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Who Is the Lunatic?

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Clarissa

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I am literally the only person on campus (aside from the top levels of the administration) who thinks tenured faculty will be fired.

I have forced myself to talk to many people. Not a single one of them takes seriously the administration’s very open promises to do this. They think the union will protect us. The Governor will protect us. The newspapers will protect us. It can’t happen because we are so good and indispensable. It just can’t happen, they say.

What I need to know, is this: am I a paranoiac or is everybody else in denial? I try to live according to the maxim that if everybody else around you looks like a lunatic, the only lunatic around is probably yourself. I have literally not found anybody who thinks about this as I do or really thinks about this, period.

Am I nuts? I hope I don’t need to explain that I very much want to be totally nuts in this situation. I’ll accept my complete nuttiness with gratitude and joy.

During COVID, I had Alex Berenson to keep me from thinking that I lost the plot and needed psychiatric care. On this issue, there’s no Berenson and I don’t know how to determine if everybody else is insane or if I am.

12 responses to “Who Is the Lunatic?”

  1. el Avatar
    el

    I sincerely do not understand.

    If all top levels of the administration are transmitting this message, how can you be “the only” lunatic / fanatic / anything?

    At a meat processing plant, would one believe sheep entering the gates, or people operating it? The analogy sounds too macabre, but imo it’s still apt.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      I personally and publicly asked our Dean: “Will tenured faculty be fired?” He said “Yes.” Then he explained the process and the timeline. So I don’t know, somebody is very confused here.

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      1. el Avatar
        el

        \ our Dean … explained the process and the timeline

        Your colleagues are simply stuck in the first stage of grief – denial.

        They subconsciously realize they won’t have a chance of finding a new job in academia and have never thought of plan B for a life outside of it. In such cases, many people just freeze, hoping against hope the catastrophe won’t touch them.

        I hope you’ll go on the academic job market when it opens despite desire for roots. The way you described teaching at a Christian school made clear you would be unhappy there, feeling stuck and not realizing your potential. If there is no way to remain a researcher outside academia, your field would lose your future contributions too. If people are stuck somewhere in their own version of “Rust Belt,” why remain there? Rootedness isn’t worth decay. And N would have more job options too, from what I understand. As for kids, in the long run they benefit the most from seeing happy, self-realizing parents, not from staying physically in the same place, especially when it loses crucial aspects of what once made it great in the first place. I hope I haven’t sounded too … well, giving unasked for advice, just was shocked to hear this and have been thinking a lot about the situation. Have been following your blog for decades and it’s clear a life of research is something that’s foundational for you and gives a lot to others too, including your readers here in addition to specialists in your field.

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          N decided that he will never again work not remotely. This is very important to him and he’s sticking with it. He has wanted me to go on the job market for years. He wants me to be in a more research-heavy place. His employment travels with him because he’s remote. So he’s kind of happy I get an opportunity to be shot of this place.

          N is the grey eminence of the project that’s me and this jives perfectly with his plans for my career path.

          Please don’t apologize. I very much appreciate everybody’s support and, hey, wouldn’t everybody love fresh stories about the academic job market?

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          1. methylethyl Avatar
            methylethyl

            I am actually quite interested in what’s going on in the academic job market.

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  2. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    “a meat processing plant, would one believe”

    Don’t”t be ridiculous…. Farmer Jones would _never_ hurt us, he loves us! He gives us food every day and keeps predators away from us…. what would he have to gain from hurting us?

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  3. Olivier Reid Avatar
    Olivier Reid

    You are not crazy, but to the risk of stating something obvious: pay attention to what the collective agreement say about terminating TT jobs. Where I work, I may be considered “redundant” or my program may be cancelled, in which case I have to work for an other department. If unqualified, I will have a training. If still unqualified, I will be asked to do some sort of work, paid with my normal TTsalary (I am not kidding). If the university goes bankrupt (improbably will), then I am screwed. Collective agreement is renegociated every 3 years.

    Also, if TT faculty where you work are older, then they probably care less about being fired.

    Ol.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      I badgered the Faculty Association into forming a working group to dispute the administration’s plans. I’ll be part of the group. But our collective bargaining agreement expires in May. The administration refused to sign a new one. The union is part of NEA which is deeply in bed with the governor who…. see the post I just published.

      That it took me going public with this to get the union to say anything about this plan is already a bad sign. They are afraid of me because I’ve badgered them a lot over the years but of their own free will they were doing nothing.

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      1. Olivier Reid Avatar
        Olivier Reid

        Unfortunately, it all makes sense now.

        Liked by 1 person

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  4. el Avatar
    el

    In good news, after we received six living hostages today, only 24 alive hostages remain in Gaza (in addition to 39 dead ones). Israel agreed to release “a total of 602 prisoners in exchange for our six civilian hostages.”

    Hamas did hand over a real body of Shiri Bibas yesterday night. It has been identified. She was murdered in captivity at the same time as her children.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Shiri is holding her babies in heaven. May eternal fires of hell torture their murderers.

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  5. Margaret W. Avatar
    Margaret W.

    My deepest sympathies to you in this situation and I extend my heartfelt praise for fighting for the Humanities programs. Your passion is inspiring.

    My company has been conducting DEI implementations for several years under the guise of “transformation”. There has been continual restructuring and removal of jobs. But they purposefully do not use the word “Layoff”, even though that is what they are doing. There was a hiring boom a few years ago to beef up our tech infrastructure and now they are trying to reduce the workforce.

    I have been quietly suggesting to colleagues that our leaders are destroying the company. They are extremely arrogant, can’t agree across departments, don’t care about the underlings (ordinary workers). They collect bloated paychecks and make bloated decisions that make no sense. But when I suggest to colleagues that I don’t see this company surviving the “transformation”, they vehemently disagree. So I sympathize when you say people think you are a lunatic. You’re not. I’m not either. And I am planning my affairs accordingly.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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