It was a great party. 35-40 people there. Not a single conversation about COVID, vaccines, or any of that.

The only negative part was that I ate some fake meat by mistake. People should attach labels, or something.

Klara and I are at a party while N is celebrating Father’s Day at home preparing for a job interview.

The previous Dean was a passionate supporter of Elizabeth Warren. Pro-social justice, all that stuff.

His biggest achievement on campus was firing half of the administrative staff and forcing the rest to do the jobs of two or three people for the same pay. These are workers who are paid $24,000-$32,000 per year. I challenged him about this decision repeatedly and publicly. As a result, he hounded me and refused every work-related request I made that could be refused. (E.g. travel to international conferences.) Now that he stepped down as a dean to dedicate himself to the political fight for social justice, I’m continuing to work to get office staff compensated appropriately. The new dean is less progressive, so I’m hopeful.

The progressive dean’s other major proposal was to fire the low-paid copy center workers. All of them, just like that. Thankfully, this plan he never managed to bring to fruition.

He also destroyed two out of 10 tenure lines at my department. I could go on but you get the drift.

The new instructor responded to my email with “Dear Sir, it is wonderful to hear from you.”

I don’t mind being called sir, sire, or even my lord. It’s the lack of curiosity that prevents one from at least googling the future place of employment that gets to me.*

* These instructors are Fulbright scholars and the hiring process prevents us from seeing each other until it’s completed.