UndeadApr 30, 2024
Keith D Johnson

I'm a Tenured College Professor. I'm Quitting. Here's Why.
by Jessica Wildfire

"Most of my professor friends can't support themselves. That includes the fancy tenured professors, even at nice schools. They have sugar mamas & sugar daddies. They're married to lawyers and bankers, or IT managers. If they're like me, they've got a secret side hustle.

Here's an irony:

My university forces everyone to disclose outside income. So if you have a second job or a side hustle, you're technically supposed to report it. You're supposed to ask them for permission. They can say no.

That's right, the same university that gave me a chocolate bar for a raise also says I can't take on a second job to support my family. They're worried it would distract me from all the free work I'm doing for them." https://www.okdoomer.io/im-a-professor-heres-why-im-walking-away-from-my-tenure/

I'm a Tenured College Professor. I'm Quitting. Here's Why.

Americans are letting education fall apart. Politicians are helping it.

OK Doomer
Apr 29, 2024 at 10:30pmWeb
Show threadKeith D JohnsonApr 29, 2024

2/ snip "It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out what's going on. I mean, we know where the money isn't going:

The money isn't going into classrooms. The money isn't going to faculty or staff, not even to reimburse us for all the professional development we pay for. The money isn't going to scholarships or financial aid. The money isn't going into better ventilation, even though the pandemic has taught us the importance of clean air. That would make a difference. That would actually attract students & give them something in return for their tuition.

We know where the money goes:

The money goes to hire new directors of athletics. It goes toward new athletic facilities. It pays for the Starbucks our vice-chancellors love so much. It pays for the sushi bars they think will attract a "high caliber" of student. It pays the inflated salaries of the upper administration, who make healthy six figures even when they're terrible at their jobs."

Show threadKeith D JohnsonApr 29, 2024

3/ snip "It's popular for universities to hire consultants to solve their problems. But the consultants can't solve their problems. The consultants can't tell them why they keep losing #students. The consultants can only give them the answers they want: Build another Starbucks, and so on...

Consultants can't tell them the truth:

#Education is collapsing.

It's collapsing because nobody really cares about it. As a tenured professor, I'm not supposed to say that.

It's true.

Nobody really wants to admit they don't care about education. Some people get angry when you point out this simple fact. Everyone wants to talk about how much they care about education. They want to watch movies about great teachers. They want to complain about the bad ones.

They want to pretend to care."

Show threadKeith D JohnsonApr 29, 2024

4/ snip "For a few years, part of my job was to do outreach with high school English teachers. So I drove around all over my state visiting high schools & observing classes. The rich kid schools had tablets & chrome carts. The poor kid schools had textbooks so old they were falling apart.

The rich kid schools had happy, well-rested teachers. The poor kid schools had tired, stressed, overworked teachers.

The same thing happens in higher education.

Hedge fund managers & CEOs have captured the boards of trustees of most public universities. They're funneling all the money to the top, away from smaller satellite schools like mine & away from the arts in general. They're directing all the cash & resources to business schools & STEM programs at their flagships, and they're letting everyone else wither & die. They don't want normal people to get an education, not anymore. They want normal people to do undesirable jobs, at least until the right robot comes along."

Show threadFoolishOwlApr 29, 2024
@KeithDJohnson JFC. It's like no one is making a living wage but cops.
Show threadRodneyPetersonTalentAgencyApr 29, 2024

@KeithDJohnson

Absolute shithole of a country. By design.

Show threadKai  Apr 30, 2024
@KeithDJohnson One thing that I've noticed is that the excessive focus on publishing papers too may be contributing to distort the mission of universities. Instead of focusing on teaching undergrad students in proper conditions the money goes to professors that publish a lot, and if a professor can't follow that it means to perish in academia. I'm not in the USA but this is an issue I've seen where I live at least.
Show threadFrancis 🇾🇪 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️Apr 30, 2024
@KeithDJohnson the society wide neoliberal fat cat model isn’t working. How surprising.
Show threadSFborn1940Apr 30, 2024
@KeithDJohnson We are a nation in decline. What else allows someone like Trump in the presidency.
All the money and resources have been flowing to the top for too long. Either we reverse this, or we fail.
It is that simple, yet no one has a solution.
We see the problem. Let's hope that the future generations possess the willingness and the ability to turn things around.
Show threadSeán FenianApr 30, 2024
@KeithDJohnson Education, including especially higher education, is an investment in a nation's future. A nation that refuses to properly fund its educational system is a nation that doesn't care whether it has a future.
Show threadKai  Apr 30, 2024
@zakalwe @KeithDJohnson I would add, to check messed up ideals like forcing everyone to become a paper mill machine instead of letting researchers focus on papers and other professors to teach if they don't like the paper and funds chasing game
Show threadA. RiveraApr 29, 2024

@KeithDJohnson My college does that too, the you need to report any second income, which we will then tell you to stop or get fired. Irks me to no end.

#BadEconomy #HigherEd #academia

Show threadAshley ReynoldsApr 29, 2024
@KeithDJohnson schools will do this to graduate students, too. I knew people who had to keep their part-time jobs secret because if they didn’t they would have part of their measly $20k CAD/year taken away
Show threadArneBabApr 29, 2024

@KeithDJohnson ouch :-(

My employer (by German labor law) isn’t even allowed to forbid a second job, if that second job does not impede my work quality and does not directly compete with the employer.

I have to tell them about side jobs, and if they don’t have a good reason, they have to permit it.

Show threadLunaphiedApr 30, 2024
@KeithDJohnson @ArneBab see the problem is that even if that were to be the law in the US, they would just harass you into giving up the job or quitting because there's not effective protections on the retaliation front and you still have to tell them so They Will Know
Show threadArneBabApr 30, 2024

@Lunaphied so the US also needs better ways to sue your employer for misconduct?

(not that German law always protects you against that. There was a clerk who got fired over picking up a 50 cent bon a customer forgot …)
@KeithDJohnson

Show threadCara BruarApr 29, 2024
@KeithDJohnson this scenario also describes Australia's universities. The value of university education is shrinking in inverse proportion to the cost to the student.
Show threadmyrmepropagandistApr 30, 2024

@KeithDJohnson

I used to be a college teacher. I teach high school now and love it, tbh. But it'd be a lie if I didn't admit the pay was a HUGE reason I left.

The pay was a joke. I have a math degree, come on.

Show threadlisawilliamsApr 30, 2024
@KeithDJohnson Wow. What an essay! Thanks for passing it along.
Show threadCoreyartus ImageryApr 30, 2024

@KeithDJohnson I concur. I’m leaving my 20+ year job as a 5/8th adjunct (full-time for 4 years after an outside reviewer made them make me full-time) because academia has changed irreparably.

The NTT faculty at my school have finally decided to unionize this year.

The power imbalance between faculty/staff and admin has resulted in an explosion of top-heavy positions milking the school for all they can.

And the Arts have never been in any institutional planning. I’m done. I’ve lost faith.

Show threadpatcanfieldApr 30, 2024
@KeithDJohnson The first class(Early Class) of people to be exterminated after a dictator takes over is Academia. Quitting know is probably a good idea.
Show threadbouriquetApr 30, 2024
@KeithDJohnson But CEOs and retired military general officers can sit on boards of multiple mega corporations.
Academia needs to throw off the weight of its “ethics” and force them on corporations.
Show threadwraptileApr 30, 2024
@KeithDJohnson how much tenure professors are getting paid though? I was under impression it's not nothing.
Show threadquadrivial, tall and grayingApr 30, 2024
@wraptile @KeithDJohnson According to the article, $54,000 per year.
Show threadMWTApr 30, 2024
@wraptile @KeithDJohnson it probably wasn't nothing back in the 80s.
Show threadCykonotApr 30, 2024
@KeithDJohnson i was going to be a researcher, but dropped out when i recognized the lifestyle i would be subjecting myself to just to enrich oligarchs.
Show threadIthanulApr 30, 2024

@KeithDJohnson

I notice even where I work: gov contract job under a big DoD employer. They added this as well. Gotta report side jobs/hustles.

Me....what? Ain't my time off, my time? So what if I want to use it for my own side job or such.

Show threadBlackHeroeApr 30, 2024
@KeithDJohnson
And can you believe that this is the normal for most people outside the studied bubble?
Show threadErnstGuckerApr 30, 2024
@KeithDJohnson Interesting but saddening read.
Show threadSkip LacazeApr 30, 2024
@KeithDJohnson “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge’.”
—Isaac Asimov #IgnoranceIsStrength
Show threadFrank SonderborgApr 30, 2024
@KeithDJohnson I was taught by sadistc Irish Nuns and brutal Irish Christian Brothers.
They made learning a living hell. Then I watched Goodbye Mr Chips and realised you could actually like your teacher and enjoy learning. It looks like its Good Bye Mr Chips and hello Mr Tofu or Mr AI. As if Sauron was running the Edu system in the US, and trying to turn all the serfs into Orcs. Sad times indeed.
Show threadJody SchmidApr 30, 2024
@KeithDJohnson great article! Thanks for sharing!
Show threadsnowyfoxMay 1, 2024
.
Show threadcobalt going beige todayMay 1, 2024
@KeithDJohnson Back in 1972 I was part of a 52-student "elite" team that partnered with a school district for the first intensive, semester-long program of student teaching. We were the "top" elementary ed majors. Director of the program told us we would all leave teaching within 5 years. We didn't believe it. Actually, it took only 4 years we all left. And that was over 4 decades ago - it's been far worse since and for all public schools and universities.
Show threadNashville SteveMay 4, 2024
@KeithDJohnson maybe i made the right decision not to get my phd