Wendy,
Thanks for your support!
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| What changed about the position? |
I don't know that anything changed about the position. I think we were just overconfident about Dave's chances of obtaining it. The people Dave had spoken to who had urged him to apply (assoc dean and dept chair) and been optimistic about his chances turned out not to be on the selection committee. Plus, Dave didn't think this teaching demo was that spectacular, and he mostly talked with people about research during his job interview (it's what they asked him about and, to be honest, what he most likes talking about). Perhaps they worried that because he has lab space/resources, he would spend more time in the lab than teaching (compared to a lecturer without lab space). Perhaps it was a threat to tenure-track faculty or to the ability of the dept to have additional tenure-track positions approved, to have someone with a research appt and a lecturer position, who basically does the same things as tenured faculty, but without tenure. Really, we don't know why Dave didn't get the position. It may be clearer later, as he gets to know the dept (due to his research position).
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| Hmmm, how many grants can Dave write in the next month? Does he have existing grants? Do they have rules about converting equipment/tuition money to salary? Have you guys looked into the cc's around in the area? |
We've looked for other lecturer positions around the area, but it looks like they are all full for the fall. Dave does have a small amount of money in an existing grant that he can use to pay himself, but only about 15% of full salary. He doesn't have equipment money from the university - just a lab, equipment that's already there, equipment that he brings from his current lab, and use of shared lab equipment (such as NMR, etc).
Just yesterday, DH thought of a temporary solution, which I think will carry us through this year. We were going to pay off most of my student loans when we sell our house. However, if we don't pay them off, we can use that money for part-time daycare for DS over the next year. DH would be *much* happier with this situation, and more likely to have time to do work that leads to an income for next fall (writing grants, applying for jobs, publishing). We both agree that DH needs to have an income by next fall, and I am pretty confident that he will, one way or another.
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). PM/email me if you need anything, I'm easy to find these days.
yay! No flames here on choosing to supplement. I wish I had done more supplementation rather than basically sacrificing the whole first semester back to work.
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