Top blogger and University of Chicago assistant professor of political science Dan Drezner has failed to secure tenure and will be moving on. IMO it’s the U of C’s and Chicago’s loss. Dan still remains confident that “The academic job market, as I’ve witnessed it, is a globally rational but locally capricious system.”
I’m not so sure. I’ve seen both the joy and anguish that getting or failing to achieve tenure can bring. I remember vividly when my dear friend Richard got tenure. He dragged me off the street into the chapel at Northwestern, thrust a Liber Usualis into my hands, and together we sang the Te Deum.
The finest mathematician I’ve ever known and one of the very smartest guys (I’m talking IQ of at least 160) failed to secure tenure after more than ten years bouncing from position to position. He was in a hot field of mathematics. He did everything right. He was extremely competent. He published. He’s working as a computer programmer now. Supporting his family was more important than his dream.
It seems to me that most of the boosters of the tenure system in higher education are either the beneficiaries of it or those who expect to be the beneficiaries of it some time in the future. That’s not a meritocracy, that’s the illusion of a meritocracy. Those who’ve experienced the injustices and inadequacies of the tenure system firsthand frequently self-select out.
I certainly wish Dan well. I’m sure he’ll land on his feet.
Can you name some longcomings of the tenure system? I saw one guy crash and burn for awhile when he didn’t get it. Like your example, he did everything right…
He did a number of things for awhile and then went back to teaching…had no idea until he surfaced in the school caf at my son’s college and the Boy talked his way into one of his classes…just because this man is such a good teacher and he wanted to draw on some of that intellectual juice. Otherwise why would a chem major be taking 19th century German intellectual theory?
The Boy ends up reading Freud and weaving together psychodyamics and thermodynamics in his papers.
Those university guilds are horrible places.
Being all too familiar with education professionals at all levels I’ll wager that Dr. Drezner failed to receive tenure based on the idiosyncratic whim of a few ( or even one) professors who dominate the department – and not on any objective shortcoming of scholarship or political viewpoint. The blog probably was an irritant, not for Drenzer’s opinions but because he offended the hierarchy by not keeping his mouth shut and his head down low.
Objective criteria for tenure is desperately needed if people in higher ed. want to see it ten years from now. It would also keep out a lot of the unqualified turkeys like ward Churchill who want an academic post as a sinecure to pursue political activism from displacing qualified scholars ( though admittedly, he’s a very extreme example. Most ppl rejected for tenure track positions are qualified)
“Most ppl rejected for tenure track positions are qualified ”
Universities themselves are probably — despite present numbers and wealth — on the decline. Kids graduating with 2 year AA ‘degrees’ from community colleges are off and running with jobs they love whilst 4 year graduates in irrelevant disciplines with huge education debts waiting to be serviced are asking “biscotti with that?” When will they ever get out from under?
I encourage our intellectually inclined son who is in the sciences to think carefully about going all the way to the PhD level. I’m not sure it would make him happy. The idea of not doing so panics him — what would he do *without* a PhD in Chemistry?
OTOH, the idea of being a vitner made him laugh. Also, he’s a gifted writer so perhaps science editing? In his job at school he’s discovered he loves persuading people to buy things. Williamsburg is a very touristy place and he likes to schmooze with the visitors who come into the shop where he works.
Since no man in my family has ever successfully worked for long for anyone besides himself, it will be interesting to see if this one survives the long knives of academia. It is telling that he recently bought a ceremonail sword, is it not?
I simply do not trust the academic system. I’ve seen it ruin too many people and make others unfit for gainful employment. Also, as the playing field becomes less level and more women are now in college than men, he may find the culture not to his benefit or well-being.
Damn short-term shame about Drezner but I have the feeling he will be relieved and grateful some day. Maybe about five years or so.
Something that people rarely think about is where do chemists work? Now, where do vintners work? Where would you rather work?
Since I’m a swordsman when you wrote the above I immediately thought “he should be doing kendo”. But, then, I think that everybody should be doing kendo.
Kendo certainly looks fun. How many years have you been at that art Dave ?
Kendo is the best. It’s the foundation Japanese martial art. I did it for three years and I’d be doing it yet if I were able. I still have hopes of going back.
To the best of my knowledge the only places in Chicago to study are the Uptown Buddhist Temple, the Chicago Kendo Dojo on Paulina, the University of Chicago, and Choyokan in Des Plaines.