Chronicle Carreers in Academe 2011D Dl

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    supplement to the ChroniCle of higher eduCation Winter/Spring 2011

    Careers in Academe

    D3Moving abroad:

    Factors to consider

    i you want to pursue

    your academic

    career at a university

    overseas.

    D8An academic author

    gains redemption

    rom her ignorance

    about sales fgures,

    marketing, and other

    aspects o book

    publishing.

    D17Have no illusions:

    Its hard work or two

    academics to fnd

    tenure-track positions

    at the same university.

    A bit o luck can help,

    too.

    D26Making the most

    o your postdoc:

    Practical tips

    on how best

    to take advantage

    o a postgraduate

    ellowship.

    D28Academe should

    encourage the growing

    cadre o Ph.D.s who

    become campus

    administrators without

    ever having been

    on the aculty.

    PLUSD10 An underclass o adjuncts

    D13 Trying out lie at a public university

    D15 I didnt slow down when I got tenure

    D18 Ms. Mentor on micromanaging

    D22 Giving birth to two babies in one year

    D25 Can I teach at a community college?

    D32 Secrets o successul administrators

    D33 Getting a start in student aairs

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    D2 T h e C h r o n i c l e o f H i g h e r E d u c a t i o n C A R E E R S I N A C A D E M E W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 1

    http://today.ucf.edu/http://today.ucf.edu/
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    WINT ER/SPRING 2011 CAREERS IN ACADEME The Chronicle of Higher Education D3

    By Christopher phelps

    Ayear ago, I moved to England to accept ateaching position at the University o Notting-ham. I came as an American historian at midca-reer with a amily in tow. Those in other academic felds,

    or who are single, or looking at a position in, say, China,

    will very likely ace circumstances quite dierent rom

    my own. Nevertheless, I will try to share what general

    pearls o advice I have or American academics contem-

    plating relocation abroad.

    As any scholar o immigration can tell you, both

    push and pull actors explain transnational migra-

    tion. In my case, institution, not country, was decisive.

    The push was that I had been teaching on a small re-

    gional campus or 10 years and had lost my two best

    riends on the aculty, one to cancer, the other to transer.

    The pull was that I was excited by the chance to teach

    graduate students in a top-tier program at a world-class

    research university. When I made my move, Nottingham

    was ranked 86th in the world by Times Higher Educa-

    tion (the rank has allen since then ater the ratings cri-

    teria were changed), and the universitys aculty mem-

    bers in American and Canadian studies had received the

    highest possible distinction in a British research assess-

    ment.

    Given my political leanings, it did not hurt that Not-

    tinghams local olk hero took rom the rich to give to

    the poor. But intellectual exchange was the chie draw.

    On my ormer campus, I was the only ul l-time scholar

    o American history. In my new program, there are our

    other scholars in my intellectual-history subfeld alone,

    and other Americanists at work on such topics as slav-

    ery, civil rights, literature, and oreign policy.

    Moving abroad has proven intellectually justifed, but

    it has not been without challengessome more severe

    than anticipated. My amily and I were not strangers

    to lie abroad, since I had had previous teaching stints

    in Canada, Hungary, and Poland (the latter two on Ful-

    brights). But permanent relocation is a more decisive

    process. Here are some working notes:

    The transition will be complex logistically. In any

    long-distance move, you can expect many headaches.

    When moving abroad, expect a multiplication o hassles,

    large and small.

    The visa process was surprisingly daunting. Even ora proessional with a job oer in hand, the British gov-

    ernment has made the process exceptionally unwieldy.

    Ater I flled out countless orms and supplied endless

    documentation, the process stalled. A ew days beore

    we were to depart, I sent a desperate e-mail, and a Brit-

    ish consulate staer in Chicago worked miracles. We

    now hold three-year, renewable visas. I would take re-

    newal or granted except that debates over immigration

    have intensifed since we arrived.

    Once we got here, we had to decide where to live. We

    would have preerred to live in Nottingham, a bustling

    city, so I could walk to work, but a check with other ac-

    ulty members with children indicated that the best pri-

    mary and secondary schools were overflled. Our three

    children would almost surely be bumped into weak

    schools.

    So we settled in a village 18 miles away rom the city,

    renting a converted carriage house behind a large Ed-

    wardian house where our landlords live. Directly across

    the street is an immense stone cathedral, built in the

    12th century. The village is picturesque, with butcher

    shops, bakeries, caes, and a secondhand bookstore.

    It is a storybook setting, but getting our children (ages

    9, 10, and 12) into the schools did prove taxing, particu-

    larly in the case o our oldest daughter. Residency does

    not guarantee school enrollment, and our daughters case

    dragged out on appeal or our months, during which

    time she was in our daily care. Now all three children

    are ensconced in the schools, which we fnd excellent.

    What would be a short commute in the United States

    takes longer in Britain,

    given lower speed limits

    and circular roundabouts.

    The university is on the

    other side o the city, so the

    journey to work is 90 min-

    utes by bus or 50 minutes

    by car. That practically ob-

    ligates driving, so we have

    taken tests, written and

    practical, to obtain driv-

    ers licenses, a process that

    requires more time and en-

    ergy than one would have

    thought.

    Such transitional is-sueshousing, schools,

    transportationdiminish

    with each one ticked o.

    But or the frst year, at

    least, arrangement-making

    combined with unpacking

    can seem all-consuming.

    Your fnances will transpire in two currencies. I

    did not move or money. Based upon currency conver-

    sion, I anticipated a near-identical level o salary, but that

    turned out to be meaningless because the cost o living

    in Britain is, in many respects, higher. We thereore took

    a hit to our income.

    In the spring, my wie, a credentialed university re-

    erence librarian, managed to obtain a one-year position

    in the main humanities library at Nottingham. She didso on her own, since British universities do not practice

    spousal hiring. Her extra income has made all the dier-

    ence, and we hope the job will lead to something perma-

    nent.

    Living abroad adds layers o fnancial complexity to

    lie. We have been unable to use our American savings

    to put a down payment on a house in England, because

    to transer the money here would result in its being taxed

    at a very high rate. Whats more, despite an excellent

    credit rating in the United States, I was unable to get a

    line o credit or more than 300 pounds on any British

    cardincluding ones branded American Express, Visa,

    or MasterCard, companies that know my track record.

    Above all, know this: American citizens living abroad

    must fle income taxes in both the host country and the

    A Mv Abad: tav and tavaSome factors to bear in mind if you consider

    switching your academic career overseas

    faculty careers & hiring

    Continued on Following Page

    Black-and-white illustrations by Brian Taylor

    Cover illustration by Joyce Hesselberth

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    D4 T h e C h r o n i c l e o f H i g h e r E d u c a t i o n C A R E E R S I N A C A D E M E W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 1

    United States. Naturally, the accoun-

    tants who specialize in expatriate issues

    charge prime rates.

    There will be ups and downs. We

    have had glimpses o the sublime, as

    when scaling a mountain in Wales atChristmastime, discovering hot lamb-

    and-mint pasties at the bakery, happen-

    ing upon remote castle ruins in Northum-

    berland, or listening to the choir sing

    Thomas Tallis in the cathedral across the

    way.

    But we have also had days o gloom,

    wondering whether we will ever belong

    in this culture, with all o its inscruta-

    ble dierences. For me the moments o

    greatest doubt have come when I have

    held one daughter or the other on my lap

    as she cries. (Fortunately, that has not

    happened very oten, or Id have packed

    it in long ago.)

    Technology makes communicationeasier than ever beore, but being at

    trans-Atlantic distance can still make

    one eel remote rom amily, riends, and

    country, especially at holidays orI ad-

    mit, this may just be meelections.

    Kind colleagues have gone out o their

    way to welcome us. One took me to a

    proessional cricket game. Another, an

    American, invited us over or Thanksgiv-

    ing. Still, you nd yoursel missing home

    in the strangest moments, as when you

    need drain-clog remover at 8 p.m. and re-

    alize that because you are no longer in a

    24/7 society, all the shops are closed.

    Words will differ. Living in a non-

    English speaking country presents chal-

    lenges, o course, but diculties arise

    even when you supposedly share a lan-

    guage with your adopted country. Few

    people in England talk in the polished

    tones o the BBC, but the British do have

    a vocabulary o their own. A variant lexi-

    con o academic lie must be learned.

    Prepare to experience moments o inan-

    tilization as you ask or explanations o

    things that everyone else considers obvi-

    ous.

    Fortunately, you will absorb much o

    the terminology by osmosis. What we

    call a dissertation, they call a thesis, and

    vice versa. A course to us is a module

    here; a course here is what we would call

    a major. When we say class, we mean

    a single teaching session; they mean pri-

    marily a grade cohort, as in the sec-

    ond-year class. Service duties become

    admin tasks. And so on, into the more

    technical.The vocabulary can suggest dierent

    cultural norms. Sta, or example, ap-

    plies to aculty members here, unlike in

    the United States, where the word tends

    to be shorthand or administrative em-

    ployees. That would seem to indicate anegalitarian sensibility: We are all sta.

    In other ways, however, British ter-

    minology refects a more pronounced

    sense o hierarchy. I, or example, hold

    two titles: senior lecturer and associate

    proessor, British and American ways o

    expressing an equivalent rank. At rst

    I thought that in granting both designa-

    tions to me, the university had extended

    to me a remarkable courtesy. But when,

    without giving it thought, I selected

    Pro. on a human-resources orm as the

    designation I preer beore my surname, I

    learned that I was not to do so, since that

    designation is appropriate only or those

    with ull proessorships. Curiouser and

    curiouser.

    One completely unexpected and de-

    lightul advantage o a considerate cul-

    ture is that, or the rst time in my lie,

    almost everyone is calling me by my ac-

    tual name rather than truncating it in as-

    sumed amiliarity, as i every Elizabeth

    must be a Betsy and every Robert a Bob.

    I had given up on that entirely in the

    United States.

    Higher education will be structured

    differently. Rather than being compelled

    to master a broad spectrum o knowl-

    edge, the British-university student spe-

    cializes intensively, taking but a single

    subject areasuch as American and

    Canadian history and cultureor three

    years (not our, as in America). Some o

    my students choose joint honors de-

    grees, or double majors, hence complete

    additional work in politics or English lit-

    erature. But thats itno math, science,psychology, or French.

    In our program, the perormance o

    incoming students in the rst year does

    not count toward their cumulative grade-

    point average. The marks count in the

    second year or 20 percent and in thethird and nal year or 80 percent o the

    nal grade. At the end o every year,

    there is an exam review board, where or

    several days the entire aculty assembles,

    with outside observers on hand, to re-

    view every single students perormance.

    Yearly marks that all just shy o a given

    grade may be rounded up.

    Instructors here act as personal tu-

    tors to a number o students. That may

    bring to mind visions o sherry-sipping

    sessions discussing Montesquieu in oak-

    paneled oces, but it is more mundane.

    You hand them their marks at the end o

    term and chat about how things are go-

    ing. Once in a while, a student comes

    and sees you out o the blue, and it is

    very nice.

    Nottinghams expansive green lawns

    set it apart rom many European uni-

    versities, attracting not only locals but

    also students rom all over Britain, espe-

    cially wealthy southern England, as well

    as rom Europe and Asia. Apart rom

    a generally higher level o ashion sen-

    sibilityskinny-legged jeans, scarves,

    and other accoutrements aboundand

    a generally greater degree o politeness,

    students here seem to me to occupy the

    same range as Americans, rom apathetic

    to brilliant, although the best here are

    among the best Ive ever taught. The ac-

    tual hours spent in the classroom here a

    ewer (two hours a week, typically) than

    stateside, so the reading you can assign

    is less. More emphasis is placed upon

    lengthy independent research papers as

    opposed to small, assigned-topic essaysThe Ph.D. is purely a research degree

    here. Writing the thesis is the rub. Doc-

    toral students dont have seminars, exce

    when candidates present their research t

    one another. In our program, each Ph.D

    candidate has two advisers, not one.

    National policy intrudes upon aca-

    demic lie more directly when higher

    education is state-provided. A severe

    budgetary restructuring by the British

    government, with outsized tuition hikes

    orthcoming, has introduced major un-

    knowns and righteous student rebel-

    lions this year. The Research Excellence

    Frameworka tool that measures acul

    perormance, and by which budgets aresetis dened at the national level, with

    goalposts sometimes moved in the mids

    o a given cycle.

    Despite the myriad dierences, how-

    ever, the elemental lie o a university

    scholar remains largely the same under

    the British and American systems: dom

    nated by teaching and research.

    It may change your scholarship. Be

    ing in a more research-driven setting ha

    prodded me to submit more articles to

    topmost journals. I also nd mysel writ

    ing more or British publications, such a

    Times Higher Education and theJourna

    of American Studies.

    But the main eect on my scholarship

    o living abroad has been that in explain

    ing the American past to an internation

    audience across the Atlantic and reading

    more British history, I am thinking more

    consistently about t ransnational and

    comparative themes in American stud-

    ies. There is nothing like a move to put

    things in perspectiveparticularly i it

    takes you ar away rom the country you

    study.

    Christopher Phelps is an associate pro-

    fessor of intellectual and cultural histor

    in the School of American and Canadia

    Studies at the University of Nottingham

    A Mov Aboa: Tav an TavaContinued From Preceding Page

    Wv ha gmp of th ubm,a whn covng hot amb-an-mntpat. But wv ao ha ay of goom.

    By AsTrid WAlker

    ihave experienced academic lieat seven institutions on three conti-nents, as a student, a aculty mem-ber, and an administrator. I Ive learned

    anything rom my international experi-

    ences, it is how little we academics know

    about one another, even in the English-

    speaking world.

    We read one anothers work and

    meet at conerences, but there is oten

    a much greater gul between our sys-

    tems o higher education and our ex-

    pectations than we assume. As a British

    riend asked me in surprise recently, In

    America, a bachelors degree takes our

    years?

    Insularism seems to be expected, or

    even encouraged in some spheres. Surely

    academics, with our levels o education,

    curiosity, and research abilities, couldnt

    help but pick up something about ourcolleagues abroad? But the ignorance

    seems in some cases willul. I once

    mentioned the annual convention o the

    American Historical Association to a

    colleague in London, who said, in a dis-

    missive tone, Oh, thats that jamboree

    they have over there, isnt it? She had

    never attended the meeting, had no idea

    what took place there, and had little in-

    terest in nding out.

    There is also the casual dismissal o

    entire regions. A proessor rom anotherinstitution was serving on a search com-

    mittee when he commented to me: We

    had applicants with Australian Ph.D.s.

    I mean, are there any good historians in

    Australia? I am still stunned by such

    America-centric or Eurocentric com-

    ments, no matter how requently I hear

    them.

    The sciences seem to have done a bet

    ter job o internationalizing than many

    sections o the humanities. It is among

    humanists that Im more likely to en-

    intnatonazng th Acamc Ca

    Continued on Page D

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    WINTER/SPRING 2011 CAREERS IN ACADEME The Chronicle of Higher Education D5

    http://www.cuny.edu/decadeofsciencehttp://www.cuny.edu/decadeofscience
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    D6 T h e C h r o n i c l e o f H i g h e r E d u c a t i o n C A R E E R S I N A C A D E M E W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 1

    counter scholars who are teaching at the

    same institution where they completed

    their degrees. They have no experience

    o academic lie anywhere else and are

    in no position to oer good advice to stu-

    dents applying or jobs more broadly.Cultural pressures in many places have

    maintained academic insularity. In much

    o continental Europe, the structure o

    higher education requires a second Ph.D.

    (or habilitation) to begin applying or as-

    sistant-proessor jobs. Candidates hit the

    job market only in their mid-to-late 30s,

    and that prolonged adolescence un-

    derstandably has its own attrition rate. A

    high number o people working in aca-

    demic administration in Europe have

    Ph.D.s but would not be considered qual-

    ied or aculty jobs, because they lack

    the second qualication.

    That requirement (added to language

    barriers) is a major obstacle or outsiderswho want to be considered or teaching

    jobs in Europe. Although the habilitation

    has been abandoned recently in Spain,

    and ocially this second Ph.D. is not

    needed to apply or a job in Germany or

    Austria, in practice it tends to be. Some

    employers state they will accept a second

    book instead o the extra degree, but ew

    applicants rom outside Europe who have

    two books will be interested in applying

    or an entry-level assistant proessorship.

    Perhaps because the Carnegie clas-

    sications created compatible catego-

    ries o universities and colleges across

    the United States (and acilitated student

    transers between institutions), American

    academics dont realize how programs

    and institutions are ar rom streamlined

    elsewhere, even within a single country.

    Americans sometimes make the paro-

    chial assumption that other people know

    the Carnegie system. They dont. I have

    seen European colleagues look blankly

    at American applicants reerences to

    things like GPA and graduate credits.

    The European Unions Bologna Pro-

    cess has introduced three-year bachelors

    degrees across the continent (to match

    Britains). In the past, there were no

    bachelors degrees; the rst degree you

    could earn was a ve-year masters. The

    change led to student strikes and riots

    in several countries. The system is sup-

    posed to streamline the transer o stu-

    dents within the EU, but generally be-

    tween their rst and subsequent degrees,

    not during the rst one.

    The level o dependence on the state is

    another dierence: In much o the world,

    universities are all public institutions.

    Students are accustomed to paying trivi-

    ally low ees (even at elite institutions

    like the Sorbonne) and receiving a gov-

    ernment stipend while they study. Thathelps explain the extended

    time to degree in some coun-

    tries and the dierence in

    student attitudes in Europe

    compared with the United

    States.

    Depending on how large

    their stipends are, students

    attend the nearest univer-

    sity to their homes and com-

    mute, or they move out o

    their parents houses into

    shared apartments and live

    on the student dole. But the

    idea that going to a univer-

    sity should costa student (ora students amily) a signi-

    cant amount o money aces

    entrenched resistance in Eu-

    rope.

    Conversely, in much o

    continental Europe, being a

    Ph.D. student is considered

    a job, in a way that it is

    not in the English-speaking

    world.

    In the current economy, more people

    are looking to apply internationally or

    academic jobs. The era in which people

    could look or jobs only in the United

    States and still call their search geo-

    graphically unrestricted has passed.

    Any aculty members who are advising

    graduate students and dont know about

    universities outside their own region are

    doing those students a serious disservice.

    So what steps should you take i you

    are seeking employment in a country

    outside your own?

    I you have no previous experience in

    a country to which you are applying, you

    ace many potential pitalls. Do not as-

    sume anyone in the hiring department

    is amiliar with the type o degree you

    have or the institutions in which you have

    taught. Explain.

    And dont assume that the university

    you are applying to teaches in the same

    way as the ones you have studied or

    worked at beore.

    For instance, some American ap-

    plicants stumble when they talk about

    their ability to teach survey courses:

    Such courses exist in Australia and some

    Asian universities, but are not a big

    thing in Europe. Applicants also alter

    when they use numeric codes to describe

    courses (Ive taught 200-level courses)

    as i those numbers mean the same thing

    worldwide.

    Be ready to learnastabout what

    the standards are in your newly adopted

    country. That may include things that

    would have lawyers swooning in Austra-

    lia, Britain, or the United States. I have

    had to complete orms asking or both

    my parents names and religions, Ive

    been asked about my marital status, Ive

    had to provide a photo with some appli-

    cations and to list my age.

    To universities in many parts o the

    world, the North American approach

    to an academic searcha months-long

    process punctuated by conerence inter-

    views, phone interviews, and 48-hour

    campus visitsseems long-winded and

    bizarre.

    Nor am I convinced that such a ba-

    roque system yields better results than

    searches that take six weeks rom adver-

    tisement to appointment, culminating inthe interview o all nalists on the same

    day and an oer the next morning.

    It cuts both ways.

    North American search committees

    oten ask applicants or their transcripts

    and student evaluations o their teaching:

    two things that dont exist in a lot o the

    world, including some English-speaking

    countries.

    I institutions want to be open to the

    best talent in the world, they need to

    demonstrate some fexibility in what they

    will considerand that includes mak-

    ing sure that HR doesnt simply reject

    an application rom France or New Zea-

    land because the applicant didnt send

    American-style documentation. Online

    application orms that only have space

    or a North American phone number or

    ve-digit zip code are an example o the

    knee-jerk insularity.

    Even some articles giving advice abo

    how to deal with oreign job applica-

    tions give in to the attitude that regards

    American hiring practices as normative

    Nobody wants to eel condescended to,

    and the geographic subordination is ote

    part o the same thought process.

    Academics need to change in two

    ways: to recognize, rst, that interna-

    tional applicants to U.S. institutions are

    not necessarily inerior, and second, tha

    taking a job overseas is not a sign o me

    diocrity or an American Ph.D.

    Ive seen many scholars rom Western

    countries who have cursed the day they

    accepted a job in Asia, not realizing tha

    it would limit their chances o ever re-

    turning to their home country because

    o the common assumption on aculty

    search committees that anyone who wa

    any good wouldnt have been working

    outside Europe or North America in the

    rst place.Having an international career has

    brought me many opportunities or ad-

    vancement that I would not have seen

    had I stayed in one place. As more uni-

    versities everywhere attempt to recruit

    students worldwide, an understanding o

    dierent educational systems becomes

    an asset or any aculty members or ad-

    ministrators who seek to broaden their

    own possibilities.

    Astrid Walker is the pseudonym of a

    Ph.D. in the humanities who is a re-

    search fellow at a major university in

    Europe. She has held faculty and admin

    istrative positions in Europe and Asia.

    Internationalizing the Academic CareerContinued From Page D4

    To universities in many parts of the world,the North American approach to a facultysearch seems long-winded and bizarre.

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    WINTER/SPRING 2011 CAREERS IN ACADEME The Chronicle of Higher Education D7

    No one person can do everything: thats why support is important

    to succeed. PACT mentors are available to give you personal

    attention on your time, when you need them. No matter what

    your goals are, their support and services are a lifelong promise.

    Learn more atwww.mercy.edu/pact.

    SHE KNOWS YOULIKE TO STAY UPLATE AND WANT TOGRADUATE EARLY

    MEET YOURMENTOR.- Caitlin Krueger, PACT Mentor

    http://www.mercy.edu/pacthttp://www.mercy.edu/http://www.mercy.edu/http://www.mercy.edu/http://www.mercy.edu/http://www.mercy.edu/http://www.mercy.edu/http://www.mercy.edu/pact
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    D8 T h e C h r o n i c l e o f H i g h e r E d u c a t i o n C A R E E R S I N A C A D E M E W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 1

    By BarBara J. King

    as a college professor who is

    also an aspiring-to-midlist au-

    thor, I nd three questions about

    book publishing keep colliding in my

    head:n What in Gods name do BookScan

    numbers really mean?n How can we as writers begin to

    athom the M word? (Yes, I mean mar-

    keting.)n Why do authors get the big chill

    when we seek to learn about those, and

    assorted other, mysteries o publishing?

    Ater years o publishing with aca-

    demic presses ranging rom the relatively

    obscure to the venerable, I brought out

    a book in 2007 with a major New York

    house. Last year I published with the

    same company againthis time, to mydelight, with the help o agents who

    had invited me to sign with them.

    Certainly, rom the outside, my pub-

    lishing experience looks like a soaring

    trajectory. And in many ways, its been

    exhilarating. Five years ago, even my

    wildest dreams did not include being

    interviewed by Diane Rehm or proled

    on the pages o Salon.com. In other

    ways, its been a startling lesson in how

    much sweat and skill it takes to code-

    switch successully. Peeking out at the

    publishing world rom ivied walls, Ive

    oten elt lost.

    My rst proposal or a book aimed

    at general readers was, I elt sure, notonly well crated but also scrubbed

    ree o technical language. Internally,

    I celebrated my ability to jettison the

    jargonwhat un I was having! That

    mood lasted until my editor calmly

    noted that, yes, Id made a good start;

    now could I please lose the heavily aca-

    demic tone?

    Ouch. It reminded me o the time I

    joined a pack o anthropologists in Mex-

    ico or a conerence. In the weeks beore

    the trip, Id boned up on my rudimentary

    Spanish, and I oered it condently at

    the hotel. Shooting me a puzzled look,

    the porter mumbled something that

    sounded like, I speak only Spanish.That was defating, and not unlike my

    initial experience in mainstream publish-

    ing, when I had the sense that I wasnt

    speaking orjust as importanthearing

    comprehensible words.

    My editor was right, o course. So I re-

    entered the starting gate and revised my

    pages. Next I unurled the equivalent o

    octopus suction cups and attached mysel

    to anyone in publishing who was willing

    to clue me in on this new terrain. It was,

    however, a process marked by missteps. I

    still have unanswered questions.

    Lets start with BookScan, the pub-

    lishing worlds equivalent o televisions

    Neilsen ratings. BookScan, my publisher

    says, tends to capture about 70 percent o

    retail sales or any given title. No, coun-

    tered my agents, its more like 60 per-

    cent. And there was the tip-o: Theres

    no easy metric or correlating BookScan

    gures with numbers o books actually

    sold.

    Lets say a book shows up on Book-

    Scan as having sold 7,000 copies. Theres

    no way to determine i it has actually

    sold 10,000 copies (meaning that only

    70 percent o its sales were captured and

    reported by Bookscan), perhaps 11,500

    copies (with only about 60 percent o its

    sales reported), or some higher gure.

    Is that dierence trivial? Maybe,

    but Andrew Zack, a Caliornia literary

    agent, argues that no calculation rom

    BookScan reports will lead you to reli-

    able predictions o sales. In a 2009 blog

    post, The Lie That Is BookScan, he

    cites a convincing instance in support o

    his point: One o his authors books sold

    just under 14,000 copies, but BookScan

    reported only 7,200.

    Thats one example, but it matches

    my own experience. BookScan gures

    or my bookEvolving Godcome in at

    47 percent o sales as reported to me by

    the publisher. The discrepancy is all themore noteworthy because, more than

    three years ater publication, returns o

    the book are a thing o the past. (Re-

    turns: another jaw-dropping concept. See

    below).

    How can BookScan veer o track like

    that or some titles and not others? While

    its true that books sold at Wal-Mart or

    most airport kiosks are not included in

    BookScan gures, thats likely to matter

    little in my case. Megastores or fy zones

    dont eature my work. More relevant,

    indie numberssales rom independent

    bookstoresare usually absent rom

    BookScan. The why, then, o its uzzy

    numbers may dier rom title to title.

    And oh, those returns. Now theres

    a harsh lesson. Its enthralling to know

    that, shortly beore a books on-sale date,

    thousands upon thousands o copies are

    shipped out to stores. Yet its close to

    certain that a lacerating percentage will

    come back unsold. In a trickle (i youre

    lucky) or a food (i youre not), books fy

    home to (in my case) Manhattan, as i at-

    tached to some wayward literary boom-

    erang.

    That state o aairs means that in the

    early months, neither BookScan nor the

    publisher can pinpoint sales. As o last

    June, or example, I lacked any precise

    notion o how my latest book,Being With

    Animals, was doing, as it was published

    only in January. There lies one root cause

    o the urtive compulsion to check Ama-

    zon every day (OK, more than once a

    day) to see your sales rank. As most o us

    know by now, a sales rank can shoot up

    by tens o thousands o places when only

    a single copy is sold. Addictive as it is,

    theneven seductive at times, as ater a

    national interview like the one I did with

    Diane Rehmits a pretty meaningless

    measure.

    I write books not primari ly or the

    money, but because I adore writing. Con-necting with the reading public about

    anthropology and animals is a pr ivilege.

    Yet Andrew Zacks point is that, how-

    ever many books you sell, the elusive na-

    ture o sales gures does matter: When

    BookScan isnt tracking sales accurately,

    an author may suer when she pitches a

    new proposal to a publisher. Were only

    as good as our last set o sales gures,

    were told, and its true.

    All o that is harrowing enough, but

    the skies only darken when it comes to

    discerning why books are (or arent) sell-

    ing. Here we enter the arena o market-

    ing.

    A ew years ago, a kind publicist

    spelled out or me the distinctions be-

    tween publicity and marketing. Publicit

    costs amount to review copies o books

    and a publicists hard work, and noth-

    ing more. (I do not undervalue that hard

    work: An enthused, skilled publicist is

    like gold.) Copies are fung by the hun-

    dreds into the mediasphere in the hopes

    o print, online, and on-air reviews and

    interviews.

    Marketing, though, costs money. And

    the conundrum is this: I your book isn

    selling, or i your last book didnt sell,

    the money or ads dries up. Without ads

    the new book wont move, unless its ve-

    locity derives rom the slow swell o

    book-club buzz or the ripple eect o ra

    dio publicity, and those cases are rare.

    Marketing is excited about this one!

    is music to any writers ears. But disap-

    pointment may ollow, as when thenotion o ads translates into a ew

    ephemeral mentions in cyberspace,

    come-ons that are extinguished quick

    and with no visible trace. Each time a

    new book comes out, I go round and

    round, dizzied, like a child on a speed

    carousel. Next-to-no marketing means

    weak sales, weak sales means next-

    to-no marketing. How do I get o this

    ride?

    I dont mean to duck responsibility.

    No marketing campaign guarantees a

    books budging o the shel. I sales

    fag, my writing may be at ault. Or

    maybe I will have misjudged the keen

    ness o readers desire to explore whywe humans are so moved by our rela-

    tionships with animals.

    On the other hand, in the rst three

    months ater my new books publica-

    tion, I had done more than 10 radio

    interviews, a signicant percentage o

    them national broadcasts. I oered ani-

    mal stories to audiences in Denver, Phoe

    nix, Chicago, Santa Fe, and Richmond,

    and appeared on my local NPR stations

    und-raising Pet Pledge Friday. In that

    case, my anthropological observations

    were wedged between call-in queries to

    my ellow guest, a veterinarian. The cal

    ocused largely on the litterbox traumas

    o house cats.But hey, you wont catch me com-

    plaining. For one thing, I cant write or

    a broad public and expect to chat away

    about Donna Haraways latest species

    maniesto or new thoughts on posthu-

    manism or whatever else is hot in ani-

    mal studies. Indeed, I participated in on

    book-signing at a local Barnes & Noble

    that involved dogs as my co-stars.

    For another thing, I learned a lot rom

    that on-air litterbox Q&A. I am hal o

    a team o cat rescuers (abandoned cats

    drape our urniture and the spacious pe

    in our backyard), and animals populate

    my lie, not just my books.

    a authos redempto Fom Publsh ioce

    Continued on Page D1

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    WINTER/SPRING 2011 CAREERS IN ACADEME The Chronicle of Higher Education D9

    Drug Discovery and Delivery

    Bioanalytical chemistry and engineering

    Biopolymer chemistry and drug delivery

    Drug delivery

    Pharmaceutical practicePharmaceutical science

    and chemical engineering

    Health Policy

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    Health-care economics

    Health-care systems

    Health informatics

    Health-services administration

    Public health in the urban environment

    Health Sciences and Professions

    Behavioral neuroscience

    Counseling and educational

    psychology

    NursingPhysical therapy

    Security

    Criminal justice

    Information assurance

    Sustainability

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    Landscape architecture

    Marine sciencefisheries

    Power systems engineering

    Sustainability management

    Sustainable development and law

    We invite ambitious scholars to join us in discovering solutions to some of the grand

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    http://www.northeastern.edu/provost/faculty/positionshttp://www.northeastern.edu/http://www.northeastern.edu/http://www.northeastern.edu/provost/faculty/positions
  • 8/4/2019 Chronicle Carreers in Academe 2011D Dl

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    D10 The Chronicle of Higher Education CAREERS IN ACADEME WINT ER/SPRING 201

    Admittedly, Ive not hit the TV circuit.

    (Even now I struggle not to end that sen-

    tence with a yetthats just a last gasp

    o hope). Early on, or a evered week or

    so, my thoughts had run crazy: Jon Stew-

    art is a William & Mary alumnus; hellinvite me on his show! Ellen DeGeneres

    is an animal activist; shell grab my book!

    Im ring on mysel, yes, but to a

    purpose: Some authors do have infated

    hopes. But those arent born rom ego

    so much as rom taking too literally our

    publishers and agents strategizing ses-

    sions. When were told o the marketing

    departments enthusiasm, reality does not

    inevitably prevail. Reality is, o course,

    that most authors dont appear on TV. I

    am sincerely happy or those who do; allboats will rise, as my ormer department

    chair was ond o saying.

    Publishers: We authors, some o us

    anyway, expend ar too much energy

    seeking to understand this new land-

    scape. We need an authors boot camp.

    Or better yet, reshman orientation, the

    kind where no question is dumb, theres

    a little hand-holding to be had, and we

    all, mentors and apprentices together, eat

    pizza at the end o the day.

    So help us out when we ask questions.Dont assume we know the lingo. Do as-

    sume we dont grasp the ins and outs o

    BookScan, returns, marketing decisions,

    and other aspects o the crat that are as

    obvious to you as breathing.

    Better yet, publishers, dont wait or u

    to ask questions. Unconuse us spontane

    ously.

    Because instead o peering at shit-

    ing sales equations or daydreaming abou

    even the tiniest print ad, wed really

    rather be writing.

    Barbara J. King is a professor of an-

    thropology at the College of William &

    Mary. Her latest book is Being With An

    imals (Doubleday, 2010).

    A Athrs Rdmpti Frm Pblishig IgraContinued From Page D8

    By RoB FAunce

    Let me testify, in case this isnt

    blatantly obvious already: The

    lie o the adjunct does not re-

    semble a Carnival cruise. The lie is o-

    ten exhausting, underpaid, undernour-

    ished, and r ie with logistical challenges.

    I think weve all heard that rerain be-

    ore, but perhaps its time to hear it again,

    and to think about the conditions o our

    younger peers as we move on into mythi-

    cal jobs and mythical tenure. I nished

    my Ph.D. at a major public university in

    New York and taught at a campus with a

    panoply o class, race, ethnic, and sexual

    diversity. Fortunately, I had savings to

    all back on, but some o my peers relied

    on Medicare and ood stamps to supple-

    ment their adjunct incomes.

    An adjunct liestyle is not just aboutthe low pay and the large class sizes,

    o course. Preparing or a semester o-

    ten begins our months beore the rst

    day o classselecting texts, gathering

    ISBNs or submission to the campus

    bookstore (on an onerous orm that must

    be lled out or each course section you

    will teach, regardless o whether you use

    the same books across sections), sepa-

    rately requesting desk copies o books

    rom publishers, beginning to upload

    documents to Blackboard or to e-reserves

    (available through the campus library,

    and convenient or using journal articles,

    but needing at least six weeks advance

    notice to the librarian who works withthe materials).

    Then youve got to generate a sylla-

    bus that contains all the salient inorma-

    tion, not just oce numbers and e-mail

    addresses. A good syllabus has learn-

    ing objectives, book titles and ISBNs, a

    plagiarism policy, a clearly dened at-

    tendance policy, and a ull chronology

    o the course, including any homework

    expected o them. Any papers being as-

    signed with specic thematic concerns

    should best be explicated as well. Find-

    ing time to makes copies o the sylla-

    buswhich means delivering paper cop-

    ies to the universitys copy center with a

    weeks noticemeans coming in to the

    oce a week or two beore the semester

    starts.

    O course, i your oce has been

    moved (oten not or the rst time, and

    usually to accommodate a new, tenure-

    track hire), you might have to come in

    even earlier to nd your new space. You

    might get a desk, and maybe a shel on

    a bookcase. But dont leave any antholo-

    gies there unlocked, since someone

    will sell them to a used-book buyer, and

    youll nd yoursel without the text on

    the day youre supposed to teach Dante.

    Your oce might house three otheradjunctsor 10, or 30. You might never

    see your oce mates, or you might sit

    with our o them, all potentially with

    students or on the phone. There are no

    posted rules, but the standing principle

    seems to be to ignore the conversations

    between your peers and their students,

    and to take your cellphone calls outside.

    (Your oce might have a land line, but

    you probably dont know the extension,

    and anyone who calls is looking or a

    proessor who is no longer employed or

    alive.)

    You try not to mention that you are a

    graduate student when you are with ad-

    juncts who have already graduated. They

    are trying to make ends meet in dierent

    ways than you are, oten by teaching on

    two or three campuses, sometimes com-

    muting two hours to do so. When your

    oce mates tell one another to go to hell

    (because o a loud phone call, or because

    someone monopolizes the one computer

    that 12 o you share), you try to keep

    your head down and stay out o it. When

    three o your oce mates are let go, and

    complain about how corrupt your depart-

    ment is, you (try to) keep out o it.

    And did I mention that the oce has

    no window, and no airfow (other thana generic table an, with three settings),

    and that your hallway averages 80 de-

    grees, year-round?

    Picture yoursel dealing with all o

    that drama as a second-year graduate stu-

    dent at a public university, with research

    interests and obligations. Picture it, and

    remember what it was like beore you

    took a teaching practicum. Picture it on a

    salary o $2,400 a course, and picture

    it in New York City.

    Its not a distorted picture; its the lie-

    style o many urban graduate students, who

    orgo ood, health insurance, sanity, and

    vacations so that they can dedicate them-

    selves to learning to teach, and then to ac-

    tually teaching many o the courses oere

    in departments across our universities.

    My rst o year o adjuncting, as a

    second-year graduate student, was a tr ia

    by re. Thanks to taking a concomitant

    teaching practicum, I was thinking abou

    the mechanics o the classroom while

    I was learning on the job. The courses

    I taught were 75 minutes long, and I

    learned to organize the time into ve

    segments o 15 minutes each.

    When I taught a composition course,

    class business and ree-writing time

    came rst, ollowed by discussion o theree writing, segueing into refection on

    that days reading, which kicked o a

    two-segment sequence o group work, a

    o which was meant to scaold that day

    discussion onto prior class work.

    In a literature course, there was no

    ree-writing period, so more time was

    spent on group work and Q&As on the

    reading assignment or that day. When

    we were reading Sophocles Oedipus

    Rex, Genets Querelle, or Bret Easton

    EllissAmerican Psycho, or instance,

    questions o sanity, chronology, and psy

    chology emerged that demanded discus

    sion time. Group work might emanate

    A udrlass f Adjts Is edatig Yr childr

    Continued on Page D1

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    WINTER/SPRING 2011 CAREERS IN ACADEME The Ch ronicle of Higher Education D11

    http://www.hct.ac.ae/mailto:[email protected]
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    D12 T h e C h r o n i c l e o f H i g h e r E d u c a t i o n C A R E E R S I N A C A D E M E W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 1

    COLLABORATION.To Ron Chesser, Carleton

    Phillips and Brenda Rodgers, its not just a

    word. Its a strategy theyve employed for

    five years to help dismantle former nuclear

    facilities in Iraq that were destroyed during

    Desert Storm. Thanks to $2.3 million in

    grants from the U.S. Department of State

    and the United Kingdom, the team and their

    students work to understand the public

    health impact of the contamination while

    training Iraqi scientists to safely continue

    the dismantling process. Their science is

    stimulating safer policies and helping to

    stabilize a new democratic government in

    Iraq two key ingredients of nation-building.

    DIPLOMACY

    t h r o u g h

    SCIENCE.

    All in a days work at

    TEXAS TECH.

    PROVOST.TTU.EDU

    rom discussion questions in the text.

    For Oedipus, I divided students into ve

    groups and assigned each a study ques-

    tion rom our textbook/anthology, which

    they were to crat into a short paper and

    present to the class. We ollowed that upwith discussion on Blackboard.

    In addition to constantly responding to

    online-discussion postings, I also needed

    to track participation, to make sure that

    each student was making multiple posts

    and to fag those who were not, so they

    could bolster their participation grades.

    (Students always seem to question a low

    grade or class participation unless you

    point out to them that they are not par-

    ticipating, no matter how obvious that

    should seem.)

    To see my pay rate, you would have

    thought I was richmaking more than

    $50 or every hour o actual teaching.

    O course, that rate applied only to time

    spent inside a classroom, so the average

    literature class that semester paid a bit

    over $2,400. A writing course involved

    an extra hour, bringing up the salary to

    roughly $3,200.

    It was not uncommon to hear adjuncts

    discuss Medicaid benets, or to hear

    that a colleague had quit to become a

    waiter or a temp. As an adjunct, you are

    not guaranteed employment rom year

    to year. But i you are oered reappoint-

    ment or the next year, you are not neces-

    sarily eligible or unemployment benets

    over the summer. To get health insurance

    through the union at my university, youneeded to teach at least two courses each

    semesterevery semesterand then

    wait a year to be eligible. You were not

    paid or all the time you spent preparing

    a course. Nor were you reimbursed or

    extended oce hours, registration ees

    at conerences (let alone transportation

    costs), or time spent e-mailing students

    or responding to their messages.

    There are magazines designed to help

    ease the burden o the adjunct, with tips

    on dealing with high maintenance stu-

    dents, indierent administrators, and

    union bargaining skills, among other

    suggestions that promise to alleviate ad-

    juncts stress levels. Reading such period-

    icals did inspire me in one way: to strive

    not to become a permanent adjunct.

    A love o teaching is one thing, but su-

    ering at the hands o (and oten railing

    against) universities, which are increas-

    ingly run as businesses, make no sense to

    me. We teach or many reasons, but i we

    are unable to nd employment that can

    support us, we shouldnt teach. Perhaps i

    many adjuncts let the industry, withhold-

    ing the labor supply that keeps demand

    low, and wages even lower, the goal o a

    living wage would be achieved by the res-

    olute union reps in perpetual negotiations

    or the next contract.I eel lucky: I have a job now, as

    a ull-time lecturer at another univer-

    sity, outside the city. The wage puts me

    on par with a For-

    tune 500 reception-

    ist, but I have health

    benets and can a-

    ord to visit my amily

    more than once a year.

    I dont know what

    else I can do, person-

    ally, to help riends

    who still participate in

    the economic horror

    show that is graduate school, other than

    to speak up, and remember. Perhaps i

    enough o us do that, we can eect some

    kind o change the next time were asked

    to sacrice living wages and air labor

    practices in order to satisy a bureaucrat.

    Rob Faunce is a full-time lecturer in the

    Program for Writing and Rhetoric at

    Stony Brook University.

    An Underclass o Adjuncts Is Educating Your ChildrenContinued From Page D10

    It was not uncommonto hear adjuncts discussMedicaid benefts.

    http://www.provost.ttu.edu/http://www.provost.ttu.edu/http://www.provost.ttu.edu/
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    WINTER/SPRING 2011 CAREERS IN ACADEME The C hronicle of Higher Education D13

    By Paula M. KreBs

    after 18 years as a aculty

    member in a small liberal-arts

    college, I am spending this aca-

    demic year learning, as ast as I can, howpublic higher education works.

    I am in the enviable position o being

    an ACE Fellow or 2010-11. Every year

    the American Council on Education o-

    ers a group o aculty members and ad-

    ministrators who have been nominated

    by their home institutions the chance to

    learn how leadership works on

    another campus. We get to spend

    three weeks in hard-working re-

    treats with our class o ellows,

    studying nance, strategic plan-

    ning, positioning, and lots o

    other things they never taught us

    in graduate school.

    But the real git, the part thatthe ellows all talk about when

    we get together at our working

    retreats, is our placements. We

    spend the year (or a ew months,

    depending on our home institu-

    tions needs) in the oce o a

    president or provost o a dier-

    ent institution. At my host insti-

    tution, I can be a fy on the wall

    in high-level meetings, debrie

    aterward with a mentor to nd

    out what really happened, accom-

    pany the president to a ootball

    game or a chancellor to a cocktail

    party, and meet with anyone and

    everyone on the campus to nd

    out what goes into each job. I get

    to work on a project at the host

    institution, ollowing it through

    over the course o the placement,

    and I get to eel like a real part o

    another institution, making a real

    contribution.

    My own undergraduate expe-

    rience was at a Roman Catholic

    college, and I teach at a private

    liberal-arts college, so I thought it

    would be a good idea to broaden

    my understanding to include the

    world o public higher education.

    I was lucky enough to be oered

    a dual placement in the presi-

    dents oce o a state university

    system and in the chancellors o-

    ce at one o the systems cam-

    puses. That way, I get the state-

    wide picture as well as the single-campus perspective.

    In the rst two months o my new gig,

    I learned many, many things about the

    dierences between private and public

    higher education, as well as a ew things

    about mysel. Here are some:

    In public higher education, rules ac-tually apply. As a aculty member at a

    small private college, I am used to ask-

    ing, and being granted, avors. A reim-

    bursement orm was late? A riendly ad-

    ministrator could get it through quickly

    so I could get my check. Not enough stu-

    dents in this section o my course? Well,

    we can make an exception just this once.

    My computer acting up? Friendly, e-

    cient tech support comes to my oce,

    same-day service.

    But public higher education, not least

    because the institutions and systems areso much bigger, has strict procedures and

    bureaucracies. No judgment intended

    hereI imagine nothing at all would get

    done i a large state university operated

    the way a small private college does. But

    it does take some getting used to.

    Everyone in public higher education

    is tied up with everyone else in public

    higher education. At my small private

    college, I go to conerences and meet

    people rom other institutions; occasion-

    ally I see olks rom other private col-

    leges at more than one event. But or themost part, we in the private-college sec-

    tor operate independently o one another,

    choosing what we do based on the partic-

    ular needs o our own institutions.

    In the rst week and a hal o my el-

    lowship placement at a state university,

    Tying Ot lif t Pbic univity

    For more information, visitscranton.edu/facultyresearch

    SPOTLIGHTONSCRANTON

    National Recognition

    U.S. News & World ReportsAmericas Best Colleges

    Among the 10 top masters universities

    in the North for the past 17 years

    Among just 86 schools in the nation hailed

    for a Strong Commitment to Teaching

    Among just 15 schools in the North

    listed as Great Schools at a Great Price

    The Princeton Review Among the Best 373 Colleges

    for the past nine years

    The Princeton Review & Entrepreneur Among the top 15 colleges in the nation

    for general management

    Presidents Higher Education CommunityService Honor Roll with Distinction

    Among just 115 colleges in the nationrecognized in 2009

    Carnegie Classificationfor Community Engagement Among just 119 colleges in the nation

    recognized in 2008

    An Accomplished Faculty

    In the past five years, our faculty have been prodigious in their scholarly

    works: 94 books, 668 articles, 231 book articles and chapters, 1,435

    conference presentations and 1,057 other creative and scholarly

    activities. Eighty-three percent of our full-time faculty hold

    doctorates or terminal degrees, and 65% are tenured.

    In the NewsOur faculty members share their expertise and knowledge on a national

    level and are referenced in prominent news outlets throughout the nation

    including The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN.

    George Gomez, Ph.D.

    JohnNorcross, Ph.D.

    JamesRoberts, Ph.D.

    Carole Slotterback, Ph.D.

    Jessica Nolan, Ph.D.

    Joe Vinson, Ph.D.

    Continued on Page D14

    In thi ginttt ytm,I m voic.

    http://www.scranton.edu/faculty/researchhttp://www.scranton.edu/faculty/researchhttp://www.scranton.edu/faculty/researchhttp://www.scranton.edu/faculty/research
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    D14 T h e C h r o n i c l e o f H i g h e r E d u c a t i o n C A R E E R S I N A C A D E M E W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 1

    Second CenturyInitiative

    Georgia State University, located in vibrant downtown Atlanta, is a university on the r ise.

    As we begin our second century, we are bringing together the brightest minds to work

    on the most challenging issues of the 21st century.

    We are hiring 100 additional faculty over the next five years around interdisciplinary

    research areas.

    Our Second Century Initiative is well underway as we continue to recruit and hire fac-

    ulty in the eight topics identified in the programs first year: bioinformatics; neuroimaging;

    evidence-based policy; Chinese language and culture; law, media and ethics; health justice;

    new media; and diagnostics. Additional areas for interdisciplinary recruitment will be

    announced in March 2011.

    To learn more, go to www.gsu.edu/secondcentury.

    Building Momentum and Advancing Boundaries.

    I attended our major conerences in the

    state, all o which eatured issues that ap-

    plied to all o the sectors o public higher

    education, rom community colleges to

    research universities (and some applied

    to grade schools as well). Dierent sec-tors and dierent institutions have di-

    erent stakes in each issue, o course,

    but all sectors understand that they are

    tied to one another.

    Everything happens at 30,000

    feet. At the system level, you get to

    see how the university interacts with

    the state legislature and state depart-

    ment o education. You learn how

    business groups understand the role o

    public higher education and their role

    in relation to it. The work that hap-

    pens on behal o the university as a

    whole aects more than one campus,

    and it oten aects more than one sec-

    tor o the public system. Sometimesthe work at the system level even a-

    ects more than one generation. The

    decisions are that big.

    Nothing happens at 30,000 feet. For

    all that happens at the system level, the

    real work o higher education in the state

    happens on the campuses. The teach-

    ing, the learning, the actual impact on

    the communityit all goes on with very

    little reerence, on a day-to-day level, to

    the work that happens at the statehouse,

    the education department, or the system

    presidents oce.

    O course, ultimately, many aspects

    o teaching, advising, and job placement

    depend on things that happen at the sys-tem level. But you wouldnt necessar-

    ily know it on the campuses, where the

    oot soldiers never watch the generals at

    work.

    I am not, in fact, the center of the

    universe. This was a tough one to learn.

    At my home campus, I am a big sh in a

    small pond, elected to lots o important

    committees. I have had what I saw as an

    important voice: People consulted me,

    argued with me, or at least recognized

    me.

    In this giant state system, I am a ci-

    pher. In my role as an ACE Fellow, I amvoiceless, except to a very small group o

    olks whose role it is to explain things to

    me. Because I know nothing. Really. Not

    a damn thing. Talk about humbling.

    Perhaps the most important part o the

    ellowshipand at the same time, the

    most elusiveis the opportunity or re-

    fection it oers. Meetings, conerences

    seminars, ootball games, receptions, an

    luncheons are part o the daily work o

    administrators, and they are great learn-

    ing opportunities. Im taking tons o

    notes and having terric conversations.

    But the ACE stresses that ellows need tbuild time into our schedules to process

    what were learning. That, o course,

    is easier said than done.

    Im trying to schedule in the time

    do the background reading I need to

    do in order understand whats happen

    ing in my meetings. On the train or

    bus Im indexing the notes Ive taken

    But I need to schedule some time to

    try to make sense o what Im learn-

    ing, to look at the bigger picture, and

    to gure out how to apply what Im

    learning at the state university to the

    work back home at my small liberal-

    arts college.

    Like most people who indulge in thepersonal essay, I process what I learn by

    writing about it. So I suppose this is a

    start.

    Paula M. Krebs is normally a professor

    of English at Wheaton College, in Mas-

    sachusetts, but this year she is an ACE

    fellow at the University of Massachu-

    setts.

    Trying Out Life at a Public UniversityContinued From Page D13

    http://www.gsu.edu/secondcenturyhttp://www.gsu.edu/secondcenturyhttp://www.gsu.edu/secondcentury
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    By Female Science ProFeSSor

    ive always enjoyed novels set

    in academe. Even though many o

    them contain somewhat unattering

    parodies o academic lie, they can be

    very entertaining.Lately, when I read news articles about

    American universities, what I read re-

    minds me o the fctional settings, char-

    acters, and plot lines o some o those

    novels. I dont, however, enjoy reading

    the nonfctional accounts, because their

    descriptions o academe are dis-

    turbing, not entertaining, and

    truly remote rom my experi-

    ence.

    Is my lie as a proessor so

    dierent rom the norm? Is my

    university unusual? I could be

    wrong, but rom what Ive seen,

    my experience is airly typical

    o that o a science proessor at

    a major research university. So

    why is there such a disconnect

    between apparently actual de-

    pictions o academe in newspa-

    pers and magazines, and my ex-

    periences as a proessor? There

    are several possible explanations.

    Some news accounts o aca-

    demic issues are intended to

    be infammatory. Especially in

    these difcult economic times,

    who wants to read about why pro-

    essors need the lietime job secu-

    rity that comes with tenure? Per-

    haps it is much more satisying toread articles claiming that proes-

    sors might, in act, be harmed by

    tenure. A prime example was an

    August 11 article in Slate called

    Finishing School: The case or

    getting rid o tenure.

    When I read such art icles, I

    cant relate to the claims that are

    made about how much most pro-

    essors are paid (and rom what

    sources), the role o academic

    reedom in our proessional

    lives, the responsibility o pro-

    essors or the publish-or-perish

    ethos, and the opinion that ten-

    ure incentivizes aculty mem-bers to maintain the status quo.

    Like the vast majority o my

    colleagues, I am not reezing up

    tens o millions o otherwise-

    liquid endowment money or a

    generation, as the Slate article

    suggests. I do the work I am

    supposed to do (teaching, re-

    search, advising, and service) in

    exchange or my salary. I bring

    money to the university in the

    orm o grants that pay the sala-

    ries o students and other re-

    searchers. I did not slow down

    once I got tenure.

    Teaching and research are

    not mutually exclusive. Undergraduates

    are not harmed i their proessors also do

    research, even i research is o equal or

    greater priority compared with teaching.

    Certainly you could fnd spectacular ex-

    amples o star researchers who are hor-

    rifc teachers, and I eel great sympathyor students subjected to them. But the

    vast majority o proessors I know who

    do research are also dedicated teachers.

    The question o whether being a re-

    searcher makes someone a better teacher

    has been much debated. I am sure that

    the answer varies rom person to per-

    son, but I know that being a researcher

    makes me a better teacher because doing

    research gives me new ideas and insights

    or teaching, even or courses I have

    taught many times beore. I know many

    talented teachers who are intellectuallyengaged without being active research-

    ers, but what works or me is to rejuve-

    nate my courses via my research. Fur-

    thermore, being an eective researcher

    requires some o the same skills that

    we need to be eective teachers: To get

    grants and publish our results, we need to

    be able to communicate what we did in

    a clear and compelling way, and explain

    to nonspecialists why our work is impor-

    tant. So, too, do we need to do that with

    the concepts, acts, and ideas we want to

    teach our students.In addition, I typically advise under-

    graduates who are active members o my

    research group. I request money in my

    grant proposals to pay the students sti-

    pends and research expenses, and I help

    i Dd nt Sw Dw o i Gt Tu

    What does jazz have to do with r unning an enterprise? More than meets the ear. In a jazzensemble, every member makes an individual contribution to collective creation. And jazzmusicians improvise within a framework, essential skills in business today. At San FranciscoState University, management and music faculty have joined forces to teach organizationsbeer team collaboration based on the principles of jazz.

    Learning when to get hot and when to stay cool: thats the San Francisco State of Mind.

    S M

    T H E S A N F R A N C I S C O S T A T E O F M I N D

    www.sfsu.edu

    Adve

    rtisementpaidforwithnon-statefunds.

    CHE010711

    Continued on Page D16

    WINTER/SPRING 2011 CAREERS IN ACADEME The Chronicle of Higher Education D15

    http://www.sfsu.edu/http://www.sfsu.edu/
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    D16 T h e C h r o n i c l e o f H i g h e r E d u c a t i o n C A R E E R S I N A C A D E M E W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 1

    them write their own proposals.

    My colleagues all do the same.

    Some o those students decide

    that they want to continue on to

    graduate school and pursue more

    research; others decide that that is

    the last thing they want to do. Ei-

    ther way, we all learn something.

    Research is valuable to a uni-

    versity in some ways that can be

    quantifed, and in many ways

    that cant, such as the creation

    o a stimulating intellectual en-

    vironment (presumably a good

    thing at a university) and the

    involvement o students (un-

    dergraduate and graduate) in

    research. We are t raining the

    next generation o researchers

    who are going to invent things,

    cure diseases, and/or provide

    new insights about the world

    (past, present, uture). Despite

    the claims made by Andrew

    Hacker and Claudia Dreius in

    their book, Higher Education?

    How Colleges Are Wasting Our

    Money and Failing Our Kids,

    and What We Can Do About It,

    research activities are not re-

    sponsible or the inadequate em-

    phasis on undergraduate educa-

    tion at some universities.

    The effect of tenure on pro-

    fessorial productivity is misun-

    derstood and misrepresented.

    Deadwood proessors do ex-

    ist, and I think many proessors

    would agree that some sort o

    constructive post-tenure review,

    with real consequences, would

    help with those ew problem

    cases. Nevertheless, most o us

    do not kick back and spend our

    days on the gol course or pol-

    ishing the fxtures on our yachts.Most o us continue to care about

    teaching and research ater we

    get tenure.

    It can take years to build a re-

    search group, attract a good co-

    hort o graduate students and

    postdocs, and keep everything

    up and running well. By the time

    some o us get tenure, our re-

    search group is rolling and things

    are getting interesting. Tenure

    gives us the reedom to spend

    more time delving into problems,

    to try riskier ideas that may or

    may not pay o as quickly with

    an interesting discovery, and toorganize larger-scale collabora-

    tive projects than we could pre-

    tenurejust as tenure is sup-

    posed to do.

    Ater tenure, our service com-

    mitments ramp up, and we serveon committees at our own univer-

    sity and beyond. Some o us edit

    journals and hold other positions

    in proessional organizations. And

    we spend a lot o time advising

    students and other researchers.

    Most o us are busier ater tenure

    than we were beore. Universities

    get what they pay or: hard-work-

    ing aculty members.

    When I look at my colleagues

    in my own department, else-

    where at my university, and at

    other universities, I see a large

    group o dedicated, highly active

    people. The problem cases are

    vastly outnumbered by aculty

    members who care about both

    teaching and research.

    Some o the disconnect be-

    tween what I read and what I live

    as a science proessor may be re-

    lated to the act that the debate isdominated by writers immersed i

    the humanities. But I dont see th

    as a humanities-versus-science

    issue. I see the same care or re-

    search and teaching when I serve

    on interdisciplinary committees

    and interact with aculty member

    rom the humanities. It thereore

    puzzles me that the image o the

    overpaid, tenured, deadbeat pro-

    essor is so pervasive.

    O course universities need re-

    orm. O course we should im-

    prove how we integrate research

    and teaching. But we dont need t

    start by pointing fngers at hard-working proessors who earn ave

    age-to-high fve-fgure salaries. I

    would also suggest that the actua

    time we spend on teaching-relate

    activities (not just the scheduled

    class time) should be consideredin discussions o how much pro-

    essors work. And, fnally, report

    on any crises in higher education

    should include serious consider-

    ation o the benefts that research

    brings to universities, including to

    undergraduate education.

    Female Science Professor is the

    pseudonym of a professor in

    the physical sciences at a large

    research university who blogs

    under that moniker and writes

    monthly for our Catalyst col-

    umn. Her blog is http://science-

    professor.blogspot.com.

    VanderbiltUniversityiscommittedtoprinciplesofequ

    alopportunityandaffirmativeaction.

    Explore Our Differencepeabody.vanderbilt.edu/professionaled.xml

    Vanderbilt Universitys Peabody College, the

    nations top ranked school of education, offers

    innovative programs that guide professionals like

    Fatima in applying theory to practice through:

    Fatima Mncube-Barnes

    Bioinformatician, Meharry Medical College

    Summer Fellow, Peabody Professional Institutes

    Full-time degree programs

    Weekend Ed.D. programs for senior practitioners

    Week-long summer institutes

    Continued From Page D15

    Most of us are busier after tenurethan before. Universities get whatthey pay for: hard-working faculty.

    I Did Not Slow DownOnce I Got Tenure

    http://scienceprofessor.blogspot.com/http://scienceprofessor.blogspot.com/http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/professionaled.xmlhttp://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/professionaled.xmlhttp://scienceprofessor.blogspot.com/http://scienceprofessor.blogspot.com/
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    WINTER/SPRING 2011 CAREERS IN ACADEME The Ch ronicle of Higher Education D17

    By Naomi GraNville

    iam part oa two-career academiccouple. We share the same disci-pline and are ortunate enough toteach at the same university. From ourpresent midcareer positionsboth ten-

    ured, both productive scholars, with chil-

    dren in collegeit may look like we hold

    special answers on how to negotiate two

    careers.

    Young academics, not yet fnished

    with their Ph.D.s, or newly on the job

    market, have expressed surprise,

    anger, and deep rustration that it

    takes so long to fnd a job, and

    seems next to impossible to fnd

    two at one university. They look

    at us and think it somehow must

    have been easier two decades

    ago. But our path is not easily

    replicated. In retrospect, we werenave and very lucky.

    We began our dual job search

    by rejecting a bicoastal or com-

    muter relationship. We decided

    we would both go on the job mar-

    ket, take the best job in the best

    location, and trust that things

    would eventually work out or us

    both.

    That frst year, several jobs ft

    my area o expertise, and none

    specifed his. We both applied or

    many positions. I landed three in-

    terviews, two at large universities

    in locations where it would be

    difcult to fnd a second teachingjob, and one at a small college

    with several nearby institutions

    that could oer him opportuni-

    ties.

    My frst job interview, at a

    large Southern university, re-

    sulted in an oer. Meanwhile, I

    had a second interview at a uni-

    versity in the Midwest that was

    more appealing because o a

    lighter teaching load. The South-

    ern university gave me two weeks

    to decide, just short o the time

    needed to learn whether the Mid-

    western university would also

    make me an oer.

    In those days, beore contracts

    were easily sent via e-mail, my

    adviser cleverly suggested that I

    buy more time by asking to see

    the oer in writing. It worked: I

    received an oer rom the Mid-

    western university in time, and I

    turned down the Southern one.

    With that oer in hand, I in-

    terviewed at a third institution,

    a small college. And the cycle

    repeated itsel: The Midwest-

    ern university had given me two

    weeks to make a decision, just

    enough time or me to knowwhether I would be oered the

    college position. However, on the fnal

    day o the deadline, the college chair

    said it had narrowed the feld to two can-

    didates. I was one, but the committee

    would need another meeting to make its

    fnal choice.The college job was the one I most

    wanted because it oered the best oppor-

    tunities or my husband. I asked the Mid-

    western university or three more days,

    the chair said no, and I turned down the

    position.

    Three days later, the college chair

    called to say she had oered the position

    to the other candidate.

    Swallowing my pride, I called the

    Midwestern university and let a message

    that i the position was still available, I

    was interested. The secretary told me ithad been oered to a visiting lecturer. I

    hung up with a sense o relie. I wasnt

    very enthusiastic about the job or the lo-

    cation. I reassured mysel that three in-

    terviews and two oers was good, and

    that I should have no trouble doing well

    on the market again the next year, maybe

    at better places. (How did I know there

    would be no jobs or which I clearly ft

    the bill or the next three years?)

    Ater a short vacation, I returned to

    fnd a message rom the Midwestern uni-

    versity. It turned out its president wouldnot approve the oer to the visiting lec-

    turer because he did not ft the job de-

    scription. The department oered me the

    position again and, with mixed eelings,

    I accepted.

    That summer we packed a small mov-

    H N iusns: Du acdc Cs rqu luck

    The first in his family to go to college, Dr. Peter Vigil sees himself in many Metro

    State students. I can be a role model for them, he says, and at the same time

    have an influence on the larger educational issues. As a former elementary school

    teacher in the Denver Public Schools system, Peter combines his unique perspective

    with his extensive academic experience to prepare his students to teach in todays

    diverse urban classrooms. Were proud to be a teaching institution that offers

    tenure-track faculty positions to passionate people like Peter. Urban character

    is an important aspect of Metro State, and our commitment to diversity fosters

    success for all students.

    Become our next success story. Make your impact today.

    Continued on Following Page

    http://www.mscd.edu/metrostatesuccess/peterhttp://www.mscd.edu/metrostatesuccess/peterhttp://www.mscd.edu/metrostatesuccess/peterhttp://www.mscd.edu/metrostatesuccess/peterhttp://www.mscd.edu/metrostatesuccess/peterhttp://www.mscd.edu/metrostatesuccess/peterhttp://www.mscd.edu/metrostatesuccess/peter
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    D18 T h e C h r o n i c l e o f H i g h e r E d u c a t i o n C A R E E R S I N A C A D E M E W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 1

    ing van, towed our old Datsun behind it,

    and drove to the Midwest. The depart-

    ment chair asked i my partner might be

    interested in a two-year replacement po-

    sition at a small college 60 miles away.

    (Coincidentally, the same visiting lec-turer had accepted that replacement po-

    sition but then dropped it or something

    else.) My partner eagerly accepted, even

    though the winter commute was a night-

    mare, and despite the our-our teaching

    load that required he prepare brand-new

    courses on subjects beyond his areas o

    expertise.

    We elt very lucky. Our combined sal-

    aries were low, but we elt richer than we

    had ever been.

    Over the next our years, we had two

    children. My teaching load was reduced

    in accordance with my research pro-

    ductivity. My partner landed a closer re-

    placement teaching position or a semes-ter, ollowed by miscellaneous courses

    here and there. We continued to scan the

    job ads and to apply or positions in bet-

    ter locations and at better institutions.

    We both published our dissertations as

    books with a prestigious academic press.

    That ueled our ambition, reassuring us

    that our hard work would pay o. I elt

    the pressure as the ul l-time breadwin-

    ner; he did the bulk o the child care and

    woke up early to work on publications.

    Our dream o nding two tenure-track

    jobs was ading, but we told ourselves

    that our best hope was to publish our way

    out.

    During our ourth year in the Mid-

    west, I landed two interviews, both at

    better universities in more cosmopoli-

    tan areas. I received an oer. My part-

    ner was more eager to move than I was. I

    had become accustomed to the slow pace

    and low pressure o the Midwestern uni-

    versity. I was over my initial shock at the

    poor academic skills o the students, and

    I was well appreciated and productive.

    The new university initially oered

    my partner nothing. When the depart-

    ment chair inormed me that no job was

    available or my partner, I remember say-

    ing, Check with the university press,

    check with the librarythere must be

    something! At least give us a toehold.

    He phoned back within an hour and o-

    ered my partner a two-year, hal-time,

    visiting position or $20,000 a year.

    We also negotiated or a year o re-

    search leave without pay. We sold our

    house at a $10,000 prot, added that

    amount to two small research grants, and

    spent the next year overseas doing re-

    search and writing or six months in each

    o our research locations.

    The transition to the new university

    was not without problems. That August,

    en route to the new city, one o our chil-

    dren had a medical emergency requir-

    ing eight hours at the hospital. Our old

    insurance had expired in July, and even

    though the new positions began that

    month, the new insurance did not cover

    us until September. Luckily our an-

    nual income was so low that the hospital

    waived most o the charges. The doctors

    ees were not discounted, and the pro-

    ceeds rom our house, plus more, were

    used to pay the medical bills.

    My partners salary and some o my

    pay was spent on part-time day care

    (three mornings a week plus lunch) or

    our two preschool-aged children. We

    took turns looking ater the kids so the

    other could work. My workload was

    much heavier than beore, mostly be-

    cause I inherited a number o graduate

    students rom my predecessor. Had we

    not taken the previous year o or re-

    search and writing, it would have been

    dicult to maintain our research produc-

    tivity.

    While we were abroad, our new uni-

    versity listed a tenure-track position or

    which my partner was marginally quali-

    ed. He applied, but early in the process

    the position was cut because o budget

    constraints. The ollowing year the posi-

    tion was listed again. By then my partner

    had shaped some publications to t the

    job description. He made it to the long

    shortlist, but again the position was cut.

    By then we both had two books, and

    he had published in all o the top jour-

    nals in his eld. Still, our hopes or dual

    tenure-track employment were ading.

    The next year, his nal year in the vis-

    iting position, we agreed would be his

    last season on the academic market. I it

    didnt work out, he would seriously con-

    sider other options.

    Our university listed the same tenure-

    track job again. My partner reapplied

    and the search progressed. He made it

    to the shortlist o our candidates. We

    joked that the job interview had lasted

    two years.

    Knowing I could jeopardize his

    chances, I bit my tongue at department

    meetings and accepted more service

    than I should have. I was not allowed to

    meet the job candidates or to attend thei

    job talks, but one candidate insisted on

    meeting me. In my oce she demanded

    to know whether this was a legitimatesearch and whether my husband was, in

    act, the inside candidate.

    The long wait or a decision was punc

    tuated by colleagues who avoided eye

    contact or pretended nothing unusual

    was going on, while our utures lay in

    the balance. Ultimately, my partner was

    oered the job. Had we known over the

    intervening seven years that it would

    eventually work out, it would have saved

    us an inordinate amount o stress and

    heartache.

    In retrospect, we were nave and un-

    realistic about the prospect o nding

    two jobs in one place. Neither o us ully

    comprehended or admitted to ourselvesthe increased stress we experienced as a

    result. Nor did we admit that we envied

    each other.

    I envied his reedom rom the pres-

    sures o a tenure-track job and the time

    he could spend with the kids. He envied

    my tenure-track job and the validation i

    lent to my career. Neither one o us was

    comortable with the asymmetry in our

    roles or the apparent gender reversal.

    At the same time, we were also dog-

    gedly persistent, almost to the point o

    obsession, in our search or jobs and our

    endless work on publications. My part-

    ners persistence took the orm o ob-

    sessive writing, carving out ever-earlier

    morning hours to work beore the chil-

    dren woke. His persistence was ueled b

    a desperate sense that he was suited or

    only an academic career.

    My point is not that dogged persis-

    tence and obsessive research productivit

    eventually pay o. Its that we were in-

    credibly lucky.

    Would we do it over again i we knew

    how long it would take and the stress it

    would entail? I doubt it.

    Naomi Granville is the pseudonym

    of a professor in the social sciences

    at a university in the East.

    Have No Illusions: Dual Academic Careers Require LuckContinued From Preceding Page

    Question (rom Bettina): It was8 a.m., I had the morning paper, and thephone rang. Have you gotten the course-designation orms in yet?

    I was still head-fuy and reading aboutAghanistan, and I asked, What?

    It was my department chair, about tochew me out or some nomenclatural/numerical change in some departmentcourses. The orms werent due until Sep-tember, it was summertime, and it re-ally was not urgentexcept to Dr. Boss,who, at the time, was waiting or his dying

    mother to come out o intensive care, so