"Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience."

During the past four years, I have reflected on the role that ethics and integrity play in my work as a full-time faculty member at this university. I wish to orient around my values, define success for myself, honor my boundaries, and continue to be a conscientious, productive faculty member. I have reached the following conclusions about how I want a sense of personal integrity and ethics to guide my work.

First, I believe it is my responsibility as a senior tenured full-time faculty member not only to support my colleagues in their work but also to offer insights, constructive criticism, and recommendations to assist the university in fulfilling its mission. For this reason, I do not subscribe to the "good news only" philosophy that has been increasingly espoused at our university during the past decade.

Second, I value being a team player, and I acknowledge the need for more than one team at this university. I am proud to play for the team that values scholarly research, sustained publication, professional presentations, readings from scholarly and creative work, mentoring of the university’s brightest students, and innovations in technology and teaching. I am especially proud to play for the team that advocates on behalf of MSU faculty members’ being equitably compensated for the work that we do.

Third, I recognize that, during my twenty-two years as a full-time faculty member at our university, my guiding principle has been "All this and more." That principle has characterized others’ expectations of me as well; responses to periodic professional development plans and reports consistently urge "increased" activity in all areas. Thanks to many grants and fellowships, I have initiated and completed more research, scholarly presentations, and publications than have most other MSU faculty while carrying the same teaching, advising, and committee load as my colleagues.

It is time for me to reflect on and appreciate the accomplishments of the past four years, then look to new and exciting directions for the future. I am taking stock of the "super-productivity" mode in which I have operated for twenty-two years. I am certain that, during the past two years, I have continued to be an extremely active and visible contributing faculty member at Minnesota State University. As I begin my twenty-third year of full-time work at this institution, I recognize that it is time for me to take a step back, thereby allowing room and opportunity for less experienced colleagues to step forward and develop professionally.

Accordingly, I intend to become even more selective in how I balance my professional and personal responsibilities. My immediate professional objectives are these: 1) to enjoy teaching full-time in the English Department for two years (2002-2003 and 2003-2004), 2) to fulfill my fair share of departmental committee and advising responsibilities as one of twenty-eight full-time faculty members, and 3) to present my ongoing research in carefully selected venues. My primary personal objective is to guide my daughter as she completes her junior and senior years of high school and begins her university work.

I plan to apply for and receive a full-year sabbatical during the 2004-2005 academic year, during which my objective is to live in Europe while conducting archival research for a new scholarly project now in the planning stage. Upon the timely completion of this year-long sabbatical, I plan to return to MSU for the 2005-2006 academic year. At that end of that time, when I will have completed my twenty-sixth year of service to the university, I will file my next four-year PDP report and plan for the next stage of my life and career.