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Amy Fried is a retired political science professor at the University of Maine. Her views are her own and do not represent those of any group with which she is affiliated.
This week thousands of students started their fall semesters at the University of Maine, but I won’t be there.
I won’t be handing out syllabi, or teaching, or assisting students trying to transfer credits or figuring out their schedules, or getting to know people in my courses, or talking to students who are thinking about next steps after they graduate, or discussing students’ ideas for honors theses or independent studies, or communicating about internships, or doing trainings, or fitting in my research, or helping a colleague, or attending meetings for planning, projects or evaluations, or so much more.
That’s because I’ll be retired, 26 years after starting my job in Orono in the fall of 1997.
When I started at UMaine, I was interviewed by the Bangor Daily News because my job and some others were funded for four years by the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation (thank you again!). The Kings gave their support to positions in the humanities and social sciences because they knew those disciplines don’t get the support they deserve compared to science and engineering.
Retiring won’t stop me from writing — whether it’s academic writing (like the book on New England politics I’m working on now) or writing for the public (like this column, something that isn’t in my job description).
I thought a lot about when I would retire during the last five years or so, but in the end the decision came quickly.
I was going to leave my job a year from now, but then last year, I got a diagnosis of ovarian cancer.
This isn’t a common cancer. In fact, only about 20,000 women a year get it in the United States. Typically, because the symptoms are subtle, it’s not found until it’s stage 3 or 4. Oh, and I have a fairly rare type, which about 5% of women with ovarian cancer have — low grade serous ovarian cancer (LGSOC). The good news for those with my variant is that it grows slower than the most common type. The bad news is that chemotherapy is relatively ineffective for LGSOC, there isn’t as much research on it, and treatments are more limited. Luckily, I’ve had a good response to treatment so far and am really getting there when it comes to recovering from chemo.
I won’t bore you with more details of my medical situation, but in any case, finding out I have cancer made me decide it made sense to retire sooner rather than later.
Those who’ve known this have asked me what I’ll do in retirement and whether I’ll miss my job.
Well, hopefully I will have a fair number of years in my future and, frankly, however much time it will be, I have plenty to do and to enjoy.
And, while I’ve told people I won’t miss my job, I was thinking of the brutal pace of work during the academic year and the bureaucratic aspects of the job when I said that.
But working with college students is a privilege. There are so many I appreciate and will remember.
I’ve worked closely with students from across the political spectrum and helped them find opportunities to achieve their goals. I’m proud that Republican, Democratic and libertarian students asked me to advise their clubs and I did.
What I’ve most wanted is for students to respect others’ perspectives, to learn about classics and new research, to tie together and contrast ideas, to analyze evidence, to ponder and avoid quick, facile conclusions. This happens in part by providing varied readings and cultivating an environment for open dialogue. Then students can develop their oral, writing and critical thinking skills. When students walked away from a class of mine thinking “That’s more complicated than I thought,” I had succeeded.
And so, missing that part of my life, I’ll move on, still writing, still doing projects, maybe occasionally teaching, and will look back at my years on campus with fondness and gratitude.
