Tales of Tenure Terror
We’re all talking about Dr. Jill Biden, who has claimed that she will continue to work as a professor during her time as the First Person. Everyone is applauding her dedication to education. But here’s another take: I think it perpetuates the overworking of teachers, and validating the idea that they need to be overworked and that providing knowledge has to be done at all costs, even over decent pay and personal time. Why not take the 4 years off and work on making change on larger education policy? Or literally, just taking 4 years off and relax? I know, she can teach and do these things, but we are dangerously close to making her a martyr for the cause.
Academia continues to be a fucking mess but this week I want to talk about the burn book of academic jobs, The Academic Job Wiki Universities to Fear List. The entries range from hiring committees being racist demons to entries that amount to “they didn’t take me to breakfast.” I think these kind of crowd-sourced documents are useful, but I also hope people don’t take them as bona fide truths. But it sure is fun to read.
If possible, run! Run with a bag-pack full of energy drinks and never stop till you are so far away, you can't think of IPFW! Yup! A lot of politics is going on in the department - they brag about how the geology department was completely useless and they shut it down. During the interview, the chair and other faculty members (except one, whom I mention later) were conversing with me with their eyes on their cellphones. The department-chair asked me questions without even looking at me - constantly fidgeting with his cellphone and replying to emails. The search-chair on the other hand was comparetively nicer to me, and hospitable. Over all, they are very unprofessional, and said a lot of "evil" things behind each other's back! An example is, "ABC is late -- aah, he must be handling his children. He has another one on his way in spite of being unable to handle all the previous ones!" or "XYZ is not coming today. He is not feeling well. Isn't it strange how he falls ill just after the finals? I wonder if he is really ill?" During the mock-lecture, I was interrupted so many times by faculty members, I couldn't get past 25% of the lecture. And the questions (they were acting as students) they asked were incredibly stupid - no college student (or even an elementary school student) in their right mind would ask such questions. When a folly in one of their questions was pointed out, instead of admitting it, the faculty member said something nonsensical. During both the lectures (research and physics), one of the students had a cooing baby in the lecture hall who had to be constantly consoled, and (during the research talk) another faculty member had his leg on the desk with shoe pointing directly at me. A lot of bragging is going on - they were very arrogant, and no one is ever on time (except the search-chair). It was a very unpleasant experience over all. It felt as if I was invited to be insulted and looked-down upon.
At this point, who even really wants a faculty position?
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