Professor Morale?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Complaints I've picked up from others:

1. Decline in student quality due to COVID but also longer term structural educational and admissions policies. Even at elite colleges, more kids are turning up without basic learning skills and knowledge that was once taken for granted.

2. Colleges are far more ideological places than they were 20 years ago. Many professors who don't rush to embrace the latest woke beliefs feel pressured to keep their mouths shut to get tenure, or ride it out till retirement. Some are afraid of their more extremist students and self-censor in classes and curb free discussions because it's just not worth the hassle any more.

3. Admin has exploded in size and influence and directly interfere with research and hiring and departmental matters. More micromanagement. And admin are fully signed up to DEI.

I don’t understand #2. Unless you are in a politics-adjacent class, what on earth are you talking about where ideology comes in. But maybe that’s my STEM degree talking.

Basically you have to support very liberal progressive ideas. That obviously doesn’t come up as much in a hard science or math class, but it does in many other subjects.

Um, no, that's really a school-by-school thing. If you want a more conservative or traditional environment, they're easily available at the student level. At the faculty level, you just have to start preparing early by applying for the right fellowships, presenting at the right conferences, and attending graduate schools that will be attractive to those kinds of institutions. No job is guaranteed ever in academia, but you can position yourself favorably, and if being surrounded by like-minded people is a priority, it's on you to select for it. Let's get back to the main topic at hand: helping OP understand how institutional morale can affect the student experience.

OP again. This discussion is so interesting. A community's healthy ability to exchange ideas - vs silencing or shaming those with an alternative POV- is probably also baked into overall community morale. Our family is definitely hoping to find the former - if that unicorn institution exists today!

[Anonymous]

The pay issue is a serious one. Adjuncts are paid very poorly. Many tenured and tenure-track faculty are too relative to their impact.
My partner is fairly well known in their field and works hard because they want to rather than have to. They continue to make less than half of what I do despite being known nationally and an invited international speaker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make six figure salaries, get summers off and fall and spring breaks, and BS “sabbaticals all for teaching two one hour classes. Boo freaking hoo.

I made $2,000 a class at George Washington University.

are you an adjunct?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The pay issue is a serious one. Adjuncts are paid very poorly. Many tenured and tenure-track faculty are too relative to their impact.
My partner is fairly well known in their field and works hard because they want to rather than have to. They continue to make less than half of what I do despite being known nationally and an invited international speaker.

This is true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make six figure salaries, get summers off and fall and spring breaks, and BS “sabbaticals all for teaching two one hour classes. Boo freaking hoo.

I made $2,000 a class at George Washington University.

are you an adjunct?

That is a la carte pay at a rate a few years old, but not like a generation old. The part-time colleagues in academia deserve everything that can be done on their behalf, because they have all of the work and none of the privileges. Someone who takes on a p/t class in the evening after working a f/t job all day is giving more than they need to give; someone who teaches p/t across multiple institutions or puts together a contract-based living wage sure as heck isn't doing it for the money. The question isn't whether an institution has adjuncts--they all do--but rather how those adjuncts are treated. If they are given the professional and personal respect they deserve, that says a lot about a school.

--College prof