PRINCETON DEPT CHAIR: Lack of tenure track jobs will drive future scientists out of US universities

[yurbud]

A Princeton department chair gets it: treating faculty like toilet paper might seem to make economic sense in the short term, but in the long term it will kill our higher education system.

I would go further than he does and say that lack of tenure track positions for those who choose to focus on TEACHING future scientists (and businessmen, teachers, and political leaders) is already killing them personally.

If someone chooses to teach or be an academic, they don't expect to get rich, but they do expect to be able to pay back their student loans, get health insurance, and support a family.

KEY EXCERPTS:



Nation needs recovery plan for science faculty jobs

By David Spergel
chair of the department of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University

February 28th, 2009

Even if the economy were to recover over the next one to two years, the academic job market for the next few years is likely to be bleak. It will probably take several years for university finances to recover. Even more significantly, the collapse of the stock market has led many faculty members to defer retirement plans. Many professors in their late 60s and early 70s who were planning to retire in the next two to three years have decided to stay on and work for an additional few years so that they can recover some of their market losses.

While this choice makes a great deal of sense for each individual, it will likely have tragic side effects. If all of the faculty members who were planning on retiring at age 67 defer retirement to 72, then universities will not be able to hire any new faculty for the next five years! (This claim rests on the assumption that universities are not likely to rapidly grow their faculty size during an economic downturn and early in the recovery.) When the current cohort of 67-year-olds and the current cohort of 62-year-olds retire over the next five to 10 years, this wave of retirements may create a job bump; however, the next several years will be a difficult time for any scholar seeking a faculty position.


***

The lack of tenure-track jobs in the United States will likely lead many of our best young U.S.-trained scientists and engineers to seek faculty positions in Europe and Asia, or to abandon their scientific careers. Many of our promising young Ph.D.s are foreign-born scientists who will likely return to their home countries. Most other advanced nations have mandatory retirement ages at their universities and do not have retirement pensions connected to the stock market.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/40808/title/Comment__Nation_needs_recovery_plan_for_science_faculty_jobs|FULL TEXT>(includes his solution)

[pnwmom]

1. Sounds like a good idea. It would be a shame to waste all that training. Although,

in the case of foreign born students, it wouldn't be a waste of their talents if they were able to find good academic jobs in the country of their birth.

[GoesTo11]

2. If all of the faculty members who were planning on retiring at age 67 defer retirement to 72???

Just make their lives hell. No course releases. New preps. 5 day a week teaching schedules. The worst committee assignments. No support. They'll get the message and retire.

[Lionel Mandrake]

4. What if the old guys are running the department?

They probably won't agree to make each others' lives hell.

Besides, age discrimination is a no no.

[glinda]

3. Many Universities push for early retirement. I think Tenure protects good people

from loosing their jobs to others that have political aims.

[Lionel Mandrake]

6. Early retirement can be a good deal all around.

Typically, the terms are generous to the professor. In return, the university gets a commitment that he will be gone by a certain date, which helps the administrators plan their budgets.

[glinda]

7. Yes. My husband took one and it was not tons different from if he would have

waited although they made a mistake with his Health Insurance dates that cost us thousands. The University actually saved money by letting him go and boy was he ready to get out.

[Lionel Mandrake]

8. If they made a mistake,

then it seems to me they should compensate you for your losses.

I would question whether they screwed up by accident or on purpose. Employers generally cheat as much as they can on health insurance. At least, that is my experience.

[GoesTo11]

9. It would have to be pretty generous

If you could basically not work (slight exaggeration - you have to do some minimum amount, but less than 10 hours per week) and still get paid for as long as you want, why retire until you have all the money you need? For those in pension plans, I suppose they can set it up so once you max out you just leave. For those on 401k plans, they'd have to just pay something like a million dollar lump sum to make you retire at 60 instead of 72, right?

[Lionel Mandrake]

10. I suspect the deals are different at different schools.

Some retired professors at California State University (CSU) tell me that they are allowed to teach part time for up to five years after formal retirement. They get both a salary and a pension during those 5 years. I don't know the details, but these guys seem to like the arrangement.

[XemaSab]

5. At the small state school I went to

There were a LOT of young, enthusiastic teachers who were not put on tenure track in order to keep the budget low.

It's a real shame. :(

[leftyclimber]

11. If I were to apply for jobs in my field right this red-hot second

(which thankfully I am not) the best I could do would be 38K in Boulder, CO, in a non-contract instructor position. I realize this is good pay relative to a lot of adjunct positions, but it's not enough to pay the bills and affords no opportunity to do research. And several hundred other people in my field will be applying for the same gig, so odds are not good I would get the job anyway.

I have one more year to go before I'm Dr. leftyclimber. If the market looks this bad next year, you can bet your ass I'm looking outside the country. I have about 60 grand in student loans to pay off.

[yurbud]

12. this is the less publicized right wing assault on education