The Big Decision

[cornerofmadness]

Well who knew making a choice could be so agonizing? Time to turn back the clock two weeks and just say I already have a job… Time to grow a spine and learn to make choices… I'll cut the whole part about the trip for those willing to be bored. I'll leave the pro's and con's uncut since people were interested. And yes, this is something I'd love to hear from you all on, especially those of you in the teaching biz.

 

So I head for Bluefield WV. This means going from a tiny airport in Rhinelander to Minneapolis first. The weather here is horrid but my little prop plane gets going and Minn. As always is a good airport  (it’s one of the few airports I wouldn’t mind getting stuck in). From there it’s on to Dulles in Washington D.C. I hate this airport. I have a three-hour lay over and I need to eat a big meal here because I don’t know what I’ll find at dinnertime in WV so I look. My concourse only has a California Pizza Kitchen that has no seating provided, a brew pub with some over priced sandwiches that come with waffle fries and a Ben & Jerry’s. I ask about food since I see signs claiming 30 places to eat but of course no directory.
 
I’m told there’s a T.G.I. Friday’s in Concourse D but I have to go around the horn to get there. Here’s proof D.C. needs to revamp their airport bad. I have to cross THREE concourses and there’s not even people movers. I did have to get on a shuttle though and go trucking around to get there. So, I get there and it’s so crowded I have to eat at the bar. No big, I do that a lot anyhow. Unlike other T.G.I. Fridays in airports they don’t have a full menu, just sandwiches and salads. I could have had that in my own damn concourse without crossing three states to do it. They didn’t even have waffle fries but they had Guinness and at this point I needed it. I consoled myself with Ben & Jerry’s Dublin Mudslide in a waffle cone. The one other thing bugging me in the airport are ALL the anti-Bush gift shops. Now, I hate the man, I think he deserves mocked but NOT in the airport that is receiving people from all around the world. It’s crass.

I get on another puddle jumper to Bluefield. My thigh is bruised from the seat armrests (who the hell are these seats made for? Children? Even the skinny people were whining). I get out and go to Hertz, which closed at 6pm, and my plane arrived at 6 15pm but I made special arrangements for them to stay late (which is a common occurrence for them). The guy DIDN’T stay. By sheer luck one of the other workers there was bringing in some cars and he rented me one. He’s mad because it was clearly marked for the other guy to wait. I had to take one of the new cars he just brought in since they didn’t even arrange for a car for me. (Yes, Hertz is getting an angry call).
 
I drive through the switchback roads of the Blue Ridge Mts to the B&B, which is really a small nondescript house with a nice location looking at the hills. The owners are very friendly and I can live with the twin bed. In talking to them I learn the other person interviewing for this position is ALSO from Rio Grande University where I’m already been made an offer (and frankly I think it has to be one of the other new hires since the other staff is much older and set in their ways). Interesting.
 
The next day the head of the department picks me up at the B&B, and shows me the town (I blinked and missed it), which is a little less economically depressed than OH (and 8 miles up the road is Princeton which has a mall in spite of being rural). This school has faculty housing but it has far fewer buildings than the other school. The science hall is in need of being revamped (one of the doc’s just got herself a recombinant genetics lab thru grant writing).  But it’s still a nice looking campus. Just like at the other place, most of the doc’s get in there and don’t move away. I get to meet with the entire staff and learn some stuff. (Including there is some sexual tension between the head of the department and his almost all female staff in the ol’ boys club sort of way). Unlike the other school where I’m working afternoons to work around the nurses’ schedule, here I’m working way early in the morning to work around the athletics dept. who have to take my class.
 
At lunch, I get to meet some students, one who impressed me with her questions. Later it dawns on me she had to be coached because they were all classroom techniques questions. What student would think to ask about testing styles, my thoughts on if online hit all learners, etc etc. They tell me at dinner they want me to take the job and it’s like great, they want me then it’s also like great, now I have to make a choice and if I come here the other place that’s asking me for text book selection and has my name on the door already is going to be disappointed.
 
Now the trip home is on my birthday which hey nothing like getting up at 4 AM to drive backcountry mountain roads to the airport. But the trip is fine until I go from Dulles to Minn. Air force one is leaving Minn and I have to do a holding pattern for over an hour and getting more motion sick by the minute (and I’m sitting next to the kid from all my stories, the tousled curly dark haired, walnut brown boy. It’s like I want you to pose for a book cover and what a voice. He’s no more than 15 or 16 but has a voice that could make him a star somewhere). So now I’m very late and even though none of the other planes could leave because of Bush, I still have less than 10 minutes to get to my plane. Rather than being in the B concourse where I belong, I’m in the F concourse. This requires much running and then a shuttle to get there. Luckily it was delayed even further because of Bush’s departure (no planes could get in or leave).  I puddle jump to Rhinelander and find out because of all the delays my luggage was lost. ARGH! At least it didn’t happen on the way there. So, I get a phone call at quarter to midnight and callwave picks it up. It’s the guy who’s going to deliver my luggage. I’m figuring they were calling me at that hour to tell me they’ll deliver it the next day so I went about getting ready for bed. No, he shows up with my luggage at MIDNIGHT! Now here’s a way to get shot out here in the back woods.
 

And since I said I would, here’s the pros and cons of both school

 

Pros – Rio – nursing program,

 teaching 3 classes,

 good benefits,

 nice campus,

 nice faculty, 41 K (which is based on me having 5 years experience)

interested in online teaching

night classes

might be less strenuous in the long run

ties to Wales

 

Concord – academic flexibility

3 classes

good benefits

nice campus

nice faculty

41K (which is based on me having one year of experience)

ranked 13^th in the nation as a feeder school

100% acceptance of students into med school (though this means like 2 kids)

active student life with my sorority

less ties to religion

 

Cons – Rio

Will the expansion I’m being hired for fail and I’ll be out of a job?

Didn’t meet all the staff

Already expecting me and I’ll put them in the lurch

Economically depressed area

Has a biology major that doesn’t seem to get a lot of attention

Extremely rural

Baptist background

Fundamentalist area

 

Concord

Will have to advertise nationally next year for my position since it’s tenured and I’ll have to reapply

Did they take me out of desperation because the other doc quit in the end of May and they had to pick from the resumes they had from the ecology position

Made a big deal of me not being a Ph.D.

Staff tension

Less interested in online teaching

Will end up being much more strenuous

Day courses with lots of lab (less time for me)

Extremely rural but less so than Rio

Bennies more expensive than Rio by 20$

Fundamentalist area

 

So, I’m not sure what to do. I think I’ll end up making more money at Concord in the long run and the area is nicer. On the other hand, if I want time for my writing, I might be better off at Rio. And the other thing is, I’m not at all sure teaching is for me. I’m still very much giving thought to getting another degree in psych (probably need to do research into this). Rio is about 2 hours away from Ohio State University which probably has that degree. I’m sure Concord is probably also situated close (within 2 hours) of a larger university if I decided to  go back for this. I’m not even sure if it’s possible to teach and work at that the same time. That’s for me to research.

 

If you want to look at the schools yourself here you go

University of Rio Grande

Concord University

 

This is so much harder than I would ever have thought it was going to be.

Comments

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Thank you. This is my second career and I'm just starting out as a professor. You just said what my former boss said as well (I was a visiting prof here and he's sorry to see me go). I'm getting the impression that because the other anatomy prof only gave them two weeks notice, I'm something quick to fill in the spot and I'll get kicked to the curb.

[rivin142.livejournal.com]

Hey, so our local community college is hiring adjunts NOW. If you really want to screw things up, you could always apply (http://www.santafe.cc.fl.us/). [chuckle] Can't believe they're waiting so late.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Yeah seriously nothing like waiting until the last minute.