Defending my salary: An easy target writes back

Imagine being the constant target of derision from the general public, disconnected people in authority positions, legislators, and your own customers. Imagine that your interns’ opinions count more than your supervisor’s in your annual evaluation. Imagine fielding emails filled with questions, concerns, and requests from customers, colleagues, and supervisors at 10:00pm on a Thursday night, 8:00am on a Saturday morning, and 2:00pm on a Sunday afternoon. Imagine the salary that would be attached to that job. Now think again.

As an easy target for everyone’s misconceptions and assumptions about what university professors do, as exemplified by David Levy’s recent missive in the Washington Post declaring that we don’t work hard enough (I evidently make six figures and work 30 hours a week – news to me, by the way), I decided to write back in another attempt to restore balance to this narrative battle that we faculty seem to be losing.

While our critics such as Levy and anyone who knows nothing about what we do, but who seem to embrace an ingrained fantasy as reality, would never agree to Jill Kronstadt’s call to “shadow a community college professor. Or come work as an adjunct,” perhaps the more rationally-minded amongst blogosphere readers will consider a typical day during spring semester in an effort to fill in the gaps.

Specifically, this was my Wednesday, March 28, 2012.

As a second-year, tenure-track Pennsylvania state school faculty member, my salary is $51,000 a year. I have been at Kutztown University since August 2010, and my salary has stagnated because we don’t have a contract.

8:00 – 8:30am – Respond to 11 student emails that arrived the night before. Gulp down coffee and banana for breakfast. Pet the cat.

8:30 – 8:45am – Get dressed. Confirm 10am meeting with Social Equity office.

9:00 – 9:45am – Arrive at school, visit English Department main office, sign three forms as the Temporary Hiring Committee Chair, discuss personnel matter with English Department chair in closed-door impromptu meeting, open newly arrived dossier materials for Department secretary to add to applicants’ files.

10:00 – 10:50am – (Notice I haven’t taught anyone anything yet?) Meeting with Social Equity office to discuss proper procedures for interviewing candidates, reasons for inviting applicants to campus, the specific language to avoid, as well as the order in which everything must happen. Take notes and ask questions as April 1 we begin reviewing applications for Linguistics temporary instructor.

11:00am – Arrive University Writing Center. As the director of the Center, my presence facilitates a more professional atmosphere, even though it is difficult to get work done because I do not have an office with a door. I actually sit in the waiting area of the Writing Center and work on my Netbook while tutoring and discussions are ongoing all day.

1:00 – 2:30pm – Students from Advanced Composition and College Composition classes meet with me to discuss progress on current projects. Several ask me to read their essays and provide feedback, which I do. One College Comp student realizes she is completely off-base and we discuss how to get her back on track. I offer to grant her a one-week extension to improve her chances at success.

2:30 – 3:00pm – Student who had previously asked me to be her advisor explains the latest problems/drama and that she was denied a change in advisor. I help her to understand the wisdom of the Department Chair’s decision and encourage her to focus her work and not let the drama get her down.

 3:00 – 3:30pm – Respond to students, Social Equity, colleagues, and my Department Chair via email as questions and requests are continuous.

3:30 – 3:45pm – Return to English office across campus, review incomplete applications for Linguistics position, ask Department secretary to compose reminder emails to applicants that their materials are incomplete.

4:00 – 4:30pm – Difficult conversation with student worker about reappointment.

4:30pm – Drive home.

5:00 – 10:00pm – Complete various me-tasks such as laundry, cleaning kitchen, enjoying two personal phone calls, and eating dinner, while intermittently responding to student emails, reading and commenting on student blogs, crafting a proposal to present at a national conference in 2013, emailing colleagues to drum up interest, writing a letter of recommendation for another student, and then creating Google doc for new panel.

10:30pm – Go to bed.

That’s a typical Wednesday. And Monday. In fact, today was close to this detailed description with the addition of a phone interview. My Social Equity meeting this morning consisted of certifying candidates that the committee would like to interview. And tonight I need to work on my presentation for a national conference in Boston this Saturday instead of crafting a panel for a conference next year.

 I teach three classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Notice how much research I completed? Notice how much grading I did? Notice how different this day is from your conception of what professors do? The requirements of my job are to teach, research, publish, present at national conferences, serve on committees (department, college, and university level), do community service, and (for me right now) run the University Writing Center. Much of the research, administrative work, and community service take place on weekends, over breaks, and during the summer.

If only my job just consisted of teaching. What a dream.

I take home $2600 net a month. Now tell me I make too much and I don’t work hard enough.