Monday, August 27, 2007

And We're Back From Commercial Break

Classes started last Wednesday at DePauw. The School of Music is in a new building, so I have a new office, new classrooms, a new music library, and new bathrooms. We also have a new dean, a new departmental secretary, a new music librarian, a new recording arts specialist, and a new assistant to the dean. And I'm teaching third semester theory with a new text book this year. So, same old, same old.

I'm almost done with my tenure file. All letters from students and faculty were due today, and my completed folders are due next Monday. If any of you are determined to have a say in my tenure decision, you can send me an emailed letter, which I can still include in the files by next Monday. The School of Music has two tenure decisions this year, along with two interim reviews and a promotion to full professor. I'm up first, so I'll know my colleagues' decision in October. DePauw has an open file policy, so I get to see everything in my file, including the report written by the School's personnel committee. I also get to write a response to their report, which is then passed along to the University's Committee on Faculty, which has the unenviable task of reviewing all the promotion, tenure, and interim reviews (and term reviews) for the university. I don't know when I will hear from them, probably sometime late in November by mid-December.

In running I've gotten up to 10K distances, though I'm pretty slow at those distances. I will be running in a local 4-mile race at the end of September, and will look for a good 10K for October.

I have finished a new draft of my articulation article, and am waiting for feedback from an adviser before sending it off for hopeful publication. I have a publisher's review to work on now, and then I'm going to start whittling away at the other two articles I was supposed to work on during my pre-tenure leave. Fortunately my teaching schedule leaves Fridays open for research, and unfortunately my personal life leaves many afternoons and evenings free for both research and class prep. So I hope to make some significant progress in my research.

I'm also ready to start back into blogging, though I have marked all 1400 posts in Bloglines read so I apologize for missing any excellent thoughts you have made. During my blogging sabbatical I watched the complete extended Lord of the Rings (yet again) and read Vernor Vinge's Rainbow's End. Right now I'm watching the documentaries from the Lord of the Rings DVDs (yet again) and reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Stay tuned for my defense of harmony.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

From whom are you defending harmony?