I guess all the hours and work I put in last week has paid off. Today in my mailbox was an envelope from the Dean's office stamped "CONFIDENTIAL". In the envelope was a form letter typed up by the dean's secretary about merit increases. None of it made any sense to be completely honest except for the last paragraph telling me how much of a raise I got. I've made a big enough impression on these folks to get a 5.3% raise. That is larger than any raise I've ever had. These people gush over everything I do. I can't tell you how nice it feels to be wanted, especially after working for places like ITT and Safeguard. ITT's way of showing they liked having you was to give you more classes in as many different areas as possible to teach. I don't think Safeguard knew how to reward anyone for putting up with the crazy owner. I never got a raise while I was there. It wasn't until right before I left for ITT that Safeguard considered giving me a raise, but I'm not bitter.