I was officially notified that I’ve been awarded a Dickinson Dana Research Assistantship grant, which allows me to hire a student research assistant for the academic year. This will make my Bolivian political parties database project—which I need for my April MPSA paper—much more manageable. Whew!
That's great--I am glad they treat adjuncts well, which is not necessarily too common...
Oh, I'm **not** an adjunct; I'm a Visiting Assistant Professor (I get to vote at faculty meetings & everything). I even have the rank of a department "chair" (and so I have to go to all those administrative meetings) for the Latin American Studies program. I'm just not on tenure track.
Sorry, I didn't mean to force you to defend your appointment or demean it. My apologies.
Oh, I'm not offended. It is a sort of weird in-limbo kind of place. I sometimes feel very awkward about it. I mean, I've sat in on three hiring decisions already ... and they will have impact on the future of the department. Should I get to vote? I won't be around to suffer (if I vote "wrong") the consequences. And I'll be planning the 2008-2009 Latin American studies course load (sort of, alongside other departments) but I won't be around.
There's a **chance** I might stay on another year or two, but it's completely out of my hands.
In the end, I think Dickinson does treat its faculty very, very, very well indeed. I mean, to give non-tenure track faculty voting rights, the same health & retirement benefits package, etc., as all the other faculty is just amazing. I suspect other places aren't nearly as generous.