Still in the Running
Woohoo! Just got a message from almost perfect job. I'm still in the running and they wanted to know if I were still interested. Duh! Plus there are now five jobs plus the Dean job for which I can apply. Only down side to almost perfect? 5-5 teaching load. A little scary. Also not in as beautiful a place as where I am now. But I'm still in the running and I really liked the people. Yay.
12 comments:
Awesome! That's a good sign, that they're asking if you're still interested - it's the kind of thing jobs do prior to setting something official into motion, b/c they don't want to bother to go through the bureaucracy if you no longer want the position.
5-5 load...that's tough. But are the classes small? And would it be repeated preps? Still seems worth following up the other stuff, though, including the Dean job.
Good news! Although, 5-5? Kind of a lot, huh?
Can you find out more about the courses? Like the NK says, if they're small and repeats, might not be so bad. And it's definitely a good idea to look into the other five jobs.
Keeping fingers crossed for you anyway!
Yikes, ADM, a 5-5 seems a little out there to me. I would definitely make sure it is small classes and repeat preps...otherwise you'll be a thoroughly exhausted ADM. :) But, on the other hand, jobs are good! Congrats...
It's a CC, so not unheard-of. Classes are capped at 35, and generally no more than 3 preps. Still, it's a lot. The encouraging part is that I know the other Europeanist from conferences and know she is going to try to keep up with scholarship. The other good thing is that it's semesters, so it will be much easier to go to conferences, even though there is not much funding for travel.
Definitely keeping other apps in the works, though. Fortunately, there's a bit of overlap, because it would be really bad to spend time on a bunch of apps and then get an offer -- or get an offer and then get another after I'd accepted ...
Yay! Good on ya!
I agree, that 5-5 seems heavy. Might be worth inquiring about service reductions (at least if the rest of the faculty aren't carrying such loads) or if some of the load could be distributed into summer sessions, if you're the kind of person who prefers to write during the year, not just over the summer.
Rana
Unfortunately, that's not so much of a possibility -- writing is a luxury, teaching and service are what tenure is based on. ANd really, it's what I do best, but it doesn't mean I don't want to write.
Since you've already got a lot of preps under your belt, at least it won't likely be a lot of new preps. The 35 cap is reasonable: you might inquire about smaller caps for writing-intensive courses, if they have that kind of program. I find that most history courses could qualify as writing intensive (by the weak campus-wide standards of such programs) with at most minimal adjustment, and you get students who are often more prepared for hard work and feedback, plus credit for contributing to general education programs.
I've come across the 5-5 load before...a woman I know from grad school has come close, with a 4-5 load, and I had a "this isn't a phone interview but by the way let me ask you a bunch of questions on no notice" call with with a school that had a 5-5 load - and it *wasn't* a CC (though it was a state school with a similar mission serving similar kinds of students), and even had an MA program (though not in my field). I was a temporary faculty at the time and the guy asked me about the job, asked what the load was, and I said, "4-4", and he said (get this): Oh, so it's a research position. WTF???????
(Not that this is incredibly relevant to your job search, ADM, I just like telling that story!)
It is a heavy load, but if you like the people and the general feeling/mission/approach of the place, that can make up for a lot. (At least, in theory - it's true I haven't done it, just trying to think positively!) And then there are the other possibilities...
Yeah, NK -- I had a call like that that was a phone interview. They apologized for the 4-4 load, and were all unclear as to how much had to be produced for tenure. Nice people, great location, very apologetic -- but the rejection letter was really quite nasty. Who knows? I think the committee members were all just really inexperienced.
And the 5-5 isn't really that different than what I have now -- 3-3-3, sometimes 4-3-3. At least classes don't meet daily, which they do here. Ugh. And I really liked the people -- the other European person is a Byzantinist, I think. Fortunately at a CC that doesn't really preclude hiring a second medievalist -- especially since I've been doing modern for a while. It may mean that I don't get as many chances to teach in my specialty, but my feeling about prospective colleague is that she is willing to share.
Three cheers for continued interest!
5-5 is pretty brutal (though I've heard some of the Cal States have it, too). Capped at 35 means you're teaching about the same number of students I get on my heavy semesters, and my load is 2-3 (but the classes are ridiculously huge). It's doable, as long as you don't make them write, of course. And three preps max helps, as well. Then again, it's a load similar to what ppl get when they teach high school, and a lot of the hs teachers I know actually manage to write more than some of the college profs. And if the classes don't meet every day, that's great too. Plus, my experience of the ccs (ymmv) is that there's less of the hand-holding crap you sometimes get at schools like the one I'm at now--more students are adults, and act accordingly.
Having said all that, congrats. The main thing is, do you think you'll like the job? And it sounds like you do. So good on ya,
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