The Summer Phase

For students summer always means a change of pace -- time spent meeting short deadlines and "managing" a full set of courses along with other responsibilities is now free for other things. For professors, the change of pace is nearly as dramatic.  In this space, I will chronicle how we professors use our time, professionally, that is.

And I will try to avoid the mundane, except when it is relevant.  One week past graduation, I am now well past grading and closing of the spring semester.  While a big event of post semester is simply cleaning up my workspaces (and uncovering lost stuff), the best thing about it is now having time to really read.  Sometimes this leads to some real serendipitous finds.  As I was preparing my bag for a short 1-day vacation with my wife, I stuck in The Essential Drucker by the sage of management, Peter Drucker.  I didn't really think I would read it (as I had two other books in my bag), but always want to be prepared.  

Turns out I did look at the book and found a chapter relevant to a piece I was writing.  Every month I ghost write an article on management for this site. The chapter, as most of Drucker's stuff, was perfect for helping me finish the article (not posted yet).  The summer phase is great for faculty because it lets us explore topics in ways that are hard in the final half of a full teaching semester.