Term contracts are like having a small business; the time is always up. As to humanity's Ph.Ds, I got one in Political Philosophy and Sociology just as a major recession set in. No jobs in the US at all as whole departments were eliminated. Only one in Nigeria. I had to totally retool throwing everything I had done over 7 years in the trash. Do I regret it. NO. Who is lucky enough to pursue major questions and ideas for a sustained period that are important enough to make a major sacrifice for? I did it. Really fulfilled a part of my life and I grew a lot.
Also, try being a freeway flyer professor which is a lot of what you're talking about here as the NEW faculty. No benefits, no time to retool, no money for conferences, no retirement, no intellectual protection or choice (text selected for you for example), no nothing and then out the door. 50% of the faculty in California are on this road to nowhere. University politics are the shits, particularly from the bottom up. But try the realpolitk of trying to feed or educate people in state budget battles like we have today. Enough to give you nightmares and make you cry. Truly, as some say, university politics are fighting over nothing. And, yes I continue to research various issues of interest to me and publish in academic journals though it makes no difference at all to my income, only to my mental well being and to continue to adventure. Oh, and I do try to pull together academic researchers at universities to go after NSF money and other funds to do research of interest to me including inventing new products. Not much luck so far. But it's the constant retools and moving into new policy areas that puts food on the table and grows my company. Remember the promise of these time-4 to 7 jobs in a life time. Yes, I would take an academic position. Yes, tenure is very, very important to think free. Gus Gus Koehler, PhD., CEO TSIlogo_30 www.timestructures.com 1545 University Avenue Sacramento, CA 95825 916.564.8683 Fax: 916.564.7895 Cell: 916.716.1740 www.timestructures.com g...@timestructures.com From: friam-boun...@redfish.com [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of Russ Abbott Sent: Monday, April 27, 2009 6:04 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: Re: [FRIAM] FW: NYTimes.com: End the University as We Know It I doubt that any working person would happily agree to term employment if it implies that after N years the employer has no obligation, legal or moral, to retain that individual. It puts most people, especially those over 50, in a very precarious position. How many of the people on this list would like to have their term up this month and face the prospect of looking for a job in the current environment? Employment is a relationship between employee and employer that generally goes beyond term contracts. I don't think that reducing it to something as limited as that is a good idea. -- Russ On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 1:35 PM, George Duncan <gtdun...@gmail.com> wrote: Based on my experience at Carnegie Mellon for 34 years, I can agree with many of the recommendations. In particular, I see merit in replacing tenure with term contracts, emphasizing interdisciplinary programs with a problem focus, more sharing of teaching across institutions, and providing alternatives to the traditional thesis. However, I see no way that any of these will ever come about through regulation (does he really think that the federal government could take this on?), Some of these will perhaps come about through internal moves by various universities. For example, Carnegie Mellon which is perhaps the most flexible university in responding to a changing environment, does have a remarkable array of interdisciplinary programs and emphasizes opportunities for doctoral students to cross departmental boundaries. It still has tenure, and I have thought for decades that the impetus for change there come from state legislatures that would abolish it in their state universities. But despite periodic noises it hasn't happened, perhaps never will. The moves by various universities like MIT, Stanford and Carnegie Mellon towards more on-line courses and expanding their availability, will think over time lead to more sharing of teaching resources. Why should a dozen universities offer advanced PhD courses in say Galois fields each with three students, when one could do it with 36 students and the best teacher of the topic? Why should every undergraduate institution want a high-level professor of physics, when they can import a course with the top lecturer in the country and provide the personal interaction with students through lecturers who care about students and earn perhaps $40K a year? Some universities do already provide alternatives of varying sorts to a traditional thesis, especially in more professionally oriented doctoral programs, such as those in social work or education. I cannot agree with the negative tone of the article about preparing for the academic life. If a person is successful at it, academia provides a remarkably fulfilling career. Name another profession where you mostly get to do what you want to do, work in a pretty pleasant envirionment with intelligent colleagues and students to chat with, and if you are a full professor at Columbia you make a pretty decent salary. So not all who aspire, make it. What percentage of Carnegie Mellon's drama graduates make it to Broadway or Hollywood? What percentage of graduates of art school ever sell a painting? The responsibility, I think, is for schools to do the best job they can to support the student's highest aspirations while at the same time providing a decent education for fallback positions. Last of all, the piece neglects the fact that most graduate students are not PhD students but instead are enrolled in professional degree programs. They can have their problems too but at least they have to be fairly directly responsive to a market--most are paying some $50K in tuition plus the opportunity costs of non-employment. On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 1:45 PM, Nicholas Thompson <nickthomp...@earthlink.net> wrote: I think everybody who thinks about higher education ought to have a look at this article, not because it is necessarily correct but because it suggests great opportunities for institutions -- such as the "City University of Santa Fe" or Clark University -- which by reason of their small size could re-organize quickly to respond to these realities. I have to admit that I am ambivalent about tenure. If, over the last 40 years, tenure had seemed to foster intellectual courage and a willingness to speak one's mind and invest long term in the institute, then I would continue to favor it unequivocally. But since the onset of Academic Reaganism, tenure seems only to meant that most faculty members have allowed themselves to be manipulated by ever more trivial incentives -- the merit raise or the honorific reception with bad wine, stale cheese and crackers. Time to read Fromm's ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM again, i fear. And I have to deplore the implication that the only way you get people to pull their weight is by threatening them with financial sanction. On the contrary, the entire faculty of Clark University was subjected to bad pay for all the years I worked there, and it never changed anybody's behavior. No. I think the failure has been in our unwillingness to speak directly and from the heart and in person to colleagues about what we need from them. True collaboration requires honest critique in the absence of power; what we have had, over the last four decades, is the application of power in the absence of honest critique. n Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology, Clark University (nthomp...@clarku.edu) http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ <http://home.earthlink.net/%7Enickthompson/naturaldesigns/> Error! Filename not specified. Error! Filename not specified. <http://www.nytimes.com/> Error! Filename not specified.Error! Filename not specified. <http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=goto&page=www.nytimes.co m/yr/mo/day/opinion&pos=TopRight-EmailThis&sn2=94d3287b/805f85e3&sn1=9bd7f9f 2/7016809f&camp=foxsearch2009_emailtools_1011072b_nyt5&ad=500DOS_88x31_b&got o=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Efoxsearchlight%2Ecom%2F500daysofsummer> Error! Filename not specified. Error! Filename not specified. Error! Filename not specified. OPINION | April 27, 2009 Op-Ed Contributor: <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/opinion/27taylor.html?emc=eta1> End the University as We Know It By MARK C. TAYLOR If higher education is to thrive, colleges and universities, like Wall Street and Detroit, must be rigorously regulated and completely restructured. Error! Filename not specified. Error! Filename not specified. Error! Filename not specified. Error! Filename not specified. 1. Op-Ed Contributor: End the University as We Know It <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/opinion/27taylor.html?em&emc=eta1> 2. More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/us/27atheist.html?em&emc=eta1> 3. Corner Office: He Wants Subjects, Verbs and Objects <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/business/26corner.html?em&emc=eta1> 4. Shortage of Doctors Proves Obstacle to Obama Goals <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/health/policy/27care.html?em&emc=eta1> 5. U.S. Declares Public Health Emergency Over Swine Flu <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/world/27flu.html?em&emc=eta1> > Go <http://www.nytimes.com/gst/mostemailed.html?type=1> to Complete List Error! Filename not specified. Error! Filename not specified. Advertisement 500 Days of Summer Premiered at Sundance, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. Coming This Summer Watch the new trailer! Click here to view trailer <http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=goto&page=www.nytimes.co m/yr/mo/day/opinion&pos=Center1&sn2=fe4dff39/22b960e1&sn1=fb3bdd97/1b2bf01&c amp=foxsearch2009_emailtools_1011072g-nyt5&ad=500DOS_120x60_recipientpage&go to=http://www.foxsearchlight.com/500daysofsummer> <http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=goto&page=www.nytimes.co m/yr/mo/day/opinion&pos=Center1&sn2=fe4dff39/22b960e1&sn1=fb3bdd97/1b2bf01&c amp=foxsearch2009_emailtools_1011072g-nyt5&ad=500DOS_120x60_recipientpage&go to=http://www.foxsearchlight.com/500daysofsummer> Error! 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