advantages of gaining full professorship, #6

[acroyear]

danieldrezner.com :: Daniel W. Drezner :: So Tuesday was a pretty good day....:

6) Something better than that stupid f@#%ing pen ceremony. As this site observes, "The scene in the movie A Beautiful Mind in which mathematics professors ritualistically present pens to Nash was completely fabricated in Hollywood. No such custom exists."

In the actual ceremony, colleagues ritualistically present signed and notarized statements in which they confess that they were in error when they labeled your research as "putrid swill" back when you were a post-doc.

Comments

Faculty reality--even worse than you thought

[uncle-possum.livejournal.com]

Actually, that's not true either. Generally, nothing happens except that the next paycheck you get may have a slightly larger total (or, since you often get into a new tax bracket as a result of the promotion, you may actually have a slightly smaller total paycheck). Oh, and the next couple of weeks, you start getting asked, appointed, or otherwise coerced into getting on more committees.


As for the comment on postdoc--most of the faculty where you work when that little thing happens did not know you as a grad student or post doc, and have never read the stuff you did back then anyway. However, it is true that you are slightly less likely to hear your *current* teaching or reearch is putrid swill (or, worse, meaningless and irrelevant) once you have the promotion. Oh, and at a few universities, students have to stay in the classroom a little longer before they can assume your lateness means you won't show at all.

My biggest peeve on this subject, by the way, is that I have **never** seen a movie or a TV show which protrayed a faculty member's office which was even close to the size, decor, or furnishings of real faculty offices (apparently producers and directors only visit deans, and then only at the expensive universities).

Using this as an excuse to wish you a happy anniversary day.

Re: Faculty reality--even worse than you thought

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

my ex- from the 90s said that the archaeologist lead actor in the original Stargate film was accurate (in terms of the office size and mess). she was an archae grad from Bryn Mayr, so I assume she knows what she's talking about.

not that the office was on screen for long.

and thanks!