New Scott Sigler Book Coming

For those of you that like horror/science fiction novels, check out these books by Scott Sigler: Infection and Contagious. For free audiobooks, visit Podiobooks.com or ScottSigler.com. Check out this trailer for the upcoming Contagious:

What a Day!

It is finals week and the weirdness has not stopped. Ryan has been sick since Friday with diarrhea and the worst diaper rash we have ever seen, the furnace condensate is leaking into the walls due to shotty construction, the chimney is also pretty messed up and will need work, and finally the HVAC guy found a long shed snakeskin in the attic. Just a day in the life of the Alabama Jones Family.

Building an Ark!

It was quite a night on Tuesday. About 9:00PM, our neighbor knocked on our door saying our yard was flooding since the sewer drains had been blocked by leaves and pine straw. So with water rising towards the house, we worked to clear the clogs and after about a half hour the water was receding. At midnight though, another huge wave of rain hit and even though the drains were clear, they could not keep up with the rain. The water was rising into the carport and I was trying to keep the drains clear as a river was flowing towards us down the street and down the alley as well. Cathy was on the phone with the city public works, emergency management and the Decatur police and we were praying nonstop as the water rose to within an inch of entering the house. With about 2 inches in the carport the intensity lessened and the water slowly began to recede again. It was a long night with much effort to slow the impending flood, but we survived and now know to be on the alert when it rains.

Fall is in the air!

With the first fall in the new house comes a load of fun (and work). Our yard is full of trees meaning our yard is full of leaves. On this fall day, the leaves were too wet to mulch so we decided to rake and play. The kids may not have snow to play in this year so hopefully the leaves will be an adequate substitute.

Notes from the Tenure Track: Part II

When I started working at Saint Xavier University, I was welcomed with open arms. But later the first year when I received my first annual evaluation from the chair, I was shocked. It seems that one student out of the nearly 150 had a problem with me and wrote comment stating that i was "arrogant and talk down to students." It seems that my annual review focused on this one point and did not mention all of the other positive reviews or the comments of the faculty reviewers. When I spoke with the chair, she said that it looked like more than one student due to the way the forms were transcribed, she acknowledged that it was only one student from the original forms, but she did not change her letter before moving on to the dean. When I asked what my rights were in terms of sending a response, she said that "was just not done." This continued throughout my time there with the additions of many factual errors leading to my next 2 pieces of advice:

Advice #2: Be sure to check annual reviews for facts and be sure to speak with your supervisors about positive and negative items.

Advice #3: Do not be intimidated and stand up for yourself during your probation period. If you don't, who will?

I believe that if I had challenged each review at the dean's level with a rebuttal letter, I would have had a better case against the tenure committee. Do not forget advice #1 about documenting everything.

Halloween Mayhem

Another Halloween has come and gone with cuteness all around. It seems though that Halloween has become a weeklong (or more) festival. We had school carnivals, parties and trick or treating that lasted most of the week. We even had a party in my night classes which make for more fun than the typical lecture.

I am not one to change it though as it is my favorite time of the year.

Notes from the Tenure Track: Part I

Having recently undergone my first tenure and promotion review as an assistant professor, I find myself full of thoughts and some ideas which may be beneficial to those starting a tenure track position. First, some background.

I graduated with a Ph.D. in microbiology and Immunology in 2001 and faced a choice of how to proceed career-wise. I knew that my main focus would be teaching, so I chose against a post-doc and looked for positions at smaller schools with a more teaching focus. I applied at many schools and ended up at St. Xavier University in Chicago. The ad asked for qualified assistant professor with teaching experience in microbiology and/or immunology and a desire to start a small undergraduate research program. Sounded perfect, so I accepted an offer and moved to Chicago.

During the interview, both the Biology Department chair and the VP for Academic Affairs touted the Universities desire to increase its research program and get more students involved, but also seemed realistic as to the lack of resources to do this. The school was (and still is) extremely behind in science support and had very little grant experience. I could not get a well defined statement as to tenure standards so I operated on the information I had been given verbally. This leads to my first piece of advice:

Advice #1: Be sure to get a written statement of tenure/promotion standards as well as clearly defined (in writing) criteria on how you will be evaluated.

Stay tuned for more advice with a little bit of my story coming soon.