Post Academic

We’re continuing to pick through our grad school hoarding today by sorting through all the paper that’s left behind from too many years of schooling, dissertation writing, and teaching.  Here’s a sampling of the stacks of paper and file boxes scattered all over my office and the garage:

PAPERS

1. Student papers: For some reason, pretty much none of my students ask for their final exams and papers back after the end of the term.  As a result, I have ended up storing many quarters of student work at home, since I have no office as a lecturer and there’s usually a period of time that papers must be kept.  Of course, it’s easy to forget just when the statute of limitations runs out, although, logically speaking, no student who doesn’t care enough about her/his work to pick it up in the first place will demand it to dispute a grade, right?  After teaching hundreds of students, I think there has only been one case where I had to go back to my records, and that was my decision to go after a student who I discovered after the quarter that s/he had plagiarized another student.

Bonus hoarding happens when I have to decide whether to keep the nice folders and odd bits of office supplies that the more conscientious students turn in their papers with.  I don’t think I’ve ever re-used student stationery, but, then again, it seems like such a waste just to throw it away.

More clutter below the jump…

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