Dean's Blog - September 11, 2007

Dean’s Blog - Happy New (Academic) Year

For us in the academic world, the new year really begins at the start of the Fall Term. Let me therefore wish you all a "Happy New Academic Year" for 2007-2008. Welcome to those of you who are new faculty, staff or students, and welcome back to those of you who are not so new.

The start of the academic year is always an exciting and busy time. I know that some of our colleagues don’t like the noise and turmoil of the first week, and can’t wait for things to quiet down and for students to settle in to their routines. But I especially love this time of year - loud music in the Quad and all (I myself went over to catch the D.Rangers set). It is a time of fresh starts and new beginnings for all of us - faculty, staff and students alike. At the start of a new academic year everyone on campus shares a magical feeling of possibility. For students, in particular, there is a tremendous sense of anticipation of new and fascinating experiences to be had in their classes.

Thomas Merton’s autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain (1948), includes a passage that aptly evokes this beginning-of-term feeling:

It is a wonderful time to begin anything at all. You go to college, and every course in the catalogue looks wonderful. The names of the subjects all seem to lay open the way to a new world. Your arms are full of new, clean notebooks, waiting to be filled. You pass through the doors of the library, and the smell of thousands of well-kept books makes your head swim with a clean and subtle pleasure. You have a new hat, a new sweater perhaps, or a whole new suit. Even the nickels and quarters in your pocket feel new, and the buildings shine in the glorious sun.

I cannot speak for everyone in the Faculty, but I certainly share this feeling of a new beginning every September. It is truly a “new year” that started last week, and so it is again time for me to make some New Academic Year Resolutions:

1. Clean up my work space and implement some sort of efficient work-flow management system in my office. My first step in this direction was to read David Allen’s popular book, Getting Things Done. It is rather inspiring to think that I might some day bring order to my chaotic universe. But whether I can effectively implement even parts of the “GTD” system is another matter altogether.

2. Be more disciplined about scheduling enough of my time to complete necessary tasks. This will require me to reserve some slots in the week that are not taken up with meetings or other in-person commitments. Again, easier said than done.

3. Answer work-related e-mails as promptly as possible, if only to say “thanks for the note, I will get back to you later”. (Allen recommends a “two-minute rule”: If you can deal with an e-mail in two minutes or less, do it right then. If not, put in an action folder to be cleaned out regularly.)

4. No matter how pressed with other duties, find time to read at least a few articles and new books in my own discipline - even (especially?) if they are not directly related to my research projects. (I started on this resolution last night when I read a terrific paper by our own Paul Thomas, entitled "Trust, leadership and accountability in Canada’s public sector". In this paper Paul examines the complex relationship between trust, leadership responsibility and accountability. Among other things, he argues that the elaborate regulatory structures put in place by the new Federal Accountability Act may have many unwelcome and unforseen consequences, including the deepening of the distrust that the Act was intended to remedy. The paper will be delivered later this month at a Conference Honouring Ted Hodgetts – “Canadian Public Administration in Transition: From Administration to Management to Governance” – at Guelph University.)

5. Attend as many lectures or presentations as possible - again, especially those not directly related to my own field. (Actually, one of the things about being Dean that I most enjoy is the opportunity - and reason - to attend a variety of fascinating academic events that I would probably never have made time for as a regular faculty member.)

6. Remember to reserve time and energy for my own physical well-being and for my family and loved ones. (Oh yes, the “balanced life” resolution.)

While these may well be what Mary Poppins calls "pie crust promises" (easily made, easily broken), I still think it is useful to make (and resolve to keep) a few promises to yourself to address what is really urgent in your academic life at the beginning of each scholarly year. Try it yourself, or see what a few other academics have written about making new academic year resolutions.

• For instance, Geeky Mom followed up on her 2006 list with another, shorter version. (And congrats to her for finishing her dissertation!)

• New Kid on the Hallway offers another well-intentioned set of resolutions.

• And you might also find the resolutions posted on Prawfsblawg.com by Professor Liz Glazer both interesting and practical. (Her last resolution - “to remember that I am not a fraud, I do have something worthwhile to contribute, and I deserve to be where I am” - echoes a fear I have heard expressed several times from recently-appointed female faculty members, but never from males. Hmm. Perhaps I’ll say more on that in a later post.)

Anyway, I wish you all the best for the start of term. Good luck and have fun.