Updates on Old Items, New Items for the Coming Weeks

Two internal reviewers came to my classes last week. The first went ok. The second went fantastically! The reviewer said he would need to leave about 30 minutes before class was over, but he wound up staying the whole time. Afterward, I asked him, and he said that he "didn't want to leave." That's success in my book.

My thesis student is still desperately trying to pull things together to defend and walk across the stage. Never mind the fact that he will still be done and still not owe any money--he wants to walk across the stage. I completely understand. As I think about it, I took short cuts and made decisions based more on timing than on quality. I'm doing the best that I can with turnaround time. It's tough because I have a pretty full plate this week and next week. But I don't want to be the reason it doesn't work out.

My university's deadline for internal grants is Friday, so that's a big thing this week. I'm applying for a small grant for a project for next year and I'm also applying to work as part of a cross-disciplinary team with faculty and undergraduate students. This program seems like one of the university's favorite ways to get undergrads involved in research, so I'm kind of excited about it.

I'm also applying for an external grant, and that application is due in the Office for Sponsored Programs by Wednesday of next week. It shouldn't be too bad. I applied for the same grant last year, and I got good feedback even though I was rejected. I need to tweak my methodology a bit and the review committee said I needed to include a discussion of popular, non-academic literature as well as academic stuff. They like to bridge the divide between the two, and my proposal was too academic.

Oh, and I've got some grading to do. A lot of grading to do. Did I say that my plate was pretty full this week and next?