Hindsight

I wish:

-- I had scheduled my teaching experiment for February, so it would be over by now, and I wouldn't be facing the issue of possibly having to cancel it if we see a teacher strike. Oh wait, schools were closed a lot in February. I wish I had scheduled my teaching experiment for January. I have a contractual obligation with NSF to run this teaching experiment; canceling and rescheduling is going to cause a lot of problems.

Oh geez. The schoolkids (not the teachers) at the school where I'm scheduled to start collecting data on Monday are walking out today.

-- We had secured our hires for post doc positions and a faculty associate position about a month ago. It is suddenly becoming much harder to hire; who wants to come here now when there's really no promise of funding after June 30?

-- I had gone up for tenure this spring instead of planning to do it in the fall. The current system is not exactly fair or transparent, but at least we know what the system is. After June 30, we do not know what the tenure system will be next year. The entire structure of how we grant tenure (assuming we continue to grant tenure) will have the option of being re-vamped and decided upon by the new governing board, the majority of whom will be appointed by our right-wing, fundamentalist conservative, tea party governor. On a board of 21 people, TWO will be professors. TWO. The other 19 people on the board will be non academics. This board will have the complete authority to determine hiring and promotion structures, all personnel issues, salary issues, tenure decisions, how the tenure process will occur, etc.

What will be the tenure process next year? Will it be the same as this year? Or will it be completely changed?

A senior professor in my department just stopped by my office and said, "This board of fundamentalist conservatives is going to be deciding on your tenure and you have an upcoming talk on your CV that has the word 'feminist' in the title. Good luck."

Three professors in the department have already announced their sudden retirements, and two others have announced they're leaving. I feel like we're on the fucking Titanic.