8) (Roy Williams, Tar Heel coach) When you moved to PSU, the football team went in the toilet. Are bad things in store for the bball program?

Boy, the history of sports at my employer is hardly distinguished. Vanderbilt football is among the worst ever. Georgia State basketball held the record for a while as the country's losingest. And PSU football did go in the tank right before I arrived.

Goodness, I hope this is one streak that the Tar Heels break.

7) (Ramses the Ram, Tar Heel Mascot) Is this your last job?

Well, good question--I figure I'll work 27 more years, so it seems unlikely I won't change jobs again.
Still, I sure would like to get one of those chairs folks get for 25 years of service.

I certaintly don't intend to go anywhere until my oldest three children finish high school.

6) (submitted by my conscience; referring to item [3]) You're a Christian. Shouldn't you cut that out?

I'm working on it. Seriously.

5) (comment to self) Has anything in this been affirming?

Yes, I've been surprised by how loyal people seem to be and how many people seem sorry to see me go, especially staff and junior people.
To hell with rest of them. (Sorry--just being honest.)

4) (question to self) Have you learned anything from all these moves?

Yes, tell as few people as you can that you're leaving. Then go. Keep the transition period as short as possible. When you decide to go, just go, and keep a very low profile.

3) (submitted by wife) Why are people mad at you?

Truth be told, I'm probably annoying. I expect other people to work as hard as I do, which they generally don't want to do. I'm also rather frank. I also don't take a lot of crap from my superiors. I expect them not to yell at me, and when they do, I fight back. I don't like bullies. I would add that junior people whom I try to protect view my assertiveness as my strong suit.

I also think that once one decides the leave, colleagues stop biting their tongues and feel free to vent. One thing you can say about me, if I'm unhappy with you, I'm not going to wait for you to leave to let you know. (Hopefully, though, if you're doing something well, I'll tell you that, too.)

I would add that having high standards doesn't always make friends, either. When I got here, senior faculty were telling junior people to write two papers per year. That was a recipe for being on the job market after tenure review. I told them they should write 4 to 5 and told the senior faculty they should take the lead. Raising the bar probably didn't endear me to anyone.

Another part of this is that the moment one takes another job, there is an inherent conflict of interest between a faculty member and his soon-to-be-former department--namely, the latter wants to get its collective hands on the financial and other resources of the former. (I would note that I did manage to escape relatively unscathed financially this time around, though I ain't out of here yet. (My current chair asked that I clarify this--and not very nicely (see reference to stinker e-mails below), I might add. My center director, Linda Collins, has been just great.) I really got screwed on one of my moves.

I also think when you leave a place, the folks left behind always feel a sense of rejection.

Finally, though, I would have to admit that while I didn't invent the inflammatory e-mail, I've perfected it. In my own defense, I would note that no one ever seems to remember the stinky e-mails people send me. I could quote some here, but that would only throw gas on the fire. (I think a fair question, posed by Mr. Cynic, would be, "Gee, when the heck did that slow you down in the past?")

2) (submitted by colleagues) I thought you liked Penn State?

There were very few places for which I would have left Penn State. A couple of them came calling.
At the same time, I have to admit that I don't feel a lot of loyalty to my employer. I look at what universities do to the junior faculty, and my sense is that it is every man/woman for him-/herself. (If it were up to me, I would fire the senior faculty when a person doesn't make tenure because generally (1) they hired the wrong person in the first place and (2) they didn't provide support/guidance.)

1) (submitted by my children) Why have we moved so many times? Why can't you keep a job?

This is a good question. I guess I would say that this change is the first one I've made where I've moved from a good situation to a better one. My other moves had more of the flavor of an "escape". I left Vanderbilt because they eliminated my department. I left Georgia State because (a) Atlanta is a paved hell-hole and (b) the limitations of a lower-status university were greater than I anticipated. I was really having problems getting my research funded.