I do not want to enter academia. One thing the article did not go into was the cut-throat nature. Perhaps a community college or flipping burgers might be an improvement.
randy ====================================== Randy Bangert Mancos, CO 81328 http://oak.ucc.nau.edu/rkb/rkb/home.html On Jul 30, 2010, at 7:08 PM, Wayne Tyson wrote: > Ecolog: > > I wonder what would be left if a magic wand could be waved and all of the bs > could be taken out of the university system? No, really--I'm not joking, I > think it's worthy of discussion. Of course, one person's bs is another's BS, > and, as pointed out in the piece Madhu attached, the content varies with the > institution or school, so one would have to take care what one is wanding out > and what one is wanding in . . . > > WT > > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Madhusudan Katti" <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Friday, July 30, 2010 3:33 PM > Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] the declining quality of academic life? > > >> Bruce, >> >> Thanks for sharing that! It is thought provoking - and I have just skimmed >> through your excerpts - so I will refrain from commenting just yet. Instead, >> let me share another article - interview actually - about what's wrong with >> the American University System, which comes from a somewhat different angle: >> >> http://is.gd/dTIL2 >> >> I'll be curious to hear what Ecologgers think of both of these. >> >> Madhu >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >> Madhusudan Katti >> Assistant Professor of Vertebrate Biology >> Department of Biology, M/S SB73 >> California State University, Fresno >> Fresno, CA 93740-8034 >> >> Email: [email protected] >> Tel: 559.278.1460 >> Fax: 559.278.3963 >> Web: http://www.reconciliationecology.org/ >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >> >> >> On Jul 30, 2010, at 3:03 PM, Bruce Robertson wrote: >> >>> All, >>> >>> I"m a postdoc searching for a faculty position in ecology. I just read the >>> article below, which recently appeared in the Chronicle of Higher >>> Education. It paints a grim picture of academia, now and for the >>> foreseeable future. I'm highly productive, love research and teaching and >>> feel that academia is where I belong. Yet, I find myself very disheartened >>> by many aspects of the current academic environment and this article seems >>> to bear some of my perspectives out. I would really appreciate if any >>> faculty would comment on this article as it relates to their >>> experience....though, if this article is correct, they will be far too busy >>> to read this. :) >>> >>> Cheers, and article below-- >>> >>> Bruce Robertson >>> Postdoctoral Fellow >>> Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center >>> Current mailing address: >>> 3310 West Main Street #101 >>> Kalamazoo, MI 49006 >>> 206-718-9172 >>> [email protected] >>> Homepage: www.msu.edu/~roberba1/Index.html/ >>> >>> >>> _____________________________________________________ >>> The *Chronicle of Higher Education* includes an article: "The Ivory >>> Sweatshop: Academe Is No Longer a Convivial Refuge" by Sarah Kiewel. >>> >>> Here are some excerpts: >>> >>> [begin excerpts] >>> >>> With standards for tenure at major research universities rising year by >>> year, professors say academe has become such a pressure-cooker >>> environment that faculty jobs barely resemble those of a generation ago. >>> >>> Gone are the days when academe was considered a convivial refuge from >>> the corporate world, a place where scholars had ample time to debate >>> ideas--often during lunch or over drinks after class. >>> >>> Professors, particularly those at research universities, are simply >>> working much more and much harder these days. >>> >>> They are competing for scarcer grant money, turning out more articles >>> and books, coping with the speedup in communications afforded by better >>> technology, and traveling the globe to establish the kind of >>> international reputation that's now necessary to thrive. >>> >>> "What I'm seeing now is junior faculty really just putting their noses >>> to the grindstone," says Frank Donoghue, an associate professor of >>> English at Ohio State University, who earned his Ph.D. in 1986. >>> >>> "It's had the effect of transforming the culture of the academy into one >>> that is much more businesslike." >>> >>> "Assistant professors are producing article after article and research >>> study after research study," says David D. Perlmutter, who directs the >>> School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Iowa. >>> >>> "Then they're looking at the promotion-and-tenure committee and they're >>> going, Wow, I've actually published more in the last six years than all >>> of them combined." >>> >>> <snip> >>> >>> John B. Conway, chairman of mathematics at George Washington University, >>> certainly remembers a time when getting through graduate school and >>> finding a faculty job was much simpler. >>> >>> He earned his Ph.D. in 1965 after just four years and never completed a >>> postdoctoral fellowship--a virtual requirement these days for scholars >>> who want to work at a research university like his. >>> >>> Mr. Conway secured his first academic job, at Indiana University, >>> without even applying for a position. His adviser put out some calls to >>> department chairmen, and the deal was done. >>> >>> <snip> >>> >>> Robert G. Bergman, who holds a distinguished professorship in chemistry >>> at the University of California at Berkeley, agrees that times have changed. >>> >>> "This job has gotten a thousand percent harder than when I started out," >>> says Mr. Bergman, who began teaching in 1967. >>> >>> It takes a lot more time now, he says, for scholars to keep current with >>> advances in their discipline. >>> >>> "When I was starting out, one of the premier journals in my field, the >>> Journal of the American Chemical Society, came out once a month, and it >>> was relatively thin," he says. >>> >>> "Now it comes out once a week, and it's much thicker." >>> >>> Because of declining state and federal funds, professors also spend more >>> time trying to raise money for their own research. >>> >>> In fact, Mr. Bergman recalls a time during the late 1960s when someone >>> from a federal agency called a chemistry professor at the California >>> Institute of Technology, where he was teaching, and said, "Please submit >>> a grant. We want to give you money." >>> >>> Now, if something like that happened, everyone would think it was a joke. >>> >>> "We have people submitting a large number of proposals just so one or >>> two will hit," says Mr. Bergman. >>> >>> "That means a massive amount more work." >>> >>> Scholars also routinely spend much more time away from their campuses >>> now than they ever did in the past, he says. >>> >>> They travel to present their work at far-flung seminars where they might >>> meet luminaries who could give their work a nod come tenure time. >>> >>> "There used to be much more confidence that just in publishing stuff, >>> your work would be known." >>> >>> A study of work-life issues conducted by Harvard University's Graduate >>> School of Education found that Generation X professors value efficiency >>> over face time. >>> >>> The study, which consisted of conversations with about a dozen research- >>> university professors born between 1964 and 1980, found that younger >>> professors didn't want to become workaholics. >>> >>> But none of the young scholars who spoke with The Chronicle about >>> faculty workload seemed to believe that dialing down was an option. >>> >>> Luis Ponjuan, an assistant professor at the University of Florida, >>> refers to himself as an "intellectual entrepreneur," even though he >>> studies higher-education administration, not business. >>> >>> He doesn't think of his job as affording him time to ponder big ideas >>> with interesting colleagues and students. >>> >>> "I identify pockets of opportunity that other people will buy into, >>> support, and fund --to lessen the state's responsibility," he says of his >>> research. >>> >>> <snip> >>> >>> The more calculated approach is the result of heightened competition, he >>> says. >>> >>> "There's a finite number of faculty positions, a finite number of >>> grants, and a finite number of journals." >>> >>> Scholars like Mr. Ponjuan who have been on the job for only a few years >>> have already noticed an upward creep in standards since they were hired. >>> >>> "There's been a major escalation in terms of what CV's look like for >>> people being considered for a position," says Greta R. Krippner. By the >>> time she finished her doctorate in sociology, >>> >>> in 2003, she had completed four publications, none of them in the >>> field's two flagship journals: the American Journal of Sociology and the >>> American Sociological Review. >>> >>> Her work was good enough, though, to get her a starting job at the >>> University of California at Los Angeles. >>> >>> Since then she has moved to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, >>> where she is up for tenure next year. >>> >>> "Now it's kind of normal that you see a graduate student with a paper in >>> one of those top journals," she says. >>> >>> "Just last year, we looked at someone who already had a book out, plus a >>> handful of articles." >>> >>> In fact, that job candidate--who hadn't even finished his Ph.D.--had >>> already completed what at Michigan would now be a very respectable >>> tenure file, says Ms. Krippner. >>> >>> Indeed, the tight job market has given top universities the luxury of >>> choosing candidates who have already demonstrated an ability to attract >>> grants and churn out papers. >>> >>> Particularly in the sciences, universities invest so much in start-up >>> packages for young scholars that no department any longer wants to take >>> a chance on an untested hire. >>> >>> "Departments can afford to hire people who already have what they need >>> to do to pass at least their third-year review," says Diana B. Carlin, a >>> professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas who was >>> dean of the graduate school until 2007. >>> >>> That third-year review has also become a much more formal evaluation >>> process than it was 10 to 20 years ago. >>> >>> Jennifer Ng, who just earned tenure in the School of Education at >>> Kansas, says one of her older colleagues told her that his own third- >>> year review had consisted of the department chairman's pulling him aside >>> and saying, "You're looking good." >>> >>> Ms. Ng, on the other hand, had to document her work in a package that >>> resembled a miniature tenure file. >>> >>> Young professors are reluctant to complain publicly about how much >>> harder they may be working than their senior colleagues did when they >>> were starting out. >>> >>> But professors who are in midcareer hear the comments. >>> >>> "My younger colleagues feel they don't have the same opportunity as >>> previous generations to sit and really think and let ideas germinate," >>> says Gregory M. Colon Semenza, an associate professor of English at the >>> University of Connecticut. >>> >>> "What used to be a truly enjoyable intellectual process has become a >>> very professionalized model of efficiency." >>> >>> Meanwhile, experienced scholars say their own workload has increased as >>> well. >>> >>> The pace doesn't necessarily slow down anymore once a scholar gains tenure. >>> >>> Young professors are typically protected from committee assignments and >>> departmental duties while they are on the tenure track, but then those >>> burdens get dumped on them, too. >>> >>> "People are freaked out about the amount of work they have--there's just >>> no time," says William A. Pannapacker, an associate professor of English >>> at Hope College. >>> >>> "Once you're tenured, suddenly you're given way more administrative >>> responsibility really fast, and you have no training for it, and you >>> have no idea what you're doing." >>> >>> <snip> >>> >>> Nora Berrah, a distinguished professor of physics at Western Michigan >>> University, has worked in academe since 1987. She still devotes most of >>> her waking hours to her research, and spends about half of her time >>> traveling to national laboratories, where she collaborates on projects. >>> Back in her office at Western Michigan, she usually keeps the door closed. >>> >>> "Sometimes I avoid my colleagues in the hallway," she says, "because I'm >>> afraid it's going to take awhile to say, 'Hello, how are you doing?'" >>> >>> Campus social life does seem to be a casualty of the work speedup in >>> higher education. >>> >>> A couple of decades ago, it wasn't unusual for faculty members to have >>> lunch together during the workweek and attend parties in one another's >>> homes on the weekends. >>> >>> <snip> >>> >>> Mr. Menand, who is now an English professor at Harvard University, has >>> been back to Princeton several times in the last few years, and notes >>> that things have changed. For one, "half the faculty live in New York." >>> And even in a college town like Cambridge, he says, the culture has changed. >>> >>> "You make a lunch date two weeks in advance, but you just don't all >>> gather at noon and head off." >>> >>> Many research universities have cut teaching loads to help their faculty >>> members make time for increased demands in research and publishing. >>> >>> <snip> >>> >>> Mr. Bergman says the breakdown of social relationships among professors >>> is more important than people might think. >>> >>> "You're less willing to get into conflict with people if they are part >>> of your social circle as well as your professional circle." >>> >>> And Mr. Menand says faculty work looks a lot less attractive to >>> prospective academics than it used to. >>> >>> "I think the demands have come to be experienced as all-consuming, >>> 24/7," he says. >>> >>> "That's bad because of the quality of life and because it discourages >>> other people from getting into academe." >>> >>> He adds: "You don't want smart college students taking one look at what >>> we have to do to keep our jobs and saying, That's not how I want to >>> spend my life." >>> >>> [end excerpts] >>> >>> The article is online at: >>> <http://bit.ly/8XKENPope> >>> >>> Ken Pope >>> >>> THE THERAPIST AS A PERSON: >>> <http://kspope.com/therapistas/index.php> >>> >>> "Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what >>> the world needs is people who have come alive." >>> -- Howard Thurman (1900-1981) > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 8.5.441 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3039 - Release Date: 07/30/10 > 13:13:00
