<p>I agree with Blossom, Plenty of professions have all kinds of issues with getting ahead. It is not unique to academia (although the recent Life of the Mind thread would have us believe that academics have it differently than the rest). Heck, if you have tried all your life to get ahead in any job, even what most here would consider lowly(factory work, postal work,etc) and feel you are deserving and were passed over , it would potentially sting. It’s all relative.</p>
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<p>Academia is unique in that the moment you are hired you are aware of a pre-determined time in which you will either be get promoted with job security for life or essentially be kicked out of the field. The rigidity of the academic system and the all-or-nothing tenure decision increases the stress beyond what it would be in most other careers. In science, there is a little more flexibility because you can seek an industry position, but you probably won’t be leading a group. And working in industry may seem to a faculty member like hitting rock bottom.</p>
<p>EXCLUSIVE: Ala. Shooting Suspect Amy Bishop’s Husband: Tenure Likely ‘a Factor’
Tenure a ‘Tough, Long, Hard Battle,’ James Anderson Tells ‘GMA’ in Sit-Down Interview
By ASHLEIGH BANFIELD and MICHAEL S. JAMES</p>
<p>Feb. 18, 2010 </p>
<p>The husband of the associate professor accused of killing three colleagues and seriously wounding three other people on an Alabama campus last week suggests the stress of her battle for tenure could have made her snap. </p>
<p>“Only someone who’s been intimately involved in that fight understands,” James Anderson told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” of his wife Amy Bishop’s alleged actions. </p>
<p>“It’s a tough, long, hard battle,” he said in his first sit-down, on-camera interview since the incident. “That, I would say, is part of the problem. It’s a factor.” </p>
<p>Though police have not declared a motive in the Feb. 12 shootings at the end of a University of Alabama in Huntsville biology department meeting, associates said Bishop was angry about having been denied tenure at the university. </p>
<p>[Alabama</a> Campus Shooting Suspect Amy Bishop’s Husband, James Anderson: Tenure Likely ‘a Factor’ - ABC News](<a href=“EXCLUSIVE: Ala. Shooting Suspect Amy Bishop's Husband: Tenure Likely 'a Factor' - ABC News”>EXCLUSIVE: Ala. Shooting Suspect Amy Bishop's Husband: Tenure Likely 'a Factor' - ABC News)</p>
<p>From the story:</p>
<p>“Retired Braintree Police Chief John Polio said after only recently reading the 1986 State Police report about the shooting that he has questions about ballistics and the delay in interviewing Bishop and her mother.”</p>
<p>From Police Chief Polio:
</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.patriotledger.com/news/cops_and_courts/x1999160481/Attorneys-say-it-would-be-difficult-to-reopen-86-case]Link[/url”>http://www.patriotledger.com/news/cops_and_courts/x1999160481/Attorneys-say-it-would-be-difficult-to-reopen-86-case]Link[/url</a>]</p>
<p>The husband should really shut his mouth and stop talking/doing interview. It’s almost like he wants to be in the spotlight…so bizarre!</p>
<p>Well, I think that denial of tenure is a factor. It is not an excuse or a mitigating factor. If it were, think about the danger posed by all the untenured assistant professors!</p>
<p>After reading all the posts the last several days, I realized that the Braintree police coverup would have been the perfect story for the late Dominic Dunne. I do hope some investigative journalist finds out what really happened years ago to Amy Bishop’s brother.</p>
<p>Maybe part of the problem, collegealum314, Academics seem to self select - they consider themselves scholars(great) but may not be able to rebound when the progression of their career does not go their way.</p>
<p>Another thing is that had Amy accidentally shot her brother, you’d think she’d never want to hold a gun again. It would just have bad memories (let alone risks) and she’d have fears. You would think that guns would be associated in her mind with the worst thing ever in her life and that she’d never want to handle one ever again.</p>
<p>It seems like she was pretty good in handling one back in the 1980s threatening multiple people with one. It may be that she is able to compartmentalize - that’s the only way I can think of that she could look her friend in the face and pull the trigger - separate the rage from the person.</p>
<p>^^^Considering everything else that’s come out since then, it seems to have empowered her in some horrible, weird way. Like once you commit fratricide, nothing can give you pause.</p>
<p>The husband should really shut his mouth and stop talking/doing interview. It’s almost like he wants to be in the spotlight…so bizarre!</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be able to show my face in public if my H (or any close family member) just shot at a bunch of innocent people. Why doesn’t he have any sense of embarrassment? He doesn’t even seem to be expressing any deep sorrow to the victims and their families.</p>
<p>I don’t buy the idea that her lack of gaining tenure should be used as an explanation or justifiable reason for her actions. This woman was nuts–pure and simple. In time, she probably would have pulled the trigger against someone who crossed her path:
— Any ice cream truck driving down her street
— Someone pulling into the parking spot that she had her eye on
— A noisy kid playing basketball outside
— A guidance counselor or a teacher at her kid’s high school</p>
<p>Anything could have set her off at any time. What about the safety of her kids? How would she have handled her kids getting rejections from colleges? What about a scenario where one of her students challenges her intellectually on a particular subject matter? </p>
<p>Take tenure out of the picture. It appears that she was a walking time bomb her entire life.</p>
<p>^ I agree. The tenure issue may have been a catalyst. But there were plenty of other possible triggers–like wanting someone else’s booster seat…</p>
<p>In any given year, what is the number of people denied tenure in this process? How many people will not recieve tenure this year? Just out of curiousity.</p>
<p>^^A lot.</p>
<p>No one with any sense assumes they will get tenure. We postponed buying a house, having kids.</p>
<p>I made the point at the top of this thread that Bishop would have posed a danger to the entire dept and probably UAH students even if she had been granted tenure. </p>
<p>If everyone denied tenure posed a threat, no one would accept the position of department chair, or Dean, or Provost or any other position that votes on tenure decisions.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>good points.</p>
<p>There’s a super prof that I know who is up for tenure this year at Bama…I really, really hope he gets it…</p>
<p>Such a great prof and super with the students. He owns a home there and has a few kids. Yikes…I hope he gets it!!!</p>
<p>Not getting tenure is a terrible blow. But it is hardly unique. People have major setbacks in life…be it work related, relationship related, etc. that hurt very deeply. But most do not solve this dilemma through murder or retribution that is severely egregious. I feel that it takes a mentally unstable person who goes to this extreme in such situations. We see this frequently in the news with workplace violence, campus violence, and spousal murders. This situation is a bit unusual in that it was a university faculty member and also a woman (committing a multiple murder). </p>
<p>And when we learn of these violent murders or multiple murders, it is a tendency to analyze what the person was thinking (ie., wasn’t she worried about her kids after the murder?). But the thing is, these folks who commit these horrors aren’t thinking like you or I. Their thought is not rational or they would not murder anyone!</p>
<p>"Maybe part of the problem, collegealum314, Academics seem to self select - they consider themselves scholars(great) but may not be able to rebound when the progression of their career does not go their way.:</p>
<p>This can happen to anyone depending on how narcissistic they are. After all, the expression “go postal” refers to postal employes who after having job problems decide to slaughter their former coworkers. </p>
<p>I knew someone who was shot to death by a blue collar union worker who was angry about job problems.</p>
<p>Compared to the shootings by angry workers in other fields, I think that being in academia is much safer than are many other places. One reason that this case is attracting so much discussion is the rarity of academics slaughtering their coworkers.</p>
<p>"Academia is unique in that the moment you are hired you are aware of a pre-determined time in which you will either be get promoted with job security for life or essentially be kicked out of the field. "</p>
<p>People who don’t get tenure aren’t kicked out of the field. Many do get academic jobs at other institutions.</p>
<p>Yes, and the guy who smashed his plane into the IRS building in Austin was a computer programmer.</p>
<p>You know, the thing that gets me the most about this particular case is just the fact that she was reloading her gun as her friends were begging for mercy and trying to reason with her. So cold. </p>
<p>I usually think of these things as really ‘hot’ button situations with exploding emotions. And, in this case, it’s the chilling calmness of the whole thing which I find even more disturbing, in this immense tragedy.</p>