Well, a mixed morning.

First, the good: My class was more lively today. They even laughed a little. It's a challenge and it takes a lot of energy but I've slipped back into the groove of thinking "I am going to make some of them learn biology, and even make some of them LIKE it, dangit"

The not so good: discovered a mysterious flier stapled onto two of our bulletin boards. Fliers and posters are supposed to either be approved by someone in the department or by the office of student life (and have stamps to verify that). These did not. Not that I think anyone WOULD have approved it - they had some rather violent language on them, including a suggesting that a particular group deserved killing.

the word "under*men" was used (asterisk inserted to stave off weird searches), and that made my internal sensors go off - I vaguely remembered reading that a similar term was used by the N*zi party in Germany to refer to groups they wanted to get rid of. (I emailed a friend with more knowledge of that era than I and she confirmed my suspicion)

With consultation with a colleague, we concluded it was an anarchistic ultra-anti-humanity environmentalist group (yes, they exist). It makes me uncomfortable that people with that kind of attitude may exist here, and even think that we might be sympathetic to their ideas.

Apparently this group - whoever they were - was dividing the human race into "worthy to use resources" and "unworthy to continue to use resources" (including, I presume, oxygen). And it makes me really really uncomfortable when anyone suggests that kind of division. (As much as I look at criminals doing the perp walk on the tv and growl "waste of skin" at them, I don't really MEAN it.)

The fliers have been ripped down and the dean of students notified. She asked me to fax her one so she could investigate. After which, I shredded them (even though I suppose they are evidence) because they just gave me the willies too bad.