The Post For Stuff You Wanna Tell People

[FishProf]

No doubt.  I noticed if I sat across my office from it, the TV looked pretty good.  But that doesn't work as a computer setup.

Maybe I'll use the TV as a video display device...

[Antiphon1]

Apropos of nothing.  I sometimes think Covid was a talent drain in addition to a heath threat.  How many seasoned adminsitrators and faculty chucked it in instead of waiting another 5 or 10 years to retire?  No blame here for those who left, but damn, I've  run into more wet behind the ears folks in the past year than I've encountered in a long time.  Maybe it's just me. 

[MarathonRunner]

Apropos of nothing.  I sometimes think Covid was a talent drain in addition to a heath threat.  How many seasoned adminsitrators and faculty chucked it in instead of waiting another 5 or 10 years to retire?  No blame here for those who left, but damn, I've  run into more wet behind the ears folks in the past year than I've encountered in a long time.  Maybe it's just me. 

Once our chair retires in two years, we have only one associate ready for promotion to full around that time, two newish associate profs, one assistant who will go up for tenure in a few years, and the rest of us are new assistant profs. Yeah, we've lost most of our senior folks, especially with three retirements this year.

[Antiphon1]

Apropos of nothing.  I sometimes think Covid was a talent drain in addition to a heath threat.  How many seasoned adminsitrators and faculty chucked it in instead of waiting another 5 or 10 years to retire?  No blame here for those who left, but damn, I've  run into more wet behind the ears folks in the past year than I've encountered in a long time.  Maybe it's just me. 

Once our chair retires in two years, we have only one associate ready for promotion to full around that time, two newish associate profs, one assistant who will go up for tenure in a few years, and the rest of us are new assistant profs. Yeah, we've lost most of our senior folks, especially with three retirements this year.

It's not that the new faculty are not well qualified or doing their jobs.  Not at all.  Beginning your tenure bid coupled with figuring out how to steer a department through normal intitutional waters while doing all the new faculty normal stuff especially in this environment is not just challenging.  It's crazy making.  Usually, a department has some gnarled and battle tested veterans who guide the new hires through the first few years and take on the more onerous duties while people learn their position.  I get the feeling that isn't happening anymore.  The institution will always survive.  I worry that more and more young faculty will abandon higher education because it's just too demanding.  And, of course, way underpaid relative to salaries in industry.  Perhaps it's just another phase in the higher education life cycle. 

[Minervabird]

I've notice a lot of academics in my field have moved to academic adjacent positions like archives, libraries, museums, publishing, public engagement. They earn better money or at least comparable money in an easier job that they can leave at 5 pm.  Can't blame them. They want a life.

I know of a few academics who have retired, continued writing/publishing, and don't have any other life besides that. It is a salutary warning to the younglings.

[MarathonRunner]

Apropos of nothing.  I sometimes think Covid was a talent drain in addition to a heath threat.  How many seasoned adminsitrators and faculty chucked it in instead of waiting another 5 or 10 years to retire?  No blame here for those who left, but damn, I've  run into more wet behind the ears folks in the past year than I've encountered in a long time.  Maybe it's just me. 

Once our chair retires in two years, we have only one associate ready for promotion to full around that time, two newish associate profs, one assistant who will go up for tenure in a few years, and the rest of us are new assistant profs. Yeah, we've lost most of our senior folks, especially with three retirements this year.

It's not that the new faculty are not well qualified or doing their jobs.  Not at all.  Beginning your tenure bid coupled with figuring out how to steer a department through normal intitutional waters while doing all the new faculty normal stuff especially in this environment is not just challenging.  It's crazy making.  Usually, a department has some gnarled and battle tested veterans who guide the new hires through the first few years and take on the more onerous duties while people learn their position.  I get the feeling that isn't happening anymore.  The institution will always survive.  I worry that more and more young faculty will abandon higher education because it's just too demanding.  And, of course, way underpaid relative to salaries in industry.  Perhaps it's just another phase in the higher education life cycle. 

Exactly. All of us junior faculty are on track, but we've now lost all our full profs and senior associate profs.  We are now a very early career department. Im not sure who will be our next chair, and that's concerning everyone in our department, as we've lost anyone who is senile enough or willing to fill that role. We don't allow anyone below senior associate (going up for full in the next couple of years) or full profs to serve as chair. Hence, our dilemma. Lots of great stuff going on, but not enough people at the senior associate or full prof level.

[dismalist]

"Science progresses one funeral at a time".
--Planck's Principle

[kaysixteen]

Minervabird, how exactly do those Brit academics transition to these positions in the UK?  Are you talking about folks who, in addition to a PhD, have things like an MLS or some other professional credential in these adjacent fields, that would allow easier transition to them, or are these largely unnecessary in Britain?  I ask this because this sort of advice is common enough for humanities PhDs to get here as well, has been for at least 25 years, but actually doing this proves often very hard, for a variety of reasons, including, but certainly not limited to, notions of their being 'overqualified'.

[Minervabird]

Minervabird, how exactly do those Brit academics transition to these positions in the UK?  Are you talking about folks who, in addition to a PhD, have things like an MLS or some other professional credential in these adjacent fields, that would allow easier transition to them, or are these largely unnecessary in Britain?  I ask this because this sort of advice is common enough for humanities PhDs to get here as well, has been for at least 25 years, but actually doing this proves often very hard, for a variety of reasons, including, but certainly not limited to, notions of their being 'overqualified'.

Hi Kay. One I know who had a doctorate got an archives qualification on the job...she had previous job experience in archives. Another became a digital manager...had a doctorate, and received training on the job and works for a scholarly society. Most of the top museum staff here have doctorates, or if they don't, get them whilst working.  Same with top library positions. I think each case is fairly individual.

[apl68]

I've notice a lot of academics in my field have moved to academic adjacent positions like archives, libraries, museums, publishing, public engagement. They earn better money or at least comparable money in an easier job that they can leave at 5 pm.  Can't blame them. They want a life.

I know of a few academics who have retired, continued writing/publishing, and don't have any other life besides that. It is a salutary warning to the younglings.

They were lucky if they were able (as I was, years ago) to move from academia into the library profession.  Because it looks like library jobs are starting to go away too.  Western Illinois University has recently laid off its entire professional library staff--all nine of them.  A satellite campus has had its library shut down entirely.  What's left of WIU's library will now be run by a skeleton crew of paraprofessionals.


https://www.wqad.com/article/news/education/western-illinois-university-layoffs-impact/526-2aacd0ee-d635-4af8-b298-a0e84785e74c

[Antiphon1]

Apropos of nothing.  I sometimes think Covid was a talent drain in addition to a heath threat.  How many seasoned adminsitrators and faculty chucked it in instead of waiting another 5 or 10 years to retire?  No blame here for those who left, but damn, I've  run into more wet behind the ears folks in the past year than I've encountered in a long time.  Maybe it's just me. 

Once our chair retires in two years, we have only one associate ready for promotion to full around that time, two newish associate profs, one assistant who will go up for tenure in a few years, and the rest of us are new assistant profs. Yeah, we've lost most of our senior folks, especially with three retirements this year.

It's not that the new faculty are not well qualified or doing their jobs.  Not at all.  Beginning your tenure bid coupled with figuring out how to steer a department through normal intitutional waters while doing all the new faculty normal stuff especially in this environment is not just challenging.  It's crazy making.  Usually, a department has some gnarled and battle tested veterans who guide the new hires through the first few years and take on the more onerous duties while people learn their position.  I get the feeling that isn't happening anymore.  The institution will always survive.  I worry that more and more young faculty will abandon higher education because it's just too demanding.  And, of course, way underpaid relative to salaries in industry.  Perhaps it's just another phase in the higher education life cycle. 

Exactly. All of us junior faculty are on track, but we've now lost all our full profs and senior associate profs.  We are now a very early career department. Im not sure who will be our next chair, and that's concerning everyone in our department, as we've lost anyone who is senile enough or willing to fill that role. We don't allow anyone below senior associate (going up for full in the next couple of years) or full profs to serve as chair. Hence, our dilemma. Lots of great stuff going on, but not enough people at the senior associate or full prof level.

Do you have a wise senior administrative assitant who can guide you?  Institutional memory is deep in the clerical staff.  God knows several admin assitants have saved my bacon from some catastrophic mistakes. 

I am in a position of assuming chair duties again because no one else in the department has the proper credentials and experience.  While I'm in charge, all the faculty are learning how to do this job as part of their tenure package.  I love your research; I love your administrtive skills as much or more.  And yes, I've run this by the dean and VP.  Something's got to change.  We can't continue to lose faculty and fulfill all the administrative and service requirements without adjustments to the tenure path.  It's too much. 

[Minervabird]

I've notice a lot of academics in my field have moved to academic adjacent positions like archives, libraries, museums, publishing, public engagement. They earn better money or at least comparable money in an easier job that they can leave at 5 pm.  Can't blame them. They want a life.

I know of a few academics who have retired, continued writing/publishing, and don't have any other life besides that. It is a salutary warning to the younglings.

They were lucky if they were able (as I was, years ago) to move from academia into the library profession.  Because it looks like library jobs are starting to go away too.  Western Illinois University has recently laid off its entire professional library staff--all nine of them.  A satellite campus has had its library shut down entirely.  What's left of WIU's library will now be run by a skeleton crew of paraprofessionals.


https://www.wqad.com/article/news/education/western-illinois-university-layoffs-impact/526-2aacd0ee-d635-4af8-b298-a0e84785e74c

This is starting to happen in the UK too. There is a proposal to have some public libraries run by volunteers!  Absolutely Wrongheaded in my view. Libraries are important.

[Puget]

Exactly. All of us junior faculty are on track, but we've now lost all our full profs and senior associate profs.  We are now a very early career department. Im not sure who will be our next chair, and that's concerning everyone in our department, as we've lost anyone who is senile enough or willing to fill that role. We don't allow anyone below senior associate (going up for full in the next couple of years) or full profs to serve as chair. Hence, our dilemma. Lots of great stuff going on, but not enough people at the senior associate or full prof level.

I know this was probably a typo for "senior" but I love the thought that someone needs to be senile in order to agree to be chair, which maybe is true!

[MarathonRunner]

Exactly. All of us junior faculty are on track, but we've now lost all our full profs and senior associate profs.  We are now a very early career department. Im not sure who will be our next chair, and that's concerning everyone in our department, as we've lost anyone who is senile enough or willing to fill that role. We don't allow anyone below senior associate (going up for full in the next couple of years) or full profs to serve as chair. Hence, our dilemma. Lots of great stuff going on, but not enough people at the senior associate or full prof level.

I know this was probably a typo for "senior" but I love the thought that someone needs to be senile in order to agree to be chair, which maybe is true!

Yes, autocarrot got to me on my tablet. It is a concern for us, though. Don't want a chair who knows nothing about our field (and we can't do an external search, for multiple reasons, including our collective agreement).

[apl68]

Exactly. All of us junior faculty are on track, but we've now lost all our full profs and senior associate profs.  We are now a very early career department. Im not sure who will be our next chair, and that's concerning everyone in our department, as we've lost anyone who is senile enough or willing to fill that role. We don't allow anyone below senior associate (going up for full in the next couple of years) or full profs to serve as chair. Hence, our dilemma. Lots of great stuff going on, but not enough people at the senior associate or full prof level.

I know this was probably a typo for "senior" but I love the thought that someone needs to be senile in order to agree to be chair, which maybe is true!

Yes, autocarrot got to me on my tablet. It is a concern for us, though. Don't want a chair who knows nothing about our field (and we can't do an external search, for multiple reasons, including our collective agreement).

I was wondering about that.  It seemed a bit disparaging of the sort of person who went up for chair in that department.