And Just Like That...

It's the last day of teaching for me this semester.

I still have one more class to teach, very shortly, but it's the class I'm subbing for, so it feels a bit different.  And what's planned is mostly student presentations, so there's that.

Otherwise, I'm done except for writing the final and a load of grading (the final exam and big projects).  At least I don't have to grade for the other class.  (Is there anything better than getting to talk about Shakespeare to a class without having to worry about planning the whole course or grading?)

***

I have colleagues, both in my department and across the university, who've been basically told they won't be back again, won't be hired to teach here.  So while we're generally happy for the end of the semester, there's also a sense of mourning across the department and university.

Happily, I have a couple of colleagues who won't be back because they've found tenure track jobs.  And we're happy for them.  We've had a couple positions over the past few years, post-doc-ish positions, designed to be for very limited terms, and the people in these positions have been steadily moving from us to tenure track jobs.  The chair and others in the department have worked with these folks in various ways to help them with teaching and with their applications, and it's worked really well, better than I had thought it might when we started.

***

The department will be celebrating students who've accomplished a lot this past year (or more).  But we're also having a get together to acknowledge the people who aren't being rehired or who are leaving, and to generally thank our adjuncts.  We depend on them a lot, and we do appreciate their work.  We're troubled that we're not re-hiring some, and those of us with tenure or on the tenure track are also cognizant that we're privileged, and grateful not to have lost our positions.  (There's a chance that some tenure-track folks at the university won't have a job here next year, I've heard, though their reviews were fine.  But I think our tenure track folks will be okay because we've not rehired adjuncts.)  (There's a chance that down the line, some tenured positions will be eliminated through department eliminations, but I don't think that's happening right now.)