Retire… Who Me?
Originally my plan was to retire from teaching when we moved to Palisade. However, in June a friend forwarded a job posting to me from Colorado Mesa University for an adjunct professor. I thought about it and decided it couldn’t hurt to apply. The due date was August 1st, but I sent my application, CV, transcripts and references the end of June, Monday the 26th to be precise. The Chair of the Art department reached out to me the next day! We set up an interview for Wednesday July 5th via Zoom and by the end of the call he offered me the job!
I accepted that same day. While preparing for the interview, I came to two conclusions. The first was that this would be a great opportunity for me to connect further with the art community in the Grand Valley; and the second was that it is going to a while to get the Airbnb off the ground so why not continue earning an income while I’m working on that endeavor?
Later that July, I traveled to Palisade, stayed with an artist friend and her husband, and visited the campus. Having just retired from RMCAD after working there for the last 21 years, Colorado Mesa University was and is quite a change! The campus is much larger, and the Art department facilities are quite impressive! Eric Elliot, the Chair of the Art department, gave me a tour of the building, which included bronze casting, an extensive ceramic department, as well as Studio Art, Graphic Design, Art Education, Animation, Film, Photography and Motion Design classrooms and studios. Whereas at RMCAD these classrooms were spread out over a single campus, at CMU they are all housed in a single building of considerable size. CMU offers BFA degrees in many of the same areas that RMCAD does, plus a BA in Art History. They also offer graduates degrees. The building was also home to an art gallery and another student gallery in the making. And that was just the Art building, then of course there is the rest of the campus and the multitude of other degree programs. Overall, I felt very comfortable in the Art department as in many ways it felt very similar to RMCAD.
I will be teaching Drawing one which is a Foundation course for the Studio Art degree program and 2D Design which is both a required course for Art majors and an Elective course for the rest of the student body. This means I could have a variety of students in that class verses just art majors. I’ve finished prepping my syllabi and creating my assignments for both classes. It will be interesting as CMU is on a semester system which means the classes are sixteen weeks, seventeen if you count finals week verse the continuous eight-week system at RMCAD. I’m looking forward to that change as the students will now have the needed time to devote to the completion of their projects.
Another thing I found really appealing when I was researching the University is that they actually give the students and subsequently the faculty real breaks! For example, the students have a full week off for Thanksgiving, about a month off at Christmas and a Spring break! I think this is awesome because it means that I could teach while I’m getting my business going AND have opportunities to travel while still getting paid! This was not something I was ever able to do while employed at RMCAD, there you had little to no time off as breaks were short and you were usually asked to prep or attend meetings during the break!
I’m curious to see what the culture is like there… I’ve not met enough people to form an opinion, but I will say the ones I have met are very kind and welcoming. Faculty orientation is August 14 – 16th so by the time this blog posts I will have completed the orientation and should have a better idea of what the people are like as well as the culture.
As we’ve not yet closed on the house, I will be community from Denver to Grand Junction for two weeks. Starting the week of August 14th for Faculty Orientation. The following week, August 21st is the first week classes start for the University as well as when we close on our property! That will be a busy week to say the least! I will drive out on Sunday, I’m staying at the Marriot Residence Inn, teach Monday from 9 – 1:45 and Wednesday - same time frame then drive back to Denver after class on Wednesday. Thursday of that week, Andy and I will pack up what few things we have in the girls’ apartment, and more artwork and oddly shaped things from the storage unit. We are trying to arrange the Closing to be here so we can close in the morning and then gather up the dogs (Molly and Daisy) say our good-byes to the girls and head back over the mountain! The rest of our things will arrive via a professional moving company (still TBD) the first week in September. At which time… we will truly begin a new chapter of our lives and the real adventure begins!