dr_phil_physics | The Usual Angst

Slow Time

I am in the middle of giving two Final Exams back-to-back... after a frenzy of activity as one class finished and the other one started, nothing is going on except the quiet desperation of first semester Physics students...

Whither Dr. Phil?

Naturally, even as I finish up this semester, grade everything, find all the loose papers and turn in the grades by Monday at noon, and then start a richly deserved down time for the second summer session -- I find myself in the usual arrangement of still not knowing if I have a job in the Fall. See, I'm part-time, my hiring is at the whim of the departmental need, plus the budget and enrollment numbers. Two of those are good indicators. The university's budget, however... I guess we don't start the new fiscal year until July, so my chair doesn't have the power to offer a contract letter or not.

Theoretically, if I don't get a contract for the Fall, then we're much better off than when I've been "underemployed" in previous years. And while I relish the thought of having "lots o' time" for writing, it really would be annoying to not be working in the Fall.

And lord knows I do NOT want to have to spend my summer off dismantling my overstuffed office and trying to shoehorn a ton o' boxes and extra computers into our house...

I hate the uncertainty of a fragile Michigan economy.

Dr. Phil