More of Me Telling You What You Don't Want to Hear

And again, another advice request, along the lines of "Should I go to graduate school?"

I have, perhaps justly, been accused of being far too snarky with these questions, mainly because I have no idea whether any individual should go to grad school. That's a personal decision, with complex factors involved.

Illustration: The future is unclear.

But let me start off with the short answer: Should you go to graduate school? Not unless you absolutely have to.

And now, to unpack that, in handy bullet points that reflect the letter-writer's reasons for considering grad school, and will likely resonate with others contemplating the same decision:**

• You've done the corporate thing, and decided you'd be happier out of that, even if it means working as a barista as you are currently doing (You see how this correspondent is playing to my weakness? Baristas make it possible for me to do my job without killing anyone, and I love them all unconditionally). I respect that: If your current job is making you miserable, then do something that makes you not miserable, and screw anyone who thinks you're "trading down." Only you can know that. But you'd really like to pursue a particular semi-obscure area of academic study, which you think will be better than both of those things. Here's the problem, though: If you left the first job because you were, as you say, "overwhelmed with the politics," then academia is probably going to present similar challenges. The politics are different, but they are very real, they're impossible to avoid in the long run, and they will, from time to time, wear. your. ass. down. You need to know that.
  
• You're thinking about going back to pursue a passion from your early university days that you shelved for a more "practical" major. Again: Hooray for pursuing passions. But do you need to go to grad school to do it? Does it need to be how you make your living? I've often called myself lucky for having a job that allows me to get paid for doing what I love, but I've recently heard some convincing counter-arguments that when you make what you love your job, you stop loving it so much. It's something to consider. Can you do something that pays the bills, and make this the non-vocational thing that you look forward to when you're not working?
• You'd like to make a career out of this, but are concerned with job prospects. And you're right to be concerned. Job prospects are bad, and getting worse, and even the jobs that are there aren't what they're cracked up to be: stagnating wages, states rescinding pensions, faculty unions under attack, increased teaching load (see my previous post) -- and that's if you're one of the dozen or so people in your field nationally*** who is both lucky and good enough to land a tenure-track job.

So, here's the question, in a nutshell, that you need to be asking yourself:

If I spent 6-10 prime income-earning years working towards a Ph.D., perhaps going into debt to do so, possibly being treated like a recalcitrant teenager (right or wrong, academia's a hierarchical world) by professors 10 years younger than me, and at the end of that, there was no job and no hope of one, and I'm back to slinging lattes again... would I consider it time and money well-spent? Would I be happier than I am now?

See? Notice the lack of snark? I think I've grown.****


**This, of course, all leaves aside the question of whether you can even get into grad school, about which I have even less of a freakin' clue, so don't ask.

***Yes, you read that right: a dozen or so jobs for the whole damn country each year -- and that's being optimistic. And probably about 100 highly qualified people competing for them. We won't even talk about where in the country you'd "like" to work, because I'd fall down laughing.

****Okay, maybe a little snark in the footnotes, but it's at least marginally constructive. Now: where's my cookie?

Writing and Publishing on a 4-4?

Strong possibility of 4-4 next year, and from here on out? Did I hear that right?

fig. 1: It's getting awfully crowded in here...

Freeze my wages, furlough me now and then, take away my freakin' photocopier privileges, and then talk about increasing my workload by another class, on top of last year's increase from 3-3 to 3-4?

Okay, so I know that many of you are handling this teaching load already, so pardon me for bitching, but... Really?

((deep breath))

No, here's the more productive thing to ask: How do you do it? I mean, assuming that your university still expects you to crank out peer-reviewed articles or books for tenure and/or promotion, and that you yourself have ideas that you want to get out there: How do you do it?

(Preferably without going completely insane.)

What I'm Writing These Days

Yeah, it ain't blog posts, as you may have noticed.

But last night, I sat down to put something in the "assorted notes" for my presentation this April -- some stuff that will go in the intro... and two hours later when I looked at the clock again, I had written an entire draft of my introduction.

Look at the word counter: It's alive!!!**

I still hate this semester. This is the heaviest courseload I've ever had, combined with the heaviest service load I've ever had. The ass-kicking I promised to deliver it looks like it's going to be mutual. But I'm going to win.


**Okay, yeah: a 1200-word intro for a 7000-word presentation is, shall we say, excessive. But I'll cut later. Right now I want my words...

another year...

...another bike accident. Hit-and-run drivers = not cool. Helpful bystanders and bike helmets = thumbs up.

Another non-post (with a giggle at the end)

Obnoxiously, this is not a post. It's just an update to say I'm not dead. Just about, but not quite. For explanation, see this post from two weeks ago.

Yes, the part two of the funding post hasn't been forgotten. But this semester is kicking my ass.

But just to show that I have a sense of humor: I got an e-mail from our union rep. S/he is concerned about the workloads and stagnant pay of associate profs. Yep: me, too. S/he wants to the union can take it on in their next bargaining session. Great idea. So... when would I/we be available for a meeting to discuss specifics?

Protester Bleg: If you'll pardon another pro-labor post...

...I now have information on how to quickly and easily get donations of essential food and personal hygiene supplies to the protesters in Madison. If you'd like details, drop me a line.

Oh, what the hell: I don't know why I'm being so reticent. It's my blog, after all. Here it is: Madison's Willy St. Co-op is taking gift card orders over the phone. They collect them during the day, then every morning call the protesters, ask what they need (labor can't live on pizza alone!), and use the gift cards to buy it. You can call the co-op at: (608) 251-6776.

Thanks.

On, Wisconsin.

UPDATED: now, with FREE!!! Justin Bieber photo! (For real: Scroll down)


For those of you who haven't heard about Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's plans to bust the public employee unions (including all UW system faculty, as well as schoolteachers, public hospital nurses, and... well, any state or local government employee represented by a union), you can check it out here. (There is also a piece at the Chronicle, but I'm not linking to it because so many of the comments, as usual, are ignorant and hateful. But it's there, if you want to read it.)

For one opinion of why Wisconsin finds itself in this situation rather than with the large surplus it was slated to end the 2009-2011 biennial with, you might look here.

And finally: one of the many videos** floating around the web of the Tuesday protest.*** I just like this one 'cause of the Billy Bragg:



UPDATE: UW-Madison undergraduate student council endorses a walkout at noon today (Thursday). Choice quote: “If your philosophy of student council does not include protecting this university and our students, then I question why you are here.”

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**The shouts you hear are not "U.S.A." (which is what I thought at first) but "Kill the Bill." And the Madison firefighters get such a huge cheer because theirs is one of the three public unions actually exempted from the bill, so showing up for the protest meant breaking with their state chapter (which supported Walker in the November election) in order to stand with the other state workers. Solidarity FTW.

***Favorite sign from a friend's photos from Tuesday: a placard with a teen-mag photo of the weirdly ubiquitous Justin Bieber, emblazoned with the words "Bieber says: Hell no!" UPDATE: FOUND IT:

****Note how the thousands of protesters are mostly keeping to the sidewalks and staying off the capitol's lawns? Because even when they're righteously pissed off, Midwesterners are still considerate. I kind of want to hug them all.