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Re: On learning about how to be a faculty member
I'm not sure I understand. It's quite true that some who want to become faculty members will not be offered jobs, and some who are offered positions will fail to earn tenure. I don't understand why that means that we on this list should not discuss the need to inform doctoral students about the realities of faculty life. Given that none of us can predict the future, I would imagine that those who desire to become faculty members would want to take such a seminar in order to be prepared for the eventuality.
 
That in no way suggests that the professoriate is immune or that everyone who wants a faculty job will find one and earn tenure. It does not suggest that doctoral students should not be informed about other career options, if they are interested. It does suggest that some who think that they want faculty positions might change their minds if they really understood what is involved, and that they would do better to find that out as graduate students than as second- or third-year tenure-track faculty. As the cliche has it, to fail to plan is to plan to fail.
 
The fact that a person might hold up to five positions in a working life does not mean that the individual should do nothing to prepare for those five positions. It means just the opposite. It means that we will prepare ourselves for new careers as many as five different times in our lives. Tenure-track faculty member is still one of those career options.  
 
Suzanne M. Stauffer, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
School of Library and Information Science
Louisiana State University
275 Coates Hall
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
(225)578-1461
Fax: (225)578-4581
[log in to unmask]


Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?



--T.S. Eliot, "Choruses from The Rock"







From: Open Lib/Info Sci Education Forum on behalf of Sue Easun
Sent: Thu 1/21/2010 8:37 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: On learning about how to be a faculty member





Suzanne, your point may be true for those who aren't planning to become faculty
members.  But what about those who would like to but don't get to be faculty
members, for any number of reasons.

I absolutely agree that anyone intent on becoming a faculty member would do well
to know what (s)he is getting into.  (During my days at Berkeley, we doctoral
students created our own noncredit course, and it was pretty darned cuttin' edge.) 
But neither did we include a segment on life outside the academy.

If the rest of the world is expected to hold up to five different positions over the
course of a working life, what makes us think the professoriate is immune?  Or that
tenure is going to be granted, never mind achievable, even ten years from now?

This is the time to discuss things like the possibility of running an institution like
IMLS, or taking an entrepreneurial spin, or the various other positions in which we
often find ourselves, wondering how we got there :-)

Sue

----------------------------------------

On 21 Jan 2010 at 8:52, Suzanne Stauffer wrote:

>
> Well, I would imagine that they wouldn't register for the seminar if
> they had not interest in become
> faculty.
>
> Given that this list is called "Lib/Info Sci Education Forum" and
> that most of said education is
> provided by academic faculty members who were once doctoral
> students, I don't see why it
> wouldn't be appropriate.LIS education -- and higher education in
> general -- is not served bya
> succession of tenure-track faculty members whofail to advance to
> tenure because they did not
> understand what was expected of them until too late in the game.
>
> Doctoral students who are considering a career as tenured faculty
> should understand what that
> means early in their program, so that they can decide whether it
> really is for them, and structure
> their program accordingly.
>
>
> Suzanne M. Stauffer, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> School of Library and Information Science
> Louisiana State University
> 275 Coates Hall
> Baton Rouge, LA 70803
> (225)578-1461
> Fax: (225)578-4581
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
> Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
> --T.S. Eliot, "Choruses from The Rock"
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: Open Lib/Info Sci Education Forum on behalf of Sue Easun
> Sent: Tue 1/19/2010 11:32 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: On learning about how to be a faculty member
>
> > I highlighted Richard Cox's doctoral seminar at Pitt because of
> its
> > focus on preparing doctoral students
> > for their futures as faculty members. Not just asLIS faculty
> > members, but faculty members generally.
>
> But what of students who aren't planning to become faculty members?
> or who
> don't get to be faculty members? Nothing against Richard's course,
> or any of the
> others discussed, just wondering whether the list feels such
> situations should be
> addressed.
>
> Sue
>
>
>
> Sue Easun, Ph.D.
> Principal and Editorge
> Second Hand Knowledge
>