Sabbatical Stories
Expect the unexpected: Makaroff

November 14, 2008

This is the final installment in a series exploring sabbaticals. In individual interviews with On Campus News editor Colleen MacPherson, U of S faculty members talked about their personal experiences, their accomplishments and their thoughts about the value of sabbaticals.

In addition to accomplishing the work and study he set out to do, Dwight Makaroff learned one important lesson during his year-long sabbatical—be prepared for anything.

The associate professor in the Department of Computer Science joined the U of S in 2001 and took his first sabbatical starting last July 1. He chose to take a full year and to leave Saskatoon for a number of reasons, including a desire for new living experiences and the opportunity to work on other campuses. Makaroff also felt it was important to be invisible on campus “because if you stay (in Saskatoon) and you end up in the office two or three days a week, all you’re getting is teaching relief.”

But what was most important was that a year-long sabbatical would afford him time.

“When you’re involved in undergraduate teaching, your time is really chopped up. You don’t get time to think deeply about problems. I wanted to get a bit bigger look, a picture that was a bit more comprehensive. I wanted to interact with colleagues. And at this stage in my life and career, I wanted the opportunity to go to conferences but to schedule them around my research or personal agenda, not around the specific deadlines of a teaching routine.”

Makaroff’s sabbatical arrangements were complex and, in fact, resembled two separate sabbaticals—six months at a university in the United Kingdom working on a system for intrusion detection in community wireless networks, and another half-year with a colleague in North Carolina developing an economic model for peer-to-peer storage of audio-visual content. He cleared his teaching schedule, resigned from University Council and helped his grad students complete their work, but other arrangements proved to be more challenging.

First, Makaroff had difficulty finding someone to look after his house and yard. “You’re only going to be gone a year but it’s your baby. It’s not like a rental house.” It wasn’t until late June that he found someone he trusted with his home. On July 6, he left for England.

Then came the next hurdle. “I had failed to plan for a work permit in the U.K. Somehow, that ball got dropped.” A frantic scramble solved the permit problem “but my advice is that if you’re going to another country, check their immigration requirements carefully first. The other thing I didn’t plan for was how difficult the banks would be.”  His advice on that front:  “Don’t bank in England.”

Having barely settled in, Makaroff then received the worst blow of all—on July 19, his parents were killed in a car accident. He immediately returned to Saskatoon but did not abandon his sabbatical plans. His department was very accommodating, he said, agreeing to change the dates of his leave to accommodate his personal circumstances. By mid-September, he was back in England working on intrusion detection systems, and by early spring had moved to North Carolina.

The transition was quite gentle, he said. “I was ramping up one project while winding down another.” But tackling two distinct projects in one year-long sabbatical has its drawbacks. “I left England with a lot of irons in the fire so I didn’t feel disappointed in what I had accomplished … but the experience did prove my theory that six months is just enough time to delve into a problem and not enough time to really get anything done. When I take another sabbatical, I think I will probably find a place I can be for the entire year.”

Despite the challenges he faced during his sabbatical, Makaroff said he returned to work with an expanded view of his work and profession, with good ideas to share with graduate students and with the satisfaction of having had the time to intellectually wrestle with tough problems.

“What I bring back to the university is a wider perspective that comes when you see the ways in which other colleagues interact, or don’t interact, and you bring praise or challenges for your own department. When you visit other institutions, what you discover is that you’re not alone, that students are similar everywhere.”

His experience also taught him to expect the unexpected. “If you’re going to go somewhere else on a sabbatical, you really don’t know what’s in store, but that’s exciting too.”