272

Endeavor
Posted on December 18, 2020 by David M Willis

272 thoughts on “Endeavor”

  1. Kaetho

    Boy howdy that is both sad and extremely true >.<

    1. Clif

      Wow. This is an extremely practical course.

    2. Tan

      I am not comfortable with how real this got so quickly

      1. Abbe_Faria

        Robin: Why you booing me I’m right!?

    3. Jon Rich

      6th panel Robin is essentially summarizing the last 20-odd years of the GOP slow’s transition into a fascist political organization In a single sentence. That is damn impressive.

    4. Rodrigo

      Material truth: If it there is no register, it didn’t happen.

  2. Ana Chronistic

    Truthfully, all laws are suggestions if no one bothers to enforce them

    Like, laws are meaningless in the Zombie Apocalypse, everyone’s too busy trying to not die

    1. Dara

      Any zombie apocalypse movie in the future that doesn’t include denialists running towards zombies to prove they’re a hoax own the libs isn’t going to pass the sniff test anymore.

      1. Reltzik

        5 minutes later, their remnants shamble towards us, teeth eager for our flesh and brains, moaning “unlife supremacy is a cultural marxist hoax…”

        And that’s when we’re really in trouble. Intelligence is always one of the biggest advantages that humans enjoy over zombies. So how are we going to out-think such quick-witted intellectuals?

      2. Clif

        Who could be against science-based zombie prevention?

        And why do I feel a parody website is necessary?

      3. Greylurker

        I actually saw that in a comic once. Some of the people in the safe zone insisting “They are just sick, we need to help them not chop their heads off” Then the zombies came, and when reasoning didn’t work that same person picked up an axe and blamed the zombie for making her kill them.

        1. Demoted Oblivious

          Doesn’t that character usually want to cure the underlying disease? They don’t typically even attempt reasoning with the zombie. While I recognize the trope, the hopeful healer isn’t above recognizing the practicality of needing to stay alive to be able to help find a cure (and is also motivated by an unvarnished sense of self preservation).

          The *new* trope is to completely ignore the zombie incursion, violate defense orders, leave the door open at night, and subvert the protection measures put in place to keep zombies out of controlled zones because it’s all a fraud to (cue Braveheart) “take away our *freedom*.”

          Think more like the prom in _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_(movie).
          “It’s ok. They can’t come in unless we invite them in.”
          “You didn’t invite them in did you?”
          “… They’re seniors!”

      4. Johan

        Not hoax but in day z they act like zombies so that the zombies accept them but all it does it make them zombies.

    2. Gigafreak

      Justice is a figment of the human imagination. It does not exist unless people impose it on the world.
      Normally, I’d say “and since everyone’s got a different idea of what justice means, they clash and end up causing wars” …
      …But honestly the last few years have shown quite a few other ways that it can go horrifically awry.

    3. BenRG

      We’ve seen that here in the UK. Except in the hugest and most overt breaches, the COVID-19 restrictions are basically been enforced on a ‘trust and honour’ system.

      1. davidbreslin101

        Back when I was less cynical about parliamentary petitions, I signed one calling for a crackdown on filibustering. A particularly obnoxious Tory MP had got away with “talking to death” several mildly progressive bills just for shits and giggles, including one to abolish hospital parking fees for hospital staff.

        The response to the petition: “Parliament already has very strict rules against filibustering.” So… they’re just not bothering to enforce them. At all. Against a serial offender from the same party as the Speaker of the House. Live on on the Parliament Channel, in front of any members of the public with strong enough stomachs to watch it. That makes it so much better, right?

  3. Kyrik Michalowski

    She’s right you know. Also that was a pretty reasonable explanation for why he isn’t there.

    1. Clif

      But not for the banging coming from the trunk of her car.

      1. UnfrozenNeanderthal

        ‘s probably an Opossum

  4. BBCC

    She’s right, but I don’t like it.

    1. MK15

      This.

    2. Avian Maria

      Is she right? I mean, her political career seems like a dumpster fire.

      1. UnfrozenNeanderthal

        In this instance, yeah

        1. DaveM

          But as the old saying goes, “Those who can’t do, teach”. 🙂

        2. UnfrozenNeanderthal

          Oh good, we’re gonna have this discussion again

        3. Clif

          Which side do you want to take this time?

        4. AbacusWizard

          No need to waste time on a discussion; we can simply acknowledge unilaterally that the saying is both insulting and factually wrong and leave it at that.

        5. Fiddler115

          AbacusWizard, I’ll bet you’re really fun at parties. Also, you’re condescending and wrong.

        6. Clif

          I feel more comfortable acknowledging that it is not a universal truth, but neither is it universally wrong and that in fact it may be factual in particular instances more often than we might wish. As someone who has taught undergraduate college courses, I don’t find that particularly insulting.

        7. Yumi

          That seems fair. I get why people are offended by the phrase as given. It’s common enough and just one of the many ways people devalue teachers, and being a good teacher is HARD. (Being a bad but self-aware teacher is also hard but somewhat differently.)

          I also think sometimes about how sexism impacts views of the k-12 teaching profession in America, and I wonder if there’s any connection to the history of that phrase with that– not enough to actually research it, but. I can see how the thinking could line up.

        8. Yumi

          An update: apparently I do care enough to research it, and in origin it doesn’t seem sexist– though I’m currently resisting reading deeper into the play the original phrase is from, so I can’t say that with 100% certainty.

        9. SeanR

          My current hypothesis is this. Teachers are portable. Just about everywhere needs them. You have two smart people in a couple, because smart people tend to marry other smart people.
          One, generally the man, gets a better job hundreds of miles away. The family moves. The woman then has to find a job within commute distance of their new home.
          Hey. Everywhere needs teachers. They don’t pay enough, but they do pay.
          Everywhere also needs nurses. And pharmacists.
          And I suspect just about every OTHER “traditional female” job that used to be done only by men. (Although nurses were always women, but now they’re professional.)

        10. Clif

          Yumi, we thank you for your research! But we can’t help noticing you left out the citations.

        11. Ed Rhodes

          “…and those who can’t teach, teach gym!” – School of Rock

        12. Chronos

          That’s how I’ve been hearing it in my head for a good 15 years now.

        13. maarvarq

          Sometimes, those who can do, can’t teach. My first singing teacher was a really good singer, but because it came easily to him, did very little for helping me do the same.

        14. drs

          Yeah, I don’t think I would be great at teaching programming or math to a student who was really struggling with them. I could convey information well enough, but if they struggle with concepts that always came naturally to me…

          My first job was as a TA for a computer science class, and the students divided roughly into thirds of “don’t need my help in any way but fun to show stuff to”, “need and can use my help”, and “I have no idea what’s going on in their head, how is that even a mistake you can make?”

      2. Sirksome

        I really need to stress that Robin was going to win reelection! Her aide said she ran for congress at 25. We don’t know how old she is exactly but two terms is very plausible. I’d say it probably even makes the most sense. Robin was a successful politician who chose to step down basically at her prime. That’s what this world sees and what she is. Just because we in the comments generally don’t like her methods or politics doesn’t mean she was a failure. She worked the system. Sadly the very flawed system that lets people like her easily take advantage of it.

        1. thejeff

          I had thought it was established early on that she was a first term Congresscritter, but I don’t see anything explicit poking around.

          Anyone have an idea?

        2. BBCC

          She was going to win by just going along with what other people (members of her party and her campaign staff at first and then Becky) told her and she rarely seemed to have a handle on things (Roz, her class visit, her rally, everything with Leslie). I think it’s at least fair to question how valuable her practical experience usually is.

      3. Reltzik

        Her political career is a dumpster fire less because she violated the norms (illusory or not) and more because she tried to do… whatever she tried to do with Leslie.

        This created a conflict of interest in that she seemed to be (even if she wasn’t actually) treating a Gay with dignity, respect, and maybe even affection of various speculative degrees, while also at the same time supposedly carrying the standard of a party in which that is, well, the exact opposite of what you do. And that conflict of interest WAS one that the party was willing to enforce.

        Ergo, Robin is correct.

        1. thejeff

          Not so much that she seemed to be treating a Gay well, but that she was gay herself. When she was already suspicious for being an unmarried woman.

          Even that she’d likely have been able to spin away if Becky hadn’t started tweeting as her or if she’d followed her campaign staff’s advice and denied it all.

  5. Nono

    Okay, I’m gonna take a second and ask: what is Dean McHenry thinking? He didn’t even vote for Robin.

    1. Yumi

      I’d say, “Maybe he thought it would look good to have a former member of Congress on staff,” but he has met Robin, so…I’m not sure.

      1. BarerMender

        Dean McHenry only got one vote. The trustees, the chancellor, the academic dean, the big contributers…. A lot of people get say-sos.

        1. Clif

          Normally that’s a departmental decision and the dean gets no votes, though they may have some input as to whether the position exists. There are also situations where the dean is involved in actively recruiting someone, but given the position existed, the dean was likely not consulted.

    2. tim gueguen

      Perhaps he’s thinking about the large endowment the school will be getting for hiring Robin. Who’d pony up a bunch of money to help make Robin a professor is another question.

    3. Falathar

      Deans don’t hire faculty, departments do.

    4. Sporky

      He read Shortpacked! and he’s big into redemption arcs

    5. BenRG

      I suspect that he was thinking: “Where the hell am I going to get an even slightly-knowledgable teacher for this course on just a few weeks’ notice?” Then he saw Robin’s application in his in tray and was that desperate.

      1. Needfuldoer

        I mean, he could have done worse. Robin’s a greedy flake, but she’s not stupid. At the very least she’s got firsthand experience in how the system chews you up and spits you out.

  6. Mra

    A huge lesson it is.

  7. Mra

    The “Which are you mad at me for the most?” Poll results are much closer than I expected so far, nearly even three ways.

    1. TheStranger

      I’m mad there’s no “Yes” option.

      1. Needfuldoer

        +1

        It should’ve been multiple-choice. Mike should have gotten a chance to play out his redemption arc, and skipping Halloween is sad (even if it would have taken the better part of a year), but I’m not as torn up about Ruth and Billiefer breaking up.

    2. UnfrozenNeanderthal

      The answer is skipping halloween.

      I will die on this hill

      1. Yumi

        I already picked a different hill to die on (mine was about doughnuts), but I’m with you.

        1. SeanR

          …Skipping Halloween doughnuts? Halloween is really more of a cupcake holiday…

      2. BarerMender

        I don’t care about Halloween. I don’t care–much–about Mike. But breaking up Ruth and Billie crosses the line. I will shoot you on this hill.

        1. UnfrozenNeanderthal

          Ruth and Billie could get back together. Mike could turn out to be only mostly dead.

          But we’re never getting to see that Halloween,

        2. Yumi

          Don’t lose hope, there’s always flashbacks.

        3. Needfuldoer

          And his Force ghost manifesting itself in Amber’s subconscious.

        4. SeanR

          Yeah. Mike’s Halloween costume was the best yet. And we don’t get to see it until the flashbacks.

        5. UnfrozenNeanderthal

          Also, even if both of those stick, they are at least dramatically appropriate occurrences that open up new potential plotlines

        6. Clif

          Who is living at the end of the hall?

        7. SeanR

          Nobody. They nailed those doors shut after someone decided to make meth in there. The walls STILL reek of ether. Since the chemistry majors keep bringing the same odor over from the labs on their clothes, they’ve gotten away, thus far, with blaming it on them.

        8. a/snow/mous/e

          basically my logic too. but yeah ruth/billie split is a bummer. plus how billie is basically back to her old, immature, self-obsessed self

        9. a/snow/mous/e

          the biggest thing though is “wtf? WHERE IS ETHAN”

        10. Clif

          Back on the cast page. Either that or he died during the time skip.

        11. thejeff

          I’m not fond of the Billie/Ruth split, but Billie’s apparent reversion opens up a lot of plot/drama avenues.

          Mike’s death closes down character growth I was actually finally interested in. I also don’t like how it was handled – left open at the start of the time skip and then just a casually accepted fact afterwards. Gave the cast time to get over it, but denied the audience closure.

      3. Johan

        Naw it’s Mike.
        He and Donna are so fucking cute and his kindness potential was hinted at so hard in this universe but nope he’s dead. And Amber has videogames.

        1. BBCC

          Donna isn’t in DoA.

      4. Deanatay

        Got yer back, friend. First semester should have ended with all the characters in Halloween costumes.

      5. BBCC

        Agreed.

    3. Clif

      The new poll is also deeply flawed.

      1. Clif

        But the one over on Joyce and Walky uses a similar polling technique.

    4. Azhrei Vep

      I’m mad there wasn’t a “I’m not mad about any of it” option.

  8. danielle

    i mean…. robins not wrong

  9. DailyBrad

    I guess we’ve already seen her demonstrate an aptitude for the job with that answer alone.

  10. UnfrozenNeanderthal

    Actually starting off with a useful thing to learn is a little surprising

    1. deathjavu

      Robin has sadly already displayed a wealth of horrible yet useful political knowledge, such as her comments about appearing non-threatening to her male colleagues. She must have won last election cycle somehow, after all.

  11. brionl

    Do Universities typically have rules like that? Can’t be a teacher to immediate family?

    Anyway, they would probably just make Roz transfer to a different section, not fire Robin.

    1. BBCC

      Some do, especially big ones like this university.

    2. Yumi

      Yeah, this is a big class, having a few students switch sections seems like it’d be the way the university would go.

      Which I guess means there will need to be a reason for Roz, at least, to choose to stay. Easiest way to handwave it would probably be something about not wanting to rearrange her whole class schedule (/not allow her sister to control her life). There’s also the option of Roz deciding to stick with it to be be needle in Robin’s side, in which case the comments will be…um… hopeful thinking, maybe Roz will just switch sections.

      1. General Tekno

        I mean, of course Roz would stay because she has to be contrarian to her sister. As much as she complains about Robin she also relishes the confrontation.

        If anything Robin would want to transfer her OUT than the other way around.

      2. thejeff

        Is this a big class with multiple sections? It was suggested earlier that it was hard to get into. That could have just been Nicholson’s section, but it wasn’t phrased that way.

      3. thejeff

        On the other hand, it seems like much of the class was just here for the famous Prof. Nicholson. Some might just try to transfer into entirely different classes. It’s not clear this is a required course.

    3. General Tekno

      Depends on the institution.

      My brother ended up in my dad’s class in post-secondary at one point, through no fault of either (my dad had made efforts to avoid teaching him but it ended up that he had to step in last minute).

      Though my dad being my dad he went to some lengths to make sure that he graded fairly (taking names off the assignments, and having them go through multiple eyes to make sure the grading was fair next to other assignments/exams). I don’t think he NEEDED to go as far as he did, though.

      That said, the “transfer to another section” might not be possible here if there only is the one section.

      1. SeanR

        …Or if all the sections are by the same professor. Robin’s next class could also be “Political Science 9000”

    4. brute

      i was under the impression that professors had far more casual expectations than grade school teachers, and my mom taught me and my sister as students and no one ever even raised an eyebrow. i think a couple other kids in my class had similar situations.

  12. Sirksome

    That’s s good lesson.

  13. Schpoonman

    That last panel hurts a little after the last 12 years.

    1. Reltzik

      And also the last 40 years.

      1. Geneseepaws

        I . Am . Not . A . Crook.

        1. Clif

          Well, not after the pardon anyway.

  14. Icalasari

    Huh, so Robin actually DOES know how politics works!

  15. JetstreamGW

    I mean. She ain’t wrong.

  16. Adam Black

    None of that Makes sense!

    Isnt the New Congressional Term January 3? Did they go back to school on Christmas? Is this a Winter Break semester?

    ??

    what date is this supposed to be ?

    1. BBCC

      It’s usually January 20th or around there. Late January.

      1. Yumi

        The first section of the 20th Amendment reads, “The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.”

      2. Wizard

        That’s the Presidential inauguration. The new Congress convenes at the beginning of January. So yes, Robin’s term should be over if this is the spring semester.

      3. Adam Black

        Not sure what you are referring to. The inauguration takes place around jan 20. I would think School starts a Week after that.

        New Congressional Terms start right after New Years break.

        1. BBCC

          I would be very surprised if the spring semester started so late but then my university never went until May.

      4. BBCC

        My bad, thought it all started then. I am clearly not American.

    2. Yumi

      Well, it’s definitely into January (https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/04-is-a-song-forever/januarry/), so I think it might mean… the 20th Amendment was never ratified in the Dumbingverse?

      1. Adam Black

        Yes,
        BUt shouldn’t the Spring Break be AFTER the inauguration ?

        ( 2021 is screwed up with covid , im trying to find old Bloomington school calendars and coming up empty )

        1. Yumi

          I’m confused by what you mean. What about Spring Break? We’re not there yet?

        2. Adam Black

          I meant spring semester.

          according to this calendar fall 2020 started on aug 24 ( which sounds comic accurate )

          and spring starts on Jan 19 …. which still means this comic doesnt make sense. https://www.iun.edu/bulletin/overview/calendar.shtml

        3. Yumi

          Huh. But like you said, the 2020-2021 school year is screwed up with COVID. Look at the dates classes begin in future years– January 10th, January 9th. Much more in line with what I, personally, experienced as “normal.”

        4. Adam Black

          I read an other calendar that showed an overlapping winter break from december , but that might be a covid thing;

          as i finally found a past year calendar and IU doesn’t seem to have any winter Sessions.

        5. Adam Black

          I’m going to guess we are supposed to be jan 10 or jan 11, and Willis screwed up and Forgot when Congress starts.

          that matches up with “at least another week” .

        6. Lingo

          Yes, apparently the winter session is new this year and overlaps the spring semester: https://news.iu.edu/stories/2020/11/iupui/jagnews/04-spring-semester-need-to-know.html

        7. Adam Black

          ^ Reply to Lingo

          I went to a Main land grant , University Of State

          and there was ALWAYS a 5 or 6 week Winter
          Session in January.

          i thought it was more common

        8. Yumi

          Oh, now I see how we’re talking around each other.

          Yes, the comic doesn’t make sense under present day, real world law. That’s why I quoted the 20th amendment (which sets the date for new Congress as January 3rd) above, and why I jokingly suggested that the 20th amendment isn’t a thing in this universe.

          I think it is quite possible that Willis assumed, like I believe many would, that the President and Congress change at the same time. Becky’s comment likely reflects this and so I’m just saying, this comic is taking place before January 20th, but after January 3rd when Robin’s term would have, in fact, ended.

        9. Adam Black

          it ( not under present day law ) kinda negates the purpose of Robin teaching PS ( which otherwise is a brilliant Meta choice to comment on present day law ) .

        10. Yumi

          Well, it’d be one law and, again, was a joke.

        11. Clif

          There is the possibility that Becky was wrong and Robin doesn’t care anyway.

        12. geno

          I would bet Willis goes with neither Robin or Becky knowing when the term ended. He will probably have Dorothy comment on it at some point. Good for a joke

        13. SeanR

          She never showed up to clean out her office after her term, so they finally got the janitor to open the door, so they could just start throwing everything in boxes to ship to Indiana.

          The ants beat them to it. Nothing was left but wrappers and old popsicle sticks. Piles and piles of empty candy wrappers and popsicle sticks.
          And one desk and chair that dated from the Hoover administration.

        14. Needfuldoer

          There was what looked like a credenza in the corner, but as they approached they discovered it was actually all the ants fighting over her 5-pound candy bar collection.

        15. SeanR

          To interject, that was her collection of five pound candy bars. Not her five pound collection of candy bars.

      2. AbacusWizard

        *alternate history speculation intensifies*

  17. MM

    Huh. She might be good at this after all.

  18. Sam

    Well, as I thought, it was short notice. And yeah, the thing is Roz, no one enforces that. Plenty of teachers teach their own kids and kids they know and yes, it is a conflict of interest, but it is not a well-enforced one because there aren’t enough teachers usually to even try to prevent it happening.

    1. Exarch

      As a teacher, (and once a student) I’ve never actually seen this negatively impact either the student in question or anyone else in the class. As it turns out, most teachers do their best to maintain equitable policies, and most students who know their teachers beforehand know not to expect unfair treatment. I’m sure it happens, but it’s certainly not more common than teachers picking favorites (or least favorites) of students in classes where they didn’t know anyone beforehand.

      1. Sam

        Which is probably another reason why it is rarely ever enforced. It’s not an overly *major* conflict of interest just because it is one at all.

        1. Clif

          *most teachers do their best to maintain equitable policies *

          Robin is not most teachers. We know her attitude towards norms.

        2. Sam

          You expect Robin to actually grade things at all? Look at this norm-believer over here, thinking professors should ‘grade’ things. You probably expect it to be done in a reasonable and timely fashion too.

    2. CJ

      As someone who was taught an elective in high school by her mom because of scheduling issues the school had: As long as there is no obvious bias in grading, no one cares (though the class hated me for being the reason she quit teaching us the next term, when the more boring teacher was available again).

  19. Bagge

    Not a bad lesson

  20. plasticwrap

    Well, she’s not wrong, just under-qualified.

    1. Yumi

      When she was on Congress, she was wrong and under-qualified. This is improvement.

    2. Reltzik

      She’s not wrong about THIS thing.

      There are many, many other things about which she may still be wrong.

  21. jmsr7

    Yuuup. Politics is RUN on conflicts-of-interest. It’s the whole motivation for politicians so often it’s basically a rule. As she says.

    Interestingly, this also applies to the stock market. Stocks were -supposed- to be a way to quickly raise capital for a company by increasing its number of owners, but in practice insider trading and the pump-and-dump strategy is what is most profitable. (Speaking as a worker in a company that went public and was bought by another, i can testify to the trend that when a company going public, it hails the working environment going from bad to shit >_< )

    1. BarerMender

      And when a company is bought by another, it hails the working environment going from bad to fired.

      1. Clif

        sad but frequently true.

      2. Deanatay

        Can attest.

    2. CJ

      Depends on the size and motivation of the company involved?
      If the aim of the buying company is primarily making money fast, then yes. If the aim of the company is actually either providing an service or making a great product, it needn’t.
      You know, that’s the sad thing about capitalism theory. It evolved at a time where there wasn’t enough of a lot of stuff, so they made a theory about how better and faster making more stuff was in the interest of a lot of people.
      Nowadays, we have too much stuff in most cases, and making money has become the central idea.

      1. SeanR

        You forgot just buying a competing company for its name and other IP. It’s not fast money, it actually IS an investment, but you STILL don’t need the surplus workers.

    3. Needfuldoer

      See also: Anthony Kennedy and Deutsche Bank.

  22. Illjwamh

    It’s disturbing and sad how accurate Robin’s statement is.

  23. Zor

    I already love this class

  24. Kelli

    That last panel is meme-worthy.

    1. Geneseepaw

      Write that down.

      1. Clif

        DOA 11: That Last Panal is Meme-Worthy.

  25. Sirksome

    I have to wonder what kind of reality DoA is? Clearly they’re not dealing with covid but has Trump also not been POTUS the last four years for them? I can’t imagine someone as politically informed as Roz being niave enough to ask this question in a post Trump world. What Robin said last panel is what we’ve all been living with everyday.

    1. Swissaboo

      Lots of politically informed people have still basically chosen to believe that trump is an abberation, instead of What Was Already The Case But So Obvious We Can’t Lie To Ourselves About It Anymore.

    2. deathjavu

      Everyone’s cynical enough to say “that’s just how it works” until the corruption shows up at their door and makes their own life worse. Then they’ll kick and scream like Roz is doing here.

    3. Regalli

      Trump presidency happened, and Robin mentioned Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fairly recently as well. Covid’s the exception here because the pandemic would break the strip, and I think Willis has been hoping that eventually the sliding timescale will mean the pandemic happened their freshman year of high school of something, as a distant memory. (Once characters start wearing face masks they’re pretty much locked into doing it for plural books.)

    4. Adam Black

      i Think this is more about Roz’s anger at her sister;
      Plus unwillingness to accept she caused the scenario where is sister is once again institutionally in charge over her.

      If Robin wasnt Roz’s sister she would already be thrown out.

      1. BBCC

        If Robin weren’t her sister, she wouldn’t be upset or angry.

        How did Roz cause this? She signed up for a class where all available information indicated a different professor and Robin never made any effort to tell Roz she was teaching now.

        1. drs

          Robin and Roz don’t seem to communicate much, Robin teaching is last-minute anyway, and Robin may not have known Roz was taking the class.

          “Wouldn’t she have had access to the class list?”

          “It’s Robin. Also, last-minute.”

        2. BBCC

          If that’s the case that she didn’t find out until now, it’s not Robin’s fault either, but that’s still not Roz’s fault either.

    5. thejeff

      Roz might agree with that as the norm in politics, but not in other settings – like a college, where you’d expect to find enforceable ethics rules and codes of conduct.

  26. not someone else

    I swear to fuck, I kept reading through the superhero car chase, I sighed and kept going at the Legion of Dads, I even centered myself and accepted the timeskip and Mikegate, but if Robin keeps saying horrible, perfectly realistic truths like that I’m gonna have to take some time off. 😛

  27. DudeMyDadOwnsaDealership

    I’m starting to see how she connected to Indiana voters. Any other corrupt, flaky politician would have responded to the being called out on the B.S. of her and her career with a BS-loaded answer. Not Robin “Sonny the Coocoo Bird” DeSanto.

  28. Jane

    Well, I suppose she’s not wrong.

    But by the same logic, the fact that she’s in congress, that she’s currently employed by the university, and that she’s being paid money don’t matter either – all of those only matter because we, as a society, acknowledge that they matter. Else, the laws she pass don’t matter, the grades she gives them don’t matter, and the money she’s being paid is just oddly colored paper – or, more likely these days, numbers in a database.

    Of course, norms are a bit less strict than those, since nobody will show up to throw you in a prison if you ignore them – but the basic logic is still the same. All that matters is how many people have to ignore them before they stop mattering.

    (Though in this case, the answer would definitely be to reassign Roz and Becky, rather than the professor. Assuming they don’t just have some kind of “have another professor check to make sure the grades are fair” kind of protocol, which I think some places do.)

    1. Yumi

      The second lesson is just going to be Robin singing “Dancing Through Life” from Wicked.

    2. Swissaboo

      Yeah but the people with a monopoly on the use of force enforce THOSE norms and not the norms that would keep Robin from teaching that class.

    3. drs

      You’re assuming there’s anything to reassign them to. People mentioned sections above but those are run by grad student TAs. You start dating your TA, you move to a different section. Robin is teaching the *course*, there’s probably only one of this course this term. And maybe any term, if it becomes her Thing.

      1. Yumi

        There is the assumption there’d be something to reassign them to, and it’s possible there’s only one professor (Robin) teaching the course this semester, but that’s not necessarily the case. Like, in my senior year of college, I was one section of ENG 408. I heard a lot of negative things about the professor teaching that section, and positive things about the professor teaching the other sections. So I changed sections to the other professor teaching the same course.

        I think different universities use the same terms to mean different things, so there could be people disagreeing but saying the same thing.

        Anyway, I think in this case, it’s as least as likely that there are other sections of the course taught by different instructors as it is that there’s only this one section of the course/that Robin teaches all sections. So, I guess there will be some assuming either way.

        1. drs

          It will be more interesting if Roz is in the course. Therefore Robin is the only teacher.

        2. Yumi

          Well, there are a lot of other ways it could go as well. Roz could stay in the course even though there are other options specifically because she feels the need to counter Robin, for instance.

        3. geno

          My bet is Roz tries to get administration involved, adn they take Robin’s side because that’s better for Roz’s character arc and keeps Robin around

        4. SeanR

          I think most everyone has to take English I-IV, so in a large school there should be demand for more than one professor. How many of IU students take, or need to take, Poly Sci? There may only be demand for the one.

      2. Jane

        Right, but what I mean is that the answer to Roz’s objection would never be “We can’t hire you to teach this course because your sister and former employee go to school here” – there are other, less radical solutions to that problem.

        And if for some reason they did have to be that strict – they’d expel the student, rather than go through the trouble of finding a new professor. I mean, they have to be pretty desperate already if they’re hiring her, right? And there are plenty of other students who could take Roz’s place.

        1. geno

          Only the main cast really know how incompetant Robin is. The university thinks they are snagging a successful politician who turned down a second term.

        2. SeanR

          It’s a college, so pretty liberal by default (there are still exceptions, but we were informed in the earlier strips, with Robin, that this college town is far more liberal than the rest of the district. The other professors, including the heads of the departments PROBABLY lean liberal. Even if they don’t know Robin is incompetent, they do know her political views are in opposition to their own. Now SOME people will deliberately seek out opposing views, because it makes for a richer cognitive environment, but the majority don’t seem to.
          The Dean of the college has no respect for Robin, enough so to undercut her in front of a classroom full of students.

          Of course, this presents ANOTHER possibility. That they hired Robin BECAUSE THEY KNEW she was an incompetent conservative, and the opportunity to hire a strawman political to knock down in debate was just too good to pass up.

    4. Needfuldoer

      When you get right down to it, in the end nothing matters.

      Eat Arby’s.

  29. Regalli

    Honestly I think the bit where she acknowledges Becky after that ignoring Roz yesterday may well be the saddest part of this exchange that’s… well, not the final panel.

    Even if Robin’s meaning it as playful fooling around (and she’s selectively oblivious enough that’s plausible,) I would not blame Roz in the slightest for assuming bad faith because they do not have a strong enough relationship for teasing, especially after Roz was just blindsided.

    1. Swissaboo

      Becky raised her hand though. Robin has established that standard, and is following through on that standard. If Roz doesn’t want to put up with that extremely mundane standard because it involves raising her hand to talk to her sister, that’s on Roz.

      1. Regalli

        There’s a bit of a difference between ‘raise your hand for questions, I won’t acknowledge questions that don’t’ and referring to her as both ‘random student’ and (as best we can tell since it was her last line last strip) ‘other kid.’ The second in particular.

        1. Sirksome

          And the whole “conflicts of interest don’t matter” answer doesn’t inspire much confidence. Robin and Roz have never addressed their issues with each other. There’s nothing stopping Robin from abusing her power over Roz specifically and she’s already started in a wsy that has a plausible defense. This will be a very difficult class for Roz to pass.

        2. Adam Black

          she can transfer.

        3. Sirksome

          That’s true and probably the most realistic and reasonable resolution to this situation which means it probably won’t happen. Roz’s situation is too ripe for hijinks and drama to pass up.

    2. Newllend(henryvolt)

      I wouldn’t be surprised if this continues and somewhere down the line things blows up in a somewhat embarrassing yet comical fashion where Roz is like “I guess Beckys more family to you than I am huh!?”

      1. not someone else

        And Roz would not seem to be wrong there either.

        1. Regalli

          Yeah. Let’s be real, at the end of the day Becky was the one whose opinion Robin cared enough about to resign from Congress for. I still don’t think she actually gets why Becky (or Roz, or Leslie) won’t just be pals with her even if she stays in Congress, but she was quite public in saying it was for Becky.

          And even if I think Roz is sometimes a bad ally and that the sex tape justifications, specifically, were thought up to justify it as anything other than ‘Robin’s backers would hate it,’ I don’t doubt she’s sincere about the rest of her activism. Overzealous, sure, and likely meant to send up the variety of young progressive that will refuse to compromise even if there is no perfect option, but insincere? No. (Yes, her run for RA’s primary motivation was to not live with Mary anymore, but I feel confident she would’ve done the job to the best of her abilities. Dorothy wanted RA to look good on her Yale transfer, after all. They’re allowed to have other motives for this.)

          (Note: Obviously getting a candidate over Robin was more important to her than that candidate being perfect, so the comparison isn’t perfect, but ‘you think everyone is a centrist.’ ‘Compared to me, yeah!’ is definitely suggestive of the mindset.)

    3. SeanR

      She refused to acknowledge a person who she knew had an ulterior agenda, and who was probably pretty belligerent to boot.
      She knows arguing with her little sister is playing with dynamite. Then little miss nitroglycerin in a sloshing jar raised her hand and she decided she’d be better off handling the stick that is only weeping a little bit.

      1. thejeff

        Pretending she didn’t know her sister is still damn low.

        If, by some shenanigans the notice was so incredibly short that she couldn’t warn Roz up front – which would be something like “this morning”, she could still acknowledge her sister and then shutdown any prolonged argument with the rules.

        And seriously, if she’s going to spend the entire semester avoiding Roz and shutting Dorothy out completely, she’s not ready to be a teacher.

        Which we pretty much knew anyway.

        1. Regalli

          Also, while Dorothy did eventually make two comments Robin really didn’t want to respond to and were varying degrees of Not Relevant (trying to get Ryan’s name, and the ‘I’m only white until the alt right track me down and send me Nazi imagery’ in direct response to Robin’s ‘white future news anchor’ comments, so things were already derailed,) she first avoids calling on Dorothy with ‘any questions from someone who doesn’t seem to know how local law protection works?’ https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/provisionally/

          She’s a sitting state representative, in an election year, to potential voters (and she is absolutely using the class appearance to campaign) saying that she doesn’t want to talk to people who understand how laws work (because her best response to a direct question about her voting record was ‘it didn’t pass.’) That doesn’t just make her a bad potential teacher, that makes her a bad politician.

        2. thejeff

          But I’ve been assured that since she’s a congresswoman, she must be a good politician with plenty to teach!

          I don’t know. I like Robin as a character, but she’s a toon. Her background and personality make no sense. There’s no way for me to tie together how she acts with the background results she gets. Whether that’s how she get into office in the first place or how she was winning reelection or even how she got the teaching job.

  30. James

    You know, I’m sure Robin is going to teach a LOT about political sciences in this position. Will it be what she wants to or THINKS she’s teaching? Probably not.

  31. Newllend(henryvolt)

    The conflict of interest thing would probably hold water if her new job was a political seat, I don’t know if the same norm applies when it comes to being an educator. I mean schools at a lower level have had family members teach each other in a school setting before so it might not be that different in college and even so there’s probably more oversight here then who ever was in charge of her in her last profession ….Also there’s what Robin said in the last panel.

    1. SeanR

      In her last job she had an easy out. When in doubt, ask the whip.

  32. Derek

    Nightmare! Nightmare! Nightmare!

  33. JessWitt

    I imagine Roz is gonna organize a walkout.

    1. BenRG

      It will be interesting to see how many named characters (i.e. ‘those who matter’) will join in.

  34. Beau Kirin Maysey

    *sigh* *starts writing down notes*

  35. Transgressingwaffle

    That line by Robin would be a great book title.

  36. Reltzik

    Does Robin have a bunch of great (and terrible) things she can teach this class? Yes.

    Is she going to get anywhere near actually covering the syllabus? No.

    1. Reltzik

      *covering the topics listed in the syllabus

  37. Dr. T

    I am glad to see that Willis addressed the very thing I mentioned, but I suppose they are correct as well. While those particular conflicts of interest were never addressed, I can tell you that IU can be somewhat blase about other appearances of conflicts. In my initial orientation when I was first going to be an AI there, they flat out said that they did not care if we dated our students so long as we waited until after the semester ended before we actually started the relationship (I was already happily married at the time so that meant nothing to me, but whatever). It would not surprise me if no one actually cared if Robin taught her sister and I know that no one would care if she taught Becky. The only reason anyone could possibly care is if Becky went to the departmental ombudsman to complain about the conflict of interest. Roz might be a different story, but probably.

    1. Wraithy2773

      I mean, these are pretty easy conflicts of interest to account for. Robin and the Dean assign a TA to handle the grading with specific instructions that they’re to ignore and report any attempts at Robin meddling with Becky and Roz’s grades (and maybe some others).

      Hell, it’d just be a more formal version of how TAs should normally act when it comes to grading everyone’s papers, this seems like a “large lecture hall” class, so the professsor wouldn’t be expected to personally touch their grading anyway.

      1. Wraithy2773

        WOULD EDIT IF I COULD: Maybe not large-lecture-hall, going back to previous comics? But it’s a PoliSci class for freshman that can be easily taken as an elective, it’s one that’s going to attract a large class anyway…

      2. thejeff

        Sure, if it’s a large lecture hall class much of that is possible. I doubt it is – partly because that format doesn’t encourage the kind of interaction that will make this class a fun/dramatic setting for the strip. It’s also been hinted at before: It was hard to get into and Becky was surprised it was in a smaller room, leading to the cross burning mural comments.

        Thus I doubt there are TAs and it’s likely grading will be less formal and done by the Professor. Probably partly based on classroom participation.

    2. BBCC

      Clearly DoA’s IU does things somewhat differently – TAs aren’t allowed to sleep with their students (though, on the other hand, they were doing it during the semester so maybe that has something to do with it).

      1. Dr. T

        Oh yeah, do it during the semester IRL and you get sacked like Jason and Penny. They are pretty explicit about that.

        It actually brings to mind a period where my wife needed to take a class I taught. Fortunately, she was able to get into a different section that I had nothing to do with. I really did not want to try to pitch the argument of “Of course I’m not sleeping with her! We’re married!”

        1. Dr. T

          Weird. I get a different icon when I post from my phone. Neat!

        2. thejeff

          Likely based on capitalization of the email address.

  38. Kabo

    You’re not allowed to be a professor to your sister in the state of Indiana?

  39. Devin

    You know what else is an illusion? That pipe having a right side up.

    1. Adam Black

      Ceci n’est pas une pipe

      1. Clif

        Surrealist.

      2. Arian

        I love that picture.

  40. ktbear

    I’d just like to say one thing about the new poll, but I’m not sure I would get smacked for being a bad girl so I’m instead going to say Leslie, people. L E S L I E !!

    1. Clif

      In fairness, goodness is a different evaluation than greatness.

      1. Clif

        No one talks about Alexander the Good. Or even Alexander the Best.

  41. PB

    Can Roz and Robin be right at the same time? Is that allowed?

  42. BenRG

    In university folklore, that year’s PolSci102 class became immortalised as “The semester where students learned what politics was really like, not what they imagined it ought to be like”!

  43. Varangian

    Roz: Are you seriously telling us that the political systems that govern whether we live or die are completely built on politely agreed-upon LIES?!?

    Robin: Always have been.

    1. BenRG

      “Precisely. Welcome to being an adult Ms De Santo.”

    2. StClair

      Not always that politely, either.

      1. SeanR

        Well, in the visual trope, that answer is accompanied by a handgun to the back of the space-suited head.

  44. DaisyFM

    Robin’s going to be a very good teacher.

  45. Keulen

    Robin might not be as bad a political science teacher as I thought. She’s completely correct in the last panel.

  46. motorfirebox

    Man, sure is a good thing this lesson doesn’t apply to America today. Can you imagine?

  47. Willoughby chase

    I’m guessing Talleyrand, Metternich and Plato are well down the reading list for this course 🙂

  48. Juanoku

    Tl;dr, she’s an idiot, and somehow gets away with it all the time (and i kinda hate that, because if walky can’t get away with it why can she? It’s bullshit)

    1. geno

      She’s pretty clearly not as dumb as Walky, and also Robin can turn it off. Walky is a moron even when he really shouldn’t be. Robin pretends to be a mature adult occaissionally

      1. thejeff

        Walky’s done the same. Probably more often.

        Robin walked home from Leslie’s without pants carrying a lamp labeled “Aide”. The evidence she’s not dumb or can turn it off is pretty sketchy.

  49. Heather

    So like does Robin have lesson plans or is she just going to be dropping lines for an hour? Like I’m assuming Nicholson left some kind of basic structure behind? Then again if it was short notice…

    Also unsure if Robin would follow them.

    Wonder if Leslie knows about this and what her opinion is on the matter especially as she probably fought tooth and nail to get where she was in life while Robin can basically walk in even if the Dean hates her.

    1. BenRG

      FWIW, I’m thinking that Robin will try to make Becky her TA. Becky will refuse (she’s fallen into that trap before) and will then cite ‘lack of seniority’ as a reason. She’ll then suggest Dorothy, mostly because it seems like the sort of prank she’d pull to make Dorothy’s life harder.

      Dorothy actually turns out to be good at turning Robin’s free-associating thought patterns into useful lessons. The two of them become a formidable team.

      1. Makkabee

        TA’s are supposed to be grad students, not enrollees in the class. But since (adjunct?) Professor De Santo is blatantly ignoring norms, who knows?

        1. thejeff

          There’s no way she could get them the official paid role, but she could probably use them unofficially as such.

  50. Lone Duck

    Sadly, she’s right. She’s more blatant and brazen about it than some of our present day 2020 politicians, but not by much.

    Also I get the feeling a LOT of people will be dropping this class. 😉

  51. FacelessDeviant

    It seems to me that there are at least two people in that room that will enforce that conflict of interest…

  52. Zaxares

    Also, conflicts of interest tend to be overlooked if you know and can bribe make a campaign contribution to the right people (with big enough sums of money).

    1. Needfuldoer

      or embroider the right phrase onto a room-scale plush dinosaur.

      1. Zaxares

        I mucked up the strike tags and this system doesn’t allow edits. XD Only “bribe” ought to have been stricken out.

  53. Spencer

    God I’m starting to feel bad for Roz, and I don’t mean that in the fun “character I don’t like gets beaten up and gets sympathy for it” kind of way.

    I know we like Robin from reading Shortpacked but just like Mike she transferred over all her funny quirks as incredibly destructive personality flaws, only she was way *worse* than Mike because instead of just quietly making one person miserable at a time she was a Republican congresswoman. How much damage did she willingly help cause to line her pockets?

    The only real positive from this I see is that this can be a great fount for Roz to start developing out of her worst excesses and mature herself as an ally (and “reaching to the middle with your sister who used you as a bargaining chip and also ran for government positions on the back of ruining lives” ain’t that).

    1. geno

      Have you ever read Willis? There will be no reaching to the middle. Robin is gonna be going left.

      1. Spencer

        Nah I don’t think Willis is gonna pull a centrist narrative, I meant that there’s a lot of posts the last few pages dunking on Roz for being a jerk and propping up Robin even though she was a Republican congresswoman, as if those two are even remotely on the same playing field.

        1. Heather

          Yeah people dunking on Roz too much when it comes to her interactions with Robin aren’t great to me.

          Like the problem really comes when others are splashbacked by the interactions they have: like arguably Leslie in her scheme even if Les seemed aware of what was happening anyway and hasn’t from what we can tell suffered long term from it. But any harm to Robin was perfectly justified given the stranglehold Robin has tried to have on her life in addition to her past politics.

          I think this could be an interesting plot point in what it could mean for Roz and Becky interactions (could there be guilt there? In a world where college is a necessity to drag oneself out of poverty and yet isn’t remotely affordable both of them have at least once sold themselves out for congressional money for it in a sense: as Roz rattles her gilded cage which is still a cage and Becky got free in a horrifying way that isn’t really open to Roz?)

          Overall Robin will have blood on her hands indirectly from her in office too. I’m interested in what this could all mean for Roz and Becky but Roz wasn’t in the main line up so I’m unsure if it’ll result in anything substantial for her which is kind of sad.

        2. Heather

          Though granted: is Roz still dependent on Robin for tuition? Maybe she did flee the cage in a sense could be panicking at the idea of being stuffed inside it again even if that won’t be the case any more. Emotions are tricky like that. Even if your past abuser can’t hurt you in the same way having them in front of you can still be enough, even without them being your teacher.

        3. thejeff

          Was Roz ever dependent of Robin for tuition?

          Dependent for keeping the family peace maybe, but I don’t remember any reason to think Robin was paying her tuition.

        4. Heather

          I guess I made the assumption thinking it had been confirmed elsewhere, though now I’m not so sure. Granted I thought Robin’s family weren’t rich before Robin got into congress, though that might be on the basis of Shortpacked and the fact the family seemed to be struggling a lot there when Robin’s dad left?

          Different universe though.

          Idk maybe you’re right, I could imagine Roz being ripped apart by her parents if she cost both her and her kid sister’s college prospects in any way regardless of how much of a monster Robin was or how shitty and abusive the situation was for Roz.

        5. BBCC

          Roz said she has enough sisters to bankrupt herself every Christmas and refers to her siblings as ‘excessively numerous’ so it sounds like things might still be rough money wise. That suggests to me Robin wasn’t helping out too much.

        6. Mr D

          @BBCC Roz is an 18 year old with no visible income, I’d be pretty surprised if she wasn’t bankrupting herself getting gifts every christmas

        7. BBCC

          Kids from families with more money tend to have more to spend though.

  54. Hielario

    Jeez, american professors are so regimented! Can’t do this, can’t do that…

  55. Sombrero

    Prof. De Santo looks like solid Dean material. Beware, Mc Henry!

  56. Ziggy78eog

    …she’s not wrong. But, at the same time, a good percentage of that class is going to complain about it, to the Dean of Students. Parents will hear about it, and they will complain. The Student Paper will editorialize it. It might be better to just have Robin change classes with another Professor.

    1. anonymsly

      I don’t know. If people are drawn to this class/teacher because Nicholson was local-famous (he was on TV sometimes!) an actual local politician who was on TV a lot and withdrew from an election she won seems to scratch the ‘my teacher is a famous person’ itch just fine. And hey, Robin’s degree might actually be in poli-sci, so she might well even have the background chops for this class basic enough to admit freshmen without or with minimal prerequisite requirements.

      Add to that, if I were the average student without plug-in to why people are screaming, I’d have seen my new teacher shutting down a student who screamed at her for existing, establish and maintain a ‘hands up to speak/question’ rule, and pivot into teaching through said questions. (For us the readers: Leslie, an experienced teacher, didn’t even corral Roz so effectively – Leslie had to eject Roz to get her classroom back, Robin appears not to have lost the room at all thus far.)

      In short: not actually a bad first few minutes from the teacher I didn’t realize I was going to have. I might be more annoyed by Roz trying to make reality not be happening, but even then it’s only on the level of ‘can this not be an ongoing thing?’

      Tl;dr, I think I, in the nameless students’ place, would give it more than 5-10 minutes of the first class period before deciding I needed to transfer and complain to authorities and media. This could be a good class, it’s too early to say.

      1. geno

        Yeah think the comment section is projecting a lot onto the students here. Honestly I bet some of them are excited to have Robin instead of Nicholson. They don’t know what we and the main cast know

        1. seregiel

          Or they are excited BECAUSE they know and they are the kind who cause accidents by rubbernecking :). Sometimes you stay in a course because it is ENTERTAINING regardless of educational value.

        2. Regalli

          Given just how terrible her answers were the second time she came to Leslie’s class (‘What’s it like being in Congress?’ ‘Rad!’ ‘Can you elaborate?’ ‘… Super-rad!’), I think if there are any other students here who were in it with Joyce, Roz, and Dorothy, they’re already assessing how well they can learn the material from the book versus how much they like watching shitshows. (Since they also probably also recognize Roz at minimum, likely Joyce and Dorothy, they may have been expecting fireworks even if it were still Nicholson.)

      2. BBCC

        Why are we assuming Robin has a degree? Am I forgetting something because I’m tired?

        And Roz didn’t scream at her for existing. She asked what she was doing here and where the teacher they were supposed to have was and then Robin pretended she didn’t know her.

        1. SeanR

          One, there is an assumption by many that to teach college, you need a post-grad degree of some kind. Not true, but I understand it is a common misconception.
          Two, MOST people in congress have a degree. While it’s not actually a job requirement, it’s unusual for one to not have some college education.

        2. BBCC

          I think it’s more likely she would but bear in mind, this is Robin we’re talking about.

  57. Eric

    Willis throwing STRAIGHT REALITY in this strip.

  58. SlothfulCobra

    Ah yes, because relatives never end up in teaching positions over each other. That’s a thing.

  59. Makkabee

    Curiously enough I also took classes taught by a former Republican congressman. Though in that case he had taught history and political science before going to Congress and was returning to his old job. And also he was good at his job. I really enjoyed his class on the history of the Speakership of the House of Representatives. Did a term-paper on the contest for Speaker of the House in 1855-56, in which no party came close to a majority and it was all about coalition building like you see in multi-party parliamentary systems. Weird stuff, man.

  60. Rabisch

    Let’s admit this. Robin is perfect for this job.

  61. DarkoNeko

    the last panel is too real

  62. Barf Ninjason

    Roz with the unexpected Machiavellian/Hobbesian cut-through-bullshit knife! Guess she can teach this class after all.

    Also, I have to laugh at upholding or violating “norms” as any kind of argument. So, conformity to the way “it’s always been done” is desirable now? Don’t hold on to the bathwater cuz you don’t wanna get rid of the baby.

    1. BBCC

      Norms aren’t always a good or useful thing but having them against conflicts of interest in an educational environment seems like a pretty good one to have.

    2. thejeff

      I don’t know about education, but norms were basically how our government had functioned up until the last couple decades. The GOP has been systematically breaking them in favor of raw power and it’s left us with nonfunctional government.
      Norms like “hold votes on SC nominations” and “concede when you lose an election”. Little things.

      1. SeanR

        Not true on the SC nominations, at least. According to Wikipedia, on four separate occasions, three during the 19th century and the fourth for Obama, “no action” was taken on a candidate. And while it doesn’t say clearly in all cases, at least two others are mentioned as being ignored because the congress was held by a different party than the president.
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsuccessful_nominations_to_the_Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States

        1. Makkabee

          Two of those three 19th century examples were of men nominated by lame duck presidents after their successors had been elected. The Senate’s refusal to act on Fillmore’s nomination of Edward Bradford in 1852 was the only exception. And even in that case Fillmore submitted the nomination just two weeks before the Senate was scheduled to go on its summer recess.

    3. bunivasal

      Norms typically exist for a reason–they serve as a baseline for acceptable behavior.

      You don’t have to abide by norms, but if you violate them it should trigger you to ask–why?

  63. seregiel

    I’m actually curious what Former Senator DeSanto is good at with politics. She might have been a wishy washy shield, but it kept the power that she actually wanted. If she doesn’t feel confined to special interests/ party happiness/ power any more… WHAT DOES SHE ACTUALLY DO/ KNOW/ USE!?!

    1. Needfuldoer

      *Representative. She was in office for two, maybe four years.

      1. Seregiel

        Part of me wants to say thank goodness for that, the other wants to cackle

  64. bcb

    Yes, but unlike Congress, every university I’ve worked at puts at least the bare minimum of effort into avoiding conflicts of interest.

  65. bunivasal

    A friend of mine is a full professor and this type of “conflict of interest” doesn’t appear to be… real. My wife, a research fellow and teaching assistant at a Big10 university, is also baffled.

    Grading might be a concern due to favoritism, but I can’t imagine that Robin will be grading her own papers anyway.

    And even if this was a conflict of interest, it’s hard to imagine that a university would prioritize the student over the faculty member.

    “Wellll, we were going to nab a former Congresswoman for a faculty position, but it turns out her sister is enrolled in an intro-level polisci class for nine weeks. Conflict of interest, man, our hands are tied. Looks like we’re getting Galasso to do it again.”

    1. Needfuldoer

      Her grades would probably look something like this:

      Brown, Joyce: A
      MacIntyre, Rebecca: A++
      Filler, Blonde: A
      Filler, Goatee: A
      Filler, Redhead: A
      DeSanto, Roz*: F-
      Keener, Dorothy: B+
      Clinton, Sarah: A

      (* Is “Roz” short for something, like “Rosalyn”?)

  66. Steelbright

    This is terrifying, but Robin’s professor outfit is definitely smokin’. (I wrote that while she’s smoking…well at least holding a pipe. And didn’t notice that until second read. Naturally.)

  67. RowenMorland

    Is Roz’s point that she and Becky should be dropped from the class? Since it seems that the best way for the university to enforce that rule is to ditch two students rather than not have a professor at all.

    1. Clif

      Roz has been blindsided. She hasn’t had an opportunity to think things through yet. She’s reacting.

  68. thumb

    oh no she knows at least some of what she’s talking about

  69. Dracke

    She was a successful politician even if everyone hated her for her politics the comic never mentioned…idiot super political audience.

    But yeah she is absolutely right, besides Ros universities get rid of students or change them to another class if there is a conflict of interest they care to resolve…and the university administration HATES Roz, any excuse and she is expeled. (only her sister who she sabotaged a lot is the reason she is there)

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