New Year is Here!!!!

While most people see January 1st as New Year’s Day, any teacher’s New Year is the first day of the fall semester. New Year has always been bittersweet for me. It lacks the unreflective delight with which I treat Thanksgiving. The New Year always makes me look back as much as forward – assessing the past year, its successes and failures and all that I did not accomplish or did accomplish. I have the same attitude to the new school year. I usually become aware of it through an increasingly tight knot in my stomach. This knot first manifests itself around the beginning of August and makes its way from my stomach to my throat by the back of my throat. It is the stress of the new school year – easing back into a life flooded with emails, grading, teaching, committees, etc. It is the thought of the time you squandered during the summer. I taught summer school this year and started a syllabus for a new course. However, the syllabus is incomplete and I have to finish it and submit it during the first couple of weeks of the semester. Even the small things seem insurmountable – for instance, I need to sew buttons and hems on a number of my skirts and shirts and I need it done before the end of next week. I had all summer to do it but….here we are.

In today’s world, teaching is not a 9am-5pm job. Students email you at all hours of the day and expect a response accordingly. Activities have to be held after school. Most importantly, any and all research has to be done after school. Increasing class sizes do not help. This semester, I have some 175 students in my classes total. That is a lot of grading (no TAs or RAs). Teaching political theory makes it worse because you cannot have multiple choice exams in that subject. Grading 175 papers and 175 essays 3 times in the semester takes up an enormous amount of time. Everything is increasing – students, advisees, grading, committee work etc. Yet, without the research, all these things become boring, mundane and outdated. To be frank, the time to do research is so limited during the semester. Whoever thinks that teachers work part-time for 9 months out of the year never taught a day in their life.
The academic New Year is here and I am going to make a few resolutions here (publicly) in the hopes it will help me to keep them. Some of these I am really good at, others not so much. So here goes:

1. Answer all emails within a 24-hour period
2. Complete all grading within 2 weeks of receiving the exams
3. Get the syllabus for a new class completed and turned in by the end of September
4. Read 5 dystopias for my dystopia project
5. Use fall break for making quizzes for each class and uploading them online

If anyone has any other new year suggestions/resolutions they make for the academic year, please feel free to share. How do you feel about the start of the academic year?

Balance

Being a teacher, I wonder if anyone has ever heard those comments: “Oh, you only work 9 months out of the year.” Or, “you only teach 3-4 hours per day? What do you do the rest of the time?” “You are so lucky to get 3 months off during the summer.” I mean, haven’t the Republicans been saying that the crazy debt we are in is because of teachers unions who extract a lot more money and benefits than is necessary for a job where we stop working at 2-3pm and get 3 months of “vacation”? This is the perception of my profession. This always drives me crazy.

There are two types of exhaustion – physical and mental. I always find myself mentally exhausted at the end of 3 continuous hours of teaching. (Physically exhausted too but that is only because I pace through all 3 hours of class). Anyone who has taught a class knows that a teacher cannot space out mentally for even one minute. That is the minute when someone says or does something stupid. Three hours of total focus is mentally exhausting. At the end of a day like that, I can spend time with Asha and she actually proves to be relaxing. She is physically exhausting to be around but not mentally exhausting (unless she is having a cranky spell which are, thankfully, infrequent).

Problem is that this summer I have spent each second around Asha. She is physically exhausting but not mentally so. However, I get no “mind work” when I am around her. She has learnt to stand and so if my laptop is on, she spends all her time slapping it, pressing random keys and deleting it. If I try to read, she grabs the book and crumples the pages. I do not watch TV around her. So, it can mean hours of grabbing objects and naming them (“ball”, “dog”, “table”) and reading baby board books. At the end of a whole day of this, I am happy to read some fiction and fall into bed. But then I spend all night making lists of things I have to do – syllabi, school prep etc.

I prefer mental exhaustion (without physical exhaustion) to the other way round. At least I feel productive. After watching Asha, I should feel productive and like a good mom, but I do not. I feel like I should not spend time thinking of the other things on my to-do list. I feel I should get more done. I am neither concentrating on her nor on my work. UGGGGHHHHH!!!! Balance is so difficult.

This brings me back to my irritation at those who think of teaching as a 9-month profession. It is not!!! I get paid to work over the summer. Research, proposing a new course to submit to the department, summer teaching, prepping a new course and committee work. This has to be done over the summer. And I have done none of it. During the school year, it is not merely teaching and office hours. We also have committee work, grading, answering interminable (and often inexplicable) emails, research, advising etc etc. The budget crisis is making things worse. Class sizes are larger (I have over 175 students next semester and equivalent grading), the number of advisees keep increasing, the number of committees keep increasing and research time and conference time and money keep decreasing. I guess we are just lucky to have jobs at all. But in two weeks, school starts again. I will have all the mental exhaustion I need then. And I will miss Asha like crazy. It will be more difficult leaving her at home now since she has started crawling, standing and saying mama and baba in the last few months. If I lack balance now, how will I achieve balance then?

This is the problem – everyone has to balance all aspects of their lives. Some are better at it than others. I am not good at it. I either do one thing or another. I am a multi-tasker but find myself unable to do that with Asha. I want to be a good teacher, a good academic, a good mom, a good wife and have some free time to be a well-rounded person. I am coming to the conclusion that this is impossible with a 9-month-old. Maybe it makes sense to wait till she is a little older to impose these expectations on myself. I like balance. I like routine. I like checking things off my to-do list. Asha, unfortunately, does not like any of these things. Oh well. How do other moms balance?

End of Semester!!!!!

The semester is over!!!!! Grading is done!!!!! My first year of a tenure-track job is over and now summer is now officially here.

It has been some semester!!! All the work that 4 classes and 120 students bring. On top of that, I had three trouble students. Two of them are seniors and needed to (in the case of one) pass my class to graduate and (in the case of the other) needed a B level grade in the class to graduate. The class has 3 exams (including the final), a paper and a participation grade. Once they took the first exam and realized they could not make it, the problems started. Constant demands for extra credit, for a curve etc. However, it was also clear from in-class discussions that they did not do the reading. Both turned in their papers late and argued relentlessly against taking off points (this is a long story for another time). This went on for weeks. I gave in, gave the class extra credit, a detailed study guide etc. But passing a 300-level PT class is impossible without doing the reading and only studying the power points I put up in class. So, they both failed to get their desired grades (by a lot) and I am still dealing with that problem. I feel bad that they cannot graduate but apparently, my class is not the only barrier to graduation – I learnt yesterday that they did badly in their other courses too (not as badly as in mine though). This is the sort of student situation which I hate, the worst part of being a teacher.

Plus, I have had some pretty draining health problems all semester which thankfully, are mostly resolved for now. But the upshot of all of it, for now, is this: I need to eat less carbs and sugar/sweets. This is a particular blow to me. I love sugar – but I think I love carbs even more. So, about eating “less” carbs: how on earth do you do that? If you had to cut down on pasta, couscous, rice, breads etc., what would you eat? And, on the question of eating less sugar/sweets…this is going to sound crazy but that is the one thing I do not think I have to work on. I do not drink sodas anymore, I put only 3 teaspoons of sugar in my morning coffee and I have a slice of apple pie or cake at night. To me, that does not count as “too much” sugar. How would you cut down on sugar and carbs?

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Plans for the summer:

1)Finish dissertation: this means 2 chapters (which are partially done) and writing an introductory chapter (also partially done) and a conclusion. Obviously, this will take up most of my time.
2)Write up 2 new course proposals: Millersville does not offer courses in Ancient and Modern Political Thought. I have to write up these course proposals to have the University approve them (very bureaucratic)
3)Clean out basement: our basement has about 70 boxes (at last count) of books, clothes, misc. items which I need to go through. These are boxes we have not unpacked from our move – a year ago.
4)Start a tenure folder/box: apparently, it is easier to prep for tenure applications if you have a box with EVERYTHING you have done for the past 5 years.
5)Prepare for the Common Seminar: I volunteered to teach one of the University’s freshman “Common Seminars” which means I have to read and make discussion questions on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Anyone read it? Is it good?

Student Situations

It has been a very long time since I wrote – partly because I have no idea where the Christmas break went. Gregg and I cancelled our trip to the Southern Political Science Association Conference because even the thought of packing and flying to New Orleans was so tiring. I slept a lot, worked on my syllabi for the spring and did (very little) work on my dissertation. I also tried to clean the house (though that was a wasted endeavor, since it looks as chaotic now as it did before I cleaned it).

But one of the things I had to deal with this semester were some crazy requests from students for grade changes. Here are two cases:

Two students turned in papers which were almost exactly the same – word for word. Though there were some attempts to change the language, these were few. I emailed both students and one of them took complete responsibility saying he had requested his friend’s completed paper and then mistakenly turned it in with his name on it. So, I emailed him back and commented on the differences between the two papers saying that the story did not hold up because some changes were certainly made. He emailed me back with a long explanation but here is the crucial part: according to him, he worked on the draft of his friend’s paper, changing things here and there, then started writing another version of the paper but mistakenly printed out the one his friend had written. He realized this but just as he was handing it in, so he kept quiet about it and “hoped for the best”.

What would you do in this situation? I told him that since he had knowingly turned in someone else’s paper, he would fail it – and the class.

The second case is more unclear. This student was on academic probation and was dropped from my class early in the semester for having too many credit hours. He continued attending and turning in work all semester while fighting to have the class added. They literally added him to my class roster on the last day of the semester. However, he got a D+ in the class. Since political science is his major, he needed a C- or better to get credit. On top of that, he was on academic probation for the third time and without a C- or better, he would have to quit school for at least a year. After the semester was over, he started lobbying hard for extra credit assignments to raise his grade. However, I felt that it would be unfair to other students in the class (there were a couple that had failed) to give him chances to raise his grade. So, in spite of his entreaties and after speaking to his advisor, I decided against giving him extra credit assignments. Thankfully, there is still a chance that he will be here this semester – he is trying to work it out.

Do you think this was a harsh decision? Should I have given him those assignments? These are the times when I find this a difficult profession. I do not want to be the reason for someone not finishing school but at the same time, I have to be fair to all and I think it is not wrong to hold students to high standards. What would you have done?

End of the Semester Assessment

I turned in final grades on Wednesday, officially bringing my first t-t semester to a close. It is the best feeling in the world!!! With 120 students, the grading was brutal all semester and the sudden addition of committees, advising and prepping 4 classes had me on my toes since August. Going to APSA and Northeastern did not help because I had to prepare two (very sub-par) papers. So, I am planning to take a much needed break.

Unfortunately, the break will not be total. First, I need to prepare a syllabus for Contemporary Political Thought – a class I am teaching for the first time in the spring. I will also make some changes in my Intro to Political Theory and Intro to American Govt. courses.

Second, I have to work on a reflective statement for my application for re-appointment. Millersville has a strange system where each t-t faculty has to apply for re-appointment each year. Though the outcome is never really in doubt, it requires a ton of paperwork including an assessment of what the faculty member has done throughout their year towards course development, students evals, scholarship and service. It also requires peer evaluations which means THREE IN-CLASS evaluations per semester of your teaching. While this is great when you go up for tenure (having conducted such stringent evaluations five times, they are hardly likely to throw you out then), it is a really time-consuming process each year.

Third, of course, I still need to work on the big D(issertation). I am hoping to get a draft of the whole thing to my committee by the end of the spring semester.

Last, I need to clean my office and our house. The office is a mess with papers, exams, quizzes and even unanswered mail everywhere. The house is worse and needs a good cleaning on top of that.

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In Other News:

Car: Finally, we got a new car (that is a story in itself which I will recount later). It is a red 2007 Toyota Camry. As a preview to the story, let me just say that Gregg and I were on completely different sides of this purchase. Gregg thought we should buy an American car and be supportive of the American auto industry. I fought for the Toyota – putting so much money into the purchase, I did not feel comfortable buying American especially with the bailout still on the line.

Cheating: I have two sets of students who have clearly plagiarized some parts of their papers from each other. In the first set, the two students use different language but every paragraph is the same for both – including the mistakes. Some of the language is the same but not a lot. I am more charitably disposed to this pair. But the second pair have submitted papers which are word-for-word the same as each other for the first 3 pages. How lazy – and stupid – can you be?

Conferences: In the interests of both money and due to sheer exhaustion, I have withdrawn from both the Southern and Western conferences. I got accepted to both but Southern is in New Orleans and Western in Vancouver and I am too tired to write 2 more papers and travel that far. Maybe this was a stupid decision – after all, t-t faculty have to do as much professional stuff as possible – but I have already done 2 conferences this year and I thought 4 is too much.

Celebratory Menu: To celebrate my first real day off, I am making a Middle-Eastern-Indian inspired mutton stew with a Mediterranean couscous.

Irritating Questions

As the semester comes to an end, students seem to ask questions which are more and more unnecessary and/or annoying. Here are some of the questions which irritate me the most:

1. “Do you curve?”
I have said this hundreds of times and it is in your syllabus – I do not curve.
2. “When is the paper due?”
Why not look at the paper topic or on your syllabus?
3. “Can we get extra credit assignments?”
Why should I give you and myself extra work when your problem was that you could not finish the assigned work on time in the first place?
4. “Will grammar matter in the paper?”
Yes. What did you expect?
5. “Can you tell me what my grade is in this class?”
Can’t you do the math since you have all the necessary information?

Does anyone else find these questions annoying?

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Work: What with the elections and the work, things have been crazy. I am counting to the end of the semester. Gregg and I are both presenting at Northeastern next week and I am on page 2 of that paper. Long weekend ahead.

Fall color: PA looks beautiful right now. I love the changing leaves and the mild cold.

The Relevance of Aristotle

Have you ever started reading something and then seen how EVERYTHING applies to what the writer is saying? I frequently have this experience and usually discount it as my overactive imagination. But I have been reading Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics recently and I am amazed at how observant Aristotle is (and how hard it is to convince my students of this). This is what Aristotle says about skills:

“Virtues…we acquire by first exercising them. The same is true with skills, since what we need to learn before doing, we learn by doing; for example, we become builders by building, and lyre-players by playing the lyre.” (Nicomachean Ethics, 23, Cambridge edition)

And this statement applies so directly to my life. In the past month, I have been doing a ton of driving. I drive Gregg back and forth from the train station, I run errands, I go to school and back. In the process, I have had to master my fears about a number of different driving conditions: driving on the highway, driving at night, driving in the rain, driving after the rain, driving with cars on the road (just kidding), parking!!!! The reason is that you learn by doing, and I am learning driving by driving. However dangerous this sounds (for other drivers as well as for me), it is nevertheless true.

Having said that, which professions would you think would not/should not fall into this category? How about surgery?
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To-Do List:

Class Preps: Doing two and a half class preps this semester has been difficult and time-consuming. I changed some aspects of my Intro to American Government class and that is my half prep. The full preps are for Intro to Political Theory and American Political Thought

Grading: I have 120 students this semester and just gave 60 of them their first test. Promises to be a fun grading weekend.

NPSA: Gregg and I are both going to Northeastern Political Science Association’s November conference. I have to write a draft of a chapter for it – which has not been started yet.

Teaching with PowerPoint

I have never used PowerPoint in my lectures – especially in my political theory classes. There are many reasons for this. First, political theory is not about regurgitating facts. It is about analysis – and it is very difficult to analyze the content while copying the slides or staring blankly at the presentation. Second, copying slides distracts students from the lecture. Third, writing large pieces of text onto slides is pointless – and political theory is about textual interpretation.

For the first time, I am considering doing a PowerPoint presentation for my Introduction to Political Theory class. Not for the entire semester but for the really difficult stuff – like Plato’s Republic. There is one major reason for this change – I find that students are confused about what is important and what is not (especially in political theory). Usually, I write important terms etc on the board but as we all know, writing the words “4 virtues: wisdom, courage, moderation and justice” would not mean that they have understood the meaning and place of those terms in Plato’s thought. I am hoping that a PowerPoint presentation (though without pictures or graphs) will give them the important details and the order in which these should be argued. I had been handing out an outline of my lecture for them to follow but apparently, Power Point is seen as more authoritative by the students.

However, I am still worried about doing it and the impact it will have. Students universally appreciate PowerPoint but as a person who wants them to understand and analyze, I remain wary. On top of that, I am not sure whether I should put my slides on Blackboard. Students usually like that but I fear that it encourages them to skip class. I cannot make up my mind on that issue as well.

Any thoughts? Any experiences with PowerPoint as a teaching tool that you want to share?

Becoming An Adult

Gregg and I have been discussing the logistics of commuting to Philadelphia. As I mentioned earlier, Gregg will be taking the train there and back. I will pick him up and drop him off at the train station. The problem we have is during his orientation week. Unlike my extended orientation, Temple only has a two-day orientation. However, the orientation starts at 8am which makes it necessary for Gregg to take the 5:30am train get there on time. The next train is at 7am which will be too late.

While discussing this, it suddenly hit me. We are now adults. We are living an adult life. You see, in the 5 years that Gregg and I have been together, we have never simultaneously held full-time jobs. In fact, last year was the first time that we did not work together in the same location. Before that, we worked together in adjoining cubicles at the Miller Center. When that was done, we could go to a coffee shop and read or go home. There were days when we did not have to go in to the Miller Center at all and these were my favorite. We studied at home, moved to a coffee shop, then to a B&N and then went out with friends at night. So, this is the first time we will be driving off to work every day in different directions.

Most people will find it sad that Gregg and I are embarking on full-time jobs this late in life. Certainly, I have never been the one to eulogize graduate school or deny its tendency to delay significant life events. But this is a milestone which, in my mind, deserves comment. And while I am excited about it (and not merely for financial reasons), I also feel a little sad at the end of an era. But then again, as I always remind myself, we are academics and our lives, however full it is with committees, advising and classes, have a flexibility which allows us to approximate graduate student life at least some of the time.

The End of Summer

First, let me apologize to Jill for blatantly plagiarizing her blog entry. For those of you who would rather go to the original source, click here. Second, in my defense, Jill also asks her readers what they have to do before school starts – so I am only giving her a detailed answer!!! However, unlike Jill, I have two lists here. The first one is my list of things to do before school starts next week and the second one is a list of things to do this school year.

This summer has been one of the most hectic ones we have had. Moving to PA took a lot out of us, especially because Gregg and I packed, loaded, unloaded and unpacked all by ourselves. Plus, getting used to a new place always takes time. Emotionally, the job search for Gregg was draining – the euphoria of West Point, the discussions on living apart, the joy of Temple etc. But we have since settled down wonderfully – and thank you to everyone who visited. Living in a new place does get lonely and I am so happy that so many people made the time to come and see us in PA.

Starting Monday, for the first time in my life, I have to go to work every day – just like everybody else. So, I have to be ready for it. This is my To Do list for this week – my last week off from work.

1. Prepare my Intro to American Govt. syllabus (the American Political Thought and Intro to PT syllabi are already done).
2. Make copies of all my syllabi for all 4 classes
3. Write lectures for next week’s classes on APT, Intro to PT and Intro to AP
4. Move more of my books into my office
5. Set up the voicemail and computer in my office
6. Scan and upload the syllabi and readings for next week onto Blackboard
7. Complete the paperwork for benefits

To-Do List for this school year:

1. Attend and present papers at least 3 conferences (Since I am already going to APSA and Northeastern, I think I will try one more)
2. Have the entire draft of my dissertation written
3. Have a written record of all my lectures for the 4 preps I have this year
4. Exercise at least 3-4 times per week
5. Get to know one person in Lancaster well (I have to learn to make friends where I live)

I always make resolutions made for the new school year. The question is: will I carry them out? I have always been terrible about implementing New Year resolutions - will school year resolutions be any different?

Orientation and Disorientation

The line between hope and fear, orientation and disorientation is so thin!!! This is something which has been brought home to me this past week while going through the grueling orientation schedule I mentioned earlier. Orientation has been both a positive and negative experience this week. Negative because I have had to work on my APSA paper after getting home around 5pm every day. Positive because I met a lot of nice people and got to know a lot more about the school than I did before.

However, as you can imagine, I feel overloaded by information. This happened by the end of Tuesday which was only my second day of orientation. This may be because that was the day we listened to Human Resources personnel talking about disability benefits, health insurance plans, retirement plans, dismemberment benefits, life insurance etc etc. Now, I am an excellent money manager (I balance the checkbook and make sure we stay within budget) but I know nothing about investments, retirement plans etc. To make matters worse, all the people I asked (both at the University and outside it) had different pieces of advice. The situation was not made any easier when Gregg sat down with a calculator and said, “It all depends on how long you live!!!!” My head, already reeling from all the financial and academic advice I had received in the past two days, felt like it was going to burst. Orientation was clearly disorienting when it came to financial matters.

When it came to academic matters, things went well. I learnt a lot about the policies of the school, its student body and its campus life. But even here, lines became blurred. Any talk of tenure led to an increased heart-rate. Since the tenure system is divorced from the promotion system here, promotion was just as frightening a subject as tenure. The large chunks of information regarding the various services available to faculty and students – how to deal with students with disabilities, class reserves, FERPA, disruptive students, academic support, student affairs etc. – were overwhelming. While I am starting the school year hoping that this is the beginning of a successful career here, I am also terrified that this is not the case, that something will go wrong, that I will not get tenure etc. etc.

The good thing about such an extensive orientation is that while you may not remember all (or, in my case, any) of the information you are given, you do get information about who to contact with questions. It also gives you a good idea of the culture of the school. What do they value? What are its students like? What is the relationship among faculty, students and administration? By reading between the lines as well as talking to people, I have gotten a lot of good information about the nature of the school. You also get to know the people who are starting with you, giving you a ready-made group of acquaintances.

How do you feel about new faculty orientations? Did you go through one? If yes, what was most helpful and unhelpful? If no, would you have wanted one?

The Olympics

Gregg and I watched the opening of the Olympics in China tonight. It was absolutely beautiful – a spectacular display of art, harmony, discipline and power. Having read a lot of utopian and anti-utopian fiction for my dissertation, I was intrigued as I watched this awesome spectacle.

A lot of utopian works speak of mobilization of people in the service of the common good. For the utopians, this mobilization is not like an army recruitment – it is almost always voluntary. The desire to showcase the arts, crafts, beauty and talent of a utopian regime is what motivates its people to put on a performance like the one we witnessed today. People are proud of their country, their culture and their own talents and this is what makes something like this possible.

Obviously, anti-utopian writers turn these arguments around. According to them, efforts like this also require stringent discipline and it essentially needs centralized direction. The anti-utopian writers use the analogy to the army and argue that displays like this are essentially displays of power as well as art and beauty. The perfection demanded from each man, woman and child in the program, they would argue, cannot be extracted without power and authority. Therefore, they argue that it requires an authoritarian regime to spend the time, money and discipline which makes these national shows possible.

As I watched the show, I wondered, which of these two positions were true this time? Can they both be true? And, by thinking of these things which watching this show, was I missing some part of its beauty?

Having said all that, let me add that the grand scale of the program and the breathtaking, dazzling, stupendous performances by each of the 15000 participants was stunning.

If you watched the show, what were your thoughts on it?

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Last Weekend: Gregg and I spent last weekend in Boston. Gregg was a groomsman for his friend Keith’s wedding. It was a beautiful wedding though we stayed up way too late every night. I also got to hang out with my cousin who lives in Boston and meet his girlfriend.

This Week: Betty came to visit on Wednesday and left today. I had so much fun – we did not really do anything much, just sat around and talked. On Thursday, we went to this little place called Kitchen Kettle Village which has a lot of little artsy shops and on Friday we went to the Farmers’ Market. Betty also went with me to the outlets to help me find a couple of jackets for the school year – I got one from Ann Taylor and one from Banana.

Things to Do: This weekend I have to finish all three of my syllabi. Next week, I start a grueling 8am-5pm orientation schedule on Monday and that continues till the Monday after that. Sometime next week I also have to write my APSA paper - which is still in its first 3 pages.

How Time Flies

As I looked at my Palm Pilot today to see what deadlines I have to reach in the next few weeks, I got a rude awakening. How fast time goes by!! Here are some of the things that surprised me:

1) We have already spent 3 months in Lancaster. It feels like we just moved in.
2) Summer is almost over though it feels like it just started.
3) My sister has been married for 6 months already.
4) We have had Giggs for over 2 months.

Is it just me? Have I not been savoring the days? Or has summer – and time – really flown by?

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What we have been doing:

Family: My sister and Kenn came to visit this past weekend. We had a great time. I had tea with her, did a tour of Amish country, went to the outlet malls and showed her Millersville campus.

Work: Trying to get set up to start my first tenure-track job. Got passwords for email, Blackboard, the system which allows me to record grades; got keys for offices, classrooms etc; did IT training; ordered stationary; moved some books into the office; got ID; filled up some forms etc.

Writing: I have been trying to write my paper for APSA (also a diss chapter). Have not gotten far – maybe 5-7 pages into it.

Giggs: He has been doing well. We had our first chewing disaster. The victim was Gregg’s cell phone charger which got chewed into little bits.

Stress!!!!!!!!!

I have heard of many ways to deal with stress but I am still trying to find a way that works for me. Recently, my stress level has been sky-rocketing. The reason is that I found out that I got two papers accepted to two conferences – APSA and Northeastern. While this is good news in some ways, it is bad news in others.

It is good news because I use conferences as deadlines for dissertation chapters. Therefore, I will have to write one chapter for APSA (end August) and the second for Northeastern (end November). This will simply leave me with the Introduction and Conclusion of my dissertation to tackle – I hope to have a complete draft by the end of the Christmas break.

However, writing two chapters in the next few months will be daunting – especially because I will be teaching 4 classes this semester with 2 new preps. I have been especially stressed because the discussant wants the paper for APSA 2 weeks before the conference – which will be around Aug. 15th. While this is a reasonable request, I also have a 7-day orientation at Millersville before that (from 9am-5pm) as well as a wedding to attend and 3 separate guests scheduled for 3 separate weekends. So, you can see why I am stressed!!!!

Gregg and I also completed our move out of Farmville two weekends ago. Spending 3 days driving 15 hours, packing, loading, cleaning and unloading simply added to the stress level.

Anyway, so I have been trying to lower my stress level using different tactics – unfortunately, none of them have been working very well. I am still walking around 2 miles a day on the treadmill but that does not seem to help. I am not the one to take long baths (while stewing in the tub, I tend to reflect on all the things I have to do). I have been cooking in an attempt to relieve stress. Also, working on the paper in small increments but it is not going fast enough. Lastly, I still spend time reading fiction (probably should work on the chapter at the time) – this is the only one which actually works.

So, what about you? How are you spending the remnants of your summer? And how do you deal with the stress of the coming year?

The Purpose of Education

I read this article called “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education” and it had a very interesting argument. The argument is that getting an education at Ivy League schools prepares you for a fabulous career and financial success but it does not prepare you for life – for interacting with others, for the possibility of failure, for an intellectual quest unhitched to tangible success.

Since reading this article, I have been wondering about the components of a good education and I have come up with three components of a good education. First, it should impart a love of learning. This can be in a particular field or a general curiosity. Second, it should impart specific skills which help us to find and keep a job. Third, it should teach us life lessons – how to interact with others, finish tasks on time, adapt to exigencies etc. Being a teacher, I can attest how hard it is for any school or course or teacher to teach all these at once. Indeed, colleges are universities are now bifurcated in what they teach – either they are very specific and specialized to fulfill the second requirement or they are very generic and diffuse to fulfill the first.

I admit that since I have started my dissertation, I have been seeing my education in the more instrumental way that the second requirement suggests. Finish the dissertation, get the degree and leave and then I am free to do what I want. But I think this attitude hurts the dissertation. It makes me unwilling to sit down and write because I am writing for my committee or with the far-off goal of finishing in mind. There are times when I recapture the love for the subject itself and at those times, I am much more productive because I am captivated by the material. True, when I am captivated by the material, I also waste a lot of time because I read articles and books only tangentially connected with my subject. But it feels like fun; not like a chore. Ultimately, I think, dissertating and all reading and writing for our profession should be done for both instrumental reasons and out of genuine curiosity. The instrumental part of me is what adheres to deadlines and prevents me from reading and working on multiple subjects at once. The curious part of me wants to work out of genuine excitement – except it also distracts me from one project and leads me to another. A combination of the two attitudes would be ideal.

With regard to the third goal of education, I have been thinking of what UVA has taught me. Often I fail to reflect on the great experience I have had at UVA and remember the bad things like funding battles. So, here are some of the great things I learnt and got from being at UVA.

Great friends.
Tenacity (this is a lesson that any graduate student must learn in order to get their PhD).
Adaptability (this was honed as a result of the uncertainty of graduate life).
Possibility of failure (this is again true of graduate students as a whole – probably not because of UVA).
Diverse perspectives on political theory – actually I learnt a lot about American Politics and a lot about Political Theory.
Excitement about a lot of different issues and topics – I loved being part of a community which thought about larger issues while also caring about and sharing the minute details of my life.
Some really caring faculty.
My first experience in a really beautiful exciting college town.
Gregg (This list is not in order of importance, so I do not mean that Gregg is the least important thing on my list of "good things from UVA")

The list is much longer but you get the point. So what about you? What are your theories on education and what have you gotten out of your education thus far?

Temple University

As most of you know, Gregg and I moved to Lancaster so that I could start teaching at Millersville University this fall. But the worst part of being an academic couple is that, in a world of scarce jobs, two people have to find jobs close to each other. While finding an academic job seemed challenging enough, finding two jobs close to each other seemed almost impossible to us.

However, Gregg applied to a few schools for one-year positions starting in the fall. Some were closer than others; some would have allowed us to live together, others would not. A month or so ago, he got his first job offer: from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. We were both ecstatic and upset. Ecstatic because it was a good school, it paid well, it required only one prep. Upset because West Point is 4 hours from Lancaster and it meant we would have to live apart for a year. We talked about it, round and round in circles for hours and finally decided to accept their offer.

While we were waiting for the formal letter from West Point, Gregg got another job offer. This one was from Temple University in Philly. Philly is an hour-and-a-half from Lancaster which is a long commute and a lot of money on gas but at least we will be together. Temple also agreed to give Gregg a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule cutting down both on driving time and the amount we spend on gas. The classes at Temple require more prep but we decided to accept it anyway.

This experience taught me a lesson. Life is all about choices but if you know what your priorities are, those choices may be easier to make than you think. Temple was better for our relationship; West Point was better financially and academically to the extent that Gregg would have more time to finish his dissertation. But we are very happy that Gregg has a job, we can be together and that our first year of being an academic couple is in a place which we have loved thus far.

Oh, and as Gregg points out, Temple is the biggest rival to UMass – a piece of information which makes me root for Temple even more.

Perception of Academia

I know that all of you must have encountered this in some form or other from someone in your life (I remember Kathleen blogging about it at some point): the perception that you have an easy life. A few days ago, I was trying to find something to listen to on the car radio and came across a sports talk channel. The host was talking about jobs which you would not want to retire from because they are easy. To his credit, being a radio sports talk host was on that list but so was “being a college professor.” This is how he summed up our profession: it pays $100,000 a year, you get summers off, you teach 2-3 hours a day and the rest of the time is yours. Oh, and according to this guy, you can also hit on co-eds!!! Why would you want to retire if you have a cushy job like that? No need to summarize what is left off the list: committee meetings, advising, grading, answering emails, prepping, publishing etc. To say nothing of the fact that I certainly do not make anywhere close to $100,000 a year and summers are usually spent trying to do the research I could not cram in all year. (I am not even going to demean myself by addressing the sleazy comment about co-eds).

I have to say that I love the flexibility of my work schedule and I do love the job. But I hate this perception that as academics, we can fit anyone and anything into our schedules. Family and friends (not in academia) always tell me: “Come one, you can do this. Why not? You have the time.” Academics do not have unlimited amounts of time. The time that they do not spend in their offices or in the classrooms or in meetings are allocated to one big thing: research and publication. It is like having a perpetual job which you can never finish. It is true that we can probably be more flexible than most people but that does not mean that we have nothing to do. It means that for every non-academic task I add to my list, I have to find time for the academic task later.

I found this wonderful article on The Chronicle today. I am planning to send it to all my non-academic friends and my entire family. It explains that academics need to do research and writing – this is the least visible part of their job. But it also explains why people do not understand that part. It is because research is unlike all other jobs. When you are reading in a coffee shop curled up in a comfy chair, people see you as spending a nice lazy day reading in a coffee shop. And on a workday, no less!!!!! Yet, academics consider that working hard. And that disjunction of perception remains very difficult to bridge. Read the article – I am sure you will empathize.

Faculty as Personal Assistants

This is crunch time for students and faculty. For students, it is time to hand in papers and start preparing for exams. For faculty, this is GRADING time – grading, grading and more grading. (I have 95 papers which I got yesterday and 95 exams coming my way). On top of that, it is time to meet with panicking students who have just realized that their poor work throughout the semester may actually impact their final grade – surprise!!!

Teaching at a very small college exacerbates these problems. Today’s students are used to having instant access to faculty members and this is especially true when the school itself encourages this behavior and demands that faculty make themselves available to the students at all times. I thought I would share an example of the demands that students can make on their teachers under these circumstances. Here is an email I received from a student regarding his final paper:

Prof. Bagchi,
Here is my paper that is due today. I am sorry that I cannot have it printed and given to you, but I do not have a printer, nor does anybody on my hall have one. You have to format it because I do not have microsoft word anymore, so the font has to be changed and spell check needs to be performed. Thanks.

I think it was the need to perform spell check part that put this email over the top. To say nothing of the fact that this school has a large number of computer labs where you can print your paper.

Any thoughts? How would you respond to this student?

Student Evaluations: The Teacher-Tenure Conundrum

This being the end of the semester, there is a lot going on. Papers, exams and of course, student evaluations. This is the one time in the semester that I wonder, am I supposed to be a teacher or a job-seeker? Should I have played it safe all year, granting the students’ every wish and/or being an entertainer rather than an instructor? Or is it more important that they look back on my class as a learning experience (though difficult) even if it means that they give me bad evaluations now?

As all of you know, good student evaluations are essential for tenure. This is especially true for small colleges and for Millersville University where I will be teaching next year. Small colleges give the same importance to student evaluations that large research institutions give to publications. This leads to a sort of tyranny of the students. Teachers, the ones without tenure anyway, feel like the students should like them and like their classes. Pleasing the students takes the upper hand. The problem is that students often like a class when it is “fun.” And not only do I find it difficult to make Plato or the Presidency “fun” but I actually hate doing it. I feel like I am cheapening the material and playing the fool – maybe a Shakespearean “wise fool” but a fool nonetheless. A professor is supposed to teach, not entertain.

The other problem with student evaluations is grades. Students who get good grades tend to be the ones that like the class (they also tend to be the ones that work hard and listen and come to class) while those who get lower grades tend to dislike it. Now I have become a much easier grader in the past year but I am still not at a B average and therefore, you can imagine the comments I am prone to getting.

This is why I hate evaluations. I never get terrible ones but they are never glowing. Rather, I get a few students (very few) who will love the class (I even had 2 students change their majors to PT) but the rest just seem to tolerate it. And this bothers me. I am not trying to be nice or generous in class, I am trying to teach. I want them to learn. Which means I want students to be actively engaged with the material, to know, to be curious, to analyze, to discuss. Yet, most students seem to feel that a class should not be demanding; they do not want to be held to a higher standard. And this clearly impacts the evaluations.

Am I wrong? Should classes be fun? Should this be my goal? More importantly, to what extent can you combine fun with teaching and learning? What do you do to achieve this?

As I see it, there are a few ways in which people can respond to this post:
a. I am wrong and the material can be made fun, exciting and accessible while students are held to high standards.
b. Professors should be professors. They should teach as they think best without worrying about the impact on their evaluations. They should be professors, not a used car salesman.
c. Evaluations are not the be-all, end-all of tenure and therefore, teaching considerations should be balanced with tenure considerations.

What do you think? Any suggestions or thoughts on this conundrum?

Why Do I Like Blogging So Much?

The easy non-analytical answer is: it wastes time. It is a distraction from all the things I should be doing. So, instead of looking for dishes to wash or making unnecessary grocery store runs, I blog. Blogging is simply a good reason not to work on my dissertation!!!

But of course like all academics I want to analyze this answer. So here goes:

Anyone who knows me, knows I love reading fiction even at the busiest times of the year. But I do not read fiction simply for the joy of reading. I read it because it makes me feel good about myself. Reading political theory takes time; reading fiction reminds me that I am still a fast reader. I can read!! I am not simply plodding through, I am making progress!!! It makes me feel like I have achieved something in the day.

Writing can be worse than reading. I feel more reluctant to write than to read – partially because reading is passive and writing is not. I know some of you must have felt the need to tweak a sentence or a paragraph for minutes on end or gotten so frustrated at not getting your point across that you abandoned the endeavor for the day.

Things get worse when you are teaching full-time. With 95 students this semester, I have been feeling the impact of teaching on my dissertation. Try writing at the end of a 9am-5pm day of teaching and what seemed daunting is now impossible. The busy work associated with teaching makes things worse. Answering emails, keeping track of attendance, meetings – they all have to be done and seem easier to get through than writing after a long day of teaching.

But now, I have the blog and it presents some advantages. At least blogging is writing – not academic writing maybe but some variation of writing. Just like reading fiction is not as productive as reading PT but better than pottering around the house, writing a blog may not be the same as writing my dissertation but it is better than not writing at all. Or spending time emailing students.

To be fair, there are other reasons. I look forward to my friends’ blog and so I want to write one too. I also like sharing thoughts and events in my life with friends and family scattered throughout the country. But ultimately, the one which comes to my mind is that it means I am writing – maybe not my dissertation but something. Delusion though this may be, this is the one important reason that jumps out at me. I am writing!!