June 4  Boxes and boxes, awash in the contents of my office.  Perhaps the nautical metaphor is not appropriate although I am close to the point where I would put it all on a barge and have it towed out into the East River.

This is not turning out to be easy.  My office is now a tumult of books and papers and boxes.  And I just started teaching a distance class today, May 20th.  Have to move papers and books aside to make room for the keyboard.  And now stuff is coming off the walls.  It will need to be painted, that is for sure.  A few night ago I woke up at 3 am wondering what the heck I was going to do with the huge oak piece that I have used for years for storage.  After several hours stewing, I realized I don't have to do anything with it.  The university can keep it.  And, I have now begun to unload books.  Next will be files and files and files.

Last Class??

Last night I taught the final section of EDAD 830, Administrative Theory.  It is this face to face class that I have been enjoying all semester.  These students are very creative and they do devote time and energy to learning the material I have outlined for them.  But, now that I have gone through this one time, I see how much more I could have incorporated into the class.  Because most of them are student affairs students, I felt uncertain about how to present administrative theory to them.  Some of it worked well.  Some did not.  I'd make different choices next time.  For example, I would use more papers and order them more sequentially and use fewer books.  1 text and a bunch of seminal papers.  I was educated by these 25-35 year olds, millennials who do have a whole set of skills that I don't normally see.  And they come to the course as educated students.  They know about more than just education.

Presentations came in the form of Youtubes, Extranormal, ShowMes and Prezis.  Very few power points.  Refreshing.

Hard to believe but today is a moderate snow squall with very strong north winds.  Maybe that is why I feel such paralysis as I look about TEAC 133.  There are plaques all over the place, books that have been old friends for so long, cabinets full of research work and student information.  What do I do with all of it.  The oak furniture is going home and even that is a problem.  Where to put it all.  I have had some relief from a librarian named Mary Ellen who has instructed me about what I need to do to archive my papers and work.  So that is a relief.  But each box needs to be catalogued.  Some things I understand.  The Fulbright work in Georgia will all fall in place, even with recent papers.  I am not sure how to save the blog I made, but I guess it will have to be a print file.  Maybe a floppy disc but that doesn't seem very wise since floppy disc's probably won't be around in ten years.

It's a psychological problem.  And comics like Thurber and CN Parkinson are no help.

Yesterday, the EDAD faculty met.  On the agenda was my continued service on the College's Promotion and Tenure Committee.  I have a term that ends in 2014.  But, my agreement with the chair was that if I go part time, I will not need to do any service work.  From my perspective, this was a necessary understanding to guard myself from a weakness--that of agreeing to do department, college, and university service.

I think this will be one of the markers that will signal to colleagues that I am leaving.  Maybe no one will notice.  One's name fades quickly once one becomes invisible.  Or so I suspect.

 I write this post more as a placeholder that I want to think more about this aspect of departing the professoriate and how I have come to understand the years of committee work that have been a valued part of my experience as a professor.

I begin with this issue about vacating my office because this has assumed symbolic importance for me.  The place I have occupied for some years is not the only office I have had during my 28 years at the University of Nebraska.  My first office was a former dormitory room in a place called Seaton Hall that was converted to office space in the late 70s I think.  Then we were moved to the 5th floor of Nebraska Hall, a huge monolithic structure that was once an Elgin watch factory and then later a munitions facility.  Or so I was told.  I forget the dates of these various moves.  In the early nineties we were moved into a new building and it my office in this building that I will vacate.

Here is a an assignment that I used in a class called the American Professoriate.  It may give you some sense as to why I feel vacating my office is so symbolic.  I would guess many retiring professors have similar experiences although I am sure many do not leave these institutional spaces with great nostalgia.

Office Assignment

On page 14, Mary Burgan writes, “One of the hardest challenges for retiring faculty is giving up their offices and labs.” She goes on to describe the importance of the professor’s office space, how personalized it is, and how even in its physical presence the faculty office enriches the experience of the on campus student because it contributes to that diversity and multiplicity of views that she finds essential in higher education. Her book goes on to document in detail the historic strengths of the American professoriate and the current threats to its continued health.

Mary Burgan was the executive director of the American Association of University Professors for many years. Her book, Whatever Happened to the Professoriate, offers a professor's view.  She has long been one of the leaders of this organization of professors. The AAUP is the single most important association that supports and defends the American professoriate. Most of the nation’s colleges and universities have chapters on their campuses. In some places these chapters are highly active and influential; in others they are shadow organizations that usually are only activated when there is some significant conflict.

Please read the 1940 Statement of Principles of Academic Freedom and Tenure. Realize that from Burgan’s perspective, it is these principles that are threatened by the many changes occurring in higher education. And realize we will end the course with a book by A. Kamenetz that seems to welcome many of the threats to higher education as overdue. Realize also that Burgan’s bias comes from her location in a Big Ten university and that while she has visited and is familiar with thousands of other campuses, her inclinations would be leave some professors (those in proprietary institutions for example) on the margins.

The AAUP is now a bifurcated organization. It has two faces: 1) the conference chapter that does not bargain; 2) the collective bargaining chapter that does represent a campus faculty.  All the growth in recent years can be found in those campuses with collective bargaining chapters. UNL has a moribund AAUP and it does not collectively bargain; UNO has a robust AAUP chapter and it does collectively bargain.

Given this, I am going to ask you to undertake an experiment. I want you to explore the appearance of faculty offices at an institution of your choice. Then, using your smart phone or any phone that allows you to send digital images to me and to post to the forum, I want you to take pictures of the office of your choice (with of course the permission of the occupant). Then share with your small group members. Decide which of your photos to share with the class. Post photos and your accompanying description in the Class Discussion Forum set up for this assignment. 

We are then going to have a class vote on the best photo in each of the following categories. If you wish, we can send the winning professor a certificate of appreciation. This is all in fun:

 The Categories

1) The Professor's Daily Worklife

2) The Professor and his/her passions

3) The Professor's humor

Please limit your group submissions to five photos in all. You decide what category your photos should be entered in. You should write a brief description and analysis of each photo and include this with your submission. Post your photos and descriptions to the Class Forum set up for this assignment.  

If Burgan is correct, we should be able to find a significant diversity. I will post a few photos of my own to start the competition. In such a competition, the power will be in the details.  

Sample Photo - Bryant's Office

  

 I would put this in the cluttered office category.  This is the second day of a new semester.  Imagine, if you will ,how the clutter will grow over the next few weeks.  Below is another sample photo I would enter in the same category.

Mary Burgan Assignment Details

On page 14, Mary Burgan writes, “One of the hardest challenges for retiring faculty is giving up their offices and labs.” She goes on to describe the importance of the professor’s office space, how personalized it is, and how even in its physical presence the faculty office enriches the experience of the on campus student because it contributes to that diversity and multiplicity of views that she finds essential in higher education. Her book goes on to document in detail the historic strengths of the American professoriate and the current threats to its continued health.

Mary Burgan was the executive director of the American Association of University Professors for many years. Her book, Whatever Happened to the She has long been one of the leaders of this organization of professors. The AAUP is the single most important association that supports and defends the American professoriate. Most of the nation’s colleges and universities have chapters on their campuses. In some places these chapters are highly active and influential; in others they are shadow organizations that usually are only activated when there is some significant conflict.

Please read the 1940 Statement of Principles of Academic Freedom and Tenure. Realize that from Burgan’s perspective, it is these principles that are threatened by the many changes occurring in higher education. And realize we will end the course with a book by A. Kamenetz that seems to welcome many of the threats to higher education as overdue. Realize also that Burgan’s bias comes from her location in a Big Ten university and that while she has visited and is familiar with thousands of other campuses, her inclinations would be leave some professors (those in proprietary institutions for example) on the margins.

The AAUP is now a bifurcated organization. It has two faces: 1) the conference chapter that does not bargain; 2) the collective bargaining chapter that does represent a campus faculty.  All the growth in recent years can be found in those campuses with collective bargaining chapters. UNL has a moribund AAUP and it does not collectively bargain; UNO has a robust AAUP chapter and it does collectively bargain.

Given this, I am going to ask you to undertake an experiment. I want you to explore the appearance of faculty offices at an institution of your choice. Then, using your smart phone or any phone that allows you to send digital images to me and to post to the forum, I want you to take pictures of the office of your choice (with of course the permission of the occupant). Then share with your small group members. Decide which of your photos to share with the class. Post photos and your accompanying description in the Class Discussion Forum set up for this assignment. 

We are then going to have a class vote on the best photo in each of the following categories. If you wish, we can send the winning professor a certificate of appreciation. This is all in fun:

 The Categories

1) The Professor's Daily Worklife

2) The Professor and his/her passions

3) The Professor's humor

Please limit your group submissions to five photos in all. You decide what category your photos should be entered in. You should write a brief description and analysis of each photo and include this with your submission. Post your photos and descriptions to the Class Forum set up for this assignment.  Points in Gradebook = 20. Due Nov. 20.

If Burgan is correct, we should be able to find a significant diversity. I will post a few photos of my own to start the competition. In such a competition, the power will be in the details.  

Sample Photo - Bryant's Office

  

 I would put this in the clutter office category.  This is the second day of a new semester.  Imagine if you will how the clutter will grow over the next few weeks.  Below is another sample photo I would enter in the same category.

  

 Here is a picture of a bookcase.  What can one tell from the titles?

  

 Here is a picture of a bookcase.  What can one tell from the titles?

Today is April 3 of 2013 and I am already behind with this initiative. I had thought to start working on it back in January. It was during that cold winter month in Nebraska when I had a conversation with Brent Cejda, my chairperson. Would I, he asked, be willing to vacate my office when I went to a part time status part way through the summer. Sure, I casually answered. In my part time status I will teach only on line students and only advise doctoral students at the candidacy stage. So, I rationalized, I won't need an office. I had the thought not many days afterwards that my experience in departing the professoriate has been a journey thousands of other professors have experienced. And the numbers increase daily. There might be some value in trying to capture the experience. Miles