The Leprechaun responds

Articulate,

Pardon my slowness to respond. Yesterday was a busy one for me.

We have not spoken in a while, not since you were in the office and I began making inquiries for you at schools where you had applied or anticipated applying. I'm distressed to hear that none of those opportunities panned out for you. Many times, short-term positions go to known, local people, though not necessarily the best candidates, for reasons of expediency. That's no comfort I know -- and it doesn't pay the bills -- but it removes the lack of success from you personally.

I'm sorry to say that I don't have any teaching opportunities at the moment. As you probably know, we just hired someone in a ladder-rank [subfield 2/subfield1] post advertised last year. Money for lecturers has been cut back so that, for example, the [subfield 3] lecturer taking the place of [lecturer recently tenure-track hired elsewhere] (and ultimately the "place-holder" for the ladder-faculty post vacated by [Member of my Dissertation Committee who left]) had to be reduced by 25%, and [another] lectureship was eliminated all together from our budget request. We are barely making due (and less).

I am truly sorry not to be able to help you, but the budget simply won't bear any adjunct faculty beyond the bare minimum we have.

Let me know about applications you make so that I can make calls again.

Wishing you good luck for the coming job-search season,
Leprechaun

Dear Leprechaun,

Thanks for the note, and your comments. I'm sorry to hear there are no teaching opportunities at the moment. Please do keep me in mind if anything opens up. I'm also happy to cover a stray lecture here or there, as needed, so let people know.

Meantime, I'm staying active with writing and submitting articles, preparing conference abstracts, and getting going on some new research. If there's a chance to give an [colloquium] or [lecture series] talk this year, let me know. I'm eager for all opportunities to get my ideas out there, and get feedback from scholars and students.

The job season is nearly upon us. So, perhaps this year will prove more fruitful in my quest.

Thanks again,
Articulate