Yes, I have the PMS. This makes me bitchy and mean. And probably less politically astute than I should be.
So my righteous indignation? Let me produce two scenarios for you:
1) There is a rule that prohibits cross-listing courses that count for General Education credit with courses that could count for something else. The idea being, according to our accreditation agency, that we should actually have a unified, real general education program. Seems pretty clear, right? Gen Ed should be separate from other enterprises. It should be a program. This is the spirit of the thing. Wouldn’t you think that this would imply that you probably shouldn’t offer a course that is, technically, separate from the gen ed course, but which meets in the same room, with the same texts, and with the same instructors, with the same discussion?
Regardless of whether it’s not a technical cross-listing, that is the same class, right? Apparently, the people in charge of putting the schedule together in my department didn’t see the logic in this. “NO!” they said. “It’s not the same course!”
2) Imagine that prior to this semester, the only courses that were in danger of being cancelled just so happened to be ones that would be affected by the (illegal) cross-listing. (Yes, mine was one of those, though it all worked out in the end. Look: I don’t apologize for my turfiness in this.) And let’s also imagine that a colleague (that would be me) would have alerted the people in charge of the schedule to this problem in like February. And let’s imagine that this person (ME) is the one who will be most fucked over by ignoring her earlier complaint. “You shouldn’t judge the way your colleagues teach their course (in the field that you were actually hired to teach in! which neither of them are MOTHERFUCKING QUALIFIED to teach in), Crazy. You are unreasonable, even though you are explaining very reasonable things about upper-division course enrollments and how they work.”
Combine 1) and 2). Imagine Crazy in the white hot center of both, and imagine her department administrators treating her like she doesn’t know what the fuck she is talking about. GRBEWAAAAAHHH! Yes, I might have been a little bit of a monster. And I might have made an indication about it to my dean, and I might have tattled about it to the director of the general education program.
BECAUSE HARRY POTTER IS NOT THE MOTHERFUCKING EQUIVALENT OF ULYSSES AND FOUR NOVELS BY VIRGINIA WOOLF, INCLUDING JACOB’S ROOM, TO THE LIGHTHOUSE, ORLANDO, AND BETWEEN THE MOTHERFUCKING ACTS! (Ok, that last motherfucking is not a “technically correct” part of the title.)
The point is, I was an asshole all day, because I was RIGHT, and only after my chair was told by the Dean to do what I said did this situation get resolved in a reasonable fashion. CLEARLY you wouldn’t think that I know SHIT. As I wrote on Facebook today, this place is totally fucking bogus.
The bad news (or maybe good news?) about all of this is that I’ve finalized the books I’ll teach in my upper-level course in the spring, all inspired by teaching a course that is for motherfucking adults and not children. Problematically, primary themes will be madness, suicide, abortion, rape, incest, drugs and alcoholism, and murder. Ah, well, these are all award-winning stylistically phenomenal novels! Fuck you, students! Fuck you, colleagues! Fuck you, me! Deal with it!
And yeah, I submitted my application for the NEH Enduring Questions Grant. No, my “Enduring Question” was not, “Why not fucking kill the people I work with?” It also was not, “Why not kill myself?”
But it is submitted, two days before the deadline. And if I get it, I’ll talk about it LOADS. Until then, you have to put up with my rage (at least when I’m PMSy and righteously indignant.)
Reassigned Time 2.0 
I think defenestration due to excess of ‘treating me like I know nothing’ would be entirely reasonable. I fantasise about it regularly… (we have some really dramatic arched windows on the top floor of our building. it would be a CLASSY defenestration)
First of all–I think you are right. But is there also a workload issue? Is the other professor getting credit for teaching two separate classes? Because in terms of prep and time in the classroom it is really only one class. That would tweak me.
We have a couple people who are all “yay pop culture, zombies, vampires” with very little theoretical understanding. But they think they’re doing cutting edge work, because monsters are brand new! No one has ever thought of monsters before! There’s been no work done to theorize monstrosity! (Because, you know, Beowulf doesn’t exist, right? Nor the other lit stuff that people have been working on in smart ways since, well, since English lit became a field in academia.)
I’m glad you won, finally. But bleargh for having those fights, especially this early in the semester.
Good for you for being Curriculum Hulk, there. It was clearly necessary.
Look, I’m all for studying and engaging with Harry Potter or other works but if I’m getting or giving academic credit, you need to do serious work and not just offer a feel-good course where students maybe read the books.
Sounds like a motherfucken awesome day!!!!!
Wow. Although Baa Ram U. has its problems, one of the things I *love* about my dept. is that my colleagues don’t pull stuff like this. Good for you for turfing them out, Crazy.
i know you are telling the truth because I am a public school teacher in Atlanta GA. It is ALWAYS confusion and chaos in the field of education……. Dont know if you believe in God or not?? But i will definitely pray and ask HIM to really open your eyes and tell you why HE is actually allowing all this confusion in your life……. Love, concerned teacher
This is a crappy situation and so symptomatic of the dumbing down of education, but the way you have written about here made me laugh. Especially your hypothetical Enduring Question about your colleagues.