What's 39 to AACSB?

Today I (almost) completed the Business Schools Questionnaire, required annually by AACSB accredited institutions and one of the college-related commitments I promised to keep during my sabbatical. One group of questions refers to faculty and staff; others are about mission, finances, class size, and so on -- if AACSB can think of a question, they'll ask it on the BSQ. There are 39 full-time faculty members in the Welch College of Business this year. The BSQ has ten questions asking for different statistics to describe these 39 individuals -- and every question required me to gather data from a different source. Not one question asked for names or disciplines. No wonder business practitioners complain that the "research" we academics do is irrelevant!

A Tuesday like the "good old days."

It was just like old times. I joined the A-sq team for the Dean's Tuesday morning meeting, had lunch with graduating business administration majors, met with my department chair, and had a one-on-one meeting with the dean on AASCB issues. It wasn't as if I'd never been away -- I had both some ironic distance and pleasure at being back with US-based colleagues. But my windowless office with its metal institutional furniture was gloomy and quite depressing in contrast to the big windows and spaciousness of the Swedish offices I inhabited last month. And my tasks at hand were routine at best, busy-work at worst. I need to do them -- but I'm not yet ready for re-entry.

Mid-sabbatical evaluation

Am I doing it right? Click here for the response from the New York Times.

Birthday party

David rang yesterday evening and suggested we visit them today.



Christopher was in charge of "personalizing" the cake -- assisted by Kathryn, Grandpa, and Michael.












There were so many candles that Daddy (David) had to carry it to the table.





Maria made the sign for "cake".











Everyone helped me blow out the candles -- including Sue who somehow escaped being photographed!




It was a happy birthday party.

Ethnographer's eye

While I was based in Ockero, Ulla claimed that my "ethnographer's eye" saw things that she took for granted. Today I thought about what I would see here as a "stranger in a familiar land." It couldn't be comparative -- in Ockero the trees look like that, Stonington they look like this --nor could it be just a photojournal of events -- if that were the case you would have been subject to many more images of my Swedish sojurn.

Instead, I took my camera with me today on my errands. I found it very diffcult to see things anew. Here are some images.

Toys in the supermaket-- more expensive for pets than kids!




Early May: Pink treess, skunk cabbage and a lilac almost in bloom.




Street images: Signs and porches.

And a desolate waterfront at Lord's Point.

Maybe the sun will shine tomorrow!

This is NOT research!

I spent all day (8AM-5:30 PM with breaks for grocery shopping and lunch) working on the BSQ. (That's the Business Schools Questionnaire, an annual survey that must be completed by all AACSB accredited institutions.) Only the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business could think up all these questions -- and set up the survey so that totals need to be consistent across different ways of entering the same data. The WCOB response is almost complete -- I need to clarify some points with Dean Brown, reconcile race/ethnicity data with total student counts, and work out how many individuals (FT, PT, faculty, adminsitrators, assistants, scary ladies, etc.) were employed by the WCOB last year.

I will be VERY glad when I can press the "send" button and concentrate again on my own work.

Back in the land of steady habits

I went to campus -- and compared the facilities of the John F. Welch College of Business with those of the three other universities I had visited in the past week. No contest! But my US colleagues seemed genuinely pleased to see me and interested in my sabbatical tales. Some asked after my "fun" activities, others after my research. Of course gifts of chocolate helped!


I gathered up materials for the AACSB reports I promised to do, and have every intention of completing them as quickly as possible. I am at the mid-point of my sabbatical --and have research planned for the next three months.

One thing I didn't do was to make the first of the weekly phone calls Ulla and I have planned in order to keep each other informed on the status of our project obligations -- the day went by too fast. I consoled myself with the thought that it was a holiday -- May 1 and Asscension Day -- in Europe. It was not a work day! So I have no guilt about not doing any research work today.

I filled my gas tank and considered comparative gas prices: For $39 I can drive about 335 miles (small car, highway driving). Based on Ulla's car (mid-sized, city driving), I'd spend about $97 to drive this far in Sweden.