Teaching and Burning Torches in a Medieval Village

OK, I'm in my cool European village.  From my (dorm) room bed, I can watch the sun rise over mountains and a castle tower.  I'm across from an old church, the steeple clock of which I can also see from my window while lying in bed--the clock is perfectly framed through a funky triangular window high on my wall.  And it first chimes at 6:30AM, a very reasonable hour.

I'm recovering from my 24-hr trip getting here (door to door; I got to the airport early for once, and found out the flight was delayed 3+ hrs. Grrrr.).  This time around, I tried to sleep every chance I got (in the airport, in the flights, in the 90minute taxi).  Though I did watch 2.5 movies over the Atlantic.  I should have slept more--but I'm too busy to watch movies at home, especially non-kid movies!  (I watched Date Night--love that Tina Fey!)

This teaching gig is no picnic.  Changes in funding have meant fewer students from the developing world and more from wealthier countries.  I'm paid about $1,200 U.S. for a week of teaching (15 hrs teaching, plus the travel time, prep, student discussions outside of class, grading...).  Plus I now have European taxes taken out!  So I'm receiving less than last year, and it is harder to justify (given most students are from relatively privileged backgrounds now).  But I should withhold judgment until the end of the week.

I observed a ceremony on the church grounds this evening.  It involved tubas and priests.  But also a large group of military-uniformed youth carrying burning torches.  It confused and disturbed me a bit. (I speak two languages--but not the one that these folks do). Was this about All Saint's Day?  But then how does that fit with the military uniforms?  And frankly, in this formerly fascist country, youth in military-looking uniforms with burning torches? Yikes?!

Turns out, the uniforms were for the volunteer fire department! (Though seriously, they look military--with medals, etc).  And the priests were talking about peace!  Sheeeez! Me, thinking the worst. 

Teaching in Europe, but Halloween in a Taxi

Did I mention I'm going to Europe?  Work-related.  Teaching-related, to be precise.  Last year's trip was incredibly labor-intensive.  But still, I look forward to it because it was also incredibly rewarding.  I teach a week-long class (3hrs/day) in my area of specialization, mostly to students from developing countries and particularly war-torn areas.  Many will work for NGOs in their home countries when they finish.

So I leave this afternoon.  The worst part is that I will miss Halloween with my kids.  I will be traveling from the airport to my hotel during the height of Halloween hour for kids in Europe, so I doubt I'll get to experience Halloween at all!

My kids were bummed at first, but seem to have adjusted--in large part because they've already had several Halloween events in the last few days that I accompanied them to, including at school. 

Speaking of Halloween at school...why was I one of the few parents of my son's class to bring food for the class party, to help set up, and then to clean up?  I, who have a full-time job and am leaving for Europe the following day? 

My Lil' Ol' Professor Heart, Broken

I'm reflecting on students who've broken my lil' ol' professor heart.  They have all been women.

One of my thesis advisees got into Michigan Law School, just like her fiancé.  Hurray!  They could be together pursuing the career of their dreams in the school of their dreams!   But wait--you've accepted an offer from a near-by law school that I've never even heard of? 

Yes.  You see, they didn't both want to be burdened by the student loans.  So she took a scholarship at a minor law school.  And he ... didn't.

Then there was the genius thesis advisee, who was so good, I hired her as my research assistant.  She got accepted to Harvard Law!  Hurray!  But .... Oh! Too bad! Your fiancé did not get accepted to Harvard grad school--or even any school near Harvard? 

With her LSATs and GPA, she had her pick of law schools, so she went to the law school at the school he did get in to.  Not a bad law school, but not, not, NOT Harvard.

Now on to the grad student I had at my old university.  I was her MA thesis adviser, and I wrote her many, many letters of recommendation for fellowships.  I wrote her a really over-the-top  letter that got her into a Ph.D. program.  Weird coincidence--I took a job at her new university the following year.  She was now in a different discipline, but her new adviser and all the other professors were also over-the-top about her. 

But then--oh wow, your fiancé got a great contract job in Africa?  Yeah, you should take a semester off and travel with him while he's there.  You could write up your dissertation proposal at the same time!  "Great idea!"   Oh, but where is that proposal?  Oh congratulations, you've gotten married!  Oh happy days, you're pregnant.  Here's a present for baby.  Sooooo cute!  By the way, I think that starting a new outdoor recreation business with your husband in that remote part of that far-away state sounds....interesting.  Yeah, that's it.  And it doesn't sound at all like a dissertation.

There have been many more.  But these are the ones nearest to the surface. 

My most successful grad student?  A man, a great guy.  He wrote fast, not always carefully, not consistently with great depth of analysis.  But he got 'er done!  Then he boldly approached publishers and got a book contract!  He did not hesitate, did not worry it to death, making those final corrections so it would be just absolutely, positively perfect.  Rejections did not phase him--he pushed on!  AND he has a great wife with a mobile job perfectly suited (through perfect planning based upon absolute career self-abnegation) to move where he needs to go.

I think he's great.  I'm very happy for him. 

But is there a trend here?  In such cases, feminism for me is not about condemning individual women for the choices they make.  Rather, it is about looking critically at the processes that produce relatively more male PhDs, more male tenured professors, more highly paid male lawyers, etc.

But it is the individual women that break my professor heart.

No room for academic visitors

I had coffee today with an associate professor who is in my discipline at another university several states away.  She is on leave and living in the area because her partner (nonacademic) got a job in our big nearby city earlier this year.  And they have a preschooler.  Yikes!

She is an amazing academic.  One of my colleagues actually uses her book in his class.  I would LOVE to have her in my department.  But visiting professorship opportunities have dried up with the recession here.  Knowing this, she is ready to consider stringing together several lecture positions.  Each of those pays less than $5k, no benefits. 

That must be quite a cut in pay.  

I'm trying to get my director to think outside the box for once.  There's got to be something.

Another effect of the recession--one of the schools at my university looks like it is going to be cut.  No guarantees that the untenured faculty will keep their jobs.  Tenured faculty are going to be housed elsewhere in the university. 

My small department had one professor from that school with us for 3-4 years on a temporary basis.  Now it looks like she might want to come back to us once her school dissolves.  Small problem--she is crazy.  No really. I mean it.  One faculty (a "distinguished professor" who is indeed quite famous in the discipline) would demand to be relocated out of the department.  And the rest of us would just be miserable.

What the dog will and won't do

Our dog has become afraid of stairs.  Only outdoor stairs and only on the way up, thankfully.  But still, what a pain.  If we let her out to go pee, she can go down the back stairs, but then stands at the bottom and barks until we let her in a different door.  Weird. 

She ate a $20 bill the other day.  Grabbed it right off the counter.  She's only 7 months old, so we cut her a break.  My mom's dog, at that age, ate the back seat of her car.

Lately she has been grabbing things that she is not supposed to have so that we'll chase her.  Whenever I find her chewing on something, I grab her head, open her mouth and shake it until whatever she has falls out.

Last week, a dead mouse fell out.  It was dark. I couldn't tell what it was, so I picked up for closer look.

My daughter said, nonchalantly, "Oh yeah.  Me and [babysitter] saw that earlier today.  The cat caught killed it and left it in the living room."  I guess cleaning up dead rodents is not really part of babysitter's job.  But from now on, I hope she'll point out the carcasses to me.

And let's give a round of applause for the cat--she's 15 and still killing!  She earns her keep.

I get a move on!

I've moved forward on a couple things that I've been procrastinating on.  And I feel better.

I think I'm going to agree to do the summer online course that I discussed in an earlier post.  The money is hard to pass up.  Plus, I'll get some good training on new teaching technology, which should really help out with courses in general.  There is a lot I'd like to learn about podcasts and video and running online discussions, etc. I haven't been able to find the time to seek out the training.  So the pay will be a really good incentive to finally do it.  I'll be interested to see if I hate online teaching or like it.  Could go either way.

I also finally responded to a journal editor about a paper I submitted. I got a "revise and resubmit" on it, but the editor stressed that it needs substantial revision. I wasn't surprised about that part.  And one of the reviewers wrote about 5 pages single space of comments--they were critical but encouraging and very, very thoughtful.  The other review, however, was a bit dismissive, plus unfamiliar with the methodology I was employing, plus displaying some political prejudice. 

I was having a lot of trouble figuring out how to respond to that reviewer, and the editor had given absolutely NO guidance.  Editors have always written their own summaries detailing which comments to focus on--and thus which I could more safely ignore.  This is standard in my field.  But this is a guest editor of a (top) interdisciplinary journal.  Regardless of why he didn't provide his own response to the reviews, I've now written him asking for some guidance.  I don't really like being assertive like this, but I feel a lot better now that I sent this off.  I was polite.  And the worst that can happen is that he gives me a response that helps me decide to not bother with him anymore and go elsewhere.  Hmphf.

I also spent a lot of time not having my calls answered today.  No one answered the phone at my kids' school, which is disturbing  And then I spent 15 minutes on hold plus many more calls to my daughter's doctor.  Finally, I wrote the dr. an email over the healthcare provider email site, asking some questions and then saying, by the way, no one is answering, please have someone call me so I can schedule an apptmt.  Two different people called me back within 10 minutes!  Now I know.

Professor-The Last Good Job in America?

"Our Dear Leader" at my university gave a special talk this week.  Faculty received so many notices and reminders about it that many of us thought he was going to have some major announcement, akin to the recent bomb dropped at SUNY Albany on the languages (except Spanish), classics, and theater.

It was scheduled to be 90 minutes. I arrived for the last 30 minutes.  But it had already ended, and everyone still milling around had suits on and nice buttons with the university seal in their lapels--in other words, administrators.  Faculty had bolted.  I took that as a very good sign, and I was right. Turns out nothing new at all was said.  Thank goodness!

But I still feel embattled as a professor, with a job that could just disappear "poof" into thin air.  Ironic, given that many think tenured professor is the last secure job around.  A personal finance magazine came to my area to have a workshop on the new economy, and one of the financial experts quipped, "Well, if you're a tenured professor up at [my university] you have job security, but the rest of us...."

Ha ha, very funny.  I just don't believe in job security through tenure anymore.  And when a professor loses his or her job, they must move to a new job in a new city/state (if they can find a new job).  I do not want to move--I dread that more than losing my job.  I can envision not being a professor, but I cannot envision moving from this area.

Inside Higher Ed has an interesting interview with Ellen Schrecker (author of The Lost Soul of Higher Education) out today.  Schrecker notes: "Professors are getting a bad rap these days.... After all, a full-time tenured position in a college or university is, as many observers have noted, the last good job in America. No wonder, therefore, that ordinary citizens, who currently face so much economic uncertainty, resent the security and autonomy that tenured professors enjoy."  She notes that many of the people teaching in higher ed are instructors or even lecturers stringing together 5 classes at 3 different area colleges.  Also noted is the importance of academic freedom!

Refreshingly, she argues that tenure "attracts talented people into the academy and protects its quality. The security that tenure provides makes up for the economic disadvantages of the academic profession, whose members, faculty stars excepted, rarely make as much money as other similarly educated professionals. At the same time, the rigorous process through which they are hired and achieve tenure ensures that the men and women who staff the nation’s faculties are competent, experienced individuals who deserve a lot more respect than they have been getting these days."

Exactly!  THANK you!  As I wrote in an earlier post, in my discipline, failure in academia can be rather lucrative--as the other options available to us pay better.  And about the respect that we deserve--Stanley Fish in NYT calls upon us to refuse "to allow myths (about lazy, pampered faculty who work two hours a week and undermine religion and the American way) to go unchallenged."

First, I insist that the "American way" fundamentally involves questioning authority--an impulse upon which the country was founded.  Universities with academic freedom through the tenure system help keep it that way.  What could be more patriotic!

Second, I work way too much.  I was at a campus meeting for "mid-career" faculty.  Most of us there were yearning for a better "work-life balance."  Lazy?  Pampered? We are own most demanding taskmasters.  As one faculty stated, "we choose the stick with which we beat ourselves."  A politician here has been calling for faculty to teach 5 classes a semester!  Teaching more would force me to be a worse teacher or give up research--and I hate both ideas.

So in response to Stanley Fish's call to action, maybe we all need to start tracking systematically how we spend our time.  That politician might be surprised to find out that I wake up at 6AM to write or prep for class.  And I do the same 9:45-11pm.  And in between those hours, I teach, go to meetings, respond to endless work-related emails, and stress out about university budget cuts.

But I'm not sure I have the time to systematically track my time....