Sharing Good News

After a really wonderful and restful break, I'm having a good week.  Sometimes, things work like that.

First, a good friend and amazing poet came to visit and did a reading on campus.  The visit and reading were both a total pleasure.  This friend is one of those people I could happily spend a lot more time with, very kind, smart, thoughtful about poetry and teaching and life.

I also got good news on several fronts.  First, you may recall that I blogged about our Review After Tenure process, and that while both department level reviews (faculty and chair) said I "exceed expectations" the dean's review said I "meet" expectations.  This week, I got the Provost's review, and that's back to "exceeds."  This isn't just about my ego, remember.  Overall, here in the NorthWoods,  we haven't gotten regular raises in years (though there have been one or two small "bumps" for different people, including me, who were given "equity" bumps because we're so far below people of the same rank/experience at our peer institutions in the area).  (Those bumps haven't brought us up to the same level, though.  Of course.)  But RAT comes with a possibility of a raise, and for those at the "exceeds" level, it's a nice raise to base pay.  (About one third to half of the raise for promotion.)

On the second front, I also received notice that I have travel funding from our research funding office for next year, while I'm on sabbatical.  And the funding is quite a bit more than I'd dared to hope for.  So I may actually be able to go back to my happy place, the British Library.  I'm pretty thrilled!

And now, back to grading and prepping!  The countdown to sabbatical is at just over 7 weeks!