Received: from UConnVM.UConn.Edu (uconnvm.uconn.edu [137.99.26.3]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.7.6/8.7.3/CNS-4.0p) with SMTP id HAA10431 for ; Fri, 25 Apr 1997 07:09:25 -0600 (MDT) Received: from UCONNVM.UCONN.EDU by UConnVM.UConn.Edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 3132; Fri, 25 Apr 97 09:09:15 EDT Received: from UConnVM.UConn.Edu (NJE origin DAVIDSON@UCONNVM) by UCONNVM.UCONN.EDU (LMail V1.2c/1.8c) with BSMTP id 0638; Fri, 25 Apr 1997 09:09:15 -0400 Date: Fri, 25 Apr 97 09:08:34 EDT From: Alan Subject: Unemployed PhDs (fwd) To: socgrad@CSF.COLORADO.EDU, socgrad@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu Message-Id: <970425.090912.EDT.DAVIDSON@UConnVM.UConn.Edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Here is the series of posts on the job market alluded to earlier in the week from andere-l. ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 18 Apr 1997 11:47:57 EDT Reply-To: UCSB Religious Studies Forum Sender: UCSB Religious Studies Forum From: Mark Hulsether Subject: Unemployed PhDs Dear colleagues, This is an open letter from Alan Hale (the astronomer who discovered the Hale-Bopp comet.) It relates to our ongoing discussion about job opportunities in the university. I think it is worth circulating widely. Mark Hulsether >> The message which follows is an open letter to any and all young >> scientists who, like me, are frustrated, angry, bitter, etc. about >> the sorry state of science funding in our society today, and who >> have been struggling just to get a decent career started. Due to my >> current "15 minutes of fame" that I am receiving as a result of >> Comet Hale-Bopp, I believe I have an opportunity to raise some >> awareness of this issue, and possibly to get things turned around >> at least a little bit. >> >> Anyway, please take the time to read through this, and if you feel >> like responding to it, please do so. Most importantly, please pass >> this around to anyone and everyone you think might be interested in >> responding; I'm trying to reach as large an audience as I can, and >> the more responses I can get from those whose experiences have been >> like mine, the better the chances I have of actually being able to >> accomplish something. >> >> Thanks, >> >> Alan >> >> An open letter to the scientists of my generation: >> >> I am Alan Hale, the co-discoverer of Comet Hale-Bopp which, as I'm >> sure you're aware, is getting a tremendous amount of media attention >> at this time. Like I'm sure is true for many of you, I was inspired >> by the scientific discoveries and events taking place during my >> childhood to pursue a career in science only to find, after completing >> the rigors of undergraduate and graduate school, that the opportunities >> for us to have a career in science are limited at best and are which I >> usually describe as "abysmal." Based upon my own experiences, and those >> of you with whom I have discussed this issue, my personal feeling is >> that, unless there are some pretty drastic changes in the way that our >> society approaches science and treats those of us who have devoted our >> lives to making some of our own contributions, there is no way that I >> can, with a clear conscience, encourage present-day students to pursue >> a career in science. It really pains me a great deal to say something >> like that, but I feel so strongly about this that I have publicly made >> this statement at almost every opportunity I have been given. >> >> I am trying to use the media attention that is currently being focused >> upon me to raise awareness of this state of affairs, and perhaps start >> to effect those changes that will allow me to convey a more positive >> message to the next generation. So far, I'm sensing a certain >> reluctance among the media to discuss this issue, as they seem far more >> interested in items which I consider to be irrelevant and unimportant. >> But I intend to keep hammering away at this, and I'd like to believe >> that eventually some are going to sit up and take notice. I am also >> attempting to schedule meetings with some of our government leaders, to >> see if I can at least get some acknowledgement from Washington that >> this is a problem that needs to be dealt with. >> >> My reason for writing to you is to ask your help. I know that I'm not >> alone in being frustrated about the current prospects for pursuing any >> kind of decent career within science, and I'm quite sure that many of >> you have "horror stories" about your searches for decent employment >> that are quite similar to my own. I'd like to hear them. I'd especially >> like to hear from those of you who are on your second or third or >> fourth post-doc, or who have left the field as a result of the >> employment situation, or who have experienced severe personal >> difficulties (e.g., break-up of a marriage, etc.). I realize that some >> of these might be painful to discuss, but I'd like to show that we are >> not a bunch of impersonal statistics, but that we're human beings >> trying to make an honest living and perhaps make a contribution or two >> to society while we're at it. Speaking of statistics, though, if you >> received any information about the numbers of applicants to some of the >> positions you applied to -- which was often a 3-digit number in my case >> -- I'd like to hear that, too. >> >> Please e-mail your stories to me at ahale@nmsu.edu, with a subject >> line of "horror stories" or something like that. Please let me know if >> you would prefer to remain anonymous when I share these stories with >> the press and the government. Also, please pass this message on to any >> of your friends and colleagues who might be interested in sharing their >> stories with me, and keep in mind that I would like to receive stories >> from as many scientific disciplines as possible. (Because of the amount >> of e-mail traffic I'm receiving these days, along with everything else >> that's going on, I probably won't be able to acknowledge each message >> individually.) >> >> Thank you for your time, and I hope to hear from you. Perhaps, with >> the opportunity we have before us right now, we have the chance to make >> a difference. >> >> Sincerely, >> >> Alan Hale ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 18 Apr 1997 13:11:06 -0500 Reply-To: UCSB Religious Studies Forum Sender: UCSB Religious Studies Forum From: Russell McCutcheon Subject: Tenured radicals MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit For anyone interested, Cary Nelson (the lit crit prof from Univ of Illionis) has his new book out now (my copy just arrived in fact): MANIFESTO OF A TENURED RADICAL (NY: New York Univ Press, 1997). vi + 243. $17.95 paper. ISBN 0-8147-5797-9. Some may recall that when we previously discussed the job market in academia, Nelson's name and some of his previous essays came up a number of times. Russ _________________________ Russell McCutcheon Department of Religious Studies Southwest Missouri State University Springfield, MO 65804 (417) 836-5514 FAX: (417) 836-4757 rum628f@nic.smsu.edu http://www.smsu.edu/contrib/relst/mccutch.htm ========================================================================= ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 19 Apr 1997 09:08:43 -0400 Reply-To: UCSB Religious Studies Forum Sender: UCSB Religious Studies Forum From: Darlene Juschka Subject: Re: Unemployed PhDs In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Thanks Mark. I hadn't realized that the Sciences were being hit as well. I did note, however, that they have available to them 3rd and 4th year post-docs. In Canada, at any rate, applications for post-docs have been limited to two, and certainly if one ever gets one - it is for a two year period only. Darlene Juschka Centre for the Study of Religion djuschka@chass.utoronto.ca 1-416-761-9151 ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 19 Apr 1997 10:03:12 EDT Reply-To: UCSB Religious Studies Forum Sender: UCSB Religious Studies Forum From: Mark Hulsether Subject: Re: Unemployed PhDs Darlene Juschka wrote >I hadn't realized that the Sciences were being hit as well. >I did note, however, that they have available to them 3rd and 4th year >post-docs. Yes, here at Tennessee, I have the impression that sciences are being hit far less hard than the humanities. However, the number one players in our current cutbacks are the governor and the legislature, who tend to attack the university as a whole (except the sports teams.) If the issue is the dwindling of public funding, so that the parts of the university that can get corporate grants will grow and the rest will fade, I suppose this hits different sciences in different ways. Mark Hulsether University of Tennessee at Knoxville E-mail: mhulseth@utk.edu ========================================================================= ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 19 Apr 1997 11:08:10 EDT Reply-To: UCSB Religious Studies Forum Sender: UCSB Religious Studies Forum From: Mark Hulsether Subject: Re: Unemployed PhDs Russell McCutcheon wrote: >especially here in the US ["hard" sciences] had >such massive funding opportunities that cutbacks of any sort are utterly >earth shattering. We, on the other hand, learned to do with little--very >little when compared to science funding--long ago. Again the issue of who--within either the sciences or the humanities--can attract elite support looms large. Darlene's CSSR article, once again, is right on the money: "I do imagine that the core of Humanities and Social Sciences, that which is 'institutionally correct'-- for example, high literature, a sociology that can measure consumerism, or a psychology that can reform non-consumers, in many instances making them drug consumers, will survive." Around here, the scientists at the National Lab at Oak Ridge are struggling almost as much as the humanities at UT, because they earlier raked in so much government spending on nuclear weapons. Now they are limping along, doing a lot of applied ecological research with corporate applications-- including but not limited to "where shall we bury all this nuclear waste?" Meanwhile, I know a guy in an agronomy program at UT who, as of a few months ago, had hardly noticed any impact from our ongoing cuts because so much of their funding was from the outside. Unfortunately, it is unclear how any of this analysis helps us imagine religious studies thriving. I do have a few thoughts, but no time to write about them today. I look forward to the wisdom from the list.... >Speaking of sciences and humanities/social sciences, anyone ever read Cary >Nelson's recent article in the AAUP's ACADEME on differing salary rates >across the disciplines? Can you post a synopsis for us, if it is not too depressing? Mark Hulsether University of Tennessee at Knoxville E-mail: mhulseth@utk.edu ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 19 Apr 1997 14:41:45 -0400 Reply-To: UCSB Religious Studies Forum Sender: UCSB Religious Studies Forum From: "kenneth.mackendrick" Subject: Re: Unemployed PhDs MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII a rather depressing book by Wilfred Cude _The PhD Trap_ (LB 2386 C83 1987) outlines the political in-fighting of departments with grad students, the conspiracy to get 4 or 5 years worth of $$$ from students that prof's think won't make it, etc etc. ken ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 19 Apr 1997 12:37:26 -0500 Reply-To: UCSB Religious Studies Forum Sender: UCSB Religious Studies Forum From: Mccutcheon Russell Subject: Re: Unemployed PhDs In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I don't have the Nelson citation presetly on me but it was one of the most recent issues of ACADEME: the article was on "star" academics, those few among us in the humanities who have huge salaries etc. Counter to many dept members believing that these huge slaries are in part to blame for funding problems ("If only so-and-so would just retire then we'd be in better shape..."), Nelson focuses on the differential salaries across the disciplines/faculties for the same rank/level. His thesis was that bickering among ourselves over "star" salaries misses the point--something like that. Starting t-track in our field at a state univ in the US can vary from low to mid-$30,000 generally I think, right? About $10,000 Canadian dollars more on average in Canada I think. Higher for minorites and female candidates often (at least here in the US, no?). But this is nothing compared to starting t-track salaries in many other parts of the univ--areas where professors by definition also have access to consultancy work, lab and private business profits as well. Russ _________________________ Russell T. McCutcheon Department of Religious Studies Southwest Missouri State University Springfield, MO 65804 USA (417) 836-5514 ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 19 Apr 1997 11:08:36 -0700 Reply-To: UCSB Religious Studies Forum Sender: UCSB Religious Studies Forum From: Richard Hecht Subject: Unemploy Professional Administrators. In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII The issues related to differential salaries across disciplines and professional schools are important, but let us not overlook the phenomenon which began in the 1970s and arose from a very wrong-headed educational think-thank on the banks of the Potomac River -- the professional university administrator. They all had doctoral degrees having written doctoral dissertations on such topics as "The spatial location of unit photocopying machines and its impact on patterns of work efficiency" (this is not joke folks -- this was the topic of a Ph.D. dissertation of an individual selected to be a high ranking administrator at a well-known university in the western United States. They had little teaching experience or experience doing fundamental research. Often they opted for the administrative track before tenure or shortly thereafter. They moved from one place to another with little interest in local cultures and histories and hence usually found themselves in conflict with the faculties directly under their supervision. They tended to see the university as a business or factory. All those working in the business were replaceable and hence they had no idea of how long it takes to develop a scholar-teacher, except in the business model of development (another course intended to provide the faculty member with critical developmental skills). Of course when the economy became difficult and public support for higher education began to collapse, these professional administrators proved woefully inadequate to defend the importance of the university when it was challenged by legislators looking to cut expenditures. They had neither passion nor experinece for or with education and research, and for many of us were an embarrassment. I think that when the comprehensive histories of American higher education in our century are written the last twenty-five years of professional university administrators will be seen as a particularly unfortunate and sad flirtation with bizarre ideas. Richard Hecht ========================================================================= ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 22 Apr 1997 08:22:10 -0400 Reply-To: UCSB Religious Studies Forum Sender: UCSB Religious Studies Forum From: Darlene Juschka Subject: Administration Salaries (fwd) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Here is a little message you all might be interested. A while back TA's agreed to take a wage cut - something I voted against as I believe cuts do not set a good precedent and weaken the union's standing. But those of us who felt like this were too few. Fear of job-loss, no resources in order to survive a strike, and sheer stupidity in believing in the good intentions of the university and its administration. At any rate.... Darlene Juschka Centre for the Study of Religion djuschka@chass.utoronto.ca 1-416-761-9151 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 5 Apr 1997 17:11:33 -0500 (EST) From: CUPE 3902 To: qp3902@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca Subject: Administration Salaries Dear Members, The Government of Ontario has released the 1996 list of public and quasi-public employees paid $100,000 or more. As you may know from last year, the UofT has a fairly long list of such individuals. However, the past year has been one in which the University Administration has been very vocal and persistent in its insistence that UofT employees make "sacrifices" so that the UofT can continue its effort to become the best darn university in the world. (The most public proponents of this position are President Prichard and Provost Adel Sedra, most recently last Wednesday at a forum sponsored by the Arts and Science Student Union.) We ourselves accepted the 1.25% pay cut that was demanded of us (offset by lump-sum payments) as our share (in addition to tuition increases) of the sacrifices everybody was making. The release of the government list presents us with an opportunity to examine whether high-ranking officials of the Administration have been making these sacrifices. Below you'll find a list of Simcoe-Hall types, their salary/taxable benefits figures from the 1995 and 1996 lists, and the percentage increases or decreases. ("N/A" indicates that the individual did NOT appear on the 1995 list.) It would appear that there many, though not all, Administrators, at least as of December, 1996, have not been sacrificing with the enthusiasm they've expected of us. (The reader is cautioned that our publishing of these figures is NOT to be taken as a statement by the union that these salaries are in any way excessive. We're only interested in the 1995/96 comparison--that some appear to be doing well while others are being asked for sacrifices.) 1996 1995 CHG Prichard, J Robert S $214,459 $213,702 0.4% President Sedra, Adel $182,412 $176,235 3.5% Vice-President, Provost Aberman, Arnold $279,293 $277,364 0.7% Dean, Medicine, Vice-Provost Budden, Stuart $108,373 N/A N/A Treasurer Cressy, Gordon $110,557 $151,800 -27.2% President of the Learning Partnership Dellandrea, Jon $261,930 $261,440 0.2% Vice-President & Chief Development Officer Dimond, John $118,341 $111,828 5.8% Secty, Gov. Council Finlayson, Michael G $170,948 $171,746 -0.5% Vice-President Admin, Human Resources Frankle, Rivi M $142,926 $111,879 27.8% Director-Alumni & Development Gooch, Paul William $121,291 $120,456 0.7% Vice Provost Handley, Christopher $118,758 $111,547 6.5% Director, Organizational and Systems Effectiveness Hanson, Tennys $154,705 $120,055 28.9% Campaign Director - Development Lang, Daniel $150,945 $156,328 -3.4% Vice-Provost & Assistant Vice Pres McCammond, Derek $126,883 $126,008 0.7% Vice Provost Munroe-Blum, Heather $144,920 $141,436 2.5% Vice-President Research Neelands, David $101,427 N/A N/A Assistant Vice-President Student Affairs Oliver, Janice $128,791 $125,695 2.5% Assistant Vice-President Operations & Services Pieterse, Anthone $111,278 $108,399 2.7% Comptroller Swift, Karel $103,600 $106,082 -2.3% Director- Admissions and Awards Tuohy, Carolyn $128,395 $128,842 -0.3% Deputy Provost White, Robert $138,481 $139,900 -1.0% Chief Financial Officer I also thought that members of the CUPE 3902 Bargaining Unit might well be interested in the sacrifices being made by the members of the Administration Bargaining Team, who so recently put to us their wage-cut demand. Barrie, Mary $111,505 $105,723 5.5% Director, Continuing Studies Dewees, Donald N $139,271 $128,423 8.4% Vice-Dean, Arts & Science Venter, Ronald $128,375 $126,404 1.6% Vice Dean, APSE Prof. Martin Wolf, the other member of their Team, does not appear on either the 1995 or 1996 list. During this period, the AVERAGE increase in pay, for all those making $100,000 or more who are of the rank of dean, principal, director, or above, was 2.4%. --Brian Robinson, Business Agent, CUPE 3902 ========================================================================= ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 09:10:29 -0500 Reply-To: UCSB Religious Studies Forum Sender: UCSB Religious Studies Forum From: Russell McCutcheon Subject: Re: Jobs, Salaries, Admin, etc MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hans is indeed right in many ways: professional societies are not to blame--not exactly. For I also happen to think that our colleagues bear some responsibility since the myth of apprenticeship has easily justified indifference to this 2 decade old problem--indifference by people who have reached a senior or at least a secure position (I know they are not the same and I'm not trying to gripe about "old timers" or something naive like that). I am continually amazed by the romance that education in the 1950s holds for some colleagues, back when we really educated people, read a lot of Shakespear and Plato, and before the proliferation of "theory" etc etc. That's back when there was lots of public $ floating around for the luxury of disembodied reflections on supposedly free floating, self-evidently meaningful signifiers (for our field, it would be the notion sui generis religion so important to groudning the N American experiment with the publicly funded field of religious studies). We don't have that elite (elitist?) luxury any more. Yet few have yet to figure out how to do the study of religion in this new environment, an environment where, as Hans also suggested, you can't simply assert that what you do is self-evidently worthwhile and deserving of public tax money to support it. Professional level meetings, then, are an ideal place to address one public in this admittedly complex situation: fellow colleagues. Where else would you have a captive audience of 5,000 tweed clad people all wandering around the same hotel lobby looking for a dinner companion. I'd say walk right up to them, say hi, and hand them a button that says, "Will Teach for Food," "End Preprofessionalization," "We're All In This Together," or, in suitably elephant man style, "I am not an Apprentice. I am a Colleague!" For if colleagues are not on side, either on your own campus or other campuses, we certainly won't get far. And I second Hans' comments on the AAUP. Russ _________________________ Russell McCutcheon Department of Religious Studies Southwest Missouri State University Springfield, MO 65804 (417) 836-5514 FAX: (417) 836-4757 rum628f@nic.smsu.edu http://www.smsu.edu/contrib/relst/mccutch.htm : hjh@acpub.duke.edu =========================================================================