Want the Tenure Track? Don’t Keep Quiet

Congratulations, Isaac. Chalk one up for the good guys.

Congrats! I think the key to what you said is be constructive. Many people are not aware or skillful at giving constructive criticism or critique.

I agree. It is also true that in a competitive market, there is often more than one qualified candidate. You need someone to say “I really want to work with that guy/gal.” Bland is not going to distinguish you. And anything that would make you stand out positively, is going to be a big negative for someone. Without the risk there may not be a reward.

Congratulations! It’s not easy to be brave, but in order to gain recognition for the value we provide, we can no longer afford to remain quiet. Best wishes on your new position.

It appears the key word here is “constructively”.   I’ve heard both:  the whiner, and the person with constructive comments.   Hired the latter; the former is still looking for a job.

“I believe that pointing out inadequacies can lead to changes for the better…Speak out constructively.”

Here, here! 

“Speaking out constructively” will allow you to test your freedoms. Make it relevant. That is, take instances when there’s “skin in the game”–yours, your colleagues, and administrators. Don’t start with a difficult issue, like sports corruption. Instead, assume you identify reliable, preferably documented, evidence that, say, your school made several material misrepresentations in its accreditation reports. Honesty is important to you. Now, “constructively speak out” to your colleagues and administrators.

Pick any instance of misconduct or corruption where you and your school has “skin in the game.” You shouldn’t have long to wait. For details, see “University and AACSB Diversity” and “A General Theory To Test Social Reality.” (http://ssrn.com/author=397169)

Chauncey M. DePree, Jr., DBA
Professor
School of Accountancy
College of Business
University of Southern Mississippi
http://www.usmnews.net

CONGRATS! This is really exciting to see as I went to RBC, and I really love the English faculty. Welcome to my 2 year college alma mater! It’s such a great campus community. I hope you feel the same way! 

“Be brave” is probably good advice for all situations.

Yet there is merit to the truism: “Discretion is the better part of valor.”
(It took me years to figure that out. It means, “The majority of bravery is to be discreet; pick your battles; then overcome fears to fight with courage, when it is wise to fight.”)

The author has apparently succeeded in this.

Bravo!

Congratulations! I think your article speaks to a larger issue that I encountered when I was on the job market: while many schools do seem to follow a standardized set of behaviors while conducting their job searches, a good number also do their own thing and are looking for their own thing, so standard job advice doesn’t always fit. It can be helpful to understand that not all schools play by the standard rules, and sometimes it also helps for you to break from the standard routine as well.

For instance, I was told not to discuss money until I had an offer on the table, and two schools broached the topic very early. One, a fancy junior college in the northeast, had an HR person call, and before she would tell me why she was calling (to set up a phone interview) she asked me first if I was really willing to move to New Jersey (yes, or I wouldn’t have applied) and what my salary requirements were (I mumbled something about the national average for starting tenure-track profs). At the other, the chair of the department asked me about money during my campus interview in a break between my various meetings. He also pretty much offered me the job at the end of the day.

At first I was flummoxed when schools asked me questions I had been told they wouldn’t ask, but I quickly tried to adjust and roll with it.

More relevant to your particular situation, some of the advice that I did receive in a grad school job market workshop was the equivalent of “to thine own self be true.” While we were mostly encouraged to stay on our best behavior during the interview, and to project that sort of bland, non-offensive effaced mask of a personality that doesn’t reveal too much, we were also told that interviews are all about finding a good fit. Thus, a little judicious revelation of personality and personal opinion might help schools who are a good fit see us as such. Toward the end of the day at the campus interview where the chair brought up money early in the interview, I had recognized that the chair has the same kind of goofy, teasing sense of humor that I have, and I made a small joke with him that I wouldn’t have otherwise made. His response: a long hard laugh and “Ah, I like you, I really like you.” I think we’ve gotten along well ever since.

I’m curious as to what kind of message he is sending. The best way to get a TT job is to rail against the status quo in a CHE blog? Or does the quality of the writing have anything to do with this?

If the former, does it apply to people with access to general blogging sites, or will only the CHE imprimatur hold sway over search committees?

As a STEM person who gets annoyed at fallacious correlations, I kind of think he’s dispensing some potentially problematic advice.

Congratulations, Professor Sweeney!

I’m glad this ended well and a few months at Richard Bland will hopefully take the away the sting of James Madison.

Yes, we all should always speak out and we are very grateful that you did.

Hi Issaac,
I am honestly happy that you now have a full time job and that you spoke so openly about the adjunct life.
 
Unfortunately I disagree with the title of the last blog though.  
 ”Don’t keep quiet” would have been adequate.
or  
 ”Want TT track or to be disheartened?  Speaking up”   
 ”Tenure track or quit: speak out.” 
 ”Become TT, be labeled a discontent, and thank god that adjunct have no union protection cause we’re getting rid of them:  3 ways colleges could act in reaction to those who speak up”
 
 I spoke up and speak up politely. This will apply to 95% (guestamit) of adjunct with integrity. Luckily I have a strong union in my state.  The nearest other college is 30 miles away,  The next 60.   My department head seems to think I can teach adjunct for the next 20 years as I am so good.

Sincerely with best wishes,
Carol

Is there is a special section in hell reserved for those of us who have our cute little house guests spayed or neutered without their written permission?

Big 10 stable?  Let’s see, they brought in Nebraska because the conference has “high academic+research standards” and implies membership in the CIC (instead of letting CIC manage itself).  Nebraska promptly gets booted from the AAU after more than a decade of warnings that were unheeded.  Realignment makes Notre Dame look more alone… but the Big 10′s offer to ND was previously spurned.

Tthe Big 10 will be stable for its long-time core members; but, a reckoning is coming.  The academics are getting tired of having the tail wag the dog.  I suspect we’ll see either (1) Nebraska go and Notre Dame ignored until they get into the AAU; or (2) complete separation of the CIC and the Big 10 with the Big 10 then having funding cut (“because CIC will need to manage themselves, ya know… no punitive in any way”).

Tiny question: Are ADs the ones who, unilaterally, make decisions for the school to leave one conference and join another?  If so, why bother having a President or a Board of Trustees?

Another, tinier question: Did the faculty athletic representatives get to sit inside the meeting room while the meeting went on, or did they have to stand out in the hall and promise not to try to eavesdrop?

It’s a cliché to use this cliché, but it’s all too apt: Mr. Emmert was, shocked, *shocked,* to find that big-time college athletic programs care mainly about money.

A way to uncover different forms of foreign campus arrangements would be to go beyond the north-south dimension to internationalization schemes. Example, UNAM’s satellute campus in the U.S., Canada, Europe, China, etc…

Aren’t those Bantu agriculturalists?  And if they cleared the forest for crops have, the “lifestyle”  and sunlight/water balance and thuse disease type exposure could be quite different.