My chair sends me e-mail

To: twice@smallliberalartscollege.edu

From: chair@smallliberalartscollege.edu

T,

Interviews are all scheduled for Tues 5/4, Tues 5/11 and Th 5/13.  
Everyone is scheduled into a slot to talk with candidates, except you.

Could you meet on each of these dates at 10?

Chair

---

From the tone, one would assume that I had been asked once (or perhaps repeatedly) to sign up for a time to meet the candidates. That assumption would not be correct.

Too many committees

This year I was elected to the large college committee that deals with curriculum and other academic issues. This is a committee with a heavy workload, but it has largely been interesting. The makeup of the committee is diverse, but there are no true curmudgeons and there are no aggressively negative people.

I also recently joined a committee that is making revisions to a controversial program. As I mentioned in my last post, the chairperson of the committee seems to lack leadership ability. He gets defensive and is incapable of seeing obvious ways to advocate for the program. For example, if you have announced at the beginning of a feedback session that you will be doing a faculty survey on the program in the next few weeks, and then about 25 more people arrive at the session and one of them asks why you aren't doing a survey, I would think it would be a good idea to repeat the previous announcement about the survey. Or, I suppose, you could sit there and not say anything.

One of my colleagues from another STEM department is relatively senior, extremely reasonable and a good friend. He and I are on this program committee and have been trying to guide the chair to be more of an advocate for the program. This is very painful at times. So much so, I recently confessed to Friend Colleague that I had considered quitting the committee, but I didn't think it would be fair to him. Friend Colleague admitted he had thought of leaving too, but that he didn't because he didn't think it would be fair to me. We concluded that the next time we have reservations about joining a committee, we should check with one another before doing so.

The program committee recently finished revisions and sent them to the large college committee. The chair of the large college committee called me to ask if the chair of the program committee (who is not on the large college committee) should be asked to come to the large college committee meeting. I responded, "I really don't see how that would be helpful." He responded, "That's what I thought."

Things I've Learned This Week

• When your five year old son calls you because "there is crazy pee" in the bathroom, bring a towel when you go to investigate.
  
  
• Do not join a committee that deals with a controversial college-wide program if you care about the program and you have strong doubts about the leadership ability of the committee's chairperson.
  
  
• Do not schedule appointments with students to take place on the day before spring break, even if it was their idea.
  

Conference RBOC

• I'm at a non-disciplinary conference in a city I love but have no time to enjoy it or see my friends.
  
  
• Went to a session this morning that makes me want to try something extremely politically risky on my campus. Why not? - I have tenure. To quote one of my favorite pinball machines: Big risk, big reward.
  
  
• About 10% of the faculty attendees were texting or answering e-mail on their laptops at one point or another during the morning plenary. The irony is that it was a plenary where students were doing the talking.^*
  
  
• One of my fellow attendees had too much wine and claimed that we were both smarter that 90% of the people here at the conference. I asked what he thought of the part of the evening plenary where the speaker mentioned that we academics are often arrogant and think we are better than everyone else.
  
  
• I know it is a discipline thing, and the speaker was from a discipline that does this, but I really, really, could do without being read to. How do people in these fields pay attention when the tone isn't conversational?
  
  

^*To be fair, the sound system was not ideal and I found the panel a little too scripted and the faculty facilitators a little too self-congratulatory.

Endings

Around me at graduation:

• Our research queen bee faculty member reading a research article
  
  
• A faculty member writing in what appeared to be a personal journal
  
  
• A faculty member reading what appeared to be literary journal submissions
  
  
• A faculty member raiding strings from her tassel to tie up her hair in a futile effort to stay cool
  
  
• A faculty member who received one call and made two on his cell phone (which was not set to silent)
  
  
• Three faculty members periodically hovering over a wireless Internet handheld checking game scores
  
  
• A faculty member with a very light complexion (and apparently no sunscreen) slowly turning red on one side
  

This is what happens when attendance at graduation is required.

Things I forgot to do today

1) Wash my hair

2) Show up for a review session that I scheduled for 11 a.m.

3) Buy cooking oil

File under not my job

We are having an important speaker come to campus Monday. Our chair has been involved in coordinating this at the college level. Today, this comes to my inbox:

To: twice@slac.edu
From: chair@slac.edu

T,

Could you get up some notices about the Mon talk? Inviting all science students.

The [physchembio] of [topic of current interest].

P.S. [secretary's name] will be here tomorrow (Fri) morning).

Thanks,
Chair

Hmm, perhaps he could have just sent the request to the secretary then?

Things I've learned in the last 24 hours

1. When the hard drive of a MacBook starts to go, it behaves just like a laptop running Windows.

2. Hard drive failures are a lot less stressful when the computer is still under warranty and there is just enough life left in the drive to do a full backup.

3. Watching a computer report that there are fewer and fewer files in a directory each time you click on it is somewhat disconcerting, item 2 (above) notwithstanding.

4. The order of priority of my electronic files appears to be: sabbatical research data, kid pictures, other documents. In fairness, the kid picture folder was 1 GB, the research folder was more like 10 MB.

5. To describe the same program, art faculty come up with entirely different graphics than science faculty do.

6. Other faculty members who want to needle you about how the upper division students in their class can't do stuff they should have learned in your class should first check to make sure said students have taken your class. While they are at it, perhaps it would be best if they recalled that they had in fact advised said students to wait to take your class until next year.

Spring, the season for self-promotion

Today was officially the start of spring break. We had no classes today and are off all next week. My to do list seems to be under the impression that we have about three weeks off.

After classes ended Thursday, a senior colleague of mine, who cares only about face time, pointed out that He would be working Friday. I said our daycare was open, so I would be in also. He looked a little thrown off by this. Odd, I thought.

Now I know why. I came in around 10-ish. He left 20 minutes later. Given his normal arrival time, that means he spent no more than 1-2 hours at work. Which I couldn't care less about, except that yesterday's remark was a pointed "I'm working tomorrow and you aren't" sort of affair.

For the record, calling him on such things, even accidentally (by showing up at work) usually has a negative impact on my life in future dealings.

My grades are due in 12 hours

What did I do all day? Grade.

What will I do into the wee hours of the morning? Grading.

What was my colleague doing today? Working on a syllabus. For next term. Which begins in February.

Damn her.

Long Day RBoC

A whole day without class should have given me plenty of time to get things done prior to a conference I'm leaving for on Thursday morning. This is my planned week of no lab meetings due to the conference. Unfortunately, I only had a slightly productive day. I:

• Went to a committee meeting
  
• Got to observe a senior administrator continually try to steer the committee members away from thinking they might have any role in actual decision making (fun!)
  
• Answered e-mails for my on-line class regarding blackboard gradebook weirdness
  
• Dealt with copy-and-paste Internet plagiarism in my on-line class
  
• Graded two assignments for my on-line class
  
• Met with students in senior-level semi-elective pulling their hair out about a homework assignment. One guy is like "Do you really expect us to turn this in today?" ...as if that is the most unreasonable thing in the world. I did say something along the lines of "What I expected was for you to start it before today." Though I did decide to give them until tomorrow, for a different reason.
  
• Discovered something I thought was in the text for my senior-level required course, was not. Bummer, as I had given them a problem and told them we weren't going over it in class because there is an example in the text. Made handout.
  
• Composed e-mail to chair and registrar to fix Spring class schedule
  
• Arranged water treatment plant tour for adjunct's class
  
• Met with student prep TA for adjunct's lab to give directions on lab prep
  
• Had impromptu department meeting to discuss curricular changes
  
• Realized at about 5:20 I have not yet prepped tomorrow's classes
  
• Gathered some stuff to bring home for class prep, realized this would take a while, called Dr. H, he says "stay, I will get them to bed" Yea!
  

Then I could relax and become quite productive:

• Wrote exam for this Friday when I will be away at a conference
  
• Prepared lecture, overheads and handouts for senior-level required course for tomorrow
  
• Prepared assignment to replace Friday's class meeting in required course
  
• Prepared lecture, overheads and handouts for senior-level semi-elective course for tomorrow
  
• Wrote homework assignment for required course for next week to hand out tomorrow
  
• Wrote study guide for next week's exam in required course
  
• Wrote homework key for this week's assignment in required course and put on Blackboard to appear Friday.
  

Now, I should probably get some sleep.

What not to do if you are in a one-year position hoping to become tenure-track

* Announce to the department chair that your freshman students will be in his office tomorrow because you are going to ream them out in class today.

* Disappointed that the students don't know how to do something, get angry and tell them if they fuck up at their [health-related] jobs in the future, they will kill people.

* Use "fuck" four times in your rant, but never tell the students why you are mad. Do this dramatically enough that word gets around and other students start using "pulled a [your last name] on so-and-so" synonymously with "told so-and-so off". Bonus points if faculty in other departments hear about the rant and mention it to the department chair.

* Ignore all advice/course materials/handouts given to you by others who have taught the courses you are teaching. Instead, change your materials, style and approach daily, doing the first thing that comes into your head.

* Make fun of a senior level student for not knowing a conversion factor. Do this when the student is the only one available to be your lab assistant for two different labs. Make sure to keep making fun of him for about 15 minutes in front of a room full of freshman women.

* Exclaim in a happy voice "Only 1/3 of my class is getting D's or F's!" without determining whether this is typical for the course you are teaching.

* Go through 9 chapters of a 24 chapter, two-semester text in the first three weeks of class.

* Assume the other faculty member who prepped your lab when you were behind was happy to do it.

Task Force (noun): a temporary grouping under one leader for the purpose of accomplishing a definite objective

Dr. H., who is a tenured faculty member at a largish university, sends this along for your amusement:

During the council meeting today, we had to elect representatives for the Strategic Task Force, whose mission is to read and organize [some stuff related to] the President's Strategic Plan (it's all very Dilbert).

The Dean took notes on the election on a whiteboard at the front of the room. At the top of the board, the Dean wrote, "Task Farce".

No one corrected him.

Some Things Don't Change

My Ph.D. advisor was in my Big City giving a talk yesterday. I just spent four months back in his group at Sabbatical U (aka Grad School U). The experience was one long deja vu - I even had my old desk back.

Anyway, yesterday, I went to his talk, a well attended affair at a local university, hosted by a local section of the national professional organization. At dinner, my advisor sees me and rushes over. He gave me a big hug, and thanked me for coming, saying he had forgotten I might be there. He catches me up on the group, Amazing Chinese Guy just took a postdoc at Harvard, Really Nice post doc is expecting a baby, etc. I told him I just did a well-received presentation on my campus about what I did on my sabbatical.

"That's Great! Some day you'll have to tell me."

It's true, I owe him a draft.

A Question

Suppose one has a visiting assistant professor in a small academic department. Let's also suppose that this same department is expecting to do a tenure-track search this year. And, just to round things out, let's assume that there is ample reason to be concerned that the visiting professor is confused and seems to believe his position is being converted, and is not going out for a full search. Let's also assume that when the visiting professor was hired last year, the chairperson made all the decisions and negotiations with minimal (i.e. no) input from other faculty.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't it then stand to reasons that it should be the chairperson's job to clear things up about how the tenure-track search will be handled, rather than asking other members of the department to do it?
.
.
.
Yeah, that's what I thought too.

Overheard: Tales from the Professoriate II

Today I spent several hours rotating through groups of new freshman with two other faculty members. The idea is to give the new students advice for succeeding at SLAC. They students were quiet and worn out from a few days of orientation already. My colleagues, however, were another matter.

One is a senior faculty member who is fabulous. He really cares about students, thinks deeply, chooses his words carefully and easily connects with students who are maybe 35 years younger than him. He was great. The other colleague is another senior faculty member. She has a partial administrative appointment that has a lot of interaction with students. Once she loosened up, things got interesting:

"I'm just amazed when a student comes in and says 'I juuuust fiiiind thaaat class soooooo booooooring'. Well! Any MORON can be bored in a class! It takes...Cre-A-TIV-ity and in-TELL-igence to find a class interesting!"

I wish I were making this up. Of course, this doesn't fully capture the emotion she put into it. For example, the imitation of the bored student 'I juuuust fiiiind thaaat class soooooo booooooring' included slurring each word with her tongue hanging out of her mouth.

I try to get us back on track with:

"I think the take home message from this is that we'll all end up taking classes we are less excited about - we take them for requirements of the college, or major, whatever. But, as long as you are there, you might as well make the most of it!"

After all this interaction with colleagues, I'm looking forward to seeing the students on Monday.

Overheard: Tales from the Professoriate

"I'm the boss."

   - a department chair interviewing a candidate for a staff position.

"Well, all this concern about diversity and yet we certainly seem to be increasing diversity with this group."

    - one faculty member to another after three women of color were introduced as new faculty.

"I've always felt like a black woman trapped in a white woman's body."

   - a faculty member describing why she thinks diversity training is important.

Maximizing Face Time

The one person in my department who cares about face time is on vacation. Dr. H and I are seizing the opportunity to see his grandparents before the term starts.

The bad news: this involves 12+ hours of driving (one way), the last time I checked I had two three year olds, and now I also have a UTI, something I'm quite certain is not conducive to having a pleasurable road trip.

The good news: I have a prescription for antibiotics and Pyridium (Orange pee. Pain relief in 20 minutes. What's not to like?).

August Scientiae Carnival: Balance Questions and Answers

Here it is, finally! The August Scientiae Carnival. Happy reading! If I missed something, let me know. I will again blame Harry Potter. The next carnival is scheduled for September 1st at Zuska's.


Balance? Hmm, let's discuss.

Flicka Mawa at A Cat Nap has a blogosphere discussion about balance complete with reading list.

Propter Doc weighs up all the things that must be done and considers a few strategies for coping with it all. Hypoglycemiagirl provides some suggestions for traveling when your life is happening in three different countries and discusses how getting enough exercise is a challenge.

Amelie wonders whether hanging out with scientists all the time is good or bad and Veo Claramente now at Cool Immunology wonders if life in academia can be balanced.

Balance? Smalance! Let's see some science fun!

A carnival reader nominated these posts by Keet Leibowitz at
The Keet and Nini Show with Keet's drawings of girls doing science, along with discussions of burning magnesium and the all important difference between the word organism and a word that is spelled in a similar fashion.

Pat at Fairer Science Weblog decides: Balance No. Oobleck Yes.

Balance? First, can we all agree that academia has some serious problems?

Bug Girl lays out a persuasive argument that academia is a cult. Rob Knop at Galactic Interactions writes an amazing and frank post about leaving academia when he found that his career was interfering with his life. And this older and quite provocative Bitch Ph.D. post about kids, academia and life is very interesting and will likely provoke discussion.

Balance? Perhaps that's not the precise word we're looking for.

Dr. Free-Ride at Adventures in Ethics and Science writes about how her life involves juggling, not balance. Zuska wonders how one balances nothing and talks about what happens when health interferes with your career plans.

Balance? Yes? We think. Maybe.

Rebecca at Adventures in Applied Math describes how she tries to balance by finding a work schedule that works for her and I worry about how and where I choose to do my work influences how others perceive me.

Bug Girl writes about balancing her desire to do one thing for the good of the many with the strategic thing for the good of the one.

MrsWhatsit at I Love Science, Really discusses how you don't think about balance until it is absent and how to balance mental health and career.

Balance? Yes!

Dr. Shellie suggests running for improved balance. Estraven at Proving Theorems finds that balance is easier when you like your colleagues.

Flicka Mawa discusses how having a really full plate helps her achieve balance along with the attitude that grad school is not her everything.

Balance? In progress.

New mom Jane at See Jane Compute shares with us some of her insights and questions from taking Baby Jane to a conference. Among them, she wonders whether people finding out she has a new baby will make her appear less professional and wonders whether men even consider this question.

Two women starting tenure track jobs in the fall Skookumchick and Tenure Track Newbie find themselves already being drafted for committees and other service tasks months before they can expect their first paychecks.

And last but not least, Science Woman writes an incredibly inspiring post about how she will not be a foregone conclusion in her attempts to balance life and career as she begins her new tenure-track job this fall.

***********

A big thank you for all of you who submitted and nominated posts and encouraged others to do so!

Face Time

In my previous position at Regional State University, I was told early on that it was fortunate that I did not have a family or children, as I would be able to work nights and weekends. I was annoyed and also concerned that somehow more would be expected of me because I was single. In my current position, I find I have the opposite problem. People assume I work less because I have a husband and children, regardless of what the reality is.

The first situation turned out to be no problem. I was around as much as my active colleagues on average, and they cared about results, not appearances. So, taking weekends off to visit my friends in Cool City, or taking a weekend to visit my fiance in another city was no problem.

Here, at SLAC however, I do have a problem. I have a chair who values face time above all else. He does little work at home, as far as I can tell, so does not believe anyone else does. I have some reason to believe he tells people behind my back that I really should be around more.

One semester recently I taught a new prep. Two to three times a week, we put the kids to bed around 8 or so, then I would start working on class prep for the new class. I would stay up until 1 or 2 in the morning, finishing what preparation and grading I had to do for the new class. This is something I'm sure many academics do regularly, or at least on occasion, depending on assignment patterns, grant deadlines, and the like. My other classes were ones I had taught before, and I found that I usually had enough time at my office in between teaching, to take care of those, but there was no way to fit the new one in. The result: sleep deprivation, and the assumption among my colleagues that it is due to childcare, not work.

The problem, you see, is that I leave between 4:30 and 6 pm almost every evening. It does not matter to anyone that I do work at home. It is not visible, I'm not around, therefore I'm not working. Right. Without children, I would simply leave the office later and spend less time at home, as would my husband. With them, the extra time one of us spends working in our offices on the nights or weekends means an additional burden for the other. It is preferable to got home early and stay up late. But it doesn't count as face time. It isn't working to spend hours gossiping with students, doing on-line shopping, or having coffee in the faculty lounge, but somehow those seem to count. Go figure.

In the balance between my family, my work and being seen, I seem to have chosen the first two.