Our department is hiring this year. Again. They hired or tried to hire every year since 1999, except for last academic year. This year, we have a total of three positions. This has all happened because of (a) the wave of retirements echoing from rapid hiring in the late 60's and early 70's, (b) a few well placed resignations to take jobs elsewhere, and (c)
expansion of our University, due to a new initiative to attract students from neighboring states. I understand that we are extraordinarily lucky to be expanding at this point, and I'm counting my blessings. But.
The biggest pain of hiring is reading all those files. (Our department, in the last few years, has opted for a hiring committee of the whole, after a few too many times when the department shot down the hiring committee's recommendations, so I'm on it.) All the teaching philosophies start to blend together after a while. Everyone likes and respects their students, has clear, organized lectures, and tries to show real-world applications of the abstract concepts. Ho-hum. It's to the point now that if someone can surprise me in their teaching philosophy, I automatically bump them up. One person started out by talking about meeting his third grade teacher in a supermarket, and telling her what he was doing these days. It was a good hook.
One thing that's got me a little depressed is that I'm starting to feel like a jaded old man. I read all these teaching philosophies from people with five years TAing at a major school where the students appreciate it if you actually show up on time, and call you a great teacher if you bother to hold office hours, and I think, "Wait until you hit the real world, kid." No doubt I sounded just as naive and unrealistic when I was first out of grad school.
We met yesterday to identify the top fifteen candidates, so we can contact them and see if they are really interested. I have two grad school friends in the mix (a married couple currently in tenure track positions elsewhere, who would like to get back to the upper midwest.) I didn't rate them, since I know them personally, and I'm trying to stay scrupolously neutral, but I'm really rooting for them to come here. So I was happy to see that they were both highly ranked by the committee, even without my help. So now we'll see what they think of us. I imagine that we will be a step down in pay from where they are now. Also, our University never gives credit for time towards tenure for experience at another school, so they would have to start their tenure clocks from zero. (This happened to me, too. I had four years experience on the tenure track at another school when I came, and I was a little pissed that they didn't give me any credit for it. Then I found out that someone else hired in the same year, who had 18 years experience at another school, and tenure, also got no credit for it. After that, I took it less personally.) If those two things don't scare them off, they just might end up coming here, which would be great.
We'll see how it goes. In recent years, we've sometimes had trouble getting our first choices to actually take our offers. Often, they are also the first choices for other schools that can offer them more money, and/or schools that aren't in rural western Wisconsin. We've made some really good hires (besides myself, I mean) but we've also missed out on some people that I thought would have been great.
Gladstone, Missouri, is home to the Kansas City Area's only free Theater in the Park. Sorry that this isn't the best image. The theater website didn't seem to have any images at all. Sometimes I'll pass if I can't find a good image, but I hate to miss Theater in the Park. Particularly if it's free. This year, they'll be doing Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast. But alas, not until summer. I don't suppose the park is particularly warm long about now.
Claycomo, Missouri, is home to a large Ford plant, where they make this hybrid Escape. This photo is from a two-year-old press release, announcing the plan to begin to building them. 
Liberty, Missouri is home to the "nationally recognized" William Jewell College. Long-time readers know that I almost never pass up a chance to visit a college campus, particularly not a small, Liberal Arts college like Jewell. Here you can see me hanging out in one of their math classes. If the instructor needs to take a break, I'm ready to take over.
A few miles east of Kearney is Watkins Woolen Mill State Park. I'm not actually running that direction; I'm running south and a little west. But state parks are usually good for a photo or two, and I got this nice one of the woolen mill. I really don't have much of an idea of the scale of this machine, so for all I know, I've made myself into a midget or a giant.
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