Thursday, November 29 was a typical day.
Over the course of the day the focus of my attention included dual credit staffing challenges, weekend college, changing the Math calculus sequence, eight-week courses and programs, organizing a conference in Austin in January, off-cycle pay requests, position change and budget approval forms, job postings, our longstanding ROTC/Military Science partnership with UT, a potential engineering partnership with Texas State, appropriate documentation of student complaints and their resolution, Spring Development Day, effective use of data to inform short-term actions, assessments and improvement, communication streams, testing centers, the Ascender program, the content for the new edition of the student success report, the April Texas Pathways Institute on teaching and learning, Friday’s President’s breakfast with area superintendents – and more.
8:30 Arrived at the office and chatted about the day’s schedule with my fabulous executive assistant Rhonda, who keeps me on track and on schedule.
8:50 Went downstairs to the fifth floor to ask (and answer) some questions about a couple of projects and some looming meetings.
9:00 Turned to email.
9:15 Went to visit with Jennifer in HR, who is always helpful and answered my questions.
9:20 Went to visit with Dana in HR, who is also always helpful and answered my additional questions.
9:40 Signed seven Off-Cycle Pay Requests for my colleague Dr. Gretchen Riehl who was home with bronchitis.
9:45 Started writing a letter of recommendation for a faculty member who is applying to a doctoral program.
10:18 Succumbed to temptation and ate a Shipley donut brought to work by my evil (but not really) executive assistant Rhonda.
10:20 Returned to email and spent several minutes trying to figure out where my “trash” folder went in the new Google mail.
10:31 Had a drop-in visit from Dr. Susy Thomason to discuss updates to the faculty handbook, department chair orientation and training, Spring Development Day plans, and other things.
10:45 Read through the notes from Dr. Alison Kadlec, who facilitated the previous day’s deans’ retreat.
11:03 Received the agenda and started prepping for the Provost’s Council meeting scheduled for 2:30.
11:35 Approved two requisitions in Colleague related to the Texas Corequisites Project grant from THECB.
11:37 Finished the letter of recommendation and uploaded it to the candidate’s online file.
11:45 Checked “to do” list to confirm that I had done only one thing on the list, and answered more emails.
11:51 Started crafting an email to select department chairs about a new approach to a longstanding issue.
12:00 Ate some almonds and some cherry tomatoes at my desk while thinking through a plethora of issues related to the Texas Corequisites Project January conference that ACC is organizing.
12:25 Closed my office door to finish reading Lencioni’s Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars.
12:45 Opened my office door, returned to emails to address more questions and problems.
12:55 Turned to drafting an agenda for the Friday afternoon 8-week Program Task Force meeting.
1:05 Look up and saw my boss in my doorway – so I invited him in (of course).
1:22 Returned to drafting the task force agenda.
2:00 Returned to emails and new issues that needed addressing.
2:12 Succumbed to temptation for a second time and had another donut brought work by my evil-but-not-really, fabulous executive assistant Rhonda.
2:29 Left the office to go downstairs for the Provost’s Council meeting.
5:12 Returned to the office after the Provost’s Council meeting and sent emails about some of the decisions/discussions we had there.
5:25 Did some more work on the draft agenda and on the supporting documentation and information that would be needed for the task force meeting Friday afternoon.
6:12 Decided – especially in light of the 7:30 breakfast meeting the next morning – that it was time to close up shop and head home. Chose not to take any donuts home with me!
Picture #1: Liz DeCoster [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons Picture #2: Amy from Newburgh, NY [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons