The University as Welfare State
The American Scholar: The University as Welfare State - Paula Marantz Cohen
A colleague recently observed that the university is the last bastion of the welfare state in this country. Putting aside whether we ever really had a welfare state, the idea contains some truth. The university does have socialistic elements, though they are fast disappearing in our current economic and political climate.
The most obvious of these is tenure—whereby certain faculty members are awarded lifetime jobs. The practice has come under intense scrutiny by corporate-minded critics, but it’s not the only one detractors point to. Professors get summers off and large chunks of vacation time throughout the academic year. Senior professors at research universities also tend to receive light teaching loads in exchange for producing scholarship, research, or creative work. Often, though, no tangible or immediate scientific or cultural advance results, other than perhaps a book that no more than 200 people will read. So-called “teaching faculty,” working on yearly or multi-year contracts, carry heavier teaching loads. But even with four or five courses a term, they still have those summers and holidays free. The pay isn’t great, but, let’s face it, there are harder jobs. (Adjunct professors are a special category. They have been excluded from the university-as-welfare-state and are the most striking indication of its imminent demise.)
Those of us who work at universities are often people who wouldn’t do well—indeed, might not survive—in a conventional environment. I can think of at least three people who are brilliant teachers, beloved by their students, who, if made to work outside of academia, would probably end up living in a cardboard box.