Bill, et al.,
There will always be room for improvement, regardless of your perspective. The Assoc Prof wants more time to be a professional. The Dean needs to get more productivity out of the faculty. The Provost wants to see stronger academics and more bang for his/her buck. and, the President wants to see happier alumni at no greater cost. It is, and will always been "academia". The truth of the matter is all faculty (save perhaps adjuncts) have the best job possible - we are paid to learn and convey effectively our best qualities to the next generation.
I enjoyed 40 years of struggling to improve from Assistant Professor at the start to DTP at the finish, but never once did I find serious reasons to complain. Maybe that's why I considered my job to be the best of all worlds and now treat my retirement like a "permanent sabbatical leave".
Content with academia, but always looking for improvement. I think deep down inside Harry P. would agree - its the best job in the world.
Jay
________________________________________
From: Teaching Breakfast List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Proulx, Bill
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 8:01 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Associate Profesor's not happy
One can only conclude that Distinguished Professor Emeritus status must be heavenly! That explains Larry Guzy's behavior.
Could someone tell me what it means to be 0.16 less happy than a colleague? Knowing this would be helpful to me as an associate professor since I want to express my displeasure in a reasonably measured way. Does 0.16 less happy warrant a full frown or should I just tone down my smile a bit? Also, I saw two associate professors laughing the other day in front of the library. Shouldn't someone tell them how unhappy they are? Or maybe like me they were laughing at the COACH results, from Harvard no less!
Bill
Just another "Pig in a Python"
On Jun 4, 2012, at 5:11 PM, Pence, Harry wrote:
> Dear Jay,
> I understand your objection, but I think that it is less relevant when talking about Associate Professors. The situation for nontenured faculty at research universities is, indeed, much different from that at smaller colleges. Once having attained tenure, is the sitution that different at four year colleges vs. research universities? When a survey shows that Associate Professors are unhappy across a broad spectrum of institutions, I suspect it is something more fundamental. If you look at the data, there is a significant difference across almost every question.
>
> Perhaps one or more of the current Associate Professors on this list might chime in regarding some of the special frustrations that they face now that they are tenured?
>
> Harry
>
>
> Harry E. Pence
> SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus
> SUNY Oneonta
> ________________________________________
> From: Teaching Breakfast List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Fleisher, P. Jay
> Sent: Monday, June 04, 2012 10:51 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Profesor's not happy
>
> Harry,
> Thanks for passing this along. As I see it there is a significant problem with the results. The author combined apples and oranges when analyzing data, which is what happens when data sources are not considered. To compare attitudes of faculty at large Ph.D.-granting institutions with small, private, liberal arts colleges is unreasonable. Example: As I recall a few years back, one of our Bio faculty interviewed for a position at Univ of Washington. He was told there were ten criterions upon which tenure is based - the first nine were research and publication, which was a far cry from Oneonta standards - then and now.
> Jay
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Teaching Breakfast List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Pence, Harry
> Sent: Monday, June 04, 2012 8:35 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: An Associate Profesor's lot is not a happy one?
>
> Dear Friends,
> According to this survey, Associate Profs. are more dissatisfied than even Asst. Profs. Would this hold true on our campus?
>
> http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/06/04/associate-professors-less-satisfied-those-other-ranks-survey-finds
>
> Interesting topic for discussion,
>
> Harry
>
> P.S. In addition, as a public service to those who want to participate in the coming Bloomsday (June 17) but have neither the time nor the inclination to read Ulysses, here is a set of crib notes from the first part. Use these sentences to spice up your conversation with a Joycean flair.
>
> http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/university-diaries/only-bloomsday-sentences-you-will-ever-need-know
>
>
>
> Harry E. Pence
> SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus
> SUNY Oneonta
> ________________________________
> From: Teaching Breakfast List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Greenberg, Jim
> Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2012 7:15 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Liberal Arts Majors
>
> Tbers,
>
> Not an exhaustive study by any means, but interesting all the same.
>
> http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/daily-brief/2012/05/14/survey-on-millennial-hiring-highlights-power-of-liberal-arts
>
> Enjoy your summer.
>
> Jim G.
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