In recent years, some very smart people--like Michael Berube, Marc Bousquet, Anthony Grafton, and William Pannapacker, to name a few--have offered on these pages their thoughts about how to fix graduate education and, by extension, the academic labor market, which, everyone seems to agree, has "unraveled". The author approaches this issue from a…

Facing a cutthroat academic job market, many doctoral students are now willing to explore the possibility of a community-college career. And they have many questions. In Part 1 of this series, the author focused on the hiring process at two-year colleges and answered some common questions like "Do I have to have a Ph.D. to teach in that sector?"…

A growing proportion of the nation's professors are at the same point in their career: still working, but with the end of their careers in sight. Their tendency to remain on the job as long as their work is enjoyable--or, during economic downturns, long enough to make sure they have enough money to live on in retirement--has led the professoriate…

Service is not an optional part of being an assistant professor. The trick is knowing how to do enough without doing too much. In Part 1 of this series, the author enumerated the "good deeds" that assistant professors do in the realm of teaching that tend to blow up or backfire. He cautioned that, while doing good for students was their primary…

As the economy sinks, dwindling state appropriations and plunging endowment values are forcing colleges to make significant budget cuts. Professors--from the tenured to the adjunct--are beginning to see teaching-load increases and travel restrictions, along with salary cuts and layoffs. At institutions taking austerity measures, those measures are…

The cost of gasoline has made the art of juggling two or more teaching jobs at different institutions all the more difficult for many adjunct faculty members, as continuing price hikes at the nation's gasoline stations cut into salaries that often do not cover living expenses to begin with. These new pressures are particularly evident in…

For many academics, managing the influx of daily communication has become a second job. While many scholars like the flexibility and creative opportunities technology affords, they have trouble turning off their gadgets. That can eat into time reserved for uninterrupted reading, writing, reflecting, or working in the laboratory. Technology has…

Teaching is not confined to the classroom. Faculty members supervise student research at every level. They contribute to program maintenance and curriculum development. They administer subprograms, advise students, and serve on university committees. However remote from research, all of those activities contribute to a department's educational…

Goucher College's picturesque campus, on 290 leafy acres just north of Baltimore, plays well in college-admissions materials. Officials at this private liberal-arts institution, however, hope students will also be attracted by the opportunity to get away. Two years ago, Goucher began requiring all students to earn some academic credit abroad, one…

Almost two years ago, Boise State University instituted a workload policy that worried some faculty members. Its basis is an algebraic-seeming formula with components--"teaching: 6 + x; scholarship: 2 + y; service: 2 + z"--that critics found difficult to believe could provide the flexibility that administrators promised. Some professors thought…

When scientists at small colleges and universities seek research grants, they often run into challenges not faced by their colleagues at major institutions. It is, nonetheless, possible to maintain a research program at a small institution, says the writer, if people have a great deal of passion and a little ingenuity. Issues to consider at…

Describes how, to make ends meet, many adjunct instructors keep right on working during summer "vacation," while many professors with tenure and grants call the season their own. (EV)

Describes the varied duties of a faculty member of New York University's online, for-profit subsidiary, NYUonline. Hired for her business acumen more than for her degree, the adjunct associate professor's job description differs from that of traditional academics and involves marketing as well as teaching. Notes concerns by traditional academics…

A new Carnegie Foundation report recommends expanding the concept of faculty scholarship to recognize and reward teaching, service, textbook writing, and other faculty activities. Campuses can accommodate faculty's shifting interests by encouraging movement from one activity to another, possibly with short-term contracts spelling out scholarly…

Describes how a few college coaches still teach in the classroom, but that the demands of each job have become too great for many to play the dual roles. Includes brief profiles of a few such professors. (EV)