Semester Start Brings Excitement

Summer's over.

As a faculty member, this is always a sad time. And not because summer "vacation" is over. Instead, it's when the research productivity greatly decelerates.

Today marked two years away from the Indiana telecom meet in greet in the studios on the first floor studios of the R/TV building. Seems strange to have been gone that long.

However, with endings come new beginnings. Today was the real start of my career at Texas Tech, and it was a good day. We got to meet some of the new graduate students, and I got to begin mapping out the semester with my research assistant, Wendy Maxian.

I also got to meet a new master's student who will be assisting with my research methods class. It's a pleasure to talk with someone just embarking on a graduate career. As I have so many times mentioned here, I try to use such opportunities to pay forward.

I was fortunate to have had great advice from Bob Meeds and Tom Grimes as a master's student at K-State. It's a tricky time for someone starting that long journey toward a Ph.D. When you begin the first semester of your master's program, the whole world is foreign. You are enrolled in "research" and "theory" classes, but you don't really know what to expect. You know you're supposed to have a research focus, but you usually do not.

It's nice to be able to offer some words of experience to someone walking a path you once walked. I hope my advice was helpful.

The excitement will be tempered tomorrow, however, when we head off campus for an all-day faculty "retreat." This is a retreat in the sense that convicted felons get a 7 to 10 year "retreat."