A Meeting...For What?

Today my department chair said she wants to have "a brief meeting" with me after I return from Spring recess. Hmm....

She sent that message in response to my e-mail describing my collaborations with the other professors in the college. Maybe she'll want to visit my guest lectures. Or maybe someone's complained about me.

The only other reason I can think of is that she's upset with me for going to the college's compliance officer to ask why the contract os someone else in a position like mine was continued into next year, but mine wasn't. "It's not descrimination," the compliance officer insisted.

Lately, I've had a pretty rocky relationship with my department chair, so I'm not expecting the meeting to be a happy occasion. Also, when your boss says she wants to meet with you but doesn't say why, it's usually not a good thing.

Well, I no longer expect to be at the college after my current contract ends. She knows that, so I can't think of any other reason why she wants a meeting with me.

I'm following through on the lectures and such only because I had started to work on them and said I would do them. They won't make any difference in my career--whatever that is--but I like talking with students, and doing Q and A sessions with them. Plus, as I said, I enjoy working with Professor White, one of the profs whose class I will visit.

Not only do I not expect to be at the college next semester; I feel more and more as if I won't be in the academic world at all. I don't want to go back into the pool of adjunct instructors and, honestly, I have enough bad memories of campuses and classrooms. And I have even worse memories, and more of them, of dealing with administrators and executives in this field.

So what can my department chair say in our meeting?