kfitz

The Key to the Dream, In Case You Care

So here’s what’s going on around here, that made my dream so open to Meg’s instant analysis: as I’ve mentioned before, my department has suffered some major losses recently, with three senior colleagues all departing at the same time. The up-side of this is that I’ve got an amazing new office. This comes with a major down-side, though: because of those three departures, and a slew of terribly timed leaves, the department hierarchy, in terms of seniority, will in the fall look something like this:

— Our new chair, who’s been at the college for quite a while, but will be chairing for the first time.

— (Our new poet, who’s coming in at full prof, but who will be in her first semester, and thus can’t be expected to be up to speed yet.)

— (A co-terminous associate prof whose primary job functions are in the administration.)

— Me.

And that is all of the tenured/senior faculty who will be present on campus during the fall. And we’re doing a search, in a field that is quite far removed from my own, and I’m getting a lot of pressure to be very heavily involved in this search, despite the fact that my program is also going to be doing a search, which I’m co-chairing, at exactly the same time.

Let me emphasize that this field is quite far removed from my own, and that while I’m happy to be involved in the search, I’m not comfortable about being asked to play a key role in it, because I really, really don’t know what’s going on in the field today at all.

Did I mention that our new chair’s wife is a pianist?

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