Tenure Revisited (2/5) - "The Faculty Lounge & Other Reasons Why You Won't Get the College Education You Paid For" by Naomi Shaefer Riley

Readers,

A few days ago, my husband and I were persisting through our normal Saturday night activities. These include cooking dinner, grabbing a laptop, preparing lesson plans for the upcoming week, reading tomorrow's Sunday School lesson, and watching TV. This night, we were focused on CSPAN. As we flipped through the channels, we heard a book author on CSPAN mention the tenure process and we immediately stopped on this program. I love the weekend programming on CSPAN and I love Book TV, but this program was slightly different.

This program focused on a recent book titled, "The Faculty Lounge & Other Reasons Why You Won't Get the College Education You Paid For" by Naomi Shaefer Riley. I would  love to read and review this book because it seemed to contain a wealth of information focused on large research universities and it ignored professors who teach at smaller public and private colleges and institutions. Typically, we do not make over $50,000 and we teach more than four courses a semester. We volunteer to advise student organizations and to involve our students in extra curricular activities. For her next book, she should focus on mid-sized institutions and community colleges to give the public a holistic perspective of the faculty experience.

Enough of my commentary, here's the video:

What do you think of the video? I plan to order the book through our library's interlibrary loan program.

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Tenure Revisited (1/5) - My Personal and Ongoing Journey...Persisting Through the Tenure Process

Readers,

During this month, I have been focused on the tenure process. Every year, I set goals for my teaching, research, and service requirements. This year, I am more focused on undergraduate research, large-scale university events, and cross-collaborative research efforts. I hope to start working with a few of the professors from the STEM fields on a grant (or two).

This week's post is focused on the tenure process. Tenure is such a topic of conversation in Texas (as well as the nation) and there are various positive and negative views focused on the tenure process. Despite the attacks to the tenure process, I revisit my tenure portfolio and the tenure requirements for my department to determine how I can exceed my own expectations regarding teaching, research, and service. I attempt to integrate all three of the requirements in every activity that I choose to pursue. 

Despite the individual nature of the tenure process, I try to make each of my research projects and service activities a collaborative process to help early career faculty in their tenure process. Sometimes it is hard for others to persist through this process and I try to help as many people as possible.

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Healthy Meals for Professors-on-the-Go (5/5) - Freebie Friday - The Sabra House Party (Intercultural Communication)

Readers,

I LOVE Hummus! This year, I am teaching Intercultural Communication and we have 23+ eager college students who are eager to try the product, integrate the product in their daily recipes, and tweet about the product! Last year, we hosted the Green Works House Party in our department's classes and it was a HUGE hit! This year, we are applying for the Sabra Hummus House Party! Here's our plan:

This year, we are learning about MANY different cultures and hummus has such a RICH history! For example, in our HOUSE PARTY we would:

I. Discovering Hummus - What IS Hummus? (Have you heard of it? Have you tried it? What is the history of Hummus?)

II. Introduction to the Sabra Website (Viewing Youtube Clips, etc.)

III. Trying the Hummus - We will have four different recipes and recipe ideas for the partygoers to try!

IV. Brainstorming about Hummus - How Can People Use Hummus in Easy, Everyday Recipes? We plan to come up with at least 20 different ways and to post these ideas on Facebook, tweet these ideas, and gather additional ideas from others through these social networking websites.

V. Distribution of Hummus Recipes AND Coupons for Sabra Hummus

Then, we will post pictures on our website, blogs, and Facebook profile. In addition, we will interact with others through the #SabraParty hashtag and the Sabra Twitterfeed - http://twitter.com/SABRA.

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Healthy Meals for Professors-on-the-Go (4/5) - Academic Travel and Cooking in Your Hotel Room/Eating Between Conference Sessions

Readers,

Every year, I present sessions for at least five to six local, regional, and national conferences. Fortunately, our university offers a slight amount of funding for academic travel, but the other sources of funding have to be either funded by external grants or our personal funds. During my first year out of graduate school, my family had to drastically reduce our personal household budget to accommodate my conference travel. As a result, I have had to adopt a very frugal lifestyle when it comes to attending academic conferences. However, this year I have to focus on living a frugal, yet healthy lifestyle when attending my conferences.

Usually, I travel with the following items:

- At least five pieces of fruit and veggies (bell pepper, avocado, bananas, grapes, etc.)

- A plastic bag filled with Planters Nut-rition goodies!
- A plastic bag filled with five or more Honey Ginseng Green Tea packets from the Republic of Tea.

- Instant soup and oatmeal packets.

- An empty reusable bottle.

- Kashi Granola Bars

- My hubby's Texas A&M Coffee Mug (great for instant soup and oatmeal)

This instant breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner kit helps me survive the long conference days and the equally long grading sessions at night for my online classes. It is very interesting how some professors stop communicating with their students and grading papers when attending academic conferences. I set boundaries with e-mail response times and I might have to alter my virtual office hours, but I never stop communicating with students (even when my schedule becomes quite hectic).

Recently, I started exploring additional ways to become more productive in my hotel room while maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Here are some great (yet extreme) videos focused on how to cook in a hotel room. Some of these might be great for you! :)

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41