I officially started my new job as department chair this week. The first order of business was that the former chair and I spent a lot of time switching offices. Faculty have lots of stuff in their offices! We all MUST have our own libraries, as the school library simply cannot stock all the books we need for our particular needs for our particular courses. So, the former chair had a substantial math libray, and I have a substantial computer science library. More haulin' a**. But, thank goodness, there were no stairs involved.
Then I found out that a lot of the math books that he had were really not his at all. They were left over from when the department had its own "library" of sorts, and he simply never did anything with them. He did not take them, as he figured they were the dept. chair's problem. They took up all of a huge metal floor-to-ceiling bookshelf, which I could not use for my own books until I figured out something to do with them. I temporarily put them on top of a row of 4 filing cabinets, but that wasn't enough room. The rest went to the conference room cabinets. More haulin' a**.
A week or two after school starts, I plan on putting all of them in the middle of the conference room table, and tell my faculty to take what they want. After the faculty takes what they want, the rest will go to the table where students can take books for free. More haulin' a**.
The former chair has a bad heart, and the chairman job has affected his health. He was actually singing while we were switching offices, as he is SO glad to be out from under this job! He was a good chair, and he will be a hard act to follow, but I'll do my best. Already, there are problems to be tackled. Due to the scandals, our enrollment is projected to be down a LOT from the last few years. What do we do with the courses that only have 2,3,4 students enrolled? A meeting with the dean must happen soon.
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