Tomorrow is vote-counting for our chapter of the United Faculty of Florida. EDU 214 on the Tampa campus of the University of South Florida, beginning at noon, if you want to come watch in person. I am not on the ballot for chapter officers because I agreed to become department chair starting in August, and while our college's chairs are in the bargaining unit, none of our engineering faculty have discovered a cloning machine, so I'm handing over the reins to a successor on April 1. That's right: our chapter bylaws specify that new officers take their posts on April Fool's Day. It was something I joked about in 2007, for my first term as chapter president. And the city of Tampa has the same timing for municipal offices.
I'm on the ballot for the statewide governing body for the local (UFF), and given the conflicts academics often have with union meeting schedules, I'm sure I can attend the senate meetings even if I'm elected as an alternate rather than a senator proper. But I've started telling people who contact me that if an issue is going to last longer than a week, there will be a transition involved. I've settled a few chapter grievances in the last few weeks, and there are two more issues that I hope can be finished within the week so my successor can concentrate on membership (a critical issue right now given some bills in the Florida legislature). But at this point I'm not in control of whether those issues are settled, and I know that both the next set of chapter officers and the union staff can carry them forward if necessary.
Yes, people have told me that I'm "going over to the Dark Side," which makes me wonder what higher-ed folks did for transition metaphors before 1973 ("Dark Side of the Moon" album) or 1977 (the first-released Star Wars movie). Well, no one I know means it in the Pink Floyd sense, so it's only been current for 34 years. But in any case, I'm not going over to the dark side (I'm still in-unit on August 7). More moving over to the gray side.
But presiding over the meeting for tomorrow's vote-counting may be my last official duty as chapter president.
I think the “dark side” just means “unknown” 😉 . In a fair world, everyone would take a turn at dept. chair so that they fully understand what it really takes for a department to function outside an individual professor’s office 😉
And, you’re right, April 1 is an interesting transition date