Bargaining for a relaxed semester

Today, I was visited by the chair.

Chair: "Justin, I am just wondering, but it is just a wonder, if you would be able to switch one of your classes to 523 (a class that I taught last semester and summer)."
JT: "When is it scheduled"
Chair: "Tuesdays at 7-10pm"
JT: "Sorry, I have a class at that time."
Chair: "How important is that class"
JT: "It's in Environmental Studies and has 32 grad students enrolled with a waitlist"
Chair: "[expletive]!"
JT: "If you switch it to another night, I might be able to do it. But, I don't want to drop my 320 class because it is all set up and ready to go. I would have to take it as an overload."
Chair: "We can't pay you for it."
JT: "How about a course reduction in the spring?"
Chair: "Done"

Remember, school starts on Monday.

Later in the day, another class needs taught and they can't fill it. I write an email that says I have that one ready to go. I thought of it as a joke. He calls the Dean's office. About 5 hours later they decline to allow me to do it. I could have done it with a few slight changes to an old syllabus. I would have been busy, but not overwhelmed. If it would have gone through, I would be teaching 4 classes and have graduate advising responsibilities this fall. In the spring, I would have only had graduate advising responsibilities and no classes. It would have been a mini sabbatical. Here's the kicker... a 4 class load is the standard load for the college, and advising normally isn't a course load reduction (mine is a total fluke). In my wildest thoughts today, I envisioned life in the spring as a fully-funded dissertation-writing grad student; show up to your office, write papers, send them off for review, think, read, crunch numbers, write more papers, go home, repeat.

In the end, I have bargained a great schedule. I only have to be on campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They will each be 13 hour days, but people do that all of the time outside of the academe. While I have to teach 3 classes, only one is a new prep. The advising fits between my classes. I will likely still go in to write each Wednesday, but I will only write, not prep class or do advising. Mondays will be free for Disneyland and Fridays can be free if I need them to be.

The best part is next spring. I will teach one class and do advising. That's it! I will be a research professor! Lots of time to write and publish. At home, we will have a new baby, and I will have time to be there and not be grading.