Fun Times in Academialand
Mar. 7th, 2019 09:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingI actually do want to expand on "what I mean by 'external confirmation' is that this is literally what is being said in these department meetings," because I think a concrete example will help explain why I'm so upset. Since this is all a matter of public record according to university bylaws, I think it's probably okay to write about it in a small but public venue.
In yesterday’s meeting, my department chair said to the actual provost of the university (who is a top-level administrator, kind of like a vice president) that some of the people in the department resent the salaries of the “younger faculty who have not proven their worth” to the university. To his credit, the provost replied that the university is required to provide all faculty with a competitive minimum wage, but that was still a panic attack inducing situation. Can you even image your department chair saying in front of all your colleagues and the actual university provost that people think you’re worthless and resent the fact that you’re being paid the lowest salary that someone in your position can reasonably expect to earn?
Even if he wasn’t referring to me specifically, and even if he didn’t mean to hurt me specifically, the department chair meant to hurt someone, and he ended up hurting me. If it were just this one isolated incident, I would shake my head and let it go, but something like this happens in every single department meeting.
The crazy thing is that I don’t think anyone besides me even realizes how dysfunctional this is. What’s even crazier is that my department chair is a kind and decent person who genuinely cares about fairness and social justice. Despite every single individual in my department being a sane and reasonable person, the institutional culture is such that difference cannot be tolerated if it interferes with “productivity” in any way, so we all keep our heads down and try to direct any frustration we might feel into “productive” channels. This is why, when I try to talk to people (including my department chair himself) about this, the conversation is quickly shut down.
For me, this silencing and enforced ideological blindness results in a feeling of being almost physically trapped. Combined with the repeated "younger faculty who have not proven their worth" microaggressions, I end up going into fight or flight mode, which results in intense panic attacks.
I really wish that more powerful and experienced people in academia were willing to talk about this sort of thing in a way that transcends useless corporate HR pablum and the hand-wringing "academia is broken now and forever" clickbait that people always seem to be sharing on social media. I wish I could do something myself, but I'm just as mired in the tenure-track swamp as anyone else. It's like, Sure, I'll fight neoliberal capitalism, right after I work on my article and my book chapter and respond to some emails and prepare a lecture and put together a handout and go teach two classes and sit in traffic and come home and then respond to more emails and update the course websites and maybe do some grading. Right after all that's finished, I'll get right on it.
In yesterday’s meeting, my department chair said to the actual provost of the university (who is a top-level administrator, kind of like a vice president) that some of the people in the department resent the salaries of the “younger faculty who have not proven their worth” to the university. To his credit, the provost replied that the university is required to provide all faculty with a competitive minimum wage, but that was still a panic attack inducing situation. Can you even image your department chair saying in front of all your colleagues and the actual university provost that people think you’re worthless and resent the fact that you’re being paid the lowest salary that someone in your position can reasonably expect to earn?
Even if he wasn’t referring to me specifically, and even if he didn’t mean to hurt me specifically, the department chair meant to hurt someone, and he ended up hurting me. If it were just this one isolated incident, I would shake my head and let it go, but something like this happens in every single department meeting.
The crazy thing is that I don’t think anyone besides me even realizes how dysfunctional this is. What’s even crazier is that my department chair is a kind and decent person who genuinely cares about fairness and social justice. Despite every single individual in my department being a sane and reasonable person, the institutional culture is such that difference cannot be tolerated if it interferes with “productivity” in any way, so we all keep our heads down and try to direct any frustration we might feel into “productive” channels. This is why, when I try to talk to people (including my department chair himself) about this, the conversation is quickly shut down.
For me, this silencing and enforced ideological blindness results in a feeling of being almost physically trapped. Combined with the repeated "younger faculty who have not proven their worth" microaggressions, I end up going into fight or flight mode, which results in intense panic attacks.
I really wish that more powerful and experienced people in academia were willing to talk about this sort of thing in a way that transcends useless corporate HR pablum and the hand-wringing "academia is broken now and forever" clickbait that people always seem to be sharing on social media. I wish I could do something myself, but I'm just as mired in the tenure-track swamp as anyone else. It's like, Sure, I'll fight neoliberal capitalism, right after I work on my article and my book chapter and respond to some emails and prepare a lecture and put together a handout and go teach two classes and sit in traffic and come home and then respond to more emails and update the course websites and maybe do some grading. Right after all that's finished, I'll get right on it.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-08 01:08 am (UTC)I'm just. I'm flabbergasted. It's one thing to convey that to the provost, I guess, but in front of people who would have to know that their colleagues are talking shit about what they make?! the fuck. THE FUCK.
(We went through....a variation of this at my job, where certain people shitty at what they do got a case of the ass over new people with higher education levels coming in and getting promoted while shitty people did not go anywhere. Because they are shitty. SPOILERS, if you have been doing the same not difficult job just well enough (mostly) for twenty years without question or innovation, and someone new comes in and looks at shit and goes "hey what if we did X" and it turns out that's a good change, it is highly likely the new person will get promoted and you won't.... fortunately leadership was like "Okay so the way we fix this is we make sure there are extra opportunities for long-term employees to improve their skills and take leadership roles!" which is in fact correct.)
no subject
Date: 2019-03-16 12:24 am (UTC)Thank you for existing so that I can make that joke.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-17 05:16 am (UTC)SEED WILL BE KOMPRESSED