When I was a young faculty member in Arkansas, I hired three schoolteachers to help with a workshop. These teachers worked daily with me for two-and-a-half months. At the end of the summer, they noted they had previously thought that professors had “an easy life.” But no more.

 

Many people I talk to think I meander to my office late, sit around and think (or snooze!), take a long lunch, teach one short 50-minute class, think some more, then leave for home early. But nearly all faculty I know, and especially the new tenure-track faculty, work long, long hours, and work nearly every day – even Sundays.

 

Here’s a little background. I arrived in North Carolina in 1984 to work for IBM, and earned my master’s and Ph.D. degrees from NC State in the process. Jobs for Ph.D. degree holders were a bit scarce in North Carolina, so I took a faculty position in Arkansas. But my family longed to return here, so I left teaching and took industry jobs here and in South Carolina. The entire time, I was looking for a university position. I was lucky to find such a job at UNC-Charlotte in 2003.

 

Here was my day, Wednesday, March 29. I spent 11 hours working: five hours teaching, three hours researching, and three hours on service tasks.

 

8 a.m.: I arrive a bit late, since I met some other men for breakfast to discuss religion. I’ve been nominated by my department for the UNC Charlotte Engineering Undergraduate Teaching Award, and today is the deadline for my nomination to be submitted, so I work on that package for an hour.

 

9 a.m.: I work with three students on space research. We are looking at the ability of my robot, Stiquito, to operate in the cold Mars environment. This work is sponsored by the North Carolina Space Grant program, but I was awarded just $2,000 to conduct this research. This represents only 200 hours of work by undergraduate students – perhaps enough research time to produce a conference article. I also meet with graduate research students working on two other grants.

 

10 a.m.: I quickly walk over to the Student Activities Center to visit the job fair, where I talk with employers about the value of our students.

 

11:30 a.m.: Lunch at my desk, preparing for my 2 p.m. class.

 

3 p.m.: Students are always eager to know about life after college. I'm here to assure them that they will eventually find jobs. They want to stay local, but electrical and computer engineering jobs are difficult to find in North Carolina right now.

 

6:10 p.m.: As I leave, a younger faculty member asks me some questions about proposal writing. I provide some guidance.

 

10 p.m.: Much to my wife's displeasure, I check and answer emails from home. Then I pack for a bus trip that weekend with 28 students. We are going to Memphis for an educational and research conference sponsored by the Electrical and Computer Engineering professional society.