Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Saying no.... to the dean...

My Dean is usually quite nice and pleasant...

and what she suggested wasn't something terrible -- although she did suggest that I get involved with BICC (big icky college committee).

BICC commitment, for a faculty member, means about a 3 hour commitment EVERY WEEK. That is the same requirement as for a course -- without release time of any sort, at least not for the committee members. Administrators attend meetings every other week, but faculty members do mentoring every week....

anyway, I was expressing a couple of concerns AND I wanted to get them to define 'writing intensive' -- which is a big deal, it turns out... and she suggested I get on the committee...

and I resisted.

I told her that the time it meets would interrupt my dissertation time -- and that I just couldn't do it until I was 'Inside the Philosophy Factory, PhD'.

I'm pretty darned proud of myself... it isn't easy to say no, especially to this dean -- and I did so without hesitation and without any kind of problem.

2 comments:

julie said...

Good for you - I have been on BICC, and it's a weird place. Ask Wise Woman.

We could use you, though. (Obviously, I'm assuming I'll be back on it after sabb. - if they want me. I'm a bit of a PitA.)

Inside the Philosophy Factory said...

If you are on BICC next year, you'll be the PitA I'll need to get them to actually move on defining 'writing intensive'.

I'm already working at building a coalition of folks from different disciplines who are interested in teaching writing intensive courses...

Of course, with my luck, I'll get it going next year, get it passed and then either go on sabbatical or get a job in Red State before I can actually teach one of them...