The role of gender in tenure

What would you do if someone in your department told you that you were going to get tenure because you are a woman?

What if they told you that your tenure packet was going to be reviewed less rigorously than a male colleague's?

Would it matter as much if the person saying this was outside of your department? What about at a different school? Or a spouse of a colleague?

Is my course prep normal?

When I started teaching, it took me four to six hours to prep a brand new lecture. Intro or not. No one told me if this was reasonable, but then again, I certainly didn't ask. I was exceptionally embarrassed by the sheer amount of time I spent before each 60 minute lecture.

I've since taught my intro class several times, but I still spend between 60-90 minutes on prep. Mostly I have ppt slides already prepared from previous years, but I still work out example problems for board work. I also usually need to make minor changes to slides for various reasons (new idea, new problems book, etc.) My upper level classes typically take three to five hours to prep. Still. Good grief.

My last post was a poll that inquired about your lecture prep time. Many of you clarified in the comments section about the different time requirements of different types of class preparations. Thank goodness for the clarifications, especially since my sweet CPP declared that the "poll makes no sense." (Love ya, CPPy! Is baseball season over yet?)

Many of you, I'm sure are faster at class prep. (I'm looking at you, GMP and Dr. Pion! And thanks for your enlightening posts!)

I want to work with JaneB! Care to join me, Namnezia and pika? JaneB wrote,

"My department has a workload model. It assumes 6 hours of prep time per new classroom hour and 2 hours per old (i.e. repeated) classroom hour, which is a general average across the whole (highly interdisciplinary) department."

That's pretty darn close to my current course prep times. Maybe I should think about relocating?

Question for you: how much do you prep?

Research with students

As many of you know, I am at a primarily undergraduate institution. I do all of my research with undergraduates.

While I have always assumed that the last statement goes without saying, I've recently learned that some of my peers do their research WITHOUT students.

Is this okay? Is it field dependent?

I always thought that it went without saying that the PI should, no matter what the classification of the school (or discipline, for that matter), do research with her students. Heck, even as a grad student I worked with undergrads.

So please tell me: is it okay or absurd to do research without students?

Friday fill in the blanks: my week was like...

The one word that best describes my week is _______________.

The one word that best describes my week is OVERWHELMING.

Reality TV mirrors a committee meeting!

I'm on a committee this year that is tasked with implementing a very, very big change for the entire college. There are lots of...um....strong personalities on this committee.

As a junior faculty member, I constantly hear "be seen but not heard!" The way this committee is set up, however, requires that I participate. The trouble is that there is this one committee member (who happens to be male) who is loud, opinionated, and somehow always gets his way. You might even call him a bully.

Man, do I need to borrow Tim Gunn for a day (or at least a morning).

How do you get your voice heard (so to speak) during committee work? Should The Untenured (dum dum DU-UUUUM!) be a silent group, or do you expect your junior faculty to voice their opinions?

Do you labor on Labor Day?

Those of us who don't have classes today get to choose whether or not to go into work. (right?)

I worked about a half day. I got some orders submitted, caught up on lecture notes, finished some grading, and fired off a dozen emails.

Do you take Labor Day off? Or do you view this as an opportunity for a catch-up, free parking day?

Yes, please assume I'm PMSing

The other day, I was talking with another colleague about the way that students perceive male vs. female professors. I stated that our male colleagues could simply get away with "more" in the classroom, without repercussions-- or even a reaction-- from their students. I gave the example of a male assistant prof in a nearby department who is know for his rants in the classroom. "I couldn't get away with that," I claimed. "Sure, I've spoken sternly to my class before, but if I full-on yelled at them, students wouldn't view it as 'oh, that's just Dr. R's way', like they do with X."

A student had been milling around in the hall. She piped up, "Yeah, your class would just think you were PMSing or on your period."

Holy crap.

I suppose people really do think/say stuff like this. I just haven't encountered such sentiments.... at least not to my face.

Am I just lucky (or maybe just naive)? Forget about my students. Are my male COLLEAGUES wondering if an occasional outburst is due to my monthly cycle? I mean, isn't this thinking terribly outdated....not to mention immature?

Friday Fill in the blanks: why do you blog?

The reason I blog is _________________.

The reason I blog is for the fame and popularity, clearly.*

*This post is in reference to a post up over at Dr. Girlfriend's place. In the side bar, you can vote for why YOU blog. Among the choices include "sharing your experience," "venting," and, my personal favorite, "fame and popularity." Please click on over to vote!