Mary C. Henry

Luna Lovegood's first Christmas at our house. I have been saying for years (since I was hired at Miami U) that I would love a couple more weeks between the Fall and Spring semesters and wouldn't miss a week or two less in the summer. This year, I finally got my wish! January 2014 will be the first winter term at Miami. It is three weeks long and we don't start Spring semester until January 27th. I am not teaching during winter session this year, so I can spend those three weeks doing research, getting ready for next semester, and any other work that's hard to get done during the semester. I'm hoping that three weeks is short enough that I don't have my summer problem of squandering my time.  My daughter will be back in school on January 7th, so that will add structure to my day (driving her to school and picking her up). My strategy will be to set a schedule for myself each day to help stay focused. I also have a specific project to work on since I need to g...

The semester has just ended and I have received emails from several students inquiring about their grades.  Most of these emails have asked me to reconsider the grades that I reported to the university registrar and are now released to students.  These emails have become increasingly more common and also more brazen in their requests/demands.  I would like students to think long and hard before sending these end-of-semester emails and consider a few questions: Did you attend this class? If you answer "yes", but you missed more than 10% of class meetings (in my classes this would amount to missing more than three out of our 27 class meetings), how many classes did you miss?  Did you miss them for a family emergency? Due to illness? Or because you overslept or had more important things to do? Most of us have policies that allow flexibility for illness and family emergencies.  It is also good to learn what university offices can assist you with these matters. At...