To miss uni today because of the cold?

[QuestionableMouse]

I just can't face the drive. It's an hour plus and the heating isn't working in my car. Even with a hat coat and gloves (and a blanket over my lap) I was freezing by the time I got there yesterday.

Car is booked in for Monday and should be fixed. It's currently -7 and I just want to cry thinking about it.

@NotHereForThis why do you have 4 degrees out of interest? Are they BA & MA's or just all BA's?

I rescheduled today's 9am start yesterday. Everyone was in by 10, no big deal. English infrastructure just isn't designed for ice and snow. We have barely any gritted roads here, and no snow ploughs, or snow chains.

the lecturer gets paid A LOT of money to be there.

Paid a lot?

Hahahahahaha do they indeed? I am on one of a succession of temporary 10 month contracts at different ends of the country for 28,000 a year and i average about 75 hours a week. I am not paid a lot and for the hours required it is bloody shameful.

nighttimebrowsing mostly because it took me a long time to decide what to do with my life I have an UG degree and a masters in a subject I did just for the love of it, then a postgraduate degree and professional diploma in the field I now work in. I didn’t set out to get 4, just ended up that way!

I bet this is the lecturer trying to bail out of going. . Lol.

in my second year, due to scheduling issues, one of my lectures or tutorials, can't remember which, was timed at 9am. The lecturer/tutor was ^deeply* apologetic about this - don't think she was any more used to having to work at that hour than the students were!

If you are old enough to go to uni you are old enough to decide what to do.

If you are old enough to go to uni you are old enough to decide what to do.

I'm not referring to thre op here, but alongside that is that along with that cones adult responsibility, which students seem less keen on and that skupping lectures ans seminars has consequwnces and will be reflected in the quality of your work.

Earlier this term a student who'd turned up infrequently to seminars and when she had, was ill-prepared got a high 2:2 for her essay and came to the office to demand a 2:1.

I explained that she'd misunderstood some of the key concepts, that she needed to include some primary sources and that her argument was inconsistent etc. I even asked her if there was any elements of the work that she felt i hadn't viven her sufficient credit for.

'yes but i want a 2:1 to get on a grad scheme.'

Well if you apply some of the things from the feedback and devote more time to planning the essay and bring in more sources then you'll have a much better chance of getting one.

'But i want a 2:1 for this. I'm appealing it.'

Second marker gave her a 2:2. It is rhks bogus sense of entitlement that really boils my piss, that there's an entitlement to an upper second with minimal effort on their part and anyone who thwarts this absolute right is being unreasonable. I sometomes feel like i am dealing with giant overgrown toddlers.

THIS university tutor only gets paid 23 weeks of the year due to the way uni holidays work and I never know if my contract will be renewed from year to year as it only covers 10 months at a time. Come June I'll be looking for temp work until nearly October. I also have a second job in the evenings and at weekends.

Many of my colleagues are in the same position.

It’s -30 here today and everyone and everything is running normally. However, I’d still have stayed home too if I were you.

Same here. I'm slap bang in the middle of a polar vortex. OP, it was your prerogative to do as you like, but yes, I think you're a bit of a wuss. How did we ever build an empire ?

Same about the temperature, not about staying home!

@olympic19 I bet your car has heating though

Neither of the buses I caught to work today had heating and obviously the streets I stood in to wait for them didn't have heating either. I would have loved to have told my boss I wasn't coming in because I felt cold!

It's different for students though because what they do (sit around talking about micro aggressions and being triggered) is unimportant so it doesn't matter if they don't do it; I do get that.

How did we ever build an empire?

Largely by invading temperate countries where we could inflict unforgivable brutality, steal natural resources and enslave people from the comfort of a shaded veranda in 28c weather.

not

Good point

Didnt we usually take over hot places?

@Arnoldillo

Not sure which uni you went to, but we just learn about our subject area... I don't think I've ever been triggered on my life. Can the passive aggressive nastiness, eh?

Yanbu. People saying go have never been cold so cold it gets deep within you. Yes if you had a job but uni when the notes are online id keep warm

Arnoldillo

It can be different if you are driving.

The OP did drive the previous day and felt unwell. That should be enough reason to avoid driving the same distance in the same weather again.

😂 at lecturers being paid a lot. Salaries greater than mine have been dismissed as Dickensian poverty on other threads.

Okay fair enough. Maybe some lecturers aren't paid a lot. The ones I know certainly are paid a lot. And don't work 75 hours a week.

"God I remember missing lectures as I couldn't decide what to eat for breakfast and would be late ...
That was a 20 min walk"

Yep. It's not the the big deal people are making out!
I had one module where lectures started at 9am. I only went to one in the whole course. Failed first exam, passed the re-sit.

Where I am you expect £29k for a full time lecturers post. That's 24 hours a week class contact plus planning, marking, IV/second marker duties, meetings, CPD, course marketing, scoping competitors and coming up with ideas for new courses, outreach, personal tutorials, summer schools, industrial visits, professional networking and probably more I've forgotten for now. Drop the ball once and you will be panned on the national student survey as students are unforgiving usually. It's not the worst job but it's certainly not the cushy number that people think either. And we don't get 5 months holiday either.

@DrCoconut great post totally with you on this

Gwen Yeah, me too - 9am Monday lecture in a subject considered boring even by the department, by a lecturer considered boring etc etc. It was... poorly attended. Passed on the resit, like you.

I missed five weeks of my second year to fairly-serious illness. Despite being in a STEM course with 22 hours lectures and 12 hours lab time per week it didn't do me much damage academically, through some fortunate timing (it wasn't project season), careful planning with the lab tutors, and good friends who kept dropping off photocopies of their notes to me. Love you guys, you know who you are!

If you think you can catch up don’t go in. I had the same problem and it wasn’t as cold as this. It was miserable. Also mine was the water pump or something to do the with the radiator anyway and the heating was just a side issue and I shouldn’t have been driving it. I didn’t know until it went into the garage but yours could be similar so best not to use the car until you know.