Ok, I know I am supposed to have a new positive mindset, but I need to vent. I got an email last night from our student rep to faculty meetings. It contained his notes from the meeting. Large on the table was the fact that "the conflict between the faculty is having negative effects on the grad students. Something should be done about this." So, now our lovely little grad student association has called a meeting, so we "wise" students can talk about how the problems with faculty are affecting us and come up with solutions. In addition, there will be a future meeting where students and faculty sit down together and hash it out. This is why I hate where I'm at. I want to go to grad school where I don't have to give a rat's a** about conflicts between faculty memebers because if there are any conflicts, they have nothing whatsoever to do with grad students. The last meeting I went to consisted of grad students sitting around whining about the allocation of funding (which we all know is directed at me for getting a 4 section ta-ship even though I'm only a first year) and then everyone spewing happy thoughts about how non-competitive the department is. Whatever. I'm sick of hearing whispers all over the halls and students hating on the faculty that their favorite professors hate. It is absurd. It would be really great if the academics I know could just respect each other, respect each other's work and politely agree to disagree on hot button issues. I'm really fed up with the "I hate you because I hate your opinion" mindset that I have to deal with. This is why when present in the department, I keep my head down, don't give my opinion, and let my work speak for itself.