Doing research this summer with REU students requires a 10 week full time commitment. I could supervise up to 2 students in my lab. It's a rockin' way to get some good publishable data with undergraduate co-authors (highly valued at PUIs).
The last two years I applied for- and got- a summer stipend for scholarship worth $1500. Pull out your calculators. 10 weeks * 45-50 hours / week = 500 hours. $1500/ 500 hours is *$3.00 / hour* WITH THE SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS.
I have a Ph.D. from a top-tier institution, am postdoctorally trained at a prestigious research institution, and would make more money working at the daycare I take Boy to. I could wipe snotty noses all day for more money than I would using a technique that about 400 people in the world have the skills to do.
Clearly, I am not in science for the money. And I do love my job. Now, I don't want to be too dramatic: I have a livable monthly income year round even though it is a 9 month salary subdivided into 12 payments. Don't get the impression that I won't be making my mortgage this summer.
___BUT___ I was reminded today that for economic reasons there will be no summer research scholarship funds available for the next two summers. That means the miserable $1500 would will not be available. I would be making $0.00 / hour.
Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
Now the question is, will I volunteer my time in my lab for the good of my career and the university? If you want to look at it another way, will I pay the daycare $1600 to do research this summer?
I am highly motivated do the research, even though my career would not be harmed irrevocably by taking the summer off. For one, I really want to get my students publications! I lure them into the lab and keep them motivated with this "carrot". Moreover (perhaps the real reason?) if I ever become disillusioned with Small Religious U, I need the credentials to go elsewhere worthy, and that includes publications.
Should I say "Forget it! I'm going to take Boy to the pool, go to museums, work out far more frequently, bike-trailer the Boy on the rail-trails, meet with friends, play on the swings, teach Boy to sing!"? Or should I continue to put the boy in the dark daycare with all the other snotty-nosed, sticky-fingered kids, and make as Isis says, "hot, hot science"?
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Thinkin' Ahead to Summer
I have to nail my summer down right now. In beginning November. Its the last thing I wanna think of right now!
Options:
1. Teach a May or June course. 3 weeks intensive and about $2500. New course not in my field of expertise. Probably 5 students max.
2. Get 1-2 students from the local REU for research. 10 weeks full time for a very miserable $1500 (talk about unfunded mandate!). I need the students to get my summer research done. And I need the summers to get publishable data.
3. Both A and B, with caution not to overlap.
4. Take Boy and live with Hub in major city suburb. He doesn't have the summer off. We would save about $1600 in day care expenses.
Anyone have suggestions??
Options:
1. Teach a May or June course. 3 weeks intensive and about $2500. New course not in my field of expertise. Probably 5 students max.
2. Get 1-2 students from the local REU for research. 10 weeks full time for a very miserable $1500 (talk about unfunded mandate!). I need the students to get my summer research done. And I need the summers to get publishable data.
3. Both A and B, with caution not to overlap.
4. Take Boy and live with Hub in major city suburb. He doesn't have the summer off. We would save about $1600 in day care expenses.
Anyone have suggestions??
Friday, November 6, 2009
Freaked about Upcoming talk
I mentioned that I've been invited to talk at Hub's U. The day is approaching, and I am putting together the powerpoint. First I was a little freaked becasue I couldn't find the figures my summer students left on my computer, and now I am trying to select a few articles to read in the near future to review the literature and be ready for questions. When I started to go through my pile of papers to do triage, I was overwhelmed at the low ratio of
literature I know
to
literature I should know / I knew but have forgotten
YIKES!!!! I'm going to sink. The sharks are going to eat me.
Ok, I'm trying to shake it off now.
literature I know
to
literature I should know / I knew but have forgotten
YIKES!!!! I'm going to sink. The sharks are going to eat me.
Ok, I'm trying to shake it off now.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Dept. of Exactly what I do vs Dept. of Everything
Father in law came to visit last weekend. He is a "way up there" endowed professor at Monstrous U. He was for a long the time the chair of the rather large department of Exactly What He Does (mango slicing, vertically). We don't even teach an introductory course in Exactly What He Does.
I suffered a bit of culture shock when I was first hired at Small Religious U, because I came from International Prestigious Research Institution in which there were more people in the department of exactly what I do (mango slicing, vertically, 1" separation), than there are faculty in the whole University here.
Our University has lumped several very broad subjects together and called it the Department of Everything. For example, I see other schools our size with a Department of Social Sciences that include Sociology and Psychology and perhaps even Education in one department...or lumping all of the Arts into one Department. What large schools have colleges of, we have departments of.
We have under 10 faculty in one basic science and under 5 in another, our two departments share a chair, meetings, and most functions. One reason we won't officially merge the two departments is because it will make us look, well, too small.
When there's only 10 people in your department, you can't hide from any you don't like. Thank goodness I like and respect all of my colleagues, because one goober could ruin the group dynamic for the whole bunch. Hiring is soooo risky!
There's a department in our building which has two faculty in it. We joke with these two about their department meetings: that they consist of one leaning on the door post of the other's office. And how do you determine who is the chair? Flip a coin? Alternate? Can you imagine what your life would be like if there was only one more person in your department and they were obnoxious?? and tenured???
I suffered a bit of culture shock when I was first hired at Small Religious U, because I came from International Prestigious Research Institution in which there were more people in the department of exactly what I do (mango slicing, vertically, 1" separation), than there are faculty in the whole University here.
Our University has lumped several very broad subjects together and called it the Department of Everything. For example, I see other schools our size with a Department of Social Sciences that include Sociology and Psychology and perhaps even Education in one department...or lumping all of the Arts into one Department. What large schools have colleges of, we have departments of.
We have under 10 faculty in one basic science and under 5 in another, our two departments share a chair, meetings, and most functions. One reason we won't officially merge the two departments is because it will make us look, well, too small.
When there's only 10 people in your department, you can't hide from any you don't like. Thank goodness I like and respect all of my colleagues, because one goober could ruin the group dynamic for the whole bunch. Hiring is soooo risky!
There's a department in our building which has two faculty in it. We joke with these two about their department meetings: that they consist of one leaning on the door post of the other's office. And how do you determine who is the chair? Flip a coin? Alternate? Can you imagine what your life would be like if there was only one more person in your department and they were obnoxious?? and tenured???
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
30 minutes to prep for tomorrow
A 30 minute break from meetings and teaching was all I had today. ALL DAY.
I got into work at a reasonable hour: 8:30a ish, and prepped, albeit not thoroughly enough, for my 9:30 lab which lasted until 12:00p. Then a luncheon meeting 12-1:15, then I prepped from 1:15-1:45 (MY BREAK) for tomorrows lecture (1 of 3). The only reason I got 30 minutes instead of 15 is that a student was late for a meeting for help in my class. From then on, I had office drop-by advising scheduled and that was a constant stream of advisees interrupted by my research students until finally I escaped at 4pm to my lab, where I showed my student how to do a procedure with some nasty stuff. Didn't want him to figure that one out on his own from the protocol. We finished at 5:15p, and I went to pick up Boy from the day care.
That was just way too much, way too much. I still have several hours of work to do before 10am tomorrow, not including grading and talking to the Hub via Skype.
I don't see it getting better in the rest of the week. I am really stressing about the talk at Suburban MRU, and want to devote some undivided attention to it, so advising week and new procedures in the lab are very inconvenient right now. I'm reading everyone else's laments of packed days. Is there something about this time of year?
I got into work at a reasonable hour: 8:30a ish, and prepped, albeit not thoroughly enough, for my 9:30 lab which lasted until 12:00p. Then a luncheon meeting 12-1:15, then I prepped from 1:15-1:45 (MY BREAK) for tomorrows lecture (1 of 3). The only reason I got 30 minutes instead of 15 is that a student was late for a meeting for help in my class. From then on, I had office drop-by advising scheduled and that was a constant stream of advisees interrupted by my research students until finally I escaped at 4pm to my lab, where I showed my student how to do a procedure with some nasty stuff. Didn't want him to figure that one out on his own from the protocol. We finished at 5:15p, and I went to pick up Boy from the day care.
That was just way too much, way too much. I still have several hours of work to do before 10am tomorrow, not including grading and talking to the Hub via Skype.
I don't see it getting better in the rest of the week. I am really stressing about the talk at Suburban MRU, and want to devote some undivided attention to it, so advising week and new procedures in the lab are very inconvenient right now. I'm reading everyone else's laments of packed days. Is there something about this time of year?
Monday, November 2, 2009
1-2 courses and E-mail first impressions
I teach a 1-2 course. Since Small Religious U is, well...small, we don't have the resources to offer options other than 1 in the Fall and 2 in the Spring. Every once in a while, I get a student who, for whatever reason needs to take 2 first, then 1 later.
This is an introductory level course, so its pretty important that you get the fundamentals in 1 before you go to 2. However, sharp students can do 2-1 with a bit of effort. So we entertain 2-1 requests on a case-by-case basis. I decide. Oh, the power....
Last student who requested 2-1 came from a school where I know their science teacher, and he is a rock star. Just on the basis of that I let that student in, and that student did very well.
Today I had a 2-1 request come in. The e-mail was written very badly, and didn't even get the name of the course right. The student called her advisor Mrs. Firstname, which always pisses me off but I take as a general level of cluelessness. Since she had incomplete sentences, the wrong name of the class, and an overall impression of cluelessness in the e-mail, I just flat out said no. I didn't even agree to meet with her to discuss it. I'm too busy for that. I said very respectfully see you next fall in 1.
I wonder if they have a clue the impression their careless e-mails give??
This is an introductory level course, so its pretty important that you get the fundamentals in 1 before you go to 2. However, sharp students can do 2-1 with a bit of effort. So we entertain 2-1 requests on a case-by-case basis. I decide. Oh, the power....
Last student who requested 2-1 came from a school where I know their science teacher, and he is a rock star. Just on the basis of that I let that student in, and that student did very well.
Today I had a 2-1 request come in. The e-mail was written very badly, and didn't even get the name of the course right. The student called her advisor Mrs. Firstname, which always pisses me off but I take as a general level of cluelessness. Since she had incomplete sentences, the wrong name of the class, and an overall impression of cluelessness in the e-mail, I just flat out said no. I didn't even agree to meet with her to discuss it. I'm too busy for that. I said very respectfully see you next fall in 1.
I wonder if they have a clue the impression their careless e-mails give??
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