My experience isn't the same as yours. Departments are often quite happy to get rid of someone with delusions of grandeur. At my own institution, the reality is that state funding isn't going anywhere but south, and so each department will soon have to pay a financial price or opportunity cost for any retention package offered over the next several years. This development is going to have a lot of adverse effects, but it will deliver the feedback needed to keep initial and retention offers rational. To that extent, it is a sane development. What is not a sane development, of course, is the declining share of the budget that states are choosing to invest in education at all levels. Leaving personal careers completely out of the picture, I would say that this is a slo-mo tsunami of a national tragedy and the beginning of the end for the US economic and political system.
We have rules in place to avoid nepotism, as I'd mentioned. I wish it were the case that who you know were less important in determining who gets jobs, and when I serve on searches, I demand that decisions all be merit-based. But I don't think we'll ever get to a situation where politics, friendships, and the like don't have an effect. Disagree strongly with your view that tenure be discarded. Though, Lord knows, I can think of a few cases where departments or universities would have greatly benefitted from being able to dismiss a few miscreants. Cheers, Tom On 10/20/12, "Aaron T. Dossey" wrote: > > EXACTLY! So, why is it that in EVERY case I am aware of (several) where a > faculty member or applicant has threatened to leave (or not come there) if > the institution/department doesn't: hire their spouse with a full tenure > track position of their own OR give them twice as much lab space and > resources OR give them twice as many students or postechs/postemps OR some > combination of those, among other demands..... why is it that in all of the > cases I have heard about, the institution caves to the demands and often > gives MORE than was asked so easily? > > If I were a search or department chair and someone came to me and threatened > to quit, or an applicant were to make such demands of resources and that I > violate my ethical standards (ie: enable nepotism) ESPECIALLY (but not > limited to) in THIS pathetic career environment for Ph.D. scientists... I > would laugh in their face and fire/reject them before they got back to their > hotel room - even though that's where I would send them immediately. There > are literally HUNDREDS of fantastically qualified applicants (of course > without considering who they are related or married to, play golf with, etc.) > out there for nearly every faculty position - those filled, those advertised > and the MANY that with faux advertisements - and any can be replaced with > probably much better results than the department is getting currently. > > It's probably also time that tenure be done away with as well. > > > > On 10/21/2012 12:02 AM, Thomas J. Givnish wrote: > >For most applicants for faculty jobs, it's a buyers' market, with the > >institutions having a bit of an upper hand. > > > -- > Aaron T. Dossey, Ph.D. > Biochemistry and Molecular Biology > Founder/Owner: All Things Bugs > Capitalizing on Low-Crawling Fruit from Insect-Based Innovation > http://allthingsbugs.com/about/people/ > http://www.facebook.com/Allthingsbugs > 1-352-281-3643 -- Thomas J. Givnish Henry Allan Gleason Professor of Botany University of Wisconsin [email protected] http://botany.wisc.edu/givnish/Givnish/Welcome.html
