Dani Rodrik:

Most people think academics get to take the summer off to vacation as they please. Even some of the better informed think the summer is just for research--with students and teaching as far from the mind as possible. The fiction is also reflected in academic salaries, which are paid for nine months of work. In principle, we do not get paid over the summer since we are not supposed to be doing any work for our institutions.

If it were only so! ... I am busy preparing my course syllabus for the Fall. We have to turn in our course reserve lists in early August, and if you are revising your course in any way--as I am--this means getting busy right about now.

Same here, plus catching up some writing that needs finishing by summer's end. I don't consider myself unemployed in the summers; while many summers I will work overseas on a project, this year I'm working on a book so not traveling. Nevertheless, even when I'm not doing those things, I'm still thinking about classes as Rodrik does in the rest of his interesting post.

So no more today; I need to get some things done. Indeed, I'm hiding at Panera trying to do so. Summer is also not the time for "honey-do" lists. (Mrs. S is so understanding...)

Labels: economics, higher education