Re: Job at Vassar College

[palmer@sfu.ca (Leigh Palmer)]

> Cindy:  Could you shed some insight on *WHAT* you are contemplating in such
> a position?
>
> As a member of the AAPT Professional Concerns committee (speaking on my
> own), I continue to be amazed at what we expect others to find reasonable,
> but which we would unlikely consider acceptable for ourselves.  Is this
> posting just "bread on the water" looking for hungry fish?
>
> More to the point:  Who, among your already tenured faculty, would have
> ever considered such an indeterminant position?  Seriously, would you?

Given the fact that in 2000 I will be facing compulsory retirement and
looking for new, interesting challenges, I would find the job interesting
if it were to come up at that time. I'll bet Cindy gets more than one
application from a person who sees it that way. The institution is
highly reputable, and teaching in a new environment would appeal to me.
That was my immediate reaction to seeing this position posted.

I know that Karl's comment is well-intentioned, and that the job offered
might appear exploitative to someone already in a tenure track position,
but there are many whose circumstances might make accepting such a job
something other than yielding to difficult conditions and accepting
exploitation. I think that is a good argument against unions for people
like us. We are too diverse to be unionized, and I'm very glad that is
the case.

Now my challenge to Cindy is this: Do you have a preconceived idea of
the sort of person you want to hire into this position or would you
seriously consider a 65-year-old retired physics professor who really
wants to enjoy the challenge you offer him here? Don't worry; I've four
more years here at Simon Fraser and lots to accomplish before I leave.

I am a US citizen, but in my adopted country (Canada) discrimination on
the basis of age is expressly permitted in the case of university
professors, though protection from it is guaranteed all others by the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Leigh