{"id":14407,"date":"2015-03-26T18:10:58","date_gmt":"2015-03-26T22:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/?p=14407"},"modified":"2024-08-09T07:42:47","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T11:42:47","slug":"good-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/2015\/good-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Good night"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n
\n
\n
\n

\n Good night\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

The question I seem to get most often these days is \u201cWhat happens after July 1st?\u201d The answer is easy: administrative leave, and lots of writing.  At least two books, I hope, and some shorter things; and a chance to decompress a bit. The past ten years have been the most interesting and fulfilling of my professional life, but also the most exacting, and the long days have certainly taken a toll.  Much as I love the job, I need to stop, for the sake of both my physical and mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week a reporter came by from The Charlatan<\/em>, asking what I felt I had accomplished over the last decade. My first response was that anything that has been accomplished has been a collective effort. Deans can\u2019t just make things happen. There are no magic wands in Paterson 330. Deans can suggest, negotiate, cajole, and of course assist with the financial and other resources \u2026 but things only happen in universities when there is consensus on the direction to be taken. We are not a corporation, and \u201ctop-down\u201d management doesn\u2019t work, especially at the Faculty level. I then went on to mention five broad areas where I believe that good things have happened: (1) finances \u2026 currently firmly under control, with base budgets in place for all continuing faculty and staff positions; (2) faculty renewal \u2026 with something like two out of three tenured or tenure-track faculty members in FASS hired during my time, representing both replacements for those retiring and many \u201cnet new\u201d positions; (3) new academic programs \u2026 including African Studies, Disability Studies, Global and International Studies, Greek and Roman Studies, Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Religion, and Sexuality Studies to name but a few at the undergraduate level, along with new masters programs in areas such as Cognitive Science, Music, Religion, and Women\u2019s and Gender Studies, and doctorates in subjects such as English and Anthropology; (4) new and upgraded facilities, from the labs in Geography to the new Language Centre in St Pats, the Patrick Cardy Studio in music, and so on; and (5) the plethora of partnerships with organizations and groups off-campus, coupled with a dramatic expansion of co-op and practicum opportunities. And this list doesn\u2019t include the introduction of Carleton courses taught at locations outside Ottawa, including one each year somewhere in Africa, nor the exciting developments in pedagogy using the latest technology (the MOOC in Psychology, the \u201cVirtual Carleton\u201d campus developed for SLaLS), the dramatic expansion of our research enterprise, including the engagement of undergraduate students in that process, the creation of a FASS endowment \u2026 and I could go on and on. It has indeed been a dramatic decade for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and I am truly very grateful for having had the opportunity to play a small role in that success. But none of it would have happened without the efforts of many outstanding members of faculty and professional staff. The accomplishments are theirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other question I am asked is whether I shall use the remaining blogs to say all the things about which I have been biting my tongue over the last many years \u2026 and I have to confess that there are days when that seems very tempting. One of the disadvantages of being in the dean\u2019s office is that you very quickly lose your rose-coloured spectacles, and become painfully aware of the shortcomings of our faculty, staff, and students \u2026 of our institution, and indeed of the larger PSE system in Ontario. But attractive a possibility as that may be, if you are looking for the Carleton equivalent of Wikileaks I am afraid that you will be sorely disappointed. This university is a place for which I have had considerable affection for some 47 years, since I first set foot on campus in July of 1968. And for all its faults … and yes, there certainly are some \u2026 on balance it is a truly wonderful place, and not one that any of us would trade in lightly. Nor is it one that I would ever seek to harm. I am comforted in the knowledge that I leave FASS in reasonably decent shape, and in the hands of those who also truly care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Various colleagues have asked if I have started to count down my remaining days \u2026 and I have to confess that the answer is affirmative. Last week that number ticked down from three digits to two, and I don\u2019t know if that is good or bad. Some days I can\u2019t wait for the end of June, and on others I wish that the passage of time would just come to a crashing halt. I also know that I shall experience severe withdrawal come August, when my incoming E-mail declines from 100+ a day to perhaps a half dozen at best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have lost count of how many weekly musings I have posted over the years \u2026 certainly in the hundreds \u2026 and it is sad to think that this will be the very last one. But that time has come.  I am truly grateful to the many readers who have followed this blog so faithfully.  Thank you all!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the very last words go, as the more perspicacious of you may already have predicted, to the Beatles, who have also been an important part of my life for more than a half century:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Close your eyes and I’ll close mine<\/em>
\nGood night, sleep tight<\/em>
\nNow the sun turns out his light<\/em>
\nGood night, sleep tight<\/em>
\nDream sweet dreams for me<\/em>
\nDream sweet dreams for you<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good night, good night everybody<\/em>
\nEverybody everywhere<\/em>
\nGood nigh<\/em>t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The question I seem to get most often these days is \u201cWhat happens after July 1st?\u201d The answer is easy: administrative leave, and lots of writing.  At least two books, I hope, and some shorter things; and a chance to decompress a bit. The past ten years have been the most interesting and fulfilling of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-14407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deans-blog","tag-deans-blog"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14407"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34275,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14407\/revisions\/34275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}