New Scientist Sabbatical Advice, Part 1

I am a fan of reading the material on the margins of my chosen field of organic chemistry. So, I subscribe to The Scientist. (It's free) It is very biotech which teaches me some new stuff, but there is also interesting Pharma stuff too. In the August issue there is an column in the Careers section on sabbaticals. There are some useful tips for people planning sabbaticals. Since you have the link I won't quote it but I will add my two cents.

Tip: Don't forget your students

I could not agree more that students can languish when the cats away. I have come to know another sabbatical faculty member who scheduled weekly visits to his students so they would not drift while he was gone. Not only was this not effective, they did not bother to show up for the meetings, sending e-mail that they had nothing to report.

The tip in the article is to have a create a mini-group of colleague faculty members who would meet with your students. In some cases this could work well, but in smaller campuses with diverse faculty expertise this might be hard. I came to the realization that many laptop and some desktop computers have built in cameras that enable video conferencing. All my students have them. I was the only person in my group that needed to update. This allowed for scheduled meetings for face-to-face video conferences. I still have trouble with students reporting that they have nothing to report, but that have to show up to the video conference to do it.

Tip: Say no

First, never do a sabbatical on your home campus unless you want to try out administration careers. With no classes you will find yourself on every committee and pulled into every problem, since you have all that free time.

Second, be aware that the same technology that allows you to keep in touch with students allows your department to pull you into departmental grants and repair of instruments. You are on sabbatical, that's your job this semester/year. If the department needs you to work on other issues they should contract with you for the work. Nothing stops the calls for you to come fix the mass spec like telling the chair that your hourly is $75 door-to-door from your sabbatical location.

My on sabbatical colleague seams to be indispensable in his home department, yet is the lowest paid Professor in the department. His sabbatical would have been a good time for him to get his department to reconsider his value to the department.

This is my last sabbatical week, so I have to get back to the hood.

T.S. Hall