My Year Away: World Cruise Edition.

First, I went on Sabbatical. Then I Retired. And, now I'm on my first Cruise Around the World!

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When the One Speaks For the Many (and other oddities about faculty governance)

As I plan My Year Away, it also means that I get to observe the process of sorting out whom to hire to replace me. In order for me to go on sabbatical, we have to have a new administrator at the helm.

This has caused me to remember some of the interviews I went on as I explored other administrative positions. I’ve been struck anew about the similarities of administrative job talks. Typically candidates meet with faculty, staff, search committee members, etc., all so the academic unit can weigh in on candidates’ strengths and weaknesses. The candidates also almost always present a “vision for the future.”

Here’s where the sticky wicket begins.

Be too proscriptive (“If I come, here is what I’ll do,”) and the faculty will shoot you down for “not listening,” not “respecting faculty governance,” having too heavy a hand, you name it. But, be too tentative (“I would need to get to know the unit before I could say for sure”) and the candidate is viewed as a wimp.

What to do? What to do?

Sometime during the talk, faculty governance inevitably comes up. The candidate will wax poetic about how he believes in faculty governance, how he reaches for consensus, how he wants to hear from everyone.

And then, here’s what happens. A faculty member will pipe up about a very specific idea. It’s well thought out because, well, the faculty member has been thinking about this idea for a very long time. The faculty member wants to make sure that the idea is in the ethos because he wants the potential new administrator to know what the faculty thinks is important.

Except it’s not the faculty’s idea. It’s one faculty member’s idea. Other faculty members have other ideas. Obviously they think their idea is brilliant because, well, it’s their idea so how could it not be?

Higher education attracts all sorts of people, but a common element among them all tends to be that they are individualistic and like to work independently. (Admittedly, it’s something I, too, love about the academy.) How can anyone build consensus in that environment? Too often “consensus” leads to “lowest common denominator”—not too exhilarating.

So here’s what I think. Forget consensus. Rather, seek vigorous debate. Faculty governance really means “shared governance.” It doesn’t mean everyone has to agree on a direction—or even that the faculty have to “approve” every decision in the academy. It does mean faculty have to be involved in many (but not all) decisions that occur on our campuses.

As I get closer to the start of my sabbatical, I’m already realizing that I am ready for a true breather from all the babble and gaggle of faculty governance. But, truth be told, I will also miss the vigorous debate. I’m going to try (really, I am!) to remember that when I return to work as a “regular” faculty member, I don’t have to push my personal agenda. I don’t have to weigh in on every single event in my academic unit. I will let the new leader lead.


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Are Professors Lazy?

I’m a professor, so, of course, I’m going to answer this question with an unequivocal  “NO!”

Oh, okay, I’ll acquiesce; yes, some are lazy.  Years ago, at a previous university, I asked a colleague why Professor X wouldn’t retire.  In my mind, he was adding nothing to the school—and he was sucking down a humongous endowed professorship salary.  My colleague’s answer:  “Oh, he has retired.  He just didn’t bother to tell anyone.” I’m sure you can add all sorts of your own stories to the fodder.

Politicians love to pile it on about the cushy jobs we professors enjoy.  They like to point out that, after all, we are only working about nine hours a week.  (Here’s how they calculate the work week: a professor only works during the time she is teaching, typically three hours per class.)  They are apoplectic with the thought that research-extensive universities require even fewer than nine teaching hours.   Lots of people have written about this issue.  Here’s a particularly well-written post from The Accidental Mathematician that you might find helpful.  http://ilaba.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/teaching-load-itemized-part-1/

I’ve read a lot of commentary bemoaning how we lazy professors make the plight of contingent faculty (adjuncts) even worse.   What’s happening with adjuncts is certainly worth discussing, but for this post, I want to bring up a topic that is not discussed as much as it should be.

With the numbers of tenure-track/tenured faculty diminishing on campuses across the country, who will take up the burden of faculty governance and other service obligations?  Here is just a smattering of things that tenure-track faculty do:

1.     Sit on committees.  In the school I lead our committees include curriculum, technology, diversity, policies and procedures, petitions and other ad hoc assignments.  Faculty governance takes time (and tons of meetings) and I am constantly amazed at the professors who do the work happily.  Most of my faculty are on more than one committee at the school level.  Many are on several committees at the university level.

2.     Serve on search committees.  Sure, you get to take the faculty candidate out for a nice dinner, but you also have to slog through untold numbers of application packets, call references, set up meetings.  In our school, over the past six years, we have had searches every year.   This year, for example, we are searching for three new assistant professors.  That means we’re bringing in at least nine candidates.  You do the math.

3.     Review tenure and promotion dossiers for faculty around the country.  Once you get tenure, you, start getting asked to do this and, if you’re any good, it doesn’t stop.  I review several each year and believe me, it takes hours.

4.     Review manuscripts for journals.  Again, this takes hours.  Manuscripts have to be blind reviewed if they are going to be considered quality and to do that, it takes faculty who are willing to help out.

In addition to these service requirements (the above is just a beginning list of all the tasks faculty perform), we spend inordinate amounts of time working on our own research.  We have to think about research, look at previous research, collect data, analyze data, write up the results, submit research, revise research, resubmit research, and then wait (sometimes for more than a year!), before we finally learn the fate of our manuscripts.

A lot of work that professors do takes place “off camera.”  We’re in the library, or in the basement of an archive, or out on the road conducting focus groups, or at home crunching data.  We’re in coffee shops grading mountains of papers, we’re in other cities networking and presenting papers (often on our own dimes), we’re behind closed doors reading books we might use in our classes.

One of the aspects of the academy that I love most is the flexibility the job provides.  But people should not equate flexibility with laziness.  Just because I don’t want to punch in at 9 and punch out at 5 (or 6 or 7 or 8) doesn’t mean I’m lazy.

Of course, not all professors work as hard as they should.  If this happens early in their careers, they might not get tenure.  If it happens post tenure, they might not get promoted.  Some professors don’t care one way or the other.

But, many of them do care.  As I prepare for My Year Away, I want to make sure that I remain a diligent professor.  While I am planning to relax some during my sabbatical (for example, I’m contemplating a one-month road trip from SC to New York to Montreal to Mackinac Island to Spooner, WI, to Chicago to Murray, KY to home), I’m mostly planning to read, think, and write—and prepare for the years ahead.

I’m going to take the time to make the transition from administrator to regular faculty member.  A regular, hard-working, productive faculty member.  Bring it on!


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For Something Fun in the New Year, Take a MOOC

We professors tend to yap our fool heads off about any number of things.  Everyone’s an expert!  In journalism education circles, this seems particularly true when it comes to technology.

In higher education, there is a lot of buzz about the pros and cons of massively open online courses.  Everyone seems to have an opinion—even if they have absolutely no idea how MOOCs work.  (I just read an article published in an alumni magazine, for example, that argued a MOOC is bad because it isn’t as good as a 16-student seminar.)  So, as I’ve been planning My Year Away, I decided I will need to experience a MOOC for myself.  But, turns out that I got too curious and didn’t want to wait until my sabbatical began.

I’m pleased to report that I just completed my first MOOC (successfully, no less!), a statistics class from Professor Andy Conway at Princeton University.  My analysis? I loved it!  It was challenging, fun, and a lot of work (I typically put in 10 hours/week on it.)

But here’s what surprised me most of all.  It felt like a real class.  Even though 100,000 students from around the world were my classmates (I have no idea how many dropped it, but according to the research, probably about 95,000), it felt like a real class.  I stressed out over the assignments, I had to ask fellow students for help, I got behind at times.  And perhaps what surprised me most of all was how intimate the whole experience felt.

I walked away from the class with a completely different attitude about distributed education models.  I was skeptical—and now I’m intrigued.

Recently, a number of people have written about the disappointing realization that over 80% of the people who sign up for MOOCs already have a college degree.  Apparently, many people have decided that MOOCs should be for the financially disadvantaged only—as a way to get a college education that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to achieve. (I’m not sure where Bill Gates falls into this since he is a college drop out, but clearly brilliant; Gates says that he has taken several MOOCs.)  Some argue that because most MOOC students have a college degree already, MOOCs are a bust.

In my statistics class (if the comments on the forum were representative) then this class, too, was filled with college graduates—many with multiple graduate degrees.  But, I don’t think this makes the grand MOOC experiment a failure.  What this class has done for me (besides helping me brush up on my statistics) includes giving me:

1.     A greater appreciation for distributed education models.  I used to think face-to-face was always the best way to share knowledge.  Now I’m thinking that variety provides an additional layer of acquiring knowledge.  I’m also looking outward from my campus more.  I’m thinking about ways we can make more of our classes available to more students in South Carolina (and maybe outside the state, too).

2.     Improved knowledge, which I have to believe, will make me a better teacher and scholar.  Ultimately, that should also benefit  my students.  I know more now than I did 12 weeks ago.  And I realize that I can do more to increase my knowledge–within in my own field, but also outside my typical scholarly boundaries.

3.     Compassion for those who struggle with minimal technical access.  My forum stats colleagues inspired me as I read about some of their struggles—and determination to succeed even though they lived in locations with sporadic internet connections and only had access to computers that were generations older than mine.

I love the idea that MOOCs could help students earn an undergraduate degree.  But until a demand grows for more MOOC courses like English 101, Algebra, Introductory to Rhetoric, etc. rather than the seriously cool courses that are currently available, it’s not going to happen.   But, to me, that doesn’t mean that the MOOC experiment is a colossal failure.

Sure, we have a long way to go before MOOCs can solve any kind of world-wide education gap between high-resourced people and those with minimal resources.   But rather than pooh-pooh the whole shebang, why not get into the middle of it and see what all the scuttlebutt is about.

Take a class.  It’s stressful, but a blast.  I’m already signed up for another statistics class that starts in February, this time from a professor at Duke.  I can already tell that my brain is gearing up for a successful Year Away.  I have no idea how many students have signed up for the class that starts in February (about 160 days before My Year Away starts), but I’m sure there is room for one more.  Anybody want to join me?


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Welcome to my blog!

Welcome to my blog, My Year Away.

First, you should know that I still have 199 days until I start My Year Away.  But, I want to be ready on Day One.  This is a privilege and I don’t want to blow it.

I have been an academic for over 20 years.  After a less-than-stellar career in advertising (I was a copywriter who loved to write but always wishing I was writing something else), I decided to head to graduate school (University of Georgia) and get a PhD so I could become a college professor.

My academic trek is not unusual.  First stop:  Kansas State University, five years (loved it; not crazy about living in Kansas).  Second stop:  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, eight years (loved it; loved living in Chapel Hill; loved getting tenure).  Third stop, Middle Tennessee State University, three years (didn’t love it; learned a lot about administration).  Fourth stop, University of South Carolina, six years and counting (love it most of the time).

I’ve spent nine years as an administrator and I’m ready to go back to being a regular tenured full professor.  You can read about my decision here.  http://chronicle.com/article/Why-I-Am-Dropping-Out-of/142027/

I know I am fortunate. I mean, really, what other job allows you to quit your job, keep your job, and take a year off from your job (with a salary!) all at the same time!  I am thankful to have a wonderful academic position at a wonderful university.  I do not take it for granted.

Here’s what I’m doing during the 199 days before My Year Away.

1.     I’m trying to get more comfortable in the world of social media.  I’m getting more active, learning more, understanding more, participating more.  (Starting this blog is one concrete demonstration that I’m committed!)

2.     I’m preparing for a return to the all-steam-ahead attitude of an active researcher.  I’ve started a couple of research projects with current colleagues, former colleagues, and former graduate students.

3.     I’m trying to improve my research skills.  For example, I am in my last week of my first Coursera MOOC, a statistics class with 100,000 of my closest stats friends.  I have learned a ton—and I have totally changed my attitude about distributed learning.

4.     I’m working on my teaching.  I’m thinking about the kinds of classes I could teach in the future and taking steps now to get my head back into full-time teaching.  Next semester, in addition to the doctoral seminar that I teach, I’m taking on a one-credit new course called “Historical Milestones in Advertising History.”  And I’m teaching three independent studies on different topics with undergraduates.

I’m still working as a full-time administrator, heading up the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of South Carolina.  I have one more semester as an administrator and I plan to stay the course until June 30, 2014.

Then My Year Away begins.

I’d love to take you on the adventure with me.  For the next post, I’ll write about some things I’m thinking of doing during My Year Away.  I’m hoping for a balance of hard-core research/writing and travels/musing.  If you have ideas, let me know!

Thanks for reading.  And, welcome to My Year Away!