October 17: From Princeton, the University, Elitism

"Birdsell, Birdsell . . . from Princeton . . . Princeton College?"

Holden talks a lot about schools, from Pencey Prep to Princeton.  On the whole, he finds students and teachers from these institutions to be pretty shallow.  Holden prizes truth and genuineness.  His harshest criticisms are directed at people who put on airs, who worry about social class and status.  Phonies, basically.

I have worked in higher education for almost twenty years.  In that time, I've seen my share of phonies.  Generally, they fall into two categories.  First, there are the wannabes.  The wannabes haven't achieved anything.  They are probably graduate students who pretend to have read books they haven't even heard of.  In casual conversations, they say things like, "I much prefer the postmodernity of Coover to the minimalism of Carver."  They're constantly trying to impress.

The second category consists of Lancelots.  These are people who have gone on a hero's quest to find the Holy Grail of academia:  a tenured job at a university.  They are wannabes who've made it to the top, and the Lancelots are very territorial.  In casual conversations, they say things like, "It is our job, nay, duty to uphold the integrity of this institution."  (Translation:  "We have to keep out, stomp on, exterminate anyone who isn't like us.")  It's elitism, but people with advanced terminal degrees make it sound really classy.

I'm surrounded by wannabes and Lancelots at the university.  They are both equally vapid, but the Lancelots through a healthy dose of elitism into the mix, as well.  Nowadays, pretty much everyone in higher educations knows the tenure system is going the way of the mastodon.  Soon, everyone will be able to see tenured English professors only in glass display cases, right next to the petrified T-rex manure.

Don't get me wrong.  I would love to work as a tenured, university professor.  It would be a dream job.  Six-figure salary.  Benefits.  Sabbaticals.  Conferences.  I would be in English department paradise--elitism, dinosaur spore, and all.  Mark my words, thought:  tenure is a dying

And that's piece of Saint Marty's mind.

Meet Professor Lancelot and his colleague, Professor Mammoth

April 25: Academic Chasm

The last couple days have been difficult.  I can point to no specific cause for this impression.  Nothing particularly stressful has happened.  In fact, my stress is sort of winding down.  The semester is drawing to a close.  My students are taking their finals this week.  All I have left is grading.  However, there is much internal brouhaha between the faculty of the English Department at the university, and it sort of depresses me.

It all stems from what happened at the beginning of the fall semester.  In late August, contingent faculty members, for the first time in the history of the school, were included in collective bargaining with university administration for the new contract with the professors.  Since the contract was ratified, some members of the full-time tenured faculty have taken issue with the inclusion of contingent professors in departmental committees and meetings.  There has developed a definite "us" versus "them" mentality.

In some ways, it's based on class.  Some tenured professors see contingents as hired teaching hands, so to speak.  In their opinions, we don't really care about the English Department.  We simply care about ourselves and our needs.  Tenured faculty have nobler intentions.  They sacrifice their time and talent for the good of the department and university.  They do community service.  They write books and attend conferences.  They are full-timers.

Yes, it's a ridiculous argument.  I have been teaching for the university longer than a good portion of the tenured faculty.  Heck, I can remember when a good portion of them were hired by the English Department.  For close to 17 years, I have worked proudly alongside these people.  I consider them my colleagues and friends.  I also write and publish.  Every year, I teach poetry to elementary school students as a representative of the English Department.  I participate in food drives and benefit concerts.  I conduct community-based writing workshops.

The kind of disrespect being voiced now by some tenured faculty members is, to say the least, greatly disappointing.  It smacks of the kind of elitism I never thought I'd see at my institution.  Yet, it exists.  And it's ugly.

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to attend a department meeting that will focus on this academic chasm between full-time and contingent faculty.  It promises to be fairly heated.  I'm going because I care about contingents and full-time professors.  I care about the English Department and the university.  And I care about the students.  Am I angry?  Am I offended?  Am I sad?  Guilty on all counts.

It all boils down to the fact that every person (full-time or contingent) is worried.  Change is on the way, and change scares people.  It scares the hell out of me.  But the answer to this fear is not to cannibalize each other.  It's to accept each other.  Respect each other.  And help each other.

That's how Saint Marty sees it.

It's not my fault that people are threatened by me, is it?