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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Profs in many academic areas are living the life! Pre-tenure is pressure packed but you have academic freedom, schedule flexibility, and summers that are focused on research (hopefully with a little relaxation).
Depending on your area, there are opportunities to consult or speak for a fee too.[/quote]

I'm a tenured professor, doing what I decided I wanted to do when I was a teenager.  I still think it's the best job in the world, but I have to admit that right now many of us are very, very stressed and tired.  The real challenges come from the constantly shifting responsibility sets and the total lack of boundaries.  Even though we definitely do have schedule flexibility in terms of where and when we work, the quantity of things that need attention means that like some other professions we work evenings, weekends, early mornings, breaks, and, as PP correctly notes, summers, always trying to fit the non-salaried activity ( = research, for those of us who are not in grant-funded disciplines) in around the edges of the needs of our students and of our own families.  Add to that the fact that many tenured faculty now have responsibilities that would years ago have been fulfilled by professional staff colleagues, and that we are often the front line for student problems in an era when the students are genuinely in need of increased help and support, and you have an extremely diverse cycle of responsibilities that kind of never ends.  The things that others have said on here about higher ed are also very true: the field itself is changing rapidly, and the problems and pressures that folks hear about in the media or from friends are real.

I don't make a 6-figure salary myself and don't stand a chance of getting near that point for many years to come.  I could make a lot more money doing something else.  But this is still a pretty great way to make a living, and I dedicated most of my youth to qualifying for it and earning a position (I finished my PhD after 30, as others have noted here, even though I never took time out from school - I'm in a 'slow' field).  It was worth it to me.

I deal with the worst of the problems by asking myself in any difficult situation what is best for the _students_, not the faculty or the institution.  After all, we are paid to be there.  The students, on the other hand, want us to help them build a future, and we owe them the best we can summon even when we are exhausted.[/quote]

OP here.  As a parent of high school students, one a junior, I am grateful for this and all the other thoughtful responses.  Your dedication to students is deeply appreciated.  I share your sense that all students really need extra support now.  I'm trying my best to guide my kids to college readiness as a parent, but sometimes I also feel the general sense of malaise and overwhelm that is making us all feel tired and stressed.

The application process is daunting but we earnestly are trying our best to find strong fit schools.  It was so much simpler when I applied.  I visited a few schools, applied to one school, was accepted ED, and loved my time there.

The business side of colleges seems to be taking a stronger role now.  Intense marketing , rankings chasing/yield management, adding facilities, wellness offerings etc seem to be high institutional priorities.

Reframing my initial question:  do you have suggested ways for families to get a sense of effective leadership/balancing institutional priorities well? As PP asked, how to go about identifying schools with low faculty turnover?

Also, is there a recommended way to observe student attitudes/motivation and identify high class/community engagement?  [b]Are professors open to prospective kids sitting in a class (with permission by email) for example?[/b]  Thanks!

[/quote]

Yes--I don't have many who ask to sit in on a class, but I have always welcomed it. When I taught at a SLAC, some prospective students would do overnights and they would attend classes with their host student without prior approval and that was fine too (it was an expected part of the culture).

As for getting a feel for faculty morale, I wouldn't focus on faculty turnover. Tenure track/tenured positions are fairly rare in most fields. Faculty candidates generate large packets of information when they apply for professor positions (e.g., long cvs, sample publications, sample syllabi, teaching statements etc.) and then go through waves of interviews culminating in 2 day campus visits where they give a public lecture, teach a sample class, meet with students, admin, faculty colleagues etc.  The process often starts the fall before you would start working at the new university. Faculty often have doctoral students they would need to support through their defense even after they switch colleges and research grants sometimes are hard to port.  Depending on field, a lot of work has often gone into setting up a lab or program and you have to rebuild all that. So switching jobs is a very high hurdle--this is why you'll find high quality professors at universities of many different rankings: many just go to the position open when they completed their PhD and build their work there rather than try to move to a "better" school.

One place to dig into might be the faculty senate--this is the body that deliberates over issues and many publicly post minutes from that. You can get a sense of faculty issues there. I think paying attention to the number of adjuncts is also important as too many can really make the instruction diffuse.  I would also look at the profiles of faculty in majors of interest on departmental websites--does it seem like the department has interesting events, are the faculty active researchers, do you see evidence of collaborations and work with students?  Sometimes the websites are generic, but sometimes you can get a feel.  Some websites have faculty cvs.  If the faculty are generally active researchers this is a sign that they have enough resources and support to do their work--it benefits the students because research is what makes most disciplines come alive and be current.

I would say most professors I know still really are there for their students and they love their discipline/field. So even at schools where professors are frustrated by politics or administrative policies, they still make sure they are there for their students.  If they don't really love to teach, they can make more money and have more institutional power by moving to admin positions (many profs do everything they can to avoid this kind of promotion) or leaving academia.[/quote]

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