To Strive, To Seek, To Find

What are your suggestions for someone who is pursuing a graduate education in English with the intent of teaching at a college level? In short, if I want your job where do I start?

Poor, deluded soul. Let me explain a few things about the state of the discipline. Everyone knows by now how badly the recession is hurting funding for higher education. Intriguingly, however, the job market for English professors crashed forty years ago and has been crashing cyclically ever since.

In days of yore, most doctorates could find tenure-track positions at colleges and universities. Several factors emerging in the late twentieth century, however, have led to a job crunch in the Humanities disciplines. As higher education has been increasingly available to women, minorities, G.I.s, and working-class populations, it is only natural that a larger pool of candidates moves into graduate work, resulting in the production of more Ph.D.s. For instance, “in the 2002–03 academic year, 1,246 people earned PhDs in English” (Quarrocino).

While it would seem that more people flooding higher education would result in the need for more Ph.D.’s to teach the influx of students, the reality is somewhat the inverse. During this period, undergraduates were increasingly likely to be taught by a graduate teaching assistant than a professor. Graduate students are a LOT cheaper labor pool than professors.

So now we have a system (in English departments) which requires lots of graduate students to fuel its enormous need for cheap labor to teach the burgeoning freshman composition courses. But there’s not always a lot for these graduate students to do once they’ve taught their freshman courses and earned their degrees.

More recently, and even more disturbingly, the remaining tenure-track positions are being eroded by the tendency of many universities to hire contingent or part-time faculty. In many cases, these faculty members hold the Ph.D., but they are in non-tenure track positions, often performing part-time work with no health insurance, no benefits, at very low per-course wages, and with no security that their courses or programs will be there next semester.

This tendency to move away from tenure-track positions is disturbing for many reasons, but it’s evident. The Modern Language Association notes grimly: “Our analysis of the October lists suggests that, in any given year, from half to three-fifths of the total number of positions announced annually are tenure-track appointments at the rank of assistant professor” (“Report on the 2003-4 Job Information List”).

Or, to put it another way: “74.2% (448) [positions] were advertised at the level of tenure-track assistant professor,” Andrea Quarracino reports, citing the MLA “2004 Survey of Hiring Departments.” Yes, that’s right: 448 tenure-track positions at a time when 1,246 English Ph.D.’s came out into the market. So a lot of those English Ph.D.’s are not getting tenure-track jobs. And don’t forget the several hundred who didn’t get a job last year and so are competing with this year’s candidates….

Thomas H. Benton’s recent article in the Chronicle says it all: “Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don’t Go.”

Well, if you love a life of poverty, suspense, high stakes and debts, tune in later in the week for nitty-gritty details and advice for proceeding along the path to the English doctorate. It’s nice work if you can get it! And if you get it, it’s more like a lottery than a meritocracy.

Works Cited

Benton, Thomas H. “Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don’t Go.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Jan.30, 2009.

Quarracino, Andrea. “Annual Report on the Academic Job Market.” The Association of Writers and Writing Programs. From the October 2005 issue of AWP Job List. (copyright 2006). http://www.awpwriter.org/careers/andrea01.htm

“Report on the 2003-4 Job Information List.” Fall 2004 MLA Newsletter. http://www.ade.org/jil/JIL_rpt.2003-04.pdf

The long awaited Minnesota State Universities Job Fair is coming soon: mark your calendars for Friday, February 19.

Register now through February 10 and pay only $10 for registration.  Register February 11-18 and pay $15. On February 19, pay a late registration of $20.

The MNSU Job Fair is an exciting opportunity to meet prospective employers, network with industry recruiters, and maybe even interview  for actual employment. Registrants may upload their resumes to the Job Fair website, where attending employers can view them.

Go here  http://www.mnsujobfair.org/     to find out more about this Job Fair, including location, hours, parking, attending employers, a how-to video, and more.

Go to Metropolitan State’s own Career Center to register and find out about upcoming workshops to hone your resume-writing and interviewing skills: http://www.metrostate.edu/msweb/pathway/academic_success/counselcareer/career_services/

The first Wednesday of each month is devoted to testing the public alert sirens in Saint Paul….and writing in with all your burning questions about life at the university, advising issues, concerns about writing, fears about employment, or anything else vaguely related to literature / academia / graduate school / programs / writing / advice that you happened to be wondering about.

Dr. Durant will set her cat team of experts to work on uncovering the answers!

So what are you waiting for?? Post a question!

My Big Blue Behemoth, as it’s affectionately called, is a tenure dossier.  When professors are hired by universities, it takes a lot of time and resources to choose someone who’s a good fit for the department or program needs and goals, so there’s a long “getting to know how you work” period of five-seven years.

And then the university has to decide: are we keeping this professor or shall we send him or her back into the world to find a better fit?

If the professor wishes to stay at Metro, he or she must  demonstrate competency in five main areas of professor’s duties:  I. Teaching, II. Scholarship and/or Creative Accomplishments, III. Contributions to Student Growth (i.e., advising), IV. Continuing Study and Preparation, and V. Service.  So professors stick all the student evaluations and course syllabi  in the dossier, all their articles or chapters or conference presentations, all their evidence of helping students, and all their evidence of service on committees, unions, community, etc.

Tenure often comes under fire from the corporate world, but such criticisms are misdirected and fail to understand the unique nature of the academy. It’s not here to make money. For instance, if I’m lucky enough to be awarded tenure, I now have a lifetime’s investment in the university’s long-term health and excellence. If my job were a year to year contract , do you think I’d spend my summers planning new courses I’d wouldn’t be guaranteed to teach? Do you think I’d serve on endless committees and spend three years helping to design, say, the new Gender Studies Program? Tenured faculty are secure enough to undertake longitudinal studies of decades’ worth of data accumulation. That kind of research could never even be imagined if a professor was working from year to year. And in some ways, a faculty with a long memory and a lot at stake in the future of the institution can serve as a balance to administrative forces which tend to be more temporary than most faculty.

So, all in all, tenure generally translates into a loyal faculty who take vast pride in their achievements and who can securely speak out in the name of academic freedoms without fear of recriminations. Colleges and universities are under a lot of public pressure and scrutiny from various interest groups: it’s good to know that the intellectual free play of ideas is still protected in the halls of academia.

Now you know where I’ve been: I’ve been photocopying, punching holes, organizing, and writing my dossier to make my case for tenure. I hope I am awarded tenure: the Faculty meet and give their recommendation in February, the Dean and Provost in March, and the President in April.  That’s a lot of nails to chew through!!!!

Money Tree by Andy Hawkins (Wikimedia Commons)

Maybe you’re lucky enough to have one of these money trees in your backyard. No?

Then, you’re probably looking for a job. The blog will be announcing a series of springtime job fairs, so make sure to suscribe to the RSS feed (the little orange box) to get automatic notification when this blog’s been updated, or check back frequently.

First up is the Diversity Job Fair at Saint Cloud University, January 29, 2010, 1-4 p.m. Click here for general career information at Saint Cloud U and here for a list of specific employers who’ll be attending Friday’s fair. 

To make  the most of your job fair visits, watch this video and brush up on those skills!

Even if you can’t make this particular fair, more opportunities are coming. Get ahead of the pack by working with Metropolitan State’s own Career Services workshops and counseling. Make sure your resume is ready when opportunity knocks!

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1964) Image from Library of Congress.

I’m thinking about Dr. King’s dream today, especially as Minnesota National Public Radio is splicing great quotations from his speeches between the music all day today.

So, I’m curious: what’s your favorite Martin Luther King speech or quotation?

New semester: slate’s wiped clean, tabula rasa, new strivings, etc. Time to stretch those intellects and soar aloft!

Or, on a more down to earth note, be sure to notify the Graduation Office  by January 22, 2010, of your intent to graduate if you’re planning that big event for this spring.  Follow this link http://db.metrostate.edu/webapps/drep/Intent_to_Graduate_12_07.doc to find the form.    Then schedule an appointment with your advisor for the Graduation Review, to ensure that all your credits are in order.

If you’re new to the English Major, it’s worth checking how many of your transferable English and Literature classes count toward Metro’s English Major. Advisors can be helpful.

Everyone else, have a wonderful semester of reading and writing….and playing on the blog!

Thanks, New Zealand Book Council!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_jyXJTlrH0

Didgeridoo, by Aboriginal artist R. King

 The sad news: last night was the last class in my Brit Lit I class. I’ll miss this class a lot: the students are exceptionally smart, hard-working, and true lovers of literature.

The good news: they surprised me with a concert!!

When’s the last time YOU sang ballads to the accompaniment of a harmonica (or two), a guitar, and a six-foot-long didgeridoo??

 Thanks for a great class, you Brit Litters!

(Cris contributes today’s post announcing the exciting production of Macbeth. Break a leg, Cris!) read more »