I'm Baaackkk!

Hey RBF!!! Unbelievable - I just looked at the site - nearly a month and a half since my last post. As you know I've had my head down, making sure that the whole tenure application process was as overwhelmingly convincing as possible. It was worth it, dig this ..." ... and Prof. Roth's record of scholarship, service, and public outreach has far exceeded our expectations for him and we unanimously recommend the granting of tenure and promotion to Associate Professor." I'm sorry, did I hear somebody say Woo Hoo!!!!! O.K. - back to reality - that letter marks the 3rd of 6 reviews - now it just has to go through the Director, the Dean, and the Provost - but things sound good so far don't you think?

Man, so much has taken place "since I've been gone". Jon ran his first marathon and rocked Detroit, little miss runner pants ran San Francisco, Lara ran a half and has since announced that she's in training for her first marathon, Joan hosted a wonderfully successful race and keeps writing the most beautiful poetry, and Iron Wil runs an awesome tri AND launches her new online store! Man you all have been busy! I've still been carrying on the running "burps" I mentioned previously, short little spurts of running; 15 minutes here and there, a mile or 2 here and there, you get the idea.

If you haven't heard of this yet, I SO can't wait to tell you. My kids are going to college for free! And so will roughly 11,000 other kids from Kalamzoo public schools. You see, last Thursday on Nov. 10, the superintendent of Kalamazoo public schools announced that for the last 2-3 years, a group of wealthy philanthropists have been considering a multitude of ways of donating a large sum of $$$ that would have the greatest impact on the entire community over sustained periods of time. What they came up with is stunning, brilliant, awe-inspiring, and exceptioanlly generous. It's called The Kalamazoo Promise. In a nutshell, these people have committed the cash to pay the tuition, from 65%-100% depending on how long a student has been in the KPS system, of every child who goes to a Michigan public university or community college for at least the next 13 years! You would not believe what it has already done to this community as well as the surrounding communities. There are kids who never EVER even thought about going to college because their families could not begin to afford it who are suddenly presented with the opportunity of a lifetime. Realtors have created lawn signs to be placed next to the real estate signs the read "Kalamazoo Public Schools - College Tuition Qualified" for all of the people who may be looking to move to Kalamazoo to take advantage of this enormous gift. The Kalamazoo convention and visitor's bureau have already run out of relocation packets as both potential homebuyers and businesses have snatched up the 1100 plus they had on hand prior to Thursday's announcement. Local school boards and city commissions have had impromptu meetings called to figure out how they will deal with a flow of students out of their districts into Kalamazoo. The Kalamazoo city commission has put together task forces to handle the influx of interest from the various regions around the country.

Then ... I heard one of the most beautiful things last night that's come out of this. A group of high school students have banded together and started a small trust of several thousand dollars to "give back" to the coummunity in ways yet to be determined. Groups of parents, teachers, business executives, local politicians, etc. have also been volunteering in droves, to help students who may be underprepared, and functioning as academic mentors and tutors. You can find another excellent article about how it has already, less than a week after its announcement, affecting people in this area - in The Kalamazoo Gazette

In more trivial things that I still draw joy from ..

The Pistons are still undefeated
Western Michigan beat Central last weekend
The Lions actually won a game
It snowed - about 3 inches - last night
I got a VERY small raise as a pre-cursor to promotion (every little bit helps!)
Eddie joined the boy scouts
Heather is jamming at her swimming class
I'm in the market for new running shoes (any tips?)
My volunteer application for the Super Bowl was accepted!!!
Thanksgiving is only a week away! (and there is so much to be thankful for!!!)