I was invited to a university function for new faculty members that took place over the weekend. I went, thinking it would be nice to get free food and meet new people, not realizing that I really didn't belong there.
That point was made quite clear to me at the function, however.
When I arrived (with Publius as my date), I was given a few items, including a little packet of bios about the new faculty. I flipped through it and saw I wasn't in there. I wasn't offended... at first.
Before dinner, a couple of administrators gave some little welcoming speeches. I learned that about 250 faculty members had been hired, and approximately 100 of them were tenured or tenure-track. That was the only reference to non-tenure-track people. Not once in these speeches did they even mention the existence of the postdocs, visiting professors, and other non-tenure-track faculty that had been hired. Not once. Would it have killed them to acknowledge these people, who are responsible for a not-insignificant portion of the teaching and research at universities? Just one sentence, saying "welcome to Big Ten U," would have been nice.
Instead, they spent a bit of time crowing about how many people came from top-notch institutions, which they proceeded to name and say how many hires came from each one. About 1/3 of all of the new tenure-track faculty came from about 8 universities, which is very disheartening.
I drank several free beers, ate the food, and got out of there early. I can't remember ever feeling this marginalized.
But what do I know? I'm just a postdoc from a substandard university.
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11 comments:
I've felt that low before. One time I attended a committee meeting at the state legislature with the other staffers from my local.
I looked around the room and realized "I'm the least important person here".
It felt TERRIBLE. Definitely the low point of my work there.
Yick, horrible. Sorry, hin. Don't let it get you down though, your work IS important.
That sucks. I would have bailed early too. I hope the free beer and food were good. That might make up for it...a little.
Ick -- you know we love you! :)...
I remember being not even on the radar screen of the "important" people and I try not to do that now that I'm tenured... it is the reason that I don't want to go to Red State for anything short of a tenure-track job.
I had a pal in Red State who was an adjunct in philosophy at fancy-pants U. In order to pay the bills, she was also a waitress at a fancy restaurant where administrators from fancy-pants came in. She told them once that she was on the philosophy faculty -- and they couldn't quite figure out why she was working another job -- they more or less implied that they thought she was doing it as a hobby... she didn't tell them that the waitress job paid most of the bills and that teaching was for fun money. Point being that often those in charge don't have a clue about what is really going on...
If I was at all important or owned a big corporation or college, I would give you the recognition you deserve!
Until then, I'll have to come up with something clever...
I can empathize with your marginalization and say they have no idea just what they are missing!
Oh screw them. None of them got invited to Cambodia.
I am the only academic I know who does not have an undergrad from an Ivy, Standford, or MIT. My PhD granting uni is one of the snooty ones (and why they let me in I'm still not sure) but I went to a Big Ten undergrad. I was the only one in my PhD program who didn't go somewhere snooty for my undergrad.
And I am also the only one I know who has turned down a job at not one, but two Ivies (both of which rejected me as a PhD student).
Ignore them, and use their resources while you are post-doc to publish your Brazen head off so you can go to a good place when you are done.
Sorry your experience was so bad. I have to say that I find it pretty typical though, and I don't think it's a function of your academic pedigree. Postdocs just tend to be treated as if they're invisible, particularly at the university level. Departments make a bigger deal of them, but still, the big spectacle is reserved for new grad students and t-t faculty.
I've been there, and it really doesn't serve to make one feel part of a department.
Over here most Americans have a super-fancy undergraduate degree. I was chatting with a guy in the mailroom and he asked me "Are you a Harvard man?" I responded that I was not in any sense of the term, to which he replied, "Ah, so you've earned your position."
Best compliment I've gotten in a long time.
Thank you everyone. I'm feeling much better about it all today.
Paris - I like that compliment!
I'm a little late to this discussion, but I just wanted to say I'm so sorry you had to go through this. I know how much it sucks to be marginalized just b/c you're not one of the big dogs. It's the same at one of the colleges I teach for - they act like the adjuncts are just there and really contribute nothing to the school. Of course, that's complete bs considering 60% of the English classes are taught by adjuncts!
Ugh. That's just so icky and unprofessional!
I forgot to say... they treat the nontenure track people the same way. Bunch of bs!!
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