As some of you know, I have been visiting away this year. First, Cornell. Then, W&L. Now I am packing to go off to Tulane (for good).
I have thought a lot about blogging about the visiting process. This was an amazing year, and I am grateful for having had the chance to visit away. I never really blogged about visiting, however, b/c my sense is that it is a bit of a delicate subject in the minds of some faculty members.
Had I blogged about visiting, I would have positively raved about it. It is a fascinating, eye-opening experience, that is edifying and exciting. But for the moving aspect. Having to pack, move, unpack, pack, move, unpack, repeat is exhausting, and I have twice lost my coffeemaker. I am not making that up. When I moved to Cornell from Richmond, I somehow lost my coffeemaker, so I bought a new one. When I left Cornell and moved to W&L, I packed the coffeemaker and shipped it to W&L. I *know* I did. But, when I got to Lexington, I couldn’t find the coffeemaker in any of my household boxes. I *knew* I packed it, though, so I refused to buy another one. After weeks of searching for the coffeemaker, I just got into the routine of walking Maggie-the-border-collie to Lexington Coffee each morning so I could pick up a cup of joe. I gave up on my coffeemaker.
So here I sit, alone on a Friday night, packing my last few boxes in my W&L office, to ship off to Tulane. On the bookshelf in my office is a lone box from Cornell, never opened. I never opened it when I got to W&L, because I knew it contained my Adelphia materials, my Tyco files, and a bunch of reprints. There was nothing I needed in there for this past spring term. As I moved the box over to the “ship to Tulane” pile, however, I noticed that the Tyco/Adelphia box smelled a bit… musty. I figured something must have spilled on it at some point in transit. So I opened the box.
In it, I found my files on Adelphia and my files on Tyco. I also found a stack of old reprints. And, beneath all of that, I found the coffeemaker, in its now musty-smelling spendor. Score.
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I, too, have been a visitor at a few places (including Richmond, where I was Elizabeth’s colleague). The UCC seems to be “hot” these days; perhaps my mantra should be “have Code will travel.” It’s fun to meet new colleagues, compare students with those at your home institution, spend time in a part of the country unfamiliar to you, send out an article on “better” letterhead (no, I never did this), learn how other law schools function, possibly parlay the visit into something permanent, etc. The visit can be a logistical challenge if you have a spouse and children (I’ve visited with and without family). I hope I’ll have the opportunity to visit again, and I encourage all law professors to visit elsewhere at least once before receiving tenure. One caveat: many out-of-state visitors will have the pleasure of filing a “non-resident” income tax form in the state where the host school is located (this is so even if salary is paid by the home school, as many states will tax income based on location of service, not location of residence or origin of payment). Research this issue before you accept an offer to visit in another state, and consider asking the host school to contribute to any taxes that may be due and payable.
Elizabeth, all the best at Tulane.