Monday evening at the faculty meeting I looked around the room and wondered who will step up to fulfill the Law of Conservation of Curmudgeonliness on Campus, which states that the minute one career curmudgeon retires, another rises up to fill the spot. Who will be our next Chief Curmudgeon? Not me! I've been too irrationally euphoric this spring to let my curmudgeon flag fly.
I was pleased to see that the Silverback Gorilla Rule no longer holds. When I started here, I was informed that the faculty always elect as Chair the oldest male tenured Faculty Council member, but then I was the second woman elected Chair and over the years the Chair was occupied by a few other women--not male, certainly, but all tenured and old enough to be considered senior faculty. But on Monday we elected next year's chair, who may be male and tenured but he's hardly a Silverback. I think he's the youngest Faculty Chair we've elected in my 25 years here.
I won't be getting my 25-year appreciation bonus this spring, though, because I worked part-time my first year here so that year doesn't "count" toward my years of service. I'll have to wait a whole year to get my 25-year bonus alongside the remaining members of the North Bend 17. Yes: 24 years ago, the College brought in its largest class of new faculty hires in many years and held New Faculty Orientation at North Bend State Park, so we became known as the North Bend 17.
How many of those 17 are still here? Five. We are a pretty impressive group, having filled just about every major committee chair on campus as well as leading departments and serving on task forces and organizing major campus events. If we all retired at once it would be a pretty big blow to the College, but I'm the only one of the remaining five old enough to be close to retirement. The rest will have to wait their turn.
How many faculty members will be ahead of me in the academic procession at Commencement next month? It depends on who shows up, but I ought to be among the first five faculty in line. Once you're in single digits there's nowhere to go but out the door or on the shelf. The rules have been in flux, but I sincerely hope Emeritus status still exists next year when I retire. Otherwise, I might be forced to unleash my inner curmudgeon.
2 comments:
I can't believe it's been 25 years! Well I remember the North Bend retreat. I really enjoy keeping up with you via your blog.
Thanks! What I remember best from that retreat was that the three new English department faculty members got trounced in a game of Scrabble by a chemist and a mathematician.
Post a Comment