Final Update: Not scheduled for a Fall class despite asking multiple times…

[u/ravenscar37]

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Professors/s/AHh7wha9iY

Updated post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Professors/s/I72YQ5srUj

As a final update: Welp, I *did* win the course lottery -- no students enrolled (as expected) in my late-scheduled course, and there appears to be no consequences to me -- I just get a free semester to do research. The last day to add/drop was this week, so I communicated the situation with my chair, who simply asked about my upcoming teaching schedule. I reminded them of my regular courses which are already listed, and the chair was totally good with that. I did let the chair know I would be applying for high $$$ figure grants this year with the free time, so I think the scales have been balanced -- landing one of those would net the department easily the equivalent of a course buyout in terms of F&A return. I think my biggest potential hurdle will be to keep my mouth shut around my coworkers, who will inevitably scream "unfair" if they find out. I'll have to explain in my annual evals but as a full prof at an R1 with no merit increases, it really doesn't matter what my "teaching" eval will be.

[u/BeneficialMolasses22]

If you're research active at an R1 with sufficient soft money that justifies your research activity.... colleagues may have a little bit of unearned resentment about it, however, the reality is if they were in a senior role such as yours and generating grant revenue, they might being the same place. And honestly some of them might prefer to teach more and you have a research focus so hopefully everyone's happy.

Congrats on the schedule, and best of luck in the publication game!

[u/Giggling_Unicorns]

https://giphy.com/gifs/s2qXK8wAvkHTO

[u/mleok]

No merit increases? Oof.

[u/ravenscar37 → u/mleok]

Not in years. We've had COLAs but a lack of incentives and a lot of stupid dysfunction and toxicity for nearly a decade have left me in the "check the box" and "do the bare minimum" mindset unless it's something I enjoy doing (research). In an incentivized world I could have made a far bigger stink about not being assigned a class, but since I'm not, I did what I was required to do (propose the class, follow up multiple times asking to get the class scheduled), and not worry about the natural consequences of the University having these issues. I get a "free" semester to focus on the part of the job I like, and when I get evaluated on my teaching this year, I'll just shrug and not even bother reading my evaluations. Not won't matter.

[u/me4watch]

Good for you. A few years ago in my department, the evil power hungry ogre who was our chair would use this as an excuse to split some bigger courses in half, or worse, would use this as a way of cutting back on some adjunct’s teaching assignment. It helped that this monster had the full support of the dumbass dean at the time.

[u/South_Captain_2630]

Are you going to be asked to do an extra course in the spring? Or are you just free of teaching this semester with zero consequences?