Dateline: On the front porch swing

Absence of blog entries does not indicate a lack of writing. I finished three graduate courses in Public Policy and Administration in the last few weeks, all of which required final papers. So, in a matter of only a few days I wrote somewhere around 60 to 70 pages. And while some find it hard to believe, I enjoyed it!

The semester is over, students have left for summer break, and I’ve graded papers in the Engineering and Public Policy class we offered this spring on an experimental basis. I think the class went well so we may try to continue it next year, resources permitting. I’m still sorting through the evaluations the students did of the class itself. Some comments were very helpful, others were not. There is always the case where one student writes that they love something and another writes that they hate the same thing. What to do? Some comments were expected; others were not but are very helpful in showing us what was beneficial and what was not. There are also those comments that come zinging in from somewhere and make little sense. You wonder if the student and you were in the same class.

Summer is here now, not that we ever really have Spring in Starkville, so I get a little break. I am taking some dissertation research hours and hope I can refine my dissertation topic a little bit and get serious about working on it. I have many, many books to read so I may be able to catch up on those, and I also plan to start a more formal leadership program in the Fall so I need to work on that. As always, there is never enough time.