Two LAS syllabi
1 week ago
Just Wondering
Does anyone else think the Dow plunging 777 points is likely to be interpreted by Sarah Palin as a sign of God's endorsement of deregulation?
Meme for Saturday Night
Because all this yammering about politics, finances, and jobs is soul-crushing in the extreme _and_ because I can't convince my roommate to turn off SNL even though to continue paying attention to it is going to make me do something horrible to my own eyes. It probably doesn't help that Sarah Palin has moved beyond someone I find amusing in any capacity to someone who seems to inspire the sorts of feelings in me that other people often express when asked about high school.
And so, I offer you a meme. You may recall I stopped tagging people for these things, but I do so love to see other people do things I do so if you tackle this, lemme know.
Onward!
1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 8, find line 6. Write down what it says.
"...and theoretical articles are often similar in structure, but theoretical ar-..."
Is this going to turn into one of those x-rated memes? Seriously, buy a boy a drink first and get to know me. Perv.
Only of you, baby.
I laugh a lot. Often at inappropriate things. You'd think this would give SNL a chance since the most inappropriate thing to laugh at would be something profoundly unfunny.
But no.
Or that if I had it all to do over again, I'd chuck it all and join a band.
Backup singers would be an easy option for anyone who wanted them.
Punkin'
22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
When this discussion happens, for whatever reason, my firstborn is always a girl. She's precocious and sarcastic and that's before she learns to talk.
If it didn't mean putting my dog in quarrantine for months, I'd probably already have done it. And my inability to master more than three words of any foreign language certainly doesn't help.
And so, I offer you a meme. You may recall I stopped tagging people for these things, but I do so love to see other people do things I do so if you tackle this, lemme know.
Onward!
1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 8, find line 6. Write down what it says.
"...and theoretical articles are often similar in structure, but theoretical ar-..."
2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first?
The floor, if I fall over. The kitchen counter if my arm stretches nine feet.3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
SNL is on right now. Because I hate laughter, and I'm too lazy to change the channel.4. WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what time it is
12:175. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
12:366. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
crickets, my dog's sleeping noises, my will to live being slowly ground to paste by SNL skits7. When did you last step outside? what were you doing?
about 10:30, to take the dog out to play frisbee8. Before you came to this website, what did you look at?
Tabbed browsing makes this question obsolete.9. What are you wearing?
10. Did you dream last night?
11. When did you last laugh?
But no.
12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
A map, an abstract painting, my Miles Davis print13. Seen anything weird lately?
Besides Sarah Palin interviews? Or an image of her face plowed into a cornfield? Nothing I can think of.14. What do you think of this quiz?
At least it hasn't asked me about what I want my wedding to be like or what I'll name my kids or anything lame like that.15. What is the last film you saw?
"Forbidden Kingdom" - it's what you get if you mix a Disney sports movie with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"16. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?
A plane ticket or two and my way out of student loan debt.17. Tell me something about you that I don't know
I secretly fear that every criticism or accusation against me is true and I'm just too dumb to realize it.Or that if I had it all to do over again, I'd chuck it all and join a band.
18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
19. Do you like to dance?
I like the thought of me dancing much more than actuality of it.
I like the thought of me dancing much more than actuality of it.
20. George Bush: is he a power-crazy nutcase or some one who is finally doing something that has needed to be done for years?
He's a power-crazy-nutcase who is doing something that's needed to be done for years: he's getting ready to leave the White House.21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
23.Would you ever consider living abroad?
The other economic crisis...
..so panic on Wall Street with lenders and such made me think about my student loan debt which is a topic I've managed to largely wall off into some back part of my brain. I go through the usual routines to keep the monster in check, but it's always there lurking because I just can't deal with it. But sometimes it gets out, and when it does, it's frightening.
A quick run through of my payment schedule is pretty depressing. If I could afford it, to pay my loans off in 30 years will run me roughly 1/4 of my salary each year (based on what my salary is currently). Of course, I can't afford that, so I'm paying less which means it'll slowly grow.
All of this had made me contemplate other options for trying to make a dent in it. This is, in part, why I've thought about trying to leap out of academia. But I also took a look at Sallie Mae's deal with UPromise, and I've signed up for it. I'm also considering begging all of my friends and family to join it, in a move that makes me feel just a little dirty. But I'm curious, has anyone else used the service? Any thoughts on it?
A quick run through of my payment schedule is pretty depressing. If I could afford it, to pay my loans off in 30 years will run me roughly 1/4 of my salary each year (based on what my salary is currently). Of course, I can't afford that, so I'm paying less which means it'll slowly grow.
All of this had made me contemplate other options for trying to make a dent in it. This is, in part, why I've thought about trying to leap out of academia. But I also took a look at Sallie Mae's deal with UPromise, and I've signed up for it. I'm also considering begging all of my friends and family to join it, in a move that makes me feel just a little dirty. But I'm curious, has anyone else used the service? Any thoughts on it?
Job Tracking - Week 3
A good week as applications go. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the guest speaker I had lined up had an emergency six minutes before my class was to start, leaving me holding the bag with lots of VIPs watching to see how things went. A little tap dancing, a few mea culpas, and a quick dismissal of the class gave me some extra time to dig in today. With that break, I managed a lot of packets since last week's report .
And more importantly, after a quick phone call to a search chair, I found it would be possible to apply for two jobs with one application packet, and since it was a huge packet, you'd better believe I took them up on that accommodation. But it also worried me that the department was hiring multiple positions at once. Granted, I'm at a SLAC now, but I can't recall any of the schools I've ever been at having been able to hire multiple positions without there being some pretty compelling back-story. This isn't to say the details were always bad, but it's always worth noticing.
That got me thinking about other signs that give me pause in a job search. There are big obvious ones, like multiple hires or - worse - the same position advertised from one job season to another. Within the process, little details are interesting to think about. Early in the process, one thing that gives me pause is having to supply my own stamp to send back the Equal Opportunity forms. It's a small thing, but it is always just enough to make me wonder about the state of the school or program's budget. I'm sure there are others, and obviously, I'd love to hear from others about things that make them think as the process goes on.
In any case, here are the update stats:
And more importantly, after a quick phone call to a search chair, I found it would be possible to apply for two jobs with one application packet, and since it was a huge packet, you'd better believe I took them up on that accommodation. But it also worried me that the department was hiring multiple positions at once. Granted, I'm at a SLAC now, but I can't recall any of the schools I've ever been at having been able to hire multiple positions without there being some pretty compelling back-story. This isn't to say the details were always bad, but it's always worth noticing.
That got me thinking about other signs that give me pause in a job search. There are big obvious ones, like multiple hires or - worse - the same position advertised from one job season to another. Within the process, little details are interesting to think about. Early in the process, one thing that gives me pause is having to supply my own stamp to send back the Equal Opportunity forms. It's a small thing, but it is always just enough to make me wonder about the state of the school or program's budget. I'm sure there are others, and obviously, I'd love to hear from others about things that make them think as the process goes on.
In any case, here are the update stats:
Total # of academic jobs applied for/# of jobs identified: 8/19I had a weird moment this week that I expect may bring high drama in the coming days. I informed one of my usual references I was applying and that I'd like them to continue being a reference, but I buried the request amid some other discussions in an e-mail. And so, when they replied to those other questions with a CC to someone else, they let slip that I'm on the market. I've already been stopped by one person in the hall to ask about it, so I'm sure there will be considerably more discussion.
Total # of non-academic jobs applied for/# of jobs identified 0/0
COST OF THE SEARCH
Total spent in U.S. dollars on applications: $52.85
Average cost in U.S. dollars per applications: $6.60
Total spent in U.S. dollars on travel, etc: $0
Total amount in U.S. dollars reimbursed: $0
WHERE THE CALL CAME FROM:
The Chronicle of Higher Ed: 2
HigherEdJobs.com: 0
Other online service (listserv, etc): 14
Friend/Colleague: 2
Personal Research: 1
THE JOB IS IN THE DETAILS
Total number of paper submissions: 7
Total number of e-submissions: 1
Total weight in pounds of application packets: 7.5
Total number of recommendation letters requested: 9
Total number of requests for references: 4
Total number of "proof of teaching excellence" packs : 4
Total number of requests for Teaching Philosophy 3
Total number of research packs: 4
Total number of transcripts requested: 0
WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING
Total number of acknowledgments of receipt: 3
Total number of confirmed reference contacts: 0
Total number of phone interviews: 0
Total number of conference interviews: 0
Total number of on-campus interviews: 0
Total number of offers: 0
Total number of rejection letters: 0
Thank You, Mister Keynes, may we have another?
For whatever reason - call it nerdiness - I found myself thinking in the shower this morning that there was one name I'd not heard mentioned so far during all of the discussions of the current economic crisis/bailout: John Maynard Keynes. And I imagined that somewhere, his ghost is going fraternity on the Milton Friedman's spectral bum.
If we think about it too much, the current moment with its bailout feels just a bit like we're being sold snake oil. And so we're being urged to not think. Just act. Part of that discomfort we're having, though, is because that the bailout and the policies behind fly in the face of how we've been told we should believe and want the economy to work.
We probably shouldn't be surprised at polls that show the average American is either confused or untrusting of the whole thing, and probably generally apathetic. At the heart of the bailout is the idea that has been at the forefront of mainstream economics for the last several decades: that whatever is left over will be passed down to the guy at the bottom of the chain. And what the bottom of the chain has learned is that what's always passed on is cost. Sure, this time it's astronomical. But it's more of the same. Remember this when you hear the phrase trickle down economics.
There's a lot to be considered in the midst of this argument, not the least of which is whether we're going to learn that the market, left to its own devices, is perhaps best compared to a child left home alone for the first time. It isn't bad, exactly, but it's going to do bad things.For Keynes, the economy was always political. To think that it could be divorced from it was folly. Economic policy for the last forty years or so has vehemently tried to deny this, suggesting that the market should correct everything (except when it doesn't). Privatization isn't bad, but as David Ignatius so succinctly concludes, "public purposes are best served by public institutions."
And that means the public has to get something out of it.
If we think about it too much, the current moment with its bailout feels just a bit like we're being sold snake oil. And so we're being urged to not think. Just act. Part of that discomfort we're having, though, is because that the bailout and the policies behind fly in the face of how we've been told we should believe and want the economy to work.We probably shouldn't be surprised at polls that show the average American is either confused or untrusting of the whole thing, and probably generally apathetic. At the heart of the bailout is the idea that has been at the forefront of mainstream economics for the last several decades: that whatever is left over will be passed down to the guy at the bottom of the chain. And what the bottom of the chain has learned is that what's always passed on is cost. Sure, this time it's astronomical. But it's more of the same. Remember this when you hear the phrase trickle down economics.
There's a lot to be considered in the midst of this argument, not the least of which is whether we're going to learn that the market, left to its own devices, is perhaps best compared to a child left home alone for the first time. It isn't bad, exactly, but it's going to do bad things.For Keynes, the economy was always political. To think that it could be divorced from it was folly. Economic policy for the last forty years or so has vehemently tried to deny this, suggesting that the market should correct everything (except when it doesn't). Privatization isn't bad, but as David Ignatius so succinctly concludes, "public purposes are best served by public institutions."
And that means the public has to get something out of it.
Oh, and also it's important for actual teaching...
Just saw, buried down the page on this Inside Higher Ed.com Quick Takes, that concern is rising that employment patterns in higher education are making it tougher to find qualified faculty to become administrators. The note mentions that only 3% of folks under the age of 34 who are teaching are doing so in full-time positions.
That's a lot of adjuncts (and likely grad students), though maybe it would be a little tempered by how many people teaching are under 34. I'm betting the number is higher than my first impression of it.
It amuses me though that the thrust of this is on how this is affecting administration and not on, say, how it impacts the quality of education itself. It's a bit like when I worked in the corporate world and there was a big shake up. The whole company freaked out because they were afraid they weren't going to have enough middle-managers. The thought was "of course we can get folks on the line: there's a ton of them."
It came back to bite that company in the ass, and I do wonder whether it won't do the same here in good ol' higher education.
That's a lot of adjuncts (and likely grad students), though maybe it would be a little tempered by how many people teaching are under 34. I'm betting the number is higher than my first impression of it.
It amuses me though that the thrust of this is on how this is affecting administration and not on, say, how it impacts the quality of education itself. It's a bit like when I worked in the corporate world and there was a big shake up. The whole company freaked out because they were afraid they weren't going to have enough middle-managers. The thought was "of course we can get folks on the line: there's a ton of them."
It came back to bite that company in the ass, and I do wonder whether it won't do the same here in good ol' higher education.
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