https://protect.purdue.edu/protect-purdue-health-center/quarantine-isolation-resources/
Thatâs a very long way to say they only have a mask mandate in the classroom and indoor public spaces and vaccines and testing are optional (testing mandatory for unvaxxed). Lol.
Good for them.
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not an option at every college. In addition I know so many freshmen last year who had such a hard time finding someone to live with this year. (in a dorm) It was so hard to make close friendships with the virtual learning, masking, distancing and lack of in person clubs, sports etc.
on top of that so many were stressed at the thought of a possible positive Covid test and move into isolation for ten days.
Suicide is up sharply in all students HS and college alike.
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Testing is not optional for unvaccinated students.
A couple of things, I donât think virtue signaling is a thing. I think schools are doing the best they can in a bad situation. Also, in my opinion people wear masks not out of fear. I am not fearful.I wear a mask 6-8 hours a day not because I love it, I certainly donât (it has brought back my teenage acne something terrible). I do it because more than anything I want to take them off and get back to normal ASAP. I believe schools requiring masks are also wanting a return to normalcy.
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Actually I donât know that thatâs true. A significant proportion of newly minted PhDâs canât get academic jobs. Iâm sure there are very many who would jump at the chance. Faculty renewal can be a good thing.
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UT Austin is essentially going virtual for the first two weeks.
You have to look at how higher ed operates now - itâs different and in some ways more ruthless than it was a couple of decades ago.
For people who want to make their lives in academia â which is not a majority of PhDs, and PhD programs are more often set up now to discourage their trying to become academics â the college-app-type competition doesnât end till they get that t-t assistant professorship, and if it doesnât happen pretty fast out of the chute, they know they have to figure out something else. Itâs not 1995 anymore, when people would grasp at any adjunct spot they could in hopes of tenure someday. They know thatâs almost never how it goes now, and that yes, there are exceptions, but the best you can reasonably hope for from there is a lectureship, a short contract with somewhat less terrible pay, a couple of slices of respect, and benefits for real slave-galley work that will not likely leave time for research, but will turn you into an accomplished teacher. The question at that point is whether you really want a 4-year or whether youâd rather aim for community college.
If youâre t-t now, unless youâre at a school thatâs just stuffed with money (in which case youâre likely either doing masses of concierge work, really Panglossing it up with the princelings and their mamas, or too important and rainmaking to be seen), youâre much more in the business of sales than you used to be. Youâre recruiting, youâre focusing the department, youâre bringing in the cash and prestige, youâre flogging seats for butts instead of waiting for them to come to you. Most of the actual teaching is done by contingents: lecturers, adjuncts, visitings, grad students (and, at really desperate schools, advanced undergrads). The advantage to the institution is that if you want to save money for a while, you can get rid of most of your teaching crew and whip the tenured faculty into the classrooms (where they donât want to be, if theyâre at research Us) to make up the hours, knowing that theyâll scramble and have breakdowns or whatnot on their own time as they try to resuscitate their precious research careers afterwards; admin can whip them about that later, asking where the money and updated CVs are.
Thereâs a problem with that model, though, if you give the contingents enough reason to turn you down. Which is whatâs been happening over the last year or so. They were already badly paid and ill-treated; it was already extremely difficult to staff contingent hours in well-paid fields like STEM and finance; contingents had already noticed that the idea that they were going to get tenure for there was cruel taunting, and the younger ones werenât buying it from go but were instead behaving much more transactionally; but the pandemic showed them that the universities and colleges werenât even going to pretend to be interested in them, would drop them cold regardless of what theyâd done for the institution, and would happily see them infected and carrying it home and dropping if it meant they could keep those paying butts in seats. They also see that thereâs a big wide world of non-academic opportunity out there now, much of it remote if thatâs what they want, much of it in nicer places if thatâs what thy want.
And that was about it. The attrition rateâs been huge. Itâs become very difficult to recruit new contingent people, especially away from Boston, New York, Houston/Austin, and the Bay Area, where the PhD labor pools are mighty shallow. Thatâs why, all over the country, a lot of courses just didnât run last year, and a lot more t-t faculty are teaching a lot more than they ever have. That in itself isnât tenable, because people donât knock themselves out for PhDs and academic research careers only to show up and find theyâre going to be chained to the classroom and admin work to the point where they canât have research careers, canât compete or publish. So. Where does it go from here? I donât know, and Iâm not that interested anymore, since in a little while it wonât be my problem anymore.
In any case, the thing you can count on is that the institutions know youâre angry about how theyâre handling covid, regardless of your views, and also know that in less than four years â less than one good breath in and out for a university â you go away. They know tenure-track faculty are angry but are too conditioned, too whupped, too ego-driven, and too bad at personal finance and politicking (mostly) to do anything much about it. They know the kids arenât a smidge as angry as you are because theyâre ever-hopeful and inclined to optimism and besides busy trying to get laid and land some maybe/maybe-not fictional job or grad school spot â and if they arenât happy, they also donât know how things work and are leaving soon. They know the trustees are breathing down their necks and how to pet alumni. And they know how to survive. When institutions survive longer than countries do, you can bet on it: theyâll pick themselves over you. As long as you know that and what makes them go, you can manage your own expectations, and get what there is to get from them.
So far the most powerful faculties, those at HYPSM who presumably would have other employment options, are all agreeing to teach in person for the Spring semester. They seem to value in person teaching, even those with tenure already. Not everywhere is full of dysfunction and unhappy employees.
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Are you sure about this? Are there really zero professors at any of HYPSM that are planning to teach online in the spring semester? Do you have a source for this claim?
At our state flagship I see the same exact professors listed as teaching the same exact courses in-person this coming spring semester. These professors were also in-person for fall semester. Iâm sure there are examples here or there but there does not seem to be a mass exodus of professors or a major shift being driven by them. If someone else can point to actual widespread evidence of this is happening otherwise that would be great.
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Check and see whether those are tenured profs teaching. The tenured/tenure-track will not go anywhere easily, nor research profs (those on soft money). They also donât teach the majority of hours, especially at public universities.
Often you will see a t-t prof listed whoâs actually a course supervisor or lead, not the instructor â not the person in the classroom, or not there for most of the semester. A large lecture, for instance, might be shared among three or four t-t profs who each take a few weeks and do the lecture; most of the contact hours are taught by grad students who wonât be listed in the catalogue, also by lab and other facility supervisors, who are staff and will not be listed in the catalogue either.
Adjuncts will generally be listed, but you may have trouble finding info about them on department websites. Lecturers are usually listed. Many of those have left, too. A lot of 3- and 5-year contracts were converted to 1-year during the first year of the pandemic, and between that and covid policies that left them exposed, thereâs been a lot of attrition. And if youâre a state U trying to hire someone at $55K to work 70 hours a week, no security, short renewable-if-the-U-wants-it contract, in person, and youâre not in an attractive or convenient location, youâve got trouble. You may find that t-t faculty have taken over some of these courses if theyâre part of a progression for the major.
Again, staffing is back-of-house stuff. As far as your student is concerned, nothing is supposed to change, at least superficially. What they notice is that small courses that used to run arenât running, and that there are fewer sections of this or that. Public universities are highly vulnerable there because they canât just wave more money to dig up adjuncts to keep sections going â theyâll just say okay, waitlists, and maybe majors will need an extra summer or semester to graduate. Or students will change their majors so that they can graduate on time. Or there are fewer options for non-majors, so maybe you have to choose between graduating on time and finishing a minor or certificate. Or some subjects just arenât taught anymore. Or a course that had 30 now has 48 and the t-t profâs lost their grader, so youâd really better be good at learning on your own.
Things like this donât help: 'I feel betrayed': Blind UW-Madison prof denied request to teach online
Thereâs alsoâŠhow do I put this. A lot happens at universities that nobodyâs paying for. Faculty and staff essentially volunteer time and energy because they have an idea to make something happen, and they do it. They might not be paid, but they have the liberty and space to do it. When a university admin creates a deeply antagonistic environment, and persuades fac & staff that theyâre not in a good place, going to be treated in hostile or strongarming manner, they stop doing those things. They withdraw the gift of time and energy and put it elsewhere. They donât apply for things, they donât invent programs, they donât reach out to students unless required to, they decline to do things they arenât required to do. When that happens across a university, you feel it. Personally? Iâve stopped asking if people want to try this or that, spin up a course, run a workshop, do a demo, do things theyâd have been happy to do three or four years ago. Theyâre guarded, theyâre tired, theyâre aware of how thankless itâll be, and theyâre just not inclined. These are not things youâll see in a catalogue or marketing materials: theyâre things that just donât happen, and theyâre not available for your kids because they arenât happening.
I probably shouldnât forget the role of staff. Staff do a lot of student services and teaching at large universities, and a lot of staff have also left and not been replaced, either because the Uâs trying to patch a money hole or because they havenât been able to hire. So there are things that just arenât happening now: help with applying for things, accommodation services not required by law, student-life activities, career-center and outreach-practice activities that are normal. Honors programs may not have their full roster of activities going.
Converting jobs to remote/hybrid has helped with retention, but I think the Us are still figuring this out, especially where pay is low. For about the last 15 years, staff jobs have been attractive to PhDs who realized they werenât competitive for t-t careers, but the jobs donât pay well compared with lots of others, the workload is immense, and grad students have had had quite an eyeful of what it means to be staff and admin in the last year or so.
I worked closely with a PhD student turned postdoc with a brilliant postdoccing history, really wonderful research and prestige markers all over, devoted teacher, and she went up for a faculty job. Her advisor was ill and couldnât advocate for her; her advisorâs mentor, a big cheese, backed her instead. She got messed about pretty hard, then rejected in a way that wasnât at all cool, and took an industry job that paid probably twice what sheâd have gotten as a professor. A few years on sheâs saying she dodged a major bullet â she wouldâve loved to have continued her line of research instead of shifting to corporate priorities, but it wouldnât have been worthwhile for the poor treatment from admin. Her companyâs been very covid-aware, careful to protect employees, and sheâs not short on opportunity. And, of course, thereâs the pay.
UMich faculty say fuggedaboutit:
Yes, we all understand how unhappy some posters are with life in academia and how eager she is to leave. No doubt there are some unhappy, just like in every industry. There are also many who are satisfied and wish to remain, and other than the few anecdotes above, I see no sign of an academic exodus.
Princeton announced it would not be offering classes online or hybrid. My friends on the Harvard faculty have stated they expect the same.
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Iâm betting that colleges with vax/booster mandates have a much higher rate of professors willing to teach in person. If I knew that all students and staff were boosted at our middle school where I work, Iâd be close to even saying masks off!
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My son goes to a 20K+ undergrad regional public. In the fall of 2020, and all of 2021, he didnât have a single class in his major go virtual. They were all in person. Every one of those classes was taught by a Ph. D. His final 2 classes in his major this spring will be taught in person by Ph. D.'s.
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Colby reports 89 cases since 1/1. I donât recall how many cases they had prior, but it was no where near these numbers. Outside of masking, life ar Colby was very normal in the fall semester and cases were minimal. They have required a booster and asked that students tested prior to returning. S18 is not on campus for Jan Plan this year, and I have been sick, so I havenât paid much attention to how Colby is handling the cases. Parents are reporting that students are isolating in their rooms. Iâll try to get more info on that.
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