Opening Day

The Writing Center opened today. It seemed to all go smoothly. We were actually kind of busy in the afternoon. It's been a while since I've worked in a writing center. It was fun. I know in a couple of weeks I'll be singing a different tune, but it's good for now.

As I sat through a job talk today the silliness of the situation struck me. It's like a conference of one. A mini-teach can show how a candidate will perform in the classroom, but the job talk just puts everyone in an awkward position. As a candidate you have to condense your research into a short conference presentation. As a committee member you have to try to assess a candidates ability based on that presentation. It's insufficient. I don't have any alternative suggestions, but there has to be a better way to do that.