New Year's Eve

It sort of is New Year's Eve, right? As an academic, I tend to measure years by academic years (AYs). The beginning of a new AY is always a time when I reflect on what I do well, try to change what I don't do well, and vow to do better.

Of course, this year is already off to a rough start. To recap: I had hip surgery, developed a blood clot, dropped to 50% for the semester, all of which is recounted in ridiculous detail on my other blog. And I have a whole new love/hate story to begin the new year by.

Love: On the one hand, my Chair has been extremely supportive of me and all of my last-minute crises. Finding a replacement for my courses took some doing, and he never once gave me a hard time about it, instead reassuring me that my health was what mattered the most.

Hate: On the other hand, the story behind getting rid of my second course perfectly illustrates the bizarre, behind-the-scenes train wrecks of my work life. Without going into nitty gritty detail, it turns out that we had a new TTF who did not have a teaching assignment for this semester (once again, think dysfunctional department). After much ado, the new TTF agreed to take over my course instead of a course being taught by a different instructor. Interestingly enough, although this problem most directly involved myself and this other instructor, it took two days worth of e-mailing amongst the tenure-track faculty to get this all worked out, and only after they reached a resolution were the other instructor and I privy to any of the correspondence that had been taking place. Furthermore, when it was finally decided that the new TTF would teach my course in my place, the Chair CCed another instructor into the conversation, only because it was expected that we all share our teaching materials with the new TTF. Of course, this instructor had NO IDEA that any of this was going on because she hadn't been included in any of the previous correspondence. She immediately replied, saying that she was happy to help out in any way, but also, "This is all news to me... Is Waning okay?!"

This made me realize that none of the NTTF knew about the situation, which... is weird. Weird, but normal. Normal as in the status quo. Since the department got a new Chair a few years ago, NTTF have not been included in any important dialogue or decisions, even ones that directly affect us (e.g., curriculum changes). Instead, we have to rely on rumors and/or information from a few of the NTTF-friendly TTFs, and then get admonished for bringing up things that we hear through the grapevine because our Chair "isn't big on rumors." (Which leads us to wonder: Is is "just a rumor" if it is actually true?) Anyway. Not that my hip ordeal is big news or even that important, but it is certainly just as important for NTTF to know as it is for TTF.

So, I took it upon myself to send out an e-mail to all the NTTF, as well as some of our staff, and because I can't help being snarky, I started it off as: I realized in the latest round of correspondence that C. had included only the tenure-track faculty (no comment), so I'm taking it upon myself to let you know what is going on. I immediately got a bunch of responses from people thanking me for letting them know what was happening. Not knowing what is going on, or only having a vague idea what is going on, from the grapevine we've been instructed not to listen to, is the NTTF's biggest complaint. I think we all understand that you can't always have it your way, and there are going to be things you don't like (such is life!) but geez, just let us know what's happening at least. As Dr. Evil in Austin Powers would say, "Throw me a frickin' bone here!"

And so it begins. Happy New Year!