Abstract
Very late one night, as an assistant professor, I was working on a research paper with a graduate student and the student asked, Do you intend to keep working these hours after you get tenure? I don't recall my answer, and I doubt it was very pithy; but I'm sure I intended to ease off the late night schedules of graduate student and junior faculty member. Unfortunately, it never happened. I became a university research administrator! The combination of a large funded research project and an extra course as overload led to late night sessions as an assistant professor; now it's long-range planning, budget allocations, tenure and annual reviews, and the other duties of serving as director of Washington State University's Agricultural Research Center-in which over 200 faculty annually conduct $29 million dollars of research in plant and animal sciences, forestry, home economics, and social science. Following Riley Dunlap's request when he organized this symposium, I provide in this essay a brief biographical sketch, offer a sociological perspective on the process of career mobility and administrative activities, and provide suggestions for aspiring administrators. My analyses and suggestions are clearly influenced by my own experiences, but hopefully they will provide some insights for those interested in administrative careers.
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