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.

Meetings

Nothing like spending the day in a series of college wide meetings! Today was a day chock full of:

1. breaking up into small groups
   
2. discussing things no one will agree on
   
3. reporting back to larger groups
   
4. repeating steps 1-3 n times
   

All the while with the growing realization that my UTI was not, in fact, cured by the week of antibiotics.

But actually, I am a glass half-full type of gal, so let me say there were three positive things about today:

1. The bathroom was right next to the afternoon meeting room and had an abundance of stalls.
   
2. I succeeding in arranging to have the committee empowered with forming other committees assign a mathematician to join me on the core curriculum revision committee
   
3. I'm now in possession of Cipro
   

Responsibility

So, it looks as though the committee charged with revising college core requirements has been appointed rather than elected.

Number of people on the committee: about 13

Number of science and math people: 1

Just say no

Classes start the week after next. So far, I've been asked/assigned to do the following:

• be on a search committee for another small (related) department
  
• replace a retired colleague on the technology committee
  
• stay on the committee that runs faculty programs and decides who gets internal research grants
  
• organize faculty brown bag discussions
  
• run for an elected task force charged with revising college degree requirements
  

So much for feeling rested from sabbatical.

Update

Two things I forgot about:

• advise a new student organization
  
• run a four week book discussion for honors students
  

And another request just today:

• Will I be on the (really really high level) administrative search committee?
  (answer: no)
  

Unfortunately, I have agreed to the rest.

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?).

More on Nerds

Again via Language Log - read this post.

Me: That's pretty funny.

Dr. H.: Wow, I get all those references.

Double Take

One of the coolest things I saw last week:

Gender differences in color perception? (via Lab Cat who always seems to have some nice science-y thing up)

Perhaps this explains why my father in law thinks his maroon coffee pot is the same color as the lavender bits in his granite counter top:

Me: That coffee pot is pretty spiffy.

FIL: Yes, as soon as I saw it I knew we needed to have it.

Me: Oh?

FIL: You know, because of the counter top.

Me: .....Ah...

FIL: I couldn't believe it. I mean, what are the chances of finding a coffee pot the exact same color?

Me: Uh...Okay.

Actually, I suspect the true issue has something to do with his developing cataracts, which according to this, can interfere with color perception.

And one of the weirdest things I saw last week:

Via Language Log, I found this article about research suggesting nerds are effectively "hyperwhite". The Dean has some things to say about it here.

I found this to be very interesting. However, what I find odd is the lack of discussion of geek and nerd culture as distinct in its own right. For example, I don't think everyone finds xkcd as funny as some of us do. My non-geeky, non-nerdy students have no idea who M.C. Escher is. And, of course, there is the general lack of recognition of the Kirk versus Picard debate as a valid intellectual, um, enterprise. I'm wondering how this sort of thing fits in.

It only takes once

Alas, our motives are not pure.

Shocking

You scored as Hermione Granger. You are Hermione. You are academic, intelligent, and reasonable. On top of this, you are highly concerned with justice, scorn the small-minded prejudices of others and work hard to defend the under dog. Many times you may find that your heart and mind are constantly at war with each other. Hermione Granger 81% Harry Potter 69% Albus Dumbledore 66% Oliver Wood 63% Neville Longbottom 59% Remus Lupin 59% Percy Weasley 56% Luna Lovegood 56% Bellatrix Lestrange 50% Lord Voldemort 50% Severus Snape 47% Sirius Black 44% Ron Weasley 34% Draco Malfoy 28% Harry Potter Character Combatibility Test created with QuizFarm.com

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!

Carnival Coming Soon

Hi All, The scientiae carnival will be up sometime Thursday. Sorry about the delay - I blame Harry Potter.