Sunday, April 16, 2006

End of Week Three

It's the end of the third week in our ten-week term. Grading is piling up and spring is unfolding in slow motion. The end of last week was spent at a mini-retreat for the team that is preparing our report for re-accreditation. The retreat was an interesting mix of some good ideas, fun colleagues, and soul-crushing administrative despair. The re-accreditation team is great, and I think we'll explore some interesting ideas. But some aspects of the work are about as exciting as watching paint dry while someone tries to push a blunt object -- perhaps a dull pencil or a tongue depressor-- through your temple into your brain.

Some end-of-week-three numbers:
  • At the start of the term my inbox was completely empty. It currently has 99.

  • In the first three weeks of the term I have sent 364 email messages.

  • Yesterday was the first day all term that I didn't spend some time on campus. In fact, I only left my house twice: once to move my car so that Doreen could go somewhere, and once to empty the compost.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's a very interesting metaphor of administrative group work. Pretty creative, and accurate! Especially if the group works by consensus... ugh.