It Slices, It Dices, It Makes Julianne Classes

Oh, dear. This is going to be ugly.

Classes don't start for me for a little bit yet, so I'm just finding out how things are going to go down. Hoo-boy. So, I found out that I'm TAing the same course I did last year, which is good - it's probably my best fit here, and it's steady for the whole year. So, good.

But there's bad, too. There's real bad. Budget Cuts. The class is an intro class. A pretty big intro class. Think mid-low three digits. So, anywhoo, I just found out our class size got cut by about a third for this year because we can't afford to teach all the students who want to learn. Absolutely infuriating.

So while I'm really happy to see that I'm one of the few TAs who are still, um, employed, I am really not looking forward to the first day of class where I get to tell several dozens of students that I'd would love to have them in my class, but I can't let them in.

Usually, I have no problem telling students that there's no room in the inn, because, generally, they're the ones who never got their act together, didn't really want or need the class in the first place, and generally perform badly if I let them in anyway. That's the thing, too. If I feel there's just cause, the department usually gives me the final call if I want to let a latecomer in. And beyond that, there's generally only a handful that we can't get in one section or another.

This time, there are going to be majors and minors who need the class, freshmen who the department needs to court into becoming majors, and all sorts of quality folks that I'm going to have to turn away. And I'm going to probably have no call about letting in exceptional case beyond that.