Meetings That Give Me Heartburn

I know that this was a blog that started out being about the kids and now it is about the tenure process. But that is my life right now.

My tenure meeting was today. In years past this meeting always lasted about 5 minutes. People would look at my stuff and say "looks good, keep on keepin' on", and then we'd all go home. Today it lasted an hour, because it's shifted from "looks good" to "here are all of the things we need to start doing now to begin building your case." These are logistical things like who to solicit for letters, how to begin assembling data on the journals I publish in, etc., etc. We are gearing up to write the case and I'm not even going up for another year and a half!

One of the members of my 3-person tenure committee is currently on the divisional committee, which is extremely helpful. She knows what makes a good case and has all kinds of specific advice. We are also going to add a 4th person to my committee who is currently the chair of divisional, as he has been helpful to me so far. So I feel like I have very savvy and knowledgeable people on my side in this process.

One of my committee members started off the meeting by saying "As far as I'm concerned you could go up in the fall. You're ready." I am not going to revisit that decision, I'm taking all the time I can get and will not go up next year, but it felt nice to hear. My committee thinks I have a strong case and I trust their judgment. So that's good.

It will be important, as I approach this process, to separate my body of work from the tenure process itself. I think my body of work is strong. But it is also true that the tenure process is unpredictable and always changing, and that means there is no way to have confidence that it will be a success for me. It should be, but due to the nature of the process, I know that it might not be. I need to remember that that's about the process, not about me or my work.

Kids: Tonight at dinner, Milo told me he'd like his peanut butter toast (what can I say -- Jake made dinner before I got home). Then he took a closer look at his plate and said "It's peanut butter bagel, actually."

After dinner Jake picked up Nora while I was busy doing dishes. She hugged him and said "I love you Daddy!" (Awwww!) Then she demanded, "TAKE ME OVER TO MOMMY!"