Day 2- The New Job

Well, I guess I will have to work while I am here on taxpayer money (what’s a few more dollars of deficit??)
 
First, I know very little of the Polish language (although most in Poland under age 40 knows English). Before I left, I acquired the basic important words- hello, please, thank you, toilet, beer, coffee, etc. However, the one I should have first learned was “excuse me”, as I am constantly walking into people as I am looking for signs and my map while in this strange land.
 
Yesterday, I went to my new University. It is Gdansk University of Technology (GUoT). It has about 25,000 students. It was initially founded as Prussian University for them to train their eastern territory engineers back in the 19th Century. It still maintains a strong technological basis today. 
 
The business school is called Faculty of Management and Economics (FME) and is relatively new. It was founded only after communism ended. FME has about 3,000 students in both undergraduate and graduate programs.
 
I am a member of the economics department. I will teach strategy management, international business and statistics. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, this is basically what I would have taught at Rockhurst this term. So I am very comfortable with the material and have it mostly prepared. 

 
When I arrived at campus, I misread the signs and walked into a similar looking, but incorrect campus building. It was an absolute dump. Not what I saw on the brochures. I wondered what I had gotten myself into. I finally asked someone, and they pointed me to the new building next door (see picture). It is only four years old and rivals, if not exceeds, the School of Management building at Rockhurst. Very high tech. Their problem is growth. They have already outgrown this building and will be building a second one next door (when the government finds them some money). 
 
There are about 100 Professors in FME, and 25 are in the Economics & Statistics department- which is where I will be. Having such a large economics department is not a surprise given the University’s overall technical emphasis. 
 
I am sharing an office with the Dean (he has a faculty office as well as his Dean’s office- so I get it mostly to myself when he is Dean-ing).
 
GUoT like many Universities is run by the government (kind of like our state schools). The only difference is- a Polish citizen gets to go to University for free. The University gets all their money from the government, non-Polish students and graduate programs. Money is scarce and Professors are paid very poorly. This was something most Professors reminded me of when I met them. 
 
I met with the Vice Dean, discussed my classes and met with a couple of department heads. 
 
I kind of learned my overall purpose. One- they need Professors to teach classes. Secondly (and maybe as important)- they are very interested in becoming more like an American business school and becoming entrepreneurial. They are very interested in how “we” do things. So, faculty has already asked me to give seminars to them on how business schools and their curriculum work in the US.  
 
All the students and faculty speak English (as their programs are taught in English)- but not all the secretaries and admin staff speak English. I will need to take a translator when I need something done.
 
GUoT is the third tram stop from our house. Very quick and easy getting to, but still a fair amount of walking. Public transportation is very good in Poland (relative to the US), but not quite as good as other European countries I have been to. That is a remnant of the soviet era and a priority for the city. 
 
After 48 quick hours in Gdansk, I have to go down to Warsaw and Poznan to do some Fulbright business. I will be away for 10 days. Then return to Gdansk in time to greet the family. 
 
I am actually on a train as I write this going to Warsaw, which is a 5-hour trip. For a 1st class ticket, with a window seat in a compartment- it cost $27 for the ride.  I will ride 1st class until the family gets here. Then with 6 people, we become a 2nd class family. 
 
More later from Warsaw and Poznan…..