This article shares how the author explained her trans status to her students. Everyone has been extremely supportive of her decision to come out in class and to completely mask the male secondary-sex characteristics, especially in the workplace. The department chair and the faculty in general have been willing to do whatever they can to assist…

Grading is one of the primary venues of teaching. In this article, the author shares his experience of grading papers. He alleges that the hardest papers to grade are those where nothing is really "wrong" with the prose or the argument, where everything is "sort of" correct but nothing is vivid, nothing quite original. Students must learn in time…

This article describes how Whitworth University has made personal essays about applicants' faith a key part of its hiring process. Faculty members are required by the university to explain in written personal statement what they believe and how it affects their academic work. Whitworth officials think this process provides them with a better…

The author had been trying, and failing, for years to land a tenure-track position in English. She had a few interviews over the years, but she knew she had been typecast as an adjunct. Administrators seemed to believe that men and women under 40 were better teachers: more creative, more energetic, more attractive. And attractiveness counts among…

In this article, the author shares his experience as he traveled from island to island with a single objective--to reach the archives. He found out that not all archives are the same. In recent months, his daydreaming in various facilities has yielded a recurrent question on what would constitute the Ideal Archive. What follows, in no particular…

An airport interview is an initial interview for a senior administrative position conducted at an airport hotel not too far from the campus in question. Meeting at an airport enables a search committee to interview a large number of candidates in a short period of time with a degree of confidentiality. At the conclusion of the airport interviews,…

In this article, the authors as assistant professors of teaching and learning at Northern Illinois University react to the campus killings. They share their stories and sentiments regarding the campus killings. They state that their prayers and condolences go out to their campus, to the families of the lost and wounded, and the family of the young…

In this article, the author shares his experiences as a fund-raiser. He shares that fund-raising has normally two "busy seasons": (1) In December, when folks scurry to make year-end gifts in order to realize tax benefits the following April; and (2) In June 30, the end of the fiscal year. This year was a memorable year for him and his fund-raising…

For a college to become an alma mater in the hearts of its students, it must show, true to the Latin meaning, the wisdom and comfort of a good foster mother. Since "alma mater" is Latin, and since the study of Latin has waned on all educational levels in both pious and secular milieus, the author wonders whether folks who use that term really know…

In this article, the author shares his realizations as he changed careers from a former publisher to a dean of the faculty of humanities and social sciences at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. He describes that his work as a dean in academe is not so much different from his job as a longtime editor. He also relates that…

A software program that searches for offensive content on college athletes' social-networking sites has drawn skeptical reactions from legal experts, who say it could threaten students' constitutional rights. Billed as a "social-network monitoring service" and marketed exclusively to college athletics departments, YouDiligence was on display at…

This article presents the personal narrative of the author, a former Episcopal priest, who is in search for deep religious dialogue. In this article, she shares how she finds richer spiritual exploration teaching students at Piedmont College than she did leading congregations and how she has finally found a place where she can engage in religious…

In this column, the author reflects on the writing instructor's role as a cultural gatekeeper, whose comments and grades are an implicit judgment of whether or not a student has got "it," and on the relative importance of talent and perseverance in a writer's career. Drawing on the story of Ishmael Beah, she concludes that while instructors may…

"Creative nonfiction" is gaining ground as the descriptor for what has also been called "the fourth genre." The first word gives some people fits. They get all caught up in "creative" and assume it only means "invented." Instead of using "creative" as the qualifier, some call the genre "literary" or "narrative" nonfiction. Those are both…

The most effective blogs provide important and cutting-edge information (e.g., Tech Crunch), communicate deeply personal experiences through narrative (e.g., the Cancer Blog), or write to a specific audience (e.g., chemistry teachers). Most people with successful blogs are deeply committed to posting, for personal reasons, such as a passion for…