Happy New Year to all!
I’ve carried a university ID card almost continuously for nearly forty years. My first one was issued to me as a freshman in September, 1967. Since then I have held nearly every position from freshman through Professor to Professor Emeritus, my title as of September 1, 2014. The only interruption was my three year stint as a postdoc at NIH.
The header photo is the sunset, viewed from the end of the hall on the fourth floor of Burt Hall at Oregon State University, where my office has been since 1988. I will soon move to a first floor office, as befits my new status.
Being an emeritus professor isn’t precisely the same as being retired, though it can be. I can still use the library and other campus facilities. I always said I’d do science for free, they pay me to go to committee meetings and write reports. We’ll see if that’s the case. So far, it is. I bought a parking sticker, the cheapest available, about which more later. I do research that interests me, and I sit nearly full time at the desk that I am still permitted to occupy. When I receive emails with notices of faculty meetings or requests for comments on the internal comings and goings of the college, I delete them unread. My enjoyment in doing this hasn’t worn off in the four months since I left the full time faculty.
I have planned to put up this blog for a very long time. Folks who are interested in universities, what they do and how they work might be interested in what one with my experience has to say. Now, at the beginning of my first full year after leaving the full time faculty, it seems a good time to start.
Parking for the Faculty 