Lemon Rind

Recent correspondence with my friend Sara Chaisano at Lemon University [tenured a couple years ago], saying "goodbye, we're moving on". We've been trying to plan a get together so she can meet the Composer before we head on. Unfortunately, it looks unlikely with our schedules.

She had asked whether I had received my student evaluations for last term. I replied:

I wonder if you have any stats for the course over time, so I might compare my rankings to standards. Not that I suspect it will much matter, having decided to walk away from a potential academic career. Never know, I might change my mind. But I'm so disappointed and discouraged by what seems like pervasive exploitation of PhDs, both as adjuncts, and as underpaid and overworked tenure-track faculty, that I have lost interest in pursuing the career I spent the past decade preparing for.

Her response:

I hear you about the underpaid overworked part time AND full time tenure track faculty! And it gets only marginally better after tenure, unless you're in a law school or business school where you can make gobs of money. We have the bad end of the stick any way you look at it. Sigh.

I wish you much luck with your new lives!

And so, I'm reminded why I've made this choice, and I'm reinforced in my belief that walking away is the right one.