The state of the profession—the higher education profession—seems less and less solid. It feels as though I see a new commentary on professorial burnout every week and phrases like “The Great Resignation” and “The Big Quit” show up on the regular. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that half of the professors they surveyed recently are “seriously weighing options outside of higher education: either changing careers entirely or retiring early.”1 The cohort of disaffected professors, the Chronicle avers, increasingly includes professors with tenure. Lots of reasons are given, according to real-life, if anonymous, responses collected by Dr. Karen Kelsky: “Overworked, underpaid, undervalued”; “Racism, sexism, toxic work environment”; “University was a corporation”; “Burnout/moral injury”; “Feeling so, so, so unsafe all the time.” And from a self-identified full professor: “It’s not the job it once was.”2
I don’t have a new commentary to offer, only my own report. My father...
