SITE and Research

I spent this past week in San Antonio attending the SITE conference (yes, it's sad, but true I was in San Antonio for another full week - yikes - two of my four weeks in March were spent in San Antonio! I have nothing against the place, but, really after visiting the Alamo, the River Walk, each of the 4 missions in the area, and ... well, that's about it, what is there to do. Not to mention the weather wasn't all that great - tornadoes were hitting the area, basically imprisoning us in the hotel for the week. Needless to say I missed my fam., and was really happy to get home to the little guy and my better half.)

Now onto the reason I am posting today: I have decided, after attending 40+ sessions at the SITE conference, that there are too many mundane research projects going on (I am sure that people think that their little research projects are making a difference and or are doing some good - but to be quite honest, I highly doubt it. What I should do is - here's another one of what I am referring to - a project analyzing the effect conferences have on attendees.)

I think what we need to do, instead of all chasing different research topics and grants, is get together, pool our resources, time, talents, etc. and answer the big questions associated to our fields – especially those ones which “need” to be answered! It seems there are too many professors, professionals, etc. concerned about tenure, making a name for themselves, etc., that we aren't really doing much good for those who we serve, or the fields in which we work, or society as a whole. I know, I know, you're probably thinking "what a hypocrite!" And it's sad, but true, I too have fallen prey to this publish or perish threat; but maybe there's hope, perhaps we could get together and dare I say work together to solve difficult, important issues – who knows maybe we'll be lucky to not only actually make a difference but get a publication out of it!