2006-11-21 - 8:12 a.m.

...canonical rules of academia...

Still under a drinking water advisory, two days in advance of American Thanksgiving. Cooking this year could be mighty interesting. The other issue is that one of the guests does not use any dairy products. hmmmm, pretty much everything in my Thanksgiving dinner involves a dairy product, so time for modifications.

Had a 3-hour faculty meeting yesterday, and I am still coming away with the sense of east-west culture shock. I have a sense that honest on the east coast is abrasive on the west coast, and abrasive is simply not my intent. Canonical advice to the untenured faculty member is to sit quietly through meetings, but I just think that it is too disingenuine (sheesh how does one spell that) to sit on my opinions until I have tenure, especially in matters of hiring and appointing that will affect the whole department.

I am certain that I am not offensive, but I know that I am direct, which is especially noticeable if you are one of three women in the room, and only one of two who contributes. I think that it is perhaps just a matter of rhetoric - getting into the habit of couching opinions with "I am confused by what you say..." or "It has been my experience that..." or "you make a very good point, but from my perspective..." Alas. Today will involve some door-to-door visits so that I can smooth over any rough edges, if I even created them (I can't tell).

I sent a frustrated email to our chair on Friday regarding my boxes, and he centralized the searching efforts, and even threw in an apology for the department's neglect of the situation. So there is at least an awareness of what has been lost. But the waiting just sucks.

Another meeting today - the safety committee. Good lord academic life is a process of moving from meeting to meeting. I am trying to follow some other canonical advice from one of my colleagues - don't create work for yourself and others.