As a formerly tenured professor who voluntarily left in 2021, I find some echoes of my experience here. But I'm a little baffled by the purpose of this piece. Are there some deadbeat professors? Assuredly. But the vast majority do not beat the odds to land a TT gig and then simply stop caring. A great many liberal arts colleges emphasize teaching and service more than publication, and those expectations can be quite rigorous. In my experience, most professors are doing the best they can, often in a climate of blatant disrespect, dwindling resources, and increasing distractions from teaching and research, such as academic assessment. The freeloaders are few and universally despised.
I'm also puzzled by demonstrably false assertions like this: "Once you get tenure, you really can enjoy an upper-middle class salary for the rest of your life in exchange for about 200 hours of work per year." According to the Pew Research Center, a professor would need to earn well above $100K to qualify as upper-middle class in most states. The reality is that the majority of professors earn roughly half that as new hires and never break six figures. Their students get better paying jobs immediately after commencement.
I agree that higher ed is broken -- it's why I left. But I do think that critiques need to make some good faith effort to propose solutions. Is this an argument for abolishing tenure and adding even more financial stress and fear about reprisals for free speech? If not, what?
As a formerly tenured professor who voluntarily left in 2021, I find some echoes of my experience here. But I'm a little baffled by the purpose of this piece. Are there some deadbeat professors? Assuredly. But the vast majority do not beat the odds to land a TT gig and then simply stop caring. A great many liberal arts colleges emphasize teaching and service more than publication, and those expectations can be quite rigorous. In my experience, most professors are doing the best they can, often in a climate of blatant disrespect, dwindling resources, and increasing distractions from teaching and research, such as academic assessment. The freeloaders are few and universally despised.
I'm also puzzled by demonstrably false assertions like this: "Once you get tenure, you really can enjoy an upper-middle class salary for the rest of your life in exchange for about 200 hours of work per year." According to the Pew Research Center, a professor would need to earn well above $100K to qualify as upper-middle class in most states. The reality is that the majority of professors earn roughly half that as new hires and never break six figures. Their students get better paying jobs immediately after commencement.
I agree that higher ed is broken -- it's why I left. But I do think that critiques need to make some good faith effort to propose solutions. Is this an argument for abolishing tenure and adding even more financial stress and fear about reprisals for free speech? If not, what?
Thank you for joining us, Bryan--and revealing the "secrets"?