Professor Morale was the worst Spanish professor ever!

I don't think morale is back to where it was pre-Covid. For one, we are dealing with the blow that Covid dealt to student learning. Many students have entered college in the past couple of years not having learned what they should have in high school. Moreover, they have gotten used to being given accommodations at the drop of a hat.

I find I have to go slower in lectures than I used, covering less material, often having to teach more students basic algebra (this is in a "STEM-light" field). The end result is that my tests are easier than they used to be and I don't get to cover the material I should in my courses.

Quite a few colleagues remark that teaching takes much more time and energy than it used to (yes, we have duties other than teaching!). In a sense, we (professors) are trying to compensate for the time and effort that students seem less willing to put in and the lower level of knowledge that they have come out of high school with thanks to Covid.

I agree that this is a problem, based on my conversations with professor and other academia friends. That said, I'm not sure how you would figure it out for an individual school.

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.

The few who do earn six-figure salaries, don’t start earning that until they’re 30. Horrible ROI if money is what you’re concerned about.

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.

Wow, this person has no idea. A lot of professors have to bring in money to pay themselves in the form of grants. Their promotions depend on whether they publish or not. Teaching occupies a lot of time in the Spring and Fall - it's not just two one-hour classes. You have to prepare handouts, slides, assignments, formative and summative assessments, grading etc. For every hour in class you generally have to spend 10-12 hours outside of it. On top of that faculty are expected to engage in college and department "service" by participating in all kinds of committees. Summer break is often the only time to work on research and publication.

I’m a former professor who left, and I now work in an academia-adjacent field. I still go to a lot of conferences and interact with many faculty members through my job. To generalize, they are stressed out, deeply concerned for their students and the challenges many of them face (mental health, student debt, etc), and extremely pessimistic about the state of the profession and the direction things are going. They are worried about the increasing reliance on adjuncts, erosion of academic freedom, and crumbling of shared governance. At the same time, they tend to be dedicated teachers and - in many cases- active scholars. . . when they have the time. There is definitely a sense that too much of their time is eaten up by often-pointless service requirements.

Professors have to deal with marketing the university, recruiting students & behavioral management nowadays. Colleges & university outside the top ~300 nationally are screwed.

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.

https://www.insightintodiversity.com/aaup-releases-first-study-on-tenure-since-2004-revealing-major-changes-in-faculty-career-tracks/

Your kid’s freshman bio lecturer is making $3,000/class per semester with no benefits

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.

You’re an idiot. Professors do their real job—researching & applying for research grants-during that “time off” you speak of.

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.

How many of your child’s instructors do you think are tenured professors?

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.

Since faculty can get stuck at a place and be unable to move to another position (we had to leave academe entirely if we wanted to switch jobs) faculty longevity is not a good indicator.

Some ways you can look at the campus morale:
Search for the university in the Chronicle of Higher Education and in their local newspaper. Usually articles of faculty having votes of no confidence in the President will appear. These are unhappy faculty. Fights with the faculty or the alums are not a good sign things are going well, unless the alums are fighting in support of racism (like VMI, for example.)

If faculty don't donate at least some money to the institution that is usually a sign things are not going well, but I don't know if you can measure that at all. For example, we had a colleague who was a secret multimillionaire due to excellent investment over the course of his life. The university administration had no idea and would treat him with contempt, so he donated it all in trust on the down low to another university he knew well. Not a good sign.

You can also look at alumni giving rates as an indicator, because if you have bad / difficult university administrators they may not value alums, treat them well or communicate well--which can led to fewer alums giving.

I would assume most all campuses are dealing with student mental health issues, so I would consider what kinds of supports they have for students and if those people and programs seem frazzled or overwhelmed. Sometimes colleges will advertise services but then not staff appropriately or support with enough budget. Notice my undergrad college just started emphasizing wellness and mental health, for example.

You can follow the University/ college Facebook or Instagram or TikTok account. Sometimes insta or TikTok will be informative.

They previously were happier, but in the 2000s that started to change. My dh and I left and our friends at small or medium sized universities tell us that we got out of academe at the right time. Like K-12 the issues are mostly with bloated administration, entitled students who aren't there to learn, and demanding parents who believe the lies their adult kids tell them.

The mental health issues were increasing in the 2000s, but assume they are more prevalent now. Those issues were less problematic for me than the entitlement and lack of interest in learning.

Retention rate and Graduation rate would be some of the good measures.

There are numerous threads in DCUM citing low morale for K12 teachers nationwide, with alarming reports of teachers quitting and few students pursuing the teaching as a profession.

Some of the challenges cited by K12 teachers - neurotic/demanding parents, apathetic and/or entitled students, students' fragile mental health- likely carry forward to college campuses to a certain degree.

I'm curious whether college campuses are happier places to teach? How is morale now that schools are largely back to a normal in-person experience? How would you recommend that prospective families learn more about the emotional health of a specific school community? TIA.