dunroving

OK, onto Plan C, a promising position opening has come up at Auburn University. Doesn't seem like there are many folks on BE actually living in Auburn, from an Advanced Search of posts, but is anyone in the vicinity, or know about that part of Alabama? OK, I've heard the Alabamistan jokes, but I know not everywhere in the South is like that (because I've lived there).

Any experiences or insights gladly accepted!

Bob

No idea, but just to throw it out there, as you do seem to be zeroing in only on the South, but what about up on the East coast?

MIT have quite a few positions going right now and I know that they have sponsored people recently, have quite a few foreign lecturers in a lot of subjects...they've also got a bit of money.

dunroving

Actually, I am open to the eastern third of the States, though I prefer the Southeast.

It's just that there haven't been too many positions this year. At my level (Associate Prof/Full Prof), you're talking about maybe a quarter of all advertised positions (though I'd consider an Assistant prof position if it were in a place I really wanted to go - promotion can be quick in some places). I looked at a position in Springfield MA, but it wasn't the right fit.

MIT is out of my league, plus they don't have a program in my area.

Bob

Springfield is a shit hole, it has all the cons of a massive city, but none of the pros...and it's a shit hole.

As for MIT, don't sell yourself short, seriously, they have some right thick muppets on tap as well as some smart people.

What subject area anyway if you don't mind me asking? PM if you prefer. I'm heading to a games meet up tomorrow in Waltham, but a few folks from these colleges turn up so I might be able to get some contact names from them.

dunroving

I got my masters at Springfield College so I'm pretty familiar with the town - didn't go down there too much as I was busy studying and conducting research.

I'm in what is called sport science here in the UK, but not in the sense of elite performance, more physical activity and health, specialise in psychometrics and statistics.

augigi

Only thing I know about Auburn is when my friend went to school there and I went to visit several times. She loved it there and was there about 6 years. I thought it was cute; very small town-ish and everyone seemed to know everyone else.

Haven't lived there though and don't know how good the uni is - although they have a good swim team!

Rete

Check with Ironporer. He's in Alabama.

Did a little web browsing and it seems like a good town and close to the Georgia border.

zargof

What do you want to know? My wife is from a small town near Columbus, GA, so knows the area. I can ask her later.

Personally I've not been to Auburn, but Columbus and the surrounding area is nice and the people are friendly. I do know that Auburn is a good school and they love their football there, and the GaTech vs Auburn games were always a big deal.

Bob

Springfield has gotten worse over the last few years. I knew a guy who taught there, he just moved to Chicago this weekend though.

As for the subject, Harvard have a program like that and there's a couple other colleges taht do that kind of stuff, BU, NE are the two big ones I'd say, but there's a couple of other small ones, not Babson, but it starts with a B...doesn't help much...hmmm...

dunroving

Well, having lived in three small college towns (small towns, not small colleges) - Athens, GA, Murfreesboro, TN, and Greenville, NC, I was wondering things like:

How far is the nearest decent-sized airport (I see Atlanta is 2 hrs away, but wondered if any of the regional airports have decent service)?

Are Atlanta and Birmingham the nearest decent-sized cities (looks like it)? 43,000 (Auburn) is smaller than 69,000 (Murfreesboro), 100,000 (Athens), and 85,000 (Greenville), though Murfreesboro was pretty close to Nashville, and Athens did not feel small-towny at all. Greenville was a little difficult to live in, despite being a college town - it felt pretty small and conservative at times. M'boro and Athens always seemed to have a lot of artsy-fartsy things going on, and a thriving cycling community (couldn't find a cycling club online in Auburn ...).

Cost of living, house prices, think those are the other main things ... I intend to get online and do some more research but am at a busy time at the moment (this is my coffee/BE break).

Alabamistan jokes aside, what is Auburn like, politically? Again, all three other towns were in the southeast but were fairly liberal-minded and friendly to strangers.

dunroving

Thanks, Bob. UMass Amherst also has a program, but they almost never seem to have vacancies.

Bob

http://chronicle.com/section/Jobs/61/

You've probably already seen that. Anyway, Amherst is a nice area of Western Mass, most of the people who teach live in Northampton though, which is also lovely.

Also they do have jobs, but more often than not they don't advertise them because they don't need to, usually referals apparently. I don't think I can find a contact for this place though, but I'll ask and see if anyone I know has a contact there.

Duncan Roberts

My brother-in-law spent a semester at Auburn. When he got to his room, his roommate had a confederate flag hanging up.

robin1234

Just in general terms, the next couple of years may not be too bad for getting a teaching job in a college or university. The private liberal-arts college where I work has just gone through a radical cost-cutting and payroll-shrinking exercise - but mostly admin and technical jobs were cut, not teaching, because the contemporary mantra is that the "student experience" should not be adversely affected by budget cuts. And, if there are early-retirement programs to encourage high-salary, long tenured folks to leave early, that should open up lower salary, visiting gigs for folks who are trying to get back in the game..

Good luck with your job search, Dunroving!!

dunroving

Bob, was that a link to a specific position? It only took me to the Chronicle job search page ...