When tenure never comes
thewalrus.ca
When tenure never comes
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Re: When tenure never comes
#2The author of the article never mentions what faculty or program they're in, or references any of their work. No doubt this is a real problem, but in this particular case they could just be a lousy researcher in a faculty that doesn't have a high demand for new professors.
IOW the "psychology" / "liberal arts" over population. I'm not trying to knock any of those studies, but there is a large excess where I'm from.
Re: When tenure never comes
#3I hate having to enable JavaScript just to read a website.
It was worth it for this one though, just one main thing; still I almost didn't click it, I often don't.
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I see that same mentality reflected in far too many places, no one wants to hire for a career anymore; and that's what 'tenure' is at a college. The 'contract' in society between the working class and those who employee them is beyond broken.
Re: When tenure never comes
#4An academic career should never be your only option. Make sure you study something that is useful in the real economy.
Re: When tenure never comes
#5The author of the article never mentions what faculty or program they're in, or references any of their work. No doubt this is a real problem, but in this particular case they could just be a lousy researcher in a faculty that doesn't have a high demand for new professors. IOW the "psychology" / "liberal arts" over population. I'm not trying to knock any of those studies, but there is a large excess where I'm from.
Yet those programs would happily take on more than their replacement rate, while at the same time not being upfront about the actual chances of getting a job.
Re: When tenure never comes
#6The author of the article never mentions what faculty or program they're in, or references any of their work. No doubt this is a real problem, but in this particular case they could just be a lousy researcher in a faculty that doesn't have a high demand for new professors. IOW the "psychology" / "liberal arts" over population. I'm not trying to knock any of those studies, but there is a large excess where I'm from.
As a former neuroscientist, that's somewhat true, but it's pretty bad all across academia. Every department takes on more grad students than can possibly fill academic offices.
Re: When tenure never comes
#7Saddening story. However, as an academic myself, some bits were misleading or odd:
> funding regulations meant the grant couldn’t pay my salary as its lead researcher
I've never, ever heard of anything like this occurring. The most I have seen are cost sharing pieces where a grant cannot more than a certain % of your salary. But these are often known upfront by the PI!
> The two disclosed who had submitted a grant proposal and whose book was near publication—all of which are needed for tenure. I was the only one in the room with books, articles, and a recently awarded grant.
This strikes me as a highly bitter position to take. There is far more to tenure than only the number of grants, books, articles, etc. Were the articles published in high impact journals? How much $$ was the grant for? A researcher 5 years younger might get a tenure-track position with no prior grants, but a hot research topic, a few good publications and an excellent pedigree.
> My financial reality still makes it hard to keep up with conferences. I haven’t had access to professional development funds since 2010
The author states he has funding grants but these did not explicitly cover several conferences? I'm very surprised by this, and this is not at all consistent with my experience. I had funding to attend conferences as a first year graduate student.
> There are jobs in the southern US and in the UK, which would take me away from family and a new relationship that I cherish. I don’t need to start building a life from scratch in my late thirties. I definitely don’t need to do it for a nine—or three-month contract without benefits, or costs of moving. And if we’re talking about the US, I don’t need to be dealing with signing religious codes of conduct or dealing with campuses where eighteen-year-olds can carry concealed guns.
The sad truth of the matter is: if you want to get a tenure track job, 99% of us will not truly have a choice in location where you live. Expect to move across the country (or across countries!). That is quite apparent when you sign up. You take what you can get. A friend took a position in upstate NY, and he hates the cold...
Re: When tenure never comes
#8The author of the article never mentions what faculty or program they're in, or references any of their work. No doubt this is a real problem, but in this particular case they could just be a lousy researcher in a faculty that doesn't have a high demand for new professors. IOW the "psychology" / "liberal arts" over population. I'm not trying to knock any of those studies, but there is a large excess where I'm from.
The author seems to think writing a book is necessary for tenure, so he isn't in a STEM field (obviously many STEM professors write books but the vast majority of STEM professors who receive tenure have not written a book).
Re: When tenure never comes
#9Every student considering going to graduate school should read this article. Professors are very misinformed about how likely someone is to get tenure (most of them got it > 20 years ago, in a much better academic job market). This misinformation trickles down to students.
The simple fact is that right now the average professor is graduating more than 10 phd students, only 1 of which can become a tenured professor at a research university. The job options in academia other than tenured professor are horrible and exploitative. I know many post-docs who have gone into industry after slaving away at temporary and low paying jobs for over 6 years. These post-docs were very bright and dedicated people, but the tenure track position requires lots of luck in addition to skill.
Re: When tenure never comes
#10waaaaaaahhhhh...... waaaaaaaaahhhh......
start your own school, lady.
donald trump did it. you're worse than donald trump?