine my reaction.

After the initial bumpy start there were many more puzzling moments as you may have gathered. AUB can definitely be a mystifying place, and as one of my AUB professors, in the eighties, once rightly remarked, "The Lord works in mysterious ways [at AUB]."


Posted by May Mikati on Wednesday, 01 June 2011, 11:05 AM

Flasback One: A Bumpy Start - 31 May 2011

Flasback One: A Bumpy Start

Back in 1991 when I became a full-timer at AUB, I received a memo inviting me to my first Arts and Sciences faculty meeting. My curiosity was fed with a confusing concoction of impressions.

The atmosphere at the meeting was somewhat informal, which I appreciated. On the other hand, something in the air didn't sink in very well. First of all, few of my English Department colleagues were present at the meeting; besides, it struck me that those general meetings were male-dominated back then. Secondly, all FAS departmental Chairs stood up and named all new faculty members, but my name was not mentioned although I was in physical proximity to the Chair at the time (whether that was a deliberate omission or not I honestly have no clue, but it definitely made an impression). And thirdly, an older faculty member from another department stood up and asked the dean defiantly, "Why are you terminating older, well qualified faculty members and bringing in these new hires? Is it because they're so cheap?"

Quite a start.


Posted by May Mikati on Tuesday, 31 May 2011, 10:09 AM

After Twenty Years at AUB - 17 May 2011

After Twenty Years at AUB


"Twenty years?" you may ask. Yes, I've been a full-time instructor in the Department of English since spring 1991 - a survivor.

After twenty years, have I soared or am I bored? Probably a bit of both.

After twenty years, can one judge AUB? Certainly, though in my case it always seems to be judging me as if I'm a new phenomenon!

What can one say about the faculty members and the students? Well, in short, they took a long time to understand and get used to, but one can see through them after some time. They don't seem to change much.

And the administration? That's ever-changing. One can't generalize about that though there are certain individuals that stay for so long that one begins to recognize them as true members of AUB.

As for the campus, it's as green and well-kept as ever - a boon to AUB. One of my favorite spots is the green field (which, parenthetically, now has artificial turf). I still jog there from time to time as part of my effort to stay fit, which also includes walking up and down the campus stairs every day - something I suspect most of my colleagues would expect only in a nightmare.

I hope to find the time to blog in more detail about the past twenty or so years. Stay tuned.

Posted by May Mikati on 17 May 2011, 10:14 AM