Faculty Status Finally Achieved

The great majority of college faculty join the guild through a standard interview process.  I am the third person at SPU to gain faculty status by a vote of the entire faculty.  It did not come as a surprise, and it was supposed to happen in early November.  The unanimous Faculty Senate vote in my favor came on December 5th.  The vote on my status was the first item on the Senate agenda, otherwise they might have tabled the vote, because the only other item on the agenda was a long debate on faculty salaries.  The second item on the agenda guaranteed a big turn out!

While the Senate meeting was still in progress, Dr. Bruce Baker ran back to McKenna Hall.  He came by and said he wanted to be the first to congratulate me.  We occasionally ride the bus to Bellevue together and had talked occasionally about faculty status issues.  He is just a little younger than I, but is one of our three most recent faculty hires. 

Throughout the afternoon, others came by to express their thoughts: "Long overdue," said Dr. Franz.  That was the most common comment.  For thirteen years I have used the courtesy title of "Instructor" without being officially on the faculty.  I was in a state of academic limbo.  For 16 of my nearly 25 years at SPU, I have been a teacher.  Now, I am once again a voting member of the profession -- just as I was at the University of Washington when I first stepped onto this career path at the age of 22 in 1978.  This day, an important item was checked off my short bucket list.

Later in the afternoon, Kathy Stegman, the Dean's Administrative Assistant, stopped by to ask if I could help her in her office with an Excel problem.  Eager as I always am to help with a spreadsheet, I followed her down to her office in the Dean's reception area.  Turning the corner, I was greeted by a crowd of SBE faculty and staff who loudly expressed their congratulations and good wishes.  There were balloons and fancy  large chocolate cupcakes!  (Kathy took these photos.)  This was surely a big deal in my life — and I was delighted that my staff and faculty colleagues saw it as a cause for real celebration. 

On Tuesday the 3rd, I had the chance to go downtown with my new dean to a two-hour Apple presentation given to area business faculty.  He remarked about a comment he'd heard at a Provost's Cabinet meeting.  During a discussion with the other deans from across campus, someone said they couldn't do what SBE could because, "We don't have a Dick Sleight."  It's a comment I've heard more than once from former supervisors.

The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.  Eccl. 7:8

A Happy Ending to 2013

On the 3rd, my quickly created Christmas stocking won a prize!  I had begged off from making a stocking with glue and a variety of decorative materials.  Instead, I said I would do my normal photography thing.  But as the contest was nearing its end, at our late afternoon SBE Faculty-Staff Christmas party, I grabbed a blank stocking and a scrap of cloth.  I'd gone to my office to see if there was anything unique I could put on a stocking.  I also grabbed my stapler!  I stapled the cloth on to the stocking and then added an empty Ben & Jerry's "Totally Nuts" container.  Even though I took only sixty seconds to create it, my creation earned me the "Most, er... unusual stocking" award! 

The next day I received a $25 gift certificate for being the "500th Twitter Follower" of SPU President Dan Martin.  And, as mentioned above, on the 5th, I was voted onto the SPU faculty.

I gave my final exam in business statistics on the 9th.  I thought the course had gone well enough, but my student evaluations, downloaded later in the month, were harsh.  Dean Williams told me to not take it too personally, since statistics has low ratings no matter who teaches it.  

UPC Does Narnia Again 

In mid-month, Larson Hall at University Presbyterian was again decorated as Narnia.  I didn't bother to visit the White Witch's castle -- been there.  My favorite part was that they had fake snow just as one passed through the fur coat lined wardrobe.

Here our two princesses and princes stand with their Narnian counterparts.

I'm sure Nancy and I would love to entertain, but it's been many years since our house has been clean and functional enough for that.  Not so for Susan's home.  With the completion of her remodel, she opened the place up for a big December gathering.  Medical and Church friends, neighbors and family came and ate and enjoyed Susan's hospitality.  She has that gift.

Ginger held court at Susan's open house until she tired.

Christmas Moves to Susan's

We had a tree and some morning Christmas festivities, but after lunchtime we moved up to Susan's house and continued our holiday there.  Susan had invited Nikita and Alyssa and their week-old baby Anna.  They are from Russia, and Nikita has been working at Microsoft in Redmond with the Bing group for the past month.  Susan invited them as soon as she learned new mom Alyssa was sad because they had no place to celebrate Christmas -- even though the Russian Orthodox celebrate it a week later.  Brother Randy also joined us at Susan's. 

At our house, I had fun taking pictures of our tall tree with a "star" filter.  I bought RC helicopters for Nathanael, Jean, and Thomas, and a nice Canon G15 camera with a pile of extras for Annie.  Susan really liked the Chromecast device I got her.  I also set it up on her TV for her.  I got a number of DVDs for all of us to enjoy, but JB seemed to flip the most over the elf ears I got her. 

Ginger is napping more so she missed a great ham dinner.  The party went late into the evening.  Jean is a "Whovian" and has introduced us all to Dr. Who.  She loved the 'Belle meets the Tardis' t-shirt Annie and Thomas found for her.  I also helped Randy have a nicer Christmas by getting him a number of things on his wish list. Annie and Thomas had a number of things to give that they had brought back from Korea.

Seventy Years On

I was amazed to discover that I could "google" old newspapers.  The story at the lower left was found in a number of east coast papers for December 29, 1943. Stories of Ginger's fencing exploits can be found under two spellings of her maiden name -- "Uhthoff" (the correct version), and also "Uthoff."

This bit is from the Cornell Alumni News, January 14, 1943.  

Grace V. Acel '43 of Tarry town won the individual foils championship of the Women's Intercollegiate Fencing
Association at New York University during the Christmas recess. Miss Acel won seven of eight bouts in the final round-robin to regain the title she relinquished to Miss Uhthoff of Hunter College in a fence-off a year ago,

I sent these two photos to the current head fencing coach at Hunter College, along with what their 1944 national champion had been doing since graduating. 
I noticed that they continue to list her in their sports press guide.

This list comes from the NIWFA web site.

For Christmas, I gave Ginger these two photos as 8"x10" prints in a folding frame.

Bits and Pieces

♦ I was contacted on December 6th by Sue Scott of the Emerald Heights Retirement Community about teaching there again in June and July. I assured her that I would be delighted.  So I am once again committed for the next installment of my growing lecture series on Matthew, this time on Matthew 17-21.  As I hope and expect, the teacher always learns the lesson best.  

♦ I gave my final exam in Statistics for Business and Economics on Monday, December 9th.  All the exams were graded that night.  I don't envy the faculty who spend weeks grading essays.

♦  I am less keen each year to photograph BSC Wrestling.  But the team is much improved over last year.  I photographed BCS at two day-long tournaments but, beyond that, I'll only shoot BCS vs. Vashon on January 16th.  I do still look forward to photographing Track & Field.  At least in the spring I'll get some exercise.

♦  Over my eight day Christmas break, I have borrowed an Apple MacBook Pro from the Computer and Information Systems folks.  With all my computer experience, I've never used an Apple for any extended period.  I have a week to learn to use a Mac.  Many of my students have them.

♦  I was sad for the WSU Cougars for their absolute collapse in the New Mexico Bowl, losing 48-45.  The Seattle Times wrote, "Colorado State scores 18 points in the last three minutes as Washington State blows it in incredible fashion."  I am still too much of a Husky to not recall that it was yet another example of the verb "to coug."  The Huskies beat the BYU Cougars (who also couged it), defeating them 31-16 in the Fight Hunger Bowl a week later.  BYU did not score in the second half. 

A Snow Day

I'd decided to take Friday, December 20th off to bake cookies.  I baked nearly all day and the following evening.  But I also telecommuted.  Folks in SBE seem to need my help hourly.

The morning snow shut down both Seattle Christian School and the Bellevue School District, so both Annie and Nathanael got to start their Christmas vacation a day early. 

When the weather warmed, we were finally able to free our Christmas tree from the ice that had locked it in its water bucket.

This is my traditional baking attire.  Shirt and tie harken back to Graham Kerr, the Galloping Gourmet.  His was the only show of its kind that held my attention when I was a teen.  If James Bond had been a cook instead of a spy, he would have been like Graham Kerr.