I finally submitted my Annual Faculty Review (AFR) today. I hate filling it out, because it takes several hours and isn't very productive. I suppose in a sense it is useful to periodically reflect on what I'm accomplishing, or not. At the same time, it's time that I could have spent doing something that is is of immediate and direct utility, rather than just theoretical and abstract utility. It might be of more direct utility if there were any hope of getting merit pay, but our salaries have been frozen for a couple of years now and the prospects don't look good for getting pay increases any time soon. Still, I think this year I had a pretty good year, with a good mix of research, publication, presentation, teaching, and service.
When I'm filling out the AFR, I usually go ahead and update my vita. I haven't done that yet, but I probably will soon. I've also been looking at the job ads -- not that I have any intention of leaving. But it's interesting to see what kinds of positions are out there. There was a position advertised at WMU. I did my doctoral work at WMU, but the department I studied in is gone. Instead they have begun putting pairs of science educators together into the science departments. This seems marginally better than having a token science educator per department, which is how it was before they created the Science Studies Department I was in. In many ways it would be fun to go back to Michigan -- it would be nice to be that much closer to the rest of my family. Even better would be the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. Ads for jobs at UIUC don't seem to show up much in the Chronicle.
A woman who used to teach in the junior writing program received a style guide in the mail and passed it along to me. Something like that would probably be useful for students. I think I'll take it to class this week and ask students if they wish I would have required them to buy something like that. I should probably send a note to a few of the publishers and let them know I'm looking at these things. They'll probably send me a bunch to look at, but then I'll have them descend on me each semester to try to convince me to buy their newest, bestest books. Sigh... You can't win.