Even before I became union president, it was fair to say that my worst trait as a teacher was that I was slow with grading. This is an odd mix of the usual procrastination and overcommitment, on the one hand, and my own personal preference for slow-ish feedback on the other. (As a student, I took criticism of my writing less personally after a solid cooling-off period.)

It turns out that the union responsibilities have only exacerbated this–especially this semester, with all the budgetary craziness in Connecticut. Making matters worse is the fact that I have a section of composition, which is surely the most grading-intensive course in English departments. Once I start to get behind in grading, things snowball rapidly, as I invariably decide that it’s important to offer a level of feedback that somehow justifies the tardiness, which is kind of impossible, and so the papers get…

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