The head of the department I work for is being “actively wooed” by a Canadian University. This is a little anxiety provoking because the Department Head (DH)financially supports the research my boss, Dr. P, does. If the DH leaves for the great north, my lab loses a major funding source. A decision will be announced tomorrow. I really hope he stays, but I won’t be surprised if he goes. This university has really messed things up for their researchers:
What does that mean for my coworkers and me? We’re not sure. Last year, one researcher gave his staff only two weeks notice that he was leaving. We hope that we have a couple of months to find new placements.
Mr. Maven and I have been talking. If my lab loses the DH’s money and can’t find other grants, I may request to be cut back to a part-time position and go to school full time to finish my BS. I loathe the idea of being a 30 year old college student. The financile strain will be tough, but a degree may open more doors for me.
Mouse_Maven, are you the lab tech in the forefront of the picture in that news article? How you doin’?
Seriously, maybe you should look into getting that degree either way. It’s tough, I know, but there are lots and lots of “nontraditional” students these days. I go to school with a number of students in their late 20s and 30s. I think the job insurance will be well worth it, but JMHO. Either way, Godspeed.
I will chime in with mybest wishes for the best outcome, also.
But please do allow me to echo what fetus said. This is avery good idea. If you have tuition bennies, use them.
Even if you don’t I can only say that I quit work for almost 2 years to finish my BS degree, and while it was surely a struggle with a child and my wife mainly supporting us in poverty for that period, it worked out wonderfully in the end and none of us have ever regretted it.
My best students when I was a TA were the nontraditional ones. At some point they’d realized their brains were for thinking, not just some filler for the space under the hair.
Whatever comes out of this, you know you have our best wishes, Maven.
