There is a point to this, I promise. My professor, Dr. Cletus “D-Minus” Daniel, is the epitome of an old-school, grey-haired, tweed-jacket wearing, all-knowing academic. His dress sense – full suit and tie every lecture – is impeccable. There is in fact an entire Facebook group called “We Love Clete” dedicated to him, in which one student wrote,

“Clete is, by far, the best dressed professer [sic] in all of Cornell, if not the world. I was talking to him about a credit internship and all the while I was thinking, “Damn dude! Your tie compliments your suit compliments your jacket so well! How do you do it?”

He is also a known hard grader – hence the “D-minus Daniel” nickname – and assigns thousands of pages of readings (a portion of which I’ve done to date). Another student so poignantly wrote

“Don’t let the Winnie-the-Pooh-like voice lull you into a false sense of security; do the reading or your ****ed.”

One thing I find incredibly amusing about this labor history class is the random, unexpected connections to ILR/Cornell. Once, Prof. Daniel started talking about Myron Taylor, an influential labor figure, and sensing all the raise eyebrows in the class, added on as a footnote, “yes the same guy our Myron Taylor Hall down the street is named after. He donated a lot of money”. Or in another class, an overview of a feisty union organizer ended with, “and after her organizational work with the Teamster Local, she came to the ILR school and taught for x years”. The class usually goes, “whoa”, and then revel at just how close history hits home.

Just now, I was taking notes for my term paper from an assigned book*. Out of the blue, the author QUOTES MY PROFESSOR IN THE BOOK. *facepalm* the world of labor is a small and inter-connected one. At least now I know I’m using the right book. If only I had more time to do the paper that was assigned at the beginning of the term.

* American Workers, American Unions by Robert Zieger & Gilbert Gall. READ IT if you’re in this class, it’s going to help you on your final.