Chair

The chair of our department will finish the last year of her second three-year term next year, and people are starting to talk about the next chair. I don't know if it's an official rule that the chair only serves two terms, or if it's simply a merciful tradition. In any case, she's a great chair and I, personally, would love to have her stay on, but I don't blame her for wanting to go back to just teaching.

I found out yesterday that I am interested in the job. I didn't know this. But apparently someone else was talking about it, and mentioned to a third party (who mentioned it to me) that only two people were interested, me and Dr. J. I'm not sure exactly how they got that impression.

It's true that I have never ruled it out. Some people simply declare that they don't want to be chair, and that's it. But that seems to me to be poor citizenship, the academic equivalent of trying to weasel out of jury duty. So, last time this came up, I threw my full support to the person who eventually became chair, and said, "Well, maybe. Some day." That's probably the tack I'll take this time around. I won't rule it out, but I'll carefully explain why Dr. J would be better at it than I would.

And she would. The thing that she has (and our current chair has, too) is a certain willingness to be stubborn when that's what's best for the department. I'm a little too quick to appease. Our current chair has been known to go into the Dean's office and express her unhappiness with his decision in no uncertain terms. That would be very hard for me to do.

I also can be organizationally challenged, although I have developed certain habits to overcome this problem. If I were chair, I might sometimes let things slip through the cracks. Hopefully not anything too important.

The plain truth of the matter is that I think my chief talent is in the classroom. Our chair only teaches one course per semester, and spends the rest of the time in paperwork and meetings. Rah. The parts of the job I like the least.

Oh, well, we'll see how it goes. I may have to deal with the job some day, but hopefully not soon.