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October 10, 2011, 10:05 AM ET

I'm So Glad To Be Here (For a While, Anyway)

Once the job search is over and the hire has arrived at campus, everyone is always relieved to see the new colleague begin to plug in to the life of the community. Nothing says "personal investment" like the purchase of a house, volunteering in community organizations, and, of course, diving in to the hard work of teaching/service/scholarship. Then again, there are some hires who seem to drag their feet on putting down roots. By the middle of the first year, it's becoming clear that they are continuing to network for another job. I have heard a chief academic officer say that she's wary of new faculty who haven't bought a house in the first two years of employment, as they may be planning to jump ship. I've likewise heard a dean indicate that cell-phone numbers that haven't been updated to the local area code are indicative of itchy feet (though this observation certainly holds less... Read More
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October 6, 2011, 01:50 PM ET

Facing My Fears

I'm thinking of applying for a tenure-track position. I've been adjunct for 10 years and have been quite satisfied. But I made the cardinal mistake of looking at job listings recently, and now I can't get one out of my mind. It is the perfect job for me, with my qualifications and experience. It wouldn't entail moving, though it isn't at my current institution. The department is one that I could be a positive part of. So what's the problem you say? The thing is, I'm terrified. I've gotten comfortable where I am. I'm good at my job, know where I fit in, and even know the avenues available to push myself a bit. I'm scared to death of facing a hiring committee. I'm scared of being the low woman on the totem pole, botching the acronyms at an important meeting. I'm not sure what I'll do. Being scared can be a good thing; most positive experiences have a little risk involved. There's... Read More

October 5, 2011, 02:01 PM ET

Hitting 'Send'

I just couldn't hit the "Send" button. I had done everything right, but there was something about the gravity of that moment. I just couldn't do it, so I saved the e-mail as a draft and moved on to other things. When I was hired on as a tenure-track faculty member, I inherited co-adviser duties for Richard Bland College's small art and literary publication, Mnemosyne. The e-mail was my first real action as co-adviser. The e-mail was simple enough, announcing an interest meeting for Mnemosyne. We need to build student interest in the literary side of the publication. I had talked to my co-adviser and to some students. We had brainstormed some ways to improve the publication and we discussed things to do at this first meeting. I even had a draft of an agenda for the meeting. I wrote the e-mail and addressed it to all faculty and students. Hitting "Send" would not only announce a meeting,... Read More

October 3, 2011, 12:37 PM ET

Making the Most of Professional Conferences

The somewhat tired, but still quite true, “It’s not who you know, but who knows you” maxim is something to keep in mind as the professional conference season starts to heat up. Do you have plans to attend a meeting this year? Will you be strategic about how you spend your energy when you are there? How will you use the time to strengthen your professional reputation and position yourself for new opportunities? Here are a few tips to consider. Review the attendee list in advance. Target three or more people whose work fascinates you or who might help you extend your network. Introduce yourself or ask a mutual colleague to help you make connections. Don’t be coy when you make the successful encounter. Even the most accomplished people will be pleased to hear, “I’ve been following your research for years,” or “I always enjoy your presentations and am so pleased to finally... Read More

September 29, 2011, 11:06 AM ET

So Long, 'Community Colleges'?

Several years ago, I began noticing that a number of two-year colleges around the country were dropping the word "community" from their name, the most notable perhaps being Miami-Dade. (My own institution was once known as DeKalb Community College, although I didn't work here at the time). That observation made me wonder if, for some, the term "community college" had taken on a negative connotation, just as "junior college" did back in the '60s and '70s. Now I see that it may not be just the terminology that has fallen out of fashion, but the very fact of being a two-year college. In several states -- including my own and neighboring Florida -- two-year colleges are rushing to add bachelor's degree programs and, thus, become, on a small scale at least, four-year institutions. Again, I have to place my own college squarely on that list. In our case the decision to offer a couple of... Read More

September 28, 2011, 12:50 PM ET

When, and How, To Speak Up?

Let’s say a new hire is made on campus in an area other than yours and the announcement is made in a campus-wide e-mail. You are mildly interested in the appointment because, well, a university is a learning community and you want to know the other people in the community. The announcement includes only a brief biography, so you decide to plug the new hire’s name into a search engine and you are shocked to find that the results include many unsavory hits. Not petty issues, mind you, but substantial issues that should have informed the search committee if it had performed due diligence in the search. The person, however, has been hired and is now happily working on campus. The risks in pointing out these issues will vary depending on the position the person holds relative to the position that you hold. If it’s an entry-level person and you are an administrator of some rank, the... Read More

September 27, 2011, 10:50 AM ET

Stop Buzzing in My Ears

From time to time, local companies and nonprofits ask me to serve on their interview committees, and when my schedule permits I am always happy to do that. It's a wonderful opportunity to learn more about what's happening in the community, and I'm a pretty good judge of character, so the experience is usually a "win-win" for everyone. I use the phrase "win-win" in a most tongue-in-cheek manner because I cannot stand the phrase "win-win." When a recent interviewee used that phrase and "synergy,” “best of breed," "new normal,” “next generation,” and “game changer,” all within his introductory remarks, I wanted to interrupt with, “Sir, we will be together for another 50 minutes or so. Could we ask you to talk like a real person for the remainder of the hour?” When the candidate concluded his interview by stressing that he was a "people-oriented team player” -- a relief... Read More

September 23, 2011, 02:14 PM ET

Timing is Everything

It's the time of year during which we (along with everyone else in academe who's doing a search) decide what kind of schedule we want our searches to follow. There are both strategic and logistical aspects of this decision: When is the best time for us to advertise, interview, and offer in order to be most competitive in the market? And, how can we fit these searches together across the academic year so that it's possible to do all of them efficiently and courteously for our candidates and our own faculty and staff? Some disciplines pretty much fix the timetable. I'm thinking here of the major conferences that have a large interviewing/hiring component, such as the Modern Language Association, the American Historical Association, and the College Art Association. Because many programs conduct preliminary interviews at these conventions, it's difficult to do a search before they occur... Read More

September 22, 2011, 10:36 AM ET

The Downside of Experience

As an advice columnist, I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of the fact that I’ve been teaching and administrating for so long (26 years and counting). Yet there is a definite drawback to all those years of experience: they have also been years of my life. In other words, I’m getting old. Well, not old, but definitely middle aged, and although healthy, active, and relatively fit, I still sometimes feel the effects of the years when I step inside the classroom. For one thing, my memory isn’t what it used to be. I’m not talking about remembering students’ names. I’ve never been very good at that, perhaps my greatest failing as a teacher. But I’m working on it and actually getting better. Nor am I talking about remembering what I’ve read or things that I’ve learned. I can still recite poems I memorized as an undergraduate. But there are times when I lose track of... Read More

September 21, 2011, 09:47 AM ET

'A' New Adjunct Movement

If you see a red “A” on a colleague’s door, it probably doesn’t mean “Adultery.” The “A” is for “Adjunct.” I first heard of this movement from Katherine Burke, a part-time instructor in the School of Theatre and Dance at Kent State University, who posted the idea on the Con Job: Stories of Adjunct and Contingent Faculty Facebook page. She didn’t come up with the idea originally, she says, but she is committed to raising awareness, especially among students. You can see a photo of Burke’s “A” at her blog. A red “A” signifies that you are an adjunct, some other contingent faculty member, or that you sympathize with contingent faculty members. The idea is to signify some level of unification and to spread awareness. Imagine if a student sees more and more red letters on faculty doors. The student may even see a room full of letters, or letters mysteriously ... Read More