I have no plans to go back on the tenure track, though the option remains open. However, a new request for my dissertation to help underwrite a larger project a friend is working on has reminded me that in the future being arguably eligible for appointment with tenure to a faculty could be useful for certain administrative positions.
The tenure book is not simply the dissertation, but it is on the same subject and can readily make use of some of the same research. So I'm going to drag it out and spend some time on it and see how it goes.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
What an Interim President Can Do
Reading this article and the readers' comments at the bottom is an interesting exercise. It's about the interim president at the University of Tennessee and the difficult conversation he had with the football coach.
In the article, Jan Simek, the interim, says UT is not as good academically as UCLA, and the third comment calls for his resignation because he said this. (I'm writing this when only three comments have been posted. I bet there will be more along the same line, perhaps in other places.)
One of the most useful things an interim president can do is make people angry about issues they need to be motivated about.
Simek has said in advance that he's leaving office when the interim period is over and will not be a candidate for the permanent presidency, so he can say things like this and stir things up. He can be a heat sink for the anger, and take it away when he leaves office.
There is a chance that he will then leave a little more truth -- possibly painful truth -- out in the open where people can see it and do something about it.
In the article, Jan Simek, the interim, says UT is not as good academically as UCLA, and the third comment calls for his resignation because he said this. (I'm writing this when only three comments have been posted. I bet there will be more along the same line, perhaps in other places.)
One of the most useful things an interim president can do is make people angry about issues they need to be motivated about.
Simek has said in advance that he's leaving office when the interim period is over and will not be a candidate for the permanent presidency, so he can say things like this and stir things up. He can be a heat sink for the anger, and take it away when he leaves office.
There is a chance that he will then leave a little more truth -- possibly painful truth -- out in the open where people can see it and do something about it.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Thelin's History of American Higher Education
I've just begun reading John R. Thelin's History of American Higher Education, which has been on the shelf for a couple of years. I'm looking forward to it.
My first thought is merely personal: it is a bit surreal to read in a book with "history of" in the title about an event I followed as current news in the local paper. I was a Ph.D. student at Princeton Seminary when the University fought it out with Trenton State College over the use of the name "College of New Jersey." (Princeton conceded after a while.)
Thelin tells the story as an illustration of the important point that history matters, though not straightforwardly. Institutions construct and argue over their histories.
At our shop, we've just made a point of adding "1837," the year of the founding, to our logo. This was actually my idea, inspired by the boss's decision some time back to put it on his business card. Now, having read Thelin's introductory discussion of how the construction of institutional history can work, I feel rather sheepish about it.
However, for us who do most of our work in a building constructed in the 1980s, the fact that this is one of the oldest institutions of its kind in the country is reassuring and at least feels important.
That, of course, is part of Thelin's point.
My first thought is merely personal: it is a bit surreal to read in a book with "history of" in the title about an event I followed as current news in the local paper. I was a Ph.D. student at Princeton Seminary when the University fought it out with Trenton State College over the use of the name "College of New Jersey." (Princeton conceded after a while.)
Thelin tells the story as an illustration of the important point that history matters, though not straightforwardly. Institutions construct and argue over their histories.
At our shop, we've just made a point of adding "1837," the year of the founding, to our logo. This was actually my idea, inspired by the boss's decision some time back to put it on his business card. Now, having read Thelin's introductory discussion of how the construction of institutional history can work, I feel rather sheepish about it.
However, for us who do most of our work in a building constructed in the 1980s, the fact that this is one of the oldest institutions of its kind in the country is reassuring and at least feels important.
That, of course, is part of Thelin's point.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
The best candidate is not an early applicant.
Applications that come in for a college presidency before the job has been advertised should go in the round file. They are likely to come from people who either don't understand the job, or are up to something, or both.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Resentment in Academia
The comments section at the bottom of almost any article on insidehighered.com or chronicle.com often includes expressions of resentment.
Often, the resentment is directed from faculty members against administrators. Sometimes it is from graduate students against faculty. Sometimes it is from junior faculty against either senior faculty or some aspect of the tenure process. Sometimes it is resentment of academics against elected officials or the government.
On occasion, non-academics, or employees of for-profit institutions, express resentment against the “ivory tower.” In any case, resentment seems to be the currency of interaction among factions in the academic world.
Does anything need to be done about all this resentment, or do these expressions of resentment serve as a pressure valve that, at least to a point, makes things better on the ground?
Often, the resentment is directed from faculty members against administrators. Sometimes it is from graduate students against faculty. Sometimes it is from junior faculty against either senior faculty or some aspect of the tenure process. Sometimes it is resentment of academics against elected officials or the government.
On occasion, non-academics, or employees of for-profit institutions, express resentment against the “ivory tower.” In any case, resentment seems to be the currency of interaction among factions in the academic world.
Does anything need to be done about all this resentment, or do these expressions of resentment serve as a pressure valve that, at least to a point, makes things better on the ground?
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