Style over substance

So if you are at a university and the weekly email newsletter has a link to the bookstore's "MAC-over" you probably assume it's some kind of Apple promotion. After all, most university campuses seem to have a deal with Apple computers for educational discounts. Sure, it's commercialization of the university, but an argument can be made that it is related to academics/education by virtue of the ubiquitousness of computers in modern education. And further to that, the student body does get an educational discount on their purchases, so at the very least there is some return to the students.

Well, it turns out my impression of what the "MAC-over" was missed the mark by just a bit... ok, by a whole hell of a lot. The article explained how the bookstore was happy to have their "first choice" of MAC cosmetics offer a fully stocked cosmetics counter with "technicians"; taking up space in the already tiny bookstore.

Now I understand the the need and utility of cosmetics; but when your university is always in Playboy's top five party schools, this kind of action just makes it seems like the school is giving up on the hard things, like books and learning, and taking up the challenge of finding the right concealer. I wonder if this is a sign that I should just look better for my lectures and forget about actually teaching things. Hell, the way the budget and furlough plans are going maybe I'll start being a corporate shill too.

10% less = long rambling blog

So I have been wanting to post this for a few days, I just hadn't gotten around to it until now. But a few days ago I got an email from the California Faculty Association; it was not good news. It seems that the California State University (CSU) system, of which I am a part, is getting hit with a huge budget cut this year; over $500 MILLION!

For a bit of background I should point out that California has an economy larger than most developed countries. It actually has a larger economy than Spain or Canada! One would think that this is a good thing; it probably is, if the state wasn't governed by a bunch of morons. I don't know enough about economics to understand what the root cause of this crisis is, but here are some potential reasons.

Ultimately the problem seems to be the binge and purge nature of the state spending history. If they have money they spend like mad and as soon as it runs out they cut everything. I'm not sure what "brilliant" economists think this is good way to manage one of the largest economies in the world, but I'm fairly certain if this was a Latin American country the government would have been overthrown by now.

So, why am I bitching about this? Well, I have to admit that I have been rather isolated and hadn't really cared about it until recently. I feel bad about this in retrospect, because I am only now faced with the problems that other state employees have already had to face; a 10% cut in salary! This is a huge hit to anyone, particularly in the fashion that it has been done here, which is with little to no notice. Of course it's not called a salary cut, it's called a furlough; you just don't get to come to work on two Fridays each month. Until now this has not affected the universities, but because of the magnitude of the problem, the CSU is now proposing to have faculty members, along with the staff, take furloughs as well.

Of course the problem with this is that nobody seems to have thought through how this will work. Sure, if you are working on a road crew you can take a couple of days off a month and the project will still get finished, eventually. But as a faculty member I don't quite have the same option. I still have to teach my classes, grade homework and exams, prepare lectures and all the rest of the work that keeps me up at night. Now, will I be allowed to just not mark 10% of the students work? I'd be happy with that; I really hate grading. But I won't be able to, I have to maintain the same level of education standards. And what about the other aspects of my job; you know the research, grant and paper writing the part that really keeps me up at nights working my ass off way more than the number of hours I'm paid to work in a week. If I do 10% less on those fronts will I still get tenure? Fuck that, I'll still be judged in the same way I always would have been. So ultimately I will be doing exactly the same amount of work, just for 10% less pay.

Now I realize all the points above are ultimately petty issues. The real problem of course is the surprise salary cut. I have no idea when/if this may (or may not) happen. Nor do I know how long it will last. Oh yeah, if it doesn't happen there may be layoffs; and in such a case the most recently hired faculty (potentially me) will be let go first. The reality of the problem is that I have not been in a position to be saving even close to 10% of my salary each month; so this clearly will not be a good situation. I'm sure we can make it through, but I certainly won't be spending more money. Which makes me wonder; isn't my spending money what helps fuel the economy and increase state funds through tax revenue? I've said I'm not an economist, but I see something fundamentally wrong with this model.

Final, and possibly most important for the long term, is what this situation has done to my perception of the university system in this state. This is not the first time such a crisis has hit the state and I seriously doubt it will be the last; they didn't learn the last times why would I expect it to be different this time. So, as a highly desirable university professor why should I stay in this state any longer than necessary? Do I really need to go through this kind of crap every 10 years? Why not move to a more stable state/country and teach there? So far, I can't come up with a good reason not to consider the option should it present itself, and when more and more good faculty member think this way is when the long term damage will become evident.

The difference a ride makes

The ride home from work today once again reminded me why I like bicycling to work so much. The ride itself is pretty unspectacular, there is a nice enough descent and a pretty good climb, then a whole lot of traffic lights; but it's the act of riding that makes it worthwhile.

By the end of the day I was feeling pretty run-down and just in a bit of a funk. I think this has something to do with feeling as though I have not accomplished anything since getting the grant out; revising a lab manual and writing a recommendation letter seem kind of trivial in comparison to a grant for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now, if I had to drive home I'm certain that my mood would not have improved. I never feel better driving somewhere; most often I get annoyed at bad drivers, shitty traffic and/or lack of parking. But on the bike things are different.

I guess it just comes down to doing some physical work and probably the general feeling of joy that I get from riding. It doesn't matter that I probably have over a dozen stop signs/lights on my ride or that I have about a 2 km long hill to climb (with backpack), those things are trivial in the end. Certainly the riding does take something out of me, by the end of the week I'm topping 100 km of riding just for commuting. It's not as much as I used to ride (hell that could be less than a single ride/race) but with the pressures and time of work it gets physically tiring. But all the same it results in an inevitable change in my attitude, I can be feeling crappy before a ride, I never feel (psychologically) crappy after a ride.

So let me just throw this out as a suggestion to those few of you who read my blog. If you do drive to work daily try riding home from work one night. Sure the logistics suck in some cases to set this up, but give it a shot, you may be surprised at the difference it makes.

As a side note, if you are looking for a way to listen to music or podcasts while you ride get an iPod shuffle. I have one of the previous generations and as you can see from the photo below it can be very convenient to use. I happen to have earbuds with a cord that can be shortened so I don't have to deal with a really long mess of wire. I would also suggest only using a single earbud, so that you can hear traffic with the other ear. And if you are wondering what I'm listening to I've started the Great Conversations series from the University of Minnesota; the older ones are a bit dated, but quite engaging to listen to.

Another one down

So if you've been following my few and random twitter posts you're up to speed on most of what is going on with me; albeit in absolutely tiny context-less amounts. So this will be a bit of a recap, or for those with better things to do than wait for me to tweet, the whole story of what I have been up to.

One of the things that I have been doing a bit more of lately is bicycling; mostly to work but some on the weekends, when I get out and ride with my team and a few other clubs on a mixed ride. It's been interesting to see the ride transform over the past months; from something that was kind of mellow with a few fast points, to something that's a lot faster most of the time, with the same fast points, that are just faster. The fun part to all of this is that my fitness is surprisingly good; I always seem to be one of the first up the major climb on the route and I'm always right there for the sprint after the long flat drag a bit later. It makes me really miss the days of racing, hopefully one of these days I'll get a handle on the work enough to have time to race again. Oh, if you were wondering, the SRAM Red gruppo is absolutely fabulous! I'm so glad I made the investment.

On the work side of things I can't complain too much about how things have gone. I just finished off my first big NIH grant. If I get it I'll be pulling in $275,000 for the lab, and another $136,000 for the research foundation. Of course I will see none of the at goes to the "foundation", nor will they really do much other than file some paperwork for me and hold the purse-strings on the $275K that is mine. Yet somehow this entitles them to about a 50% cut of what I ask for. I think I might actually just be institutionalized "protection" money; it has a whole mobster feel to it. But at least the grant is done, now I just have to wait 8 months to find out if I get anything.

I finally seem to have my undergrads working in the lab again. Though one of them is an absolute mess. I really should not have agreed to take this student on over the summer; I had my doubts and they aren't being alleviated by the student's performance. I only hope that the effort that I put in to train this one pays off, so far I'm not sure the student can even hold onto a concept for more than a few minutes. I just really hope the student doesn't break anything expensive, I'm out of start up funds and can't afford to replace things.

Anyway that's about it for now, tonight I get to take a break from working for a change. But soon enough I will have to be back at it, there is another grant cycle coming up next month and I need to get some papers out. But at least tonight I can take the time off and not feel too guilty about it.

A little update

Ok, so here's a little update from what has been going on for the past few week. I haven't been posting much here, but if you've been following me on Twitter I'm using that with a lot more frequency than I have been posting here. Of course, 140 characters is far from enough to say everything properly.

Obviously the big news has been the swine flu. Things down here are pretty much normal, no many people have been confirmed with the virus; there is/was one probable case on our campus and they have just planned to close the daycare on campus for the next couple of weeks. So this does effect life there a little bit, some students who have children are excused from coming in. As for myself I'm unsure how to feel about the whole situation. I recognize the extensive danger that such a virus poses to us; and for years I have been anticipating the expected flu pandemic. Yet, now that there is a real threat it seems like everything has been overblown far too quickly. Thankfully it seems as though this virus isn't likely to be too dangerously virulent so it's not the end of the world, but then again what do I know, I'm just a chemist.

Other than that I have been biking more and more; getting in more rides to work and, other than this weekend, a routine Saturday group ride. It's still not the high volume training I used to do, I barely do 300 km a week with the group ride, but it's still pretty tiring. Somehow I had a lot more energy, and less stress, when I was in grad school. But at least I get to ride and that's not a bad thing in any way. I've also taken to listening to podcasts while I ride to work. So far I have been listening to The History of Rome; it's quite enjoyable and with only one earphone in I can still hear the traffic when necessary. I seem to be tearing through the podcasts, I'm already up to episode 31 or so. So if you have any suggestions of other podcasts to listen to let me know.

Finally, it's almost the end of the semester. Though to be honest it's coming later than I expected; the Spring semester is a week longer than the Fall semester. I made my syllabus for this semester by copying the previous one; so now I have to find filler for the last few classes. But it's just about done and then I can focus on research and training the new students to do some work. I really hope that this summer is productive, if it's not I may be really screwed; but I think that the projects are coming along to where things can really take off.

Track Racing

So I was finally able to get down to the park to check out some racing tonight. That had been one of the great things about living here that I hadn't taken advantage of, the velodrome is less than a mile from my place. So after riding home from work, getting cleaned up and eating Deirdre and I went down to the park.

I have to admit that I was very surprised at the crowd that was on hand to watch the racing. The place was rather packed, there seems to only be a few small bleachers, but they were packed with lots of people walking around and near the guardrail of the track. Of course the turnout may have had something to do with the free beer but hey, a crowd is a crowd. I can't say that the crowd was super into the racing, but then again it was the first race of the year and what I saw wasn't too exciting, but I'm sure the latter in the season (or the more beer is drunk) the louder the crowd will get. I was also surprised at how many fixed gear/hipsters there were at the event. Of course the free beer and admission may have had something to do with it, but they also seemed to have an interest in the racing. I guess a lot of them may work at local shops, either way it was certainly a diverse crowd on hand.

Of course this has me thinking about getting out to race on the track once again. Though I have to admit, I'm certainly missing the track in Minneapolis (Blaine). It's a gorgeous wood track, very short and very steep; whereas the track here in San Diego is concrete and much flatter (see photos), basically the same as the track in Edmonton. But that's still good enough for racing, and there were a lot of riders out there, so the action should be good. So who knows, if I can rent/borrow a bike I may have to get down for some races this season.

More ways to hear from me!

I've come to a bit of a realization of late, I just don't have the impetus or really even the time, to write dedicated meaningful blog posts lately. It kind of sucks, because from time to time there are things that I would like to share with you guys, but for the most part it just doesn't seem like the topics would make meaningful posts.

So, I'm succumbing to the darkside and I've signed up for a Twitter account. I'm going to try and keep it somewhat anonymous, that way I can bitch about my students a bit more. Of course the short form of Twitter will keep things from actually being that meaningful, but at least the format is appropriate for the comments/thoughts/musings that I feel like sharing

Anyway, if you want to follow along and see how it goes my feed is http://twitter.com/Achemprof and if you happen to have a feed and feel like sharing let me know.

I will of course still be posting things in here, after all I occasionally want to say things that don't fit into only 160 characters.