I'm beginning to put my tenure review materials together, which means lots of angst about academia generally. Happily, there's the Internet, which can always make matters worse by providing more links:
For example, a couple of my ScienceBlogs colleagues are blogging about family issues and academic careers: Janet Stemwedel has the first three posts (one two, three) of what promises to be an exhaustive look at the subject of family and career, and Tara Smith adds her own story. And lest you think this is just a concern for the womenfolk, I'll note that this has been the subject of many conversations at Chateau Steelypips as well (we decided to wait until after my tenure review, because the review process is stressful enough without an infant in the house).
And, of course, there's the ever-popular question, "Will blogging sink your career?" The Chronicle of Higher Education is there to help you fret, with a symposium about Juan Cole who may or may not have lost an appointment at Yale due to things he wrote on his blog. Link via Brad DeLong and also Crooked Timber in whose comments you'll find a lot of political wrangling.
Finally, if you'd like to get all existential with the despair, the boys a BioCurious point to (via Notional Slurry) a piece calling for the abolition of universities, at least in the humanities. I probably would've had more sympathy for this back when I was in high school or early in college, but my opinion of humanities scholarship has mellowed somewhat since then, and I do think there's an important role for faculty in these areas. But then, I have friends who are humanities professors, so I would say that, wouldn't I?
And if that's not enough to keep the junior professoriate up late, well, you're just not trying hard enough...
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Cole neither applied for, nor in fact even wanted, the position in question. See his blog for details (I'm too lazy to find the link).
Chad, now is not the time for fretting. Now is the time for looking at your accomplishments, recognizing that you are an asset to the organization, and letting that confidence guide you as you assemble the materials that will convey this story to the tenure committees. (Or, as my mom would say, pretend hard enough that you believe it.)
Hello Chad - we actually have a number of friends in common. I know Mark K from my Stanford days, and Tom K and I work together at Rice. Good luck w/ the tenure case. Unless your department has some serious sociological pathology, I doubt blogging would affect your tenure case except maybe in some higher order way (e.g. spent significant time blogging that could've been spent on research or teaching). The best guides to how things are going are the previous history of your institution (who have they tenured recently and what was the level of accomplishment, however broadly defined), and whatever vibes you're getting from your chair (assuming your chair is good at the job).
Get the package together, and think of all the fun times you'll have in the years to come once all the pressure is off you.
Just think of all the time you can spend on important meetings and stuff.
And yes, I am the devil.