It ain't easy being editor.(editor's job and responsibilities)

As editor of WIHE, I often meet people at conferences who ask interesting questions, including whether this is a full-time job, what school is it affiliated with--and the inevitable, where do you get your material? (Answers: Yes, none, everywhere.)

Those readers see an editor's job as all glory--travel expense accounts, three-beer lunches and the monthly ego trip of seeing one's name and words in type.

They don't realize that for every major decision like which articles to assign and include in each issue, there are many less clear-cut choices to be made on ethical dilemmas. Here are some from the past month:

Dilemma # 1: Should we reveal a partnership?

Last month's August issue included an In Her Own Words article by Dr. Marguerite Allington on Dr. Pat Washington's tenure denial case against UCSD. They are life partners.

In the office we had discussed the very question of whether or not to mention their connection. Revealing it could undermine the credibility of Washington's story by inviting readers to discount it, although they said we were free to disclose it.

Decision: In the end we chose not to connect the dots. In fact, a long-time reader familiar with the case phoned to ask if we knew the author was Washington's partner. She felt our not disclosing it was undermining the publication's credibility.