Good eats?

PermaU students complain All. The. Time. about the cafeteria food.

My college cafeteria had terrible food. Like, unrecognizable gruel-type food. So I'm not the most sympathetic when my students complain about PermaU's cafeteria fares.

But even my food experiences don't compare to that of Mrs. Q, blogger of all that is elementary/middle school lunch eats. Enjoy this except of one of her "favorite" entrees, pizza:

The cheese looks shellacked and shiny. And the "pepperoni" is in little squares.

"Shellacked" pizza? Me thinks my undergrads should stop complaining about their under-stocked salad bar or "only" six choices of soda pop.

D/F/W rates

At PermaU there is quite a bit of pressure in regards to D/F/withdrawal rates. In my department, the DFW rate is about 30% (so 30% of a class gets a D, F, or withdraws by the end of the term). When a class doesn't meet this number, eyebrows are raised. Is the professor too easy? It couldn't possibly be that the class was just better than average, right?

I maintain my standards from semester to semester. I do not believe in curving. The first exam average was an 80% (B-). The latest exam had an average of a 75% (C). These are, in my opinion, fairly high. Despite this, my DFW rate right now is right at 25%. With still another half of the semester to go, this percentage will likely go up. So this semester, I would guess I am on track for a 35-40% DFW rate.

My department maintains that the national DFW rate is between 50 and 60%. I find this insanely high, but it is likely that I am just out of touch. Could it be that the DFW rate really is that high in the sciences? Do you feel pressure to keep a certain average in your classes?

The Office: Conquering the Chaos

I work in fear that I will one day be That Professor.

You know, the one with the disgusting office.


Right now, I wouldn't characterize my office as disgusting. No, I would say that it is cluttered.

I am very good at micro-organizing. My computer files are perfectly organized, with each lecture in the proper class folder and every journal pdf sorted into various research topic folders. My class binders have copies of handouts, lecture notes, and exam keys all ordered lecture date. My tenure file has appropriate slots for teaching, research, and service, and every even slightly relevant piece of paper or information gets hole-punched and place in the proper place (I can cut stuff out later).

But I really suck at macro-organizing. I have only one system for organizing all the papers, quizzes, and lab reports that get turned in each week: piles. Historically, if I don't see something, it gets forgotten, so as a result, I have anywhere from five to a dozen "active" piles on my desk surface each week.

I don't think it looks terribly professional, and, to be honest, the clutter drives me nuts.

Any suggestions on how to get a handle on office clutter, especially paper clutter?

The Waiting Game

All of my classes for next semester have, by the standards of PermaU, relatively long wait lists. Depending on whom I talk to, this indicates one of the following:

1. I am a good teacher, so students want to take my class.


or


2. I am too easy, so students want to take my class.


My teaching evaluations point to the former, but some of my more vocal colleagues insist that long wait lists are only because students want easy As.


So perhaps I am too easy or maybe a combo of #1 and #2. Is it common knowledge that long wait lists directly correlate with the ease of the course?

Flu policies

Well, my darlings, I got it. No, not swine flu. Regular flu. But still. This has got to be a record or something. Who gets the flu the second week of class? (Me.)

Here at PermaU, students are told not to go to class if they think they have the flu. Instead, a flu hotline has been set up for them to call in their symptoms. Tired? Achy? Sore throat? Fever? (Hmm...sounds like most freshmen after Thursday $2 shot nights). If you fit the symptoms, you are told not to go to class.

Although I appreciate that PermaU is trying to minimize the spread of flu (don't get me started about swine flu), there are a few flaws with this system. First, what ever happened to a doctor's visit? And really, how many undergrads keep a thermometer in their rooms? Of course it feels like you have a fever-- your dorm isn't air-conditioned, and it's been in the 80s!

What are your thoughts about flu minimization? Does your campus have a new flu policy? Or has your institution shut down completely because of swine flu?

Visiting Ass. Professor: Advantages (Part II)

(Part I, Teaching Advantages)

As a reminder, I went straight from grad school at LargeU to a Visiting Ass. position at TempCollege (a small, liberal arts school) to PermaU (a small, liberal arts school). They are all many miles and time zones apart.

Today I will address the research advantages (for me, for my chosen career path) to doing a Visiting Ass position.


Research

Keep in mind that most (do any?) Visiting Ass. positions do not require any research to be done. In fact, some places will downright discourage it.

You can take a break. There's no tick-tock of the tenure clock. No one expects you to do any research. You can take the nine months to regroup and recharge. I had no idea how burned out I was on 15 hour lab days until I got away from LargeU. I let two weeks pass before I even so much as clicked on an ASAP article feed. Then something unexpected happened. I started reading articles on subjects far removed from my thesis work. And most unexpectedly of all, I was actually interested in them. Not interested in a "oh, neat experiment" way but interested in a "oh, I think that could be followed up with X" or "wow, I should really try that" way.

I don't know if my situation was unusual or not, but in grad school perhaps because of lack of time or perhaps because of research snobbery (or maybe a combo of both), I just didn't typically find research outside of my project all that inspiring. Sure, I would attend (nearly) every departmental seminar, and I even frequently attended those outside of my college. I found other people's work interesting. I just didn't picture myself venturing outside of my research comfort zone. With my head clear, I was able as a Visiting Ass. to broaden my literature horizons and really think about research topics that I found interesting. My career goals did not include working at an R1 or even very tippy top PUI (and if they had, certainly I would have done a post doc!), so I knew I had the freedom to start pursuing areas in which I wasn't necessarily an expert.


You probably don't have time anyway. The reality of the first year at a primarily undergraduate institution is that you are, with only a few rare instances, doing completely new preps for classes in which there is an extremely high expectation level. (Maybe the high expectation level will only come from yourself!) Having research thrown into the mix could push you over the edge. At both TempCollege and here at PermaU, undergrads put in only a handful (as in four) hours of work a week during the academic year. Anything more is likely not going to happen; summers are for research. Would I have gotten research done at TempCollege if I absolutely had to? Probably, but certainly my teaching would have suffered.


Or maybe you DO have time! If you are so inclined, by all means do research during your Visiting Ass. time. It looks very appealing to hiring committees. It is very important to find out if your Visiting Ass. institution is open to the idea of you doing research and if they will give you any financial support. Most places will be supportive if you don't require any major purchases. Can you do projects with what they already have? Perhaps you can wrap up some data analysis from grad school? Can you run calculations while you are in the classroom?


(Stay tuned for more posts on the advantages and disadvantages of a Visiting Ass. job.)

Visiting Ass. Professor: Advantages (Part I)

Many, many people-- bloggers, readers, people that know me in the real world-- have asked about the pros and cons of a visiting position. I'm going to start a series of posts about the pros and cons. (Since I'm the eternal optimist, I'll give you some of the good first.)

Some background for the uninitiated: this past academic year, I took a Visiting Ass. Professor position at TempCollege far, far away from N.A., my significant other. N.A. was in a tenure track position several states (and time zones) away. At TempCollege, I was treated as an almost equal. The students were amazing, and I really enjoyed my classes and colleagues. I learned a lot, and my department was very supportive of my pseudo job search in the fall. All of this will certainly not be the case for many Visiting Asses, but all I have to go on is my situation.

The categories I'm going to address include: Teaching, Research, Service, Location, and Life. Probably some more will come up (can I post a Chocolate category...hmm... we'll see.)

I'm going to start with the most obvious advantage(s) to a visiting ass. position: teaching.

Teaching

You get lots of mentoring. Sure it may sometimes be unsolicited, but I learned a LOT from the little teaching gems my colleagues passed along to me. Would I have gotten the same amount of mentoring if I was tenure track instead? Probably? Maybe?

You get loads of experience. Most of us TA at some point in graduate school. Depending on the position and institution, this teaching experience can be as hard core as solo lecturing or as straightforward as simply grading. Some TA positions involve prelab lectures, but at least in the sciences, most TA positions will either be a lab assistant (supervising lab and grading) or a recitation leader (mostly Q&A sessions). Even the solo lecturers often don't have full control over a course. A visiting ass. position is usually the first time one has complete control over a class for better or worse. Which leads us to...

It is finally acceptable to focus on teaching. If your graduate experience was anything like mine, then you were surrounded by, well, R1 professors who wanted nothing more than to create/inspire/brainwash (heh heh) the next generation of R1 professors. At LargeU, I often met bewilderment when I expressed my love of teaching. "Why would you WANT to spend time prepping lectures?" queried my fellow grad students. "But-but you're so GOOD at this level of research! Why would you not go on to {brilliant professor}'s group for a post-doc!" My graduate mentors were, mostly, stumped. Imagine the relief of not having to defend your love of teaching all the time? Or try to squeeze teaching experience out of the watered down TA positions? Rather than spend 80 hours a week in lab, I (quite gladly) spent my 80 hours (sigh...) each week in the classroom, prepping, meeting with students, and grading.

You can be adventurous in the classroom. Now is the time to try out new teaching techniques. You aren't on the tenure clock, so there is no true pressure to have rock star teaching evaluations (not that you wouldn't, of course). Always wanted to use clickers? Want to try out POGIL? If your school is open to new methods, a visiting ass. position is the prime time to take a teaching risk. If you have something especially clever and/or productive, it could lead to an education paper.

You get a jump start on networking. I now have an easy "talk trade." That is, I can invite one of my TempCollege colleagues down to PermaU to give a talk and they will return the favor. Really comes in handy as tenure approaches. It pays to take advantage of nearby colleges and universities while at a visiting position. Meet the other profs in your field. Join the local branches of your discipline's national organization. Attend regional meetings.

You have little (if any) power outside the classroom. (Note: this is a point, as you might imagine, that will come up on several other advantages AND disadvantages lists.) In terms of teaching, the best thing about having no power is that you can invoke said absence of influence to shoo away especially persistent salespeople or book buyers.

A question for the masses: need a doctor?

I've previously blogged about my preference for being called Dr. Reaction by students. At TempCollege, my colleagues always referred to me as "Dr" in front of students. I automatically returned the favor without even thinking about it. Student in a conversation with Coworker #1 and myself? "So, Undergrad, as Dr. #1 and I were just saying...." Student proceeds down the hall? "So, Coworker, where were we?"

Here at PermaU, I am frequently referred to by new coworkers by my first name in front of students. It is starting to bother me because 1. I might have some of these summer students in the fall and 2. it isn't what I am used to. (And you all know how much I love change).


Of course, you should also bear in mind that:

- I am (by nature) a very tightly-wound, uptight person
- I have gotten so accustomed to being referred to by title and last name that I barely respond to my first name
- It *is* the summer, so I think things by nature are more relaxed
- I have no idea if this is the norm or not


But it has gotten me thinking: while I of course expect students to refer to me by Dr., does it really matter if I am talked about in conversations with them by my first name? While it is the way I was "academically raised," do students even notice?

I've arrived?

Well, after driving through many, many states and a time zone or two, I've finally arrived in my new (permanent?) state. I've started my new (permanent?) faculty position at my new (permanent?) university. And now I will now forever jinx my two-body solution and call this new place PermaU.

With the switch to PermaU comes an even bigger change in my life: N.A. and I are officially living together. One lease, one place.

We've both had to abandon our bachelor lifestyles. For me, this means no more meals of snickers and crackers. N.A. has started accepting that boxes are not furniture. N.A. has had to adjust to a morning carpool schedule, while I have to stop going to bed at 2 am.

Laundry is done every few days (as opposed to a five load marathon every three weeks). I can't let dishes pile up until I run out of spoons. (I mean....um...yeah, I never did that.) Toilet seats are put down. Closets are shared.


Hmmm....what other lifestyle adjustments will we have to make?