I returned to the classroom on a full-time basis last January after spending 19 years as a university administrator at Wichita State University, holding a variety of positions. Along the way I deployed my teaching skills to effectively manage people and organizations, something I regularly referred to when asked if I missed teaching. Although I regarded my administrative roles as logical extensions from being a tenured faculty member, many of my former faculty colleagues were certain I had descended into the “dark side,” never to re-emerge. While most people at the university probably didn’t expect me to return to the faculty, I knew the time had come for me to engage again in the work that had attracted me to the institution in the first place: teaching and writing.
