News from the Professing Front

I went to an awards thing yesterday because one of my students had one an award, and so I was sort of obligated to go.  And I was feeling sort of resentful about it because it's two hours out of the day after an otherwise already full day.

And then I got there, and sat with a colleague and an advisee of mine who also won a prize, and best of all, the advisee's family, dad, grandfather, sibling, and partner.  And it was just delightful how completely proud the dad was, and how the grandfather was close to tears when she accepted her award and spoke about how her project was inspired by her family.  It didn't take long with these folks to change my mood much for the better.

I was proud of my own student, too, and I think I did an okay job explaining her project and the award.  (It wasn't the easiest project from my end, but she really came through with it.)

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Two of my other students got projects accepted to the student research day presentations.  I'm happy for them, but secretly also thinking about my responsibility to go to another activity.

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I got several bits of good news the other day, of import mostly to myself, I think.  I had my eyes checked, and they are healthy.  But, I also asked about whether I would be a candidate for Lasik, and the optometrist almost laughed in my face.  She didn't, though, and kindly explained that Lasik is most effective when someone's eye prescription is no more than a minus five.  Mine are around minus ten.  So I guess that's a hard decision I won't have to make.  (I've hesitated totally about the idea of eye surgery, but I was beginning to think that it would be really amazing to go camping and not worry about dealing with contact lenses and also be able to see the stars without then taking my contacts or glasses off.)  Still, I'm stressy about my eyes, and having a positive report on eye health is really great news for me.

My bike is back from the shop where it got its spring tune up, but I haven't gotten out on a ride yet.  It's cold, and there's this job thing, and the awards thing, and so on.  But soon, I hope.

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I can report that our department search(es) was/were successful, and that we'll have a/some fine new colleague(s) joining our department in the fall.

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There's this person I know, not really well, but we have contact sometimes in various ways.  The thing is, I keep hearing/reading X complaining about this one sort of problem, and then three months later, I hear/read X complaining about this same sort of problem in a different context, and on and on, for a while now.  And I wonder, hmmm, could it be that X is somehow the source of this sort of problem? 

And then I immediately wonder if I do the same thing myself, complain again and again about a problem and not see that I pretty much bring it on myself?  (I know I've done it in the past, in a pretty serious way.  But I hope I've grown in awareness.)

(Okay, true confession here: I still procrastinate about grading more than I should.  I should have gotten over that by now, right?  Yeah.  Like that.)

Amused

I'm on an awards committee for some student awards in a small program, and it's time to read nominated stuff and submissions and make some decisions. 

There are, say, five awards, each quite specific.  So, for example, there's an award for creativity in deepwater basketweaving, and another for contributing to the campus basketweaving community, and then there's one for graduate research in underwater basketweaving, and so on.  But all these awards have names.  So, there's the King of the Sea award, and the Jones Foundation award, and so on, with none of the names (with one exception) giving much sense of what the specific award is for.

So as I'm trying to organize the nominated stuff for reading, I wanted to get a copy of the information for each of the awards.  But I couldn't find the one that I was sent way back when, maybe in December.  So I asked the overall program coordinator, and asked if zie could put it up on the campus program thingy we're using.  But I didn't hear, so then I sent an email to the program admin assistant.

And then the program coordinator sent an email to the awards coordinator about it, and copied everyone on the awards committee.  And then the awards coordinator said that was a good idea, and could someone send hir a copy.

And then the admin assistant kindly sent me a pdf, which I forwarded to the awards coordinator and the whole list of the awards committee (like six people, so not a HUGE list).

And then the awards coordinator said zie would post it on the site.

And I'm sort of grinning, because now 1) the first person to request it has it, and 2) everyone who has access to the site now has it on email.  So why post it on the site?

But it's fine if it's posted there, too.  It just amuses me.


The sad thing is, we have these awards, many of which come with some money, not tons, but some, enough to help with books for a semester, say, and yet we have relatively few nominations so there's little actual competition.  This is also the case for another awards committee I've been on for another program.

Is that how it is where you folks are?  Does it matter if it's faculty nominations or student submission?

Job Search - Questions for the Campus Visit

I thought it might be helpful to talk a bit (and hopefully others will contribute better ideas) about what sorts of questions we expect (and hope) candidates will ask during the campus visit.

I sort of expect that candidates coming for campus visits will have looked over the website and found some of the stuff we brag about here.  Asking about stuff we brag about is enlightening.  For example, say we brag about undergraduate research.  If you ask faculty folks about undergraduate research opportunities, you'll learn a lot.  If we give you a blank look or laugh in your face, you'll get some ideas about the disconnection between the administrative bragging on the website and our experience.  But if we talk about trying this or that, or a colleague who's had some experience, or a student who's done something really special, then you'll know it's real, and you'll learn something about how we do it.

If there's a special department or group project, asking about that's likely to be informative.  For example, if you were interviewing with a biology department that has (and advertises) a special relationship with a local prairie restoration project, or a chemistry department that does some cool air quality thing, asking about that will tell you lots, and you'll also likely impress your hosts.

The harder things to get at are things like benefits, quality of life, equity issues, and so on.  How do you ask about maternity issues if you're worried that the department won't hire someone they think is likely to get pregnant?  I think that's a really hard one.  I don't really have an answer.

My hope is that someone along the way will talk about their kids, and that will give you an opening to ask about local daycare, maternity leave, and so on.

If you're openly gay and the department is even minimally aware, then it's probably not at all a problem to ask about partner benefits.  (Unless, of course, you're interviewing at a religiously affiliated school with an unfriendly affiliation.   Not all religious organizations are unfriendly to gay and lesbian folks, of course, and it's good to get a sense of that earlier rather than later.)

I would tend to ask hard questions in terms of "what was your experience with X" rather than asking for a policy statement or something.  So, if you're out with tenure track faculty, asking someone how their experience of the review process has been seems reasonable.  If they burst into tears, then it hasn't been good.  Let's hope that doesn't happen.

You might also ask if they feel well-informed about what's required for tenure.  If they all feel well informed, but each tells you something totally different, that's useful information.  (I know of a department where, when asked, each of the five junior folks had a rather different idea of what was required beyond "good teaching," especially in terms of research: from a single article, to X or Y number of articles, to X-1 articles, but in the very best journal(s).

You might ask what sorts of resources the department has for travel for research or conferences, and how it decides how to spend it.  (My department, for example, quite openly supports tenure track faculty with money first, and then tenured folks get less.  We all pretty much think this makes good sense.)  If you're in the sciences, you'll want to know about lab start up funds and such.  (No one cares about us poor humanists and our needs, waaahhhh.)  You can ask about the library, and what sorts of support it offers to faculty for teaching and research.

If you have a partner or kids, I tend to think it's a good time to ask about local schools, opportunities for work in your partner's field, and so on.

I've thought a lot about the difficulties of this community for people of color over the years, but I wouldn't begin to know how to help a candidate who's a person of color to negotiate those questions.  (For one very obvious thing, pretty much every person of color who's likely to be on a candidate visit has a whole world of experience more than I ever will.)  I think at my campus, the administration has looked at our record in hiring and retaining faculty, recruiting students, and graduating students, and seen that we're unimpressive on all counts.  At times, I've felt the administration was making real efforts to change things.  But then administrators come and go, and the next wants to focus on something else, and lower down the chain, funding for retention programs and so on dries up, and we're back to square one.  I don't know how visible that process is for a candidate.

How do you all think candidates can learn what's most important to them on campus visits?

Blearg

I was responsible for presenting some student awards today. It was a small thing, and I tried to do a good job, but it wasn't as perfect as it might have been.

A retired prof was there for officialdom reasons, and let me know that I did a lousy job.

Thanks.

Yes, I just met this person, and she needed to criticize my awards-giving. I know I'm not the best at such things, but after a long and busy week, I really, really did not need some person I've just met to come up and criticize me.

FML.

And the week isn't over.

(We've had this big activities week here; my students were responsible for nine activities, which meant I went to all of their stuff. And I went to other stuff, and I participated in another thing. I think it went well. Some of the stuff my students did was beyond cool.)

Good Campus News

Last year, I complained about the sorts of speakers we were bringing to campus, the Hollywood-has-beens talking about drinking, the child of famous people talking about imaginary beings.

In my first year writing class calendar, I make a habit of listing campus speakers so that students know about them. So I was getting my list ready just now, and was very happy to note that we actually have five really interesting, intellectually stimulating speakers scheduled for this year.

I need to call the office that arranges the speakers and tell them how happy I am! No Hollywood-has-beens! No imaginary beings! Real problems, real issues!

Added: Yes, I did call. I think the student worker who answered the phone will be happy to pass along the message.