Stuck in a Job, or the Right College?
Published on Jul 27, 2006 at 6:54 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under college teaching.
I had mentioned to a friend a while back that sometimes it would nice to live somewhere else, say far away from here. It might be nice to look out windows onto mountains, or have the coast just a short distance away, or something pretty nearby. It is just plain ugly here. And, in the summer, it is miserable. It isn’t just the heat, the hot still summer days result in lots of pollution. It just smells bad out! So, she commented that I am not stuck here. I can always find another job.
I got to thinking about that. My first response is that I do feel sort of stuck here. After all, it took me a long time, and a lot of effort to find a full time faculty position. But, of course, now I have a lot more experience, so that might be easier. On the other hand, I have tenure. Administrators don’t like tenure, because it is hard to get rid of unproductive faculty. That isn’t a problem for me, I am plenty productive. However, it is a nice thing to have, and it sort of discourages faculty seeking other positions.
Also, I actually like it here. Yeah, I complain about the students sometimes, like all faculty, but most of them are pretty good. I sometimes gripe about the administrators, but overall, I have to admit, they are good, too. I’ve seen a number of colleges and universities where I felt that the administrators didn’t really care about the faculty or students. I don’t get that feeling here. In fact, I think that pretty much everyone here, faculty, staff, campus police, maintenance staff, and administrators have the same goal: education. That seems rare. Sometimes our administrators make dumb decisions. Well, so do I. That’s human. The difference between here and most any other college that I know is that our administrators will often admit when they make dumb decisions and will correct them. If they make a decision without understanding the whole situation, all you have to normally do is explain things to them. I don’t get the adversarial feelling that I see in so many other places. We have politics and infighting here. Every place does. But, it is far less extreme than other places.
I am paid resonably well. Obviously, I’d like to be paid more. But, the pay here is comparable to other places. I have a nice budget to buy equipment with. And, they leave me alone to do my thing. What more could I ask for? Well, I guess that I can always think of some things, of course. Still, this is a good place to be a professor.
I know a lot of people who really hate their college or university. I know a lot that really want something else. I just want an better environment off campus. Hmm. I am not stuck here. But, I feel sort of stuck here because I like it so much. Given what I’ve seen, I think that it would be hard to find a place that I liked as much. So, what I really want is to move the whole college to someplace with nice weather, mountains, sea shore, etc. Hmm.
-Astroprof
Fast degree on August 6, 2008 at 1:43 pm: 1
Hey now, that’s an appealing thought, how nice if we could just pick up and move our place of employment to a more desirable geographical location. I would surely move mine to Colorado, talk about God’s country.
Tatiana on November 3, 2008 at 10:14 am: 2
Searched online college in msn but for some reason found this page.great article