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Typical Week in the Almost
Perfect Job
"Blessed is he who has found his work." Thomas Carlyle
The life of a professor is as varied as any other career. There are those
who steal from the public treasury by working only a few hours a day, and
some who steal hours and years from their student's lives with dull and
meaningless lectures. But most of us find it a challenging and rewarding
profession in which the long hours and modest pay are offset by the reward
of helping young men and women learn to better understand their world, how
to engage it, and how to find a life worth living. Here is a typical
week.
Friday | Saturday
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday
| Wednesday | Thursday | Reflection
Friday
Friday is my easy day, the start or rather the end of a long week.
After a night class that runs from 5:30-9 PM on Thursday night I am a little
down on power when I wake up at 6 AM. If time isn't pressing, I take
advantage of my half day off and go for a walk along the shore in La Jolla.
I count the seals on the beach, look for whales and dolphins, and ease some
of the kinks out of my back (from too many hours at the computer). Then I
return home to catch up on housework, pay the bills, do the wash, and other
domestic activities.
This day is busier than most so I'm back to work by 10 AM searching through
old computer archives and files for studies I did near the Salton Sea in the
late 1980s when I worked at U.C. Riverside. Eventually these are found,
printed, downloaded and made ready for a meeting on Saturday. Then I get
back to work on planning for a late afternoon meeting of the advisory
council for my Environmental Studies Program. This includes buying
refreshments (self funded as are most class materials throughout the
educational systems of California), developing the agenda, faxing out a map,
and working out a general strategy for the meeting. At three o'clock I am
back at school, arranging the meeting room and materials, reading e-mails,
catching up on phone messages, talking to my student research assistant and
other students who drop in.
The meeting begins at 4 PM and runs to 5:30 PM and I am delighted with the
full attendance and the lively and helpful discussions. It is an excellent
and diverse group, with representatives from business, publishing, education
and current and former students. The major topic for the night is expected
student competency - what students should know when they graduate.
Interesting discussions develop about the challenge of teaching people to be
good advocates for programs, how to assess claims and proposals, and to
think "outside the box" in developing solutions to complex
problems. After the meeting I talk with a couple of committee members until
6, then answer e-mails, gather materials for Saturday in the field and for
grading papers and working on lectures on Sunday.
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Saturday
I always work on Saturday, the only chance to work without interruption, but
usually it is long day of writing, lecture development and grading. Today I
leave at 8 AM for a field trip to the desert near Harper's Well (west of the
Salton Sea) to discuss development of an ecosystem based watershed proposal
with Mike Allen (Center for Conservation Biology, UCR) and Tom Zink (SDSU).
I leave at 8AM, we meet at 10AM, and take soil and vegetation samples as we
discuss the best strategy for developing a research program for determining
the input of nutrients and toxics into the sea from the San Felipe wash
watershed. We also review one of my restoration sites along Highway 86, and
talk over possible biological treatment methods for cleaning up polluted
waters flowing into the sea. Not bad, I'm home by 6 PM (often field trips
end up at 10 PM or later), watch the news, and then read until 10. Then to
sleep, perchance to dream.
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Sunday
Up at 5:30 AM, coffee and a scone, then the Sunday comics and back to work
by 7 AM. Sunday is always busy because I have two classes on Monday, running
from 8-11:30. This makes for a long day, prep time for new lectures is 4-6
hours per hour in class, 1-2 hours for lectures I have given before. One of
the Monday lectures is new and important, "Satisfaction, a part of our
interdisciplinary seminar "the Good Life" for first year students.
I work steadily on my notes for this lecture, taking a break from time to
time to work on slides for a 3 and a half hour talk on Tuesday. I get the
new lecture shaped up by noon. Dig out the video about the Inuit (Eskimo)
for my 8 AM cultural geography class, then settle in to finish putting
together what finally ends up being 4 trays and about 300 slides about
desert restoration for the meeting on Tuesday. In the evening I finish
preparing a quiz for my first class, read a little, work on a book revision
that needs to be done ASAP (never enough time - I need a clone or two), and
finally get to bed by 10 PM.
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Monday
Up at 5:30 AM, to campus by 6:45. I don't mind having an 8 AM class, but it
is tough on students whose biorhythms are better adjusted for classes at
night. But I have a good class this quarter and almost everyone is on time.
We watch a documentary about life among the ice and then have a good
discussion about food, shelter and community in the far north. One of the
questions I ask is how far people have walked in a day, most have only
walked 2-3 miles. They have had so little experience, so few challenges that
are physical.
A 10 minute break and then it is time to go on stage for the first year
students. I put on a tape of the Rolling Stones "I can't get no
satisfaction" as they file in. Then give an impassioned lecture on the
what brings satisfaction in life, family, friends and career. After my 50
minutes, we have a good discussion with the other faculty (philosopher,
poet, and mythologist) and students from 25 countries. Dr. Richardson
moderates an excellent discussion of the ten worst mistakes you can make in
your life. We are all smiles as we return to our department, the class is
going well and we are enjoying it. This is our second year with this format,
and the "Good Life" seems to have meaning for the students.
I meet with students and my research assistant, go over e-mails (20-30 a
day) and phone messages, answer some mail. Finally escape to home by 3 PM. I
set up my projector and preview slides for Tuesday, make some final
adjustments, and mark and number the trays so I can keep them in order. Then
I work on a new handout, "Restoration Planning", for the meeting.
Then dinner, some reading, and preparations for an early start.
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Tuesday
Up at 4:45 AM, a quick breakfast, off to the airport and on a
plane to Las Vegas. I arrive at the conference, "Desert Wilderness
Restoration" shortly after 8 AM, and get to hear a very interesting
introduction, reviewing the development of the wilderness legislation and
its current interpretation. A good group, 60 people from around the west
including some equipment operators and field workers, well organized and run
by the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center. I go on stage at
10:20 and talk until 12, answer questions until 12:15, grab a bite while
discussing an upcoming paper I am working on with someone from Lake Mead
National Recreation Area, then return to stage at 1 and talk until 2:40.
Manage to show and talk about most of the things I had hoped to cover. More
questions, a couple of other talks, then I participate in a panel
discussion. Finish at 5:30, bounce back to the airport, have dinner, and
read until my flight leaves. Home by 9:30 PM, a shower and then to bed.
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Wednesday
Back to class at 8 AM, today a slide show of my research in Jordan on water
use by the Nabateans. This is always a good one, few students are familiar
with history or resource use, so a combination of the two can be enticing.
It makes a good contrast with the Inuit on Monday, here in the desert the
challenge is water and heat rather than cold and dark.
Then on to the discussion sections for the interdisciplinary seminar, all by
faculty - no TAs here at USIU, and an especially rewarding discussion of the
previous two lectures, "Siddartha" and "Satisfaction". I
wish I had been able to take a class like this when I was in college.
Students are taking this seriously, as well they should, and all have
learned a fair amount already from watching their parents, living their own
lives, and watching their friends. We make up our own lists of the ten worst
mistakes you can make with your life path.
Then lunch with colleagues. I am twice blessed at USIU, with good students
and a remarkably good and pleasant faculty. Far better than at other
colleges where I have worked.
After lunch it is e-mails, phone, a meeting with administration, and then
home by 3:30 PM. Time to get cracking on grading papers. I have 40 in my
briefcase today and at about 15 minutes for each one it will take ten hours
to finish them, and I know that because I encourage students to correct and
rewrite them I will see them again. Many students have never had papers
graded this way - it's not surprising they can't write well. I grade a few,
take a break to prepare two quizzes for Thursday, and then read and grade
until I can no longer function and go to bed.
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Thursday
Up at 5:30 AM, a drive down to the beach for breakfast and a walk. The
morning is a good time for some errands or reading. I settle in by 8:30 and
work on grading and my lectures for the day. I make it over to campus by 1
PM, runoff notes for class, read some e-mails, then go off at 1:30 PM for an
hour and forty minute class on resource management. After that, meeting with
students, and review of notes for night class. Dinner at 4:30 PM, then class
from 5:30-9 PM. This is my favorite class, Environmental Economics, and I
work very hard to bring it to life. Tonight we talk about the case study
approach, reviewing water treatment policy in Denmark, Germany, France, The
Netherlands and the U.S. After a break I try a role playing assignment about
battery recycling, it works well and that always feels good. My research
assistant corners me at 9 and we talk until 9:30. I get home by ten, watch
the news and go to bed. Ready to start the next week.
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A fairly typical week of research, writing, lecturing, grading and
discussion
There is no richer or more rewarding career, and I especially
appreciate it because I didn't get a chance to begin a full time teaching
position until I was 48. I hope to enjoy another 20-25 years as my
colleagues have. I end up working about 80 hours this week, a bit more than
usual, for a salary that compares with what I made painting houses when I
was in college thirty years ago. But as I tell my students, it is not money
that makes you rich. It is good friends, family and a career you feel is
important and enjoy. As Theodore Roosevelt said, "The greatest prize
life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." This
is, and I am grateful.
David Bainbridge is an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of
Environmental Studies at United States International University in San
Diego. The author of 7 books and more than 300 papers, his special interest
is the economics of sustainable resource management.
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