OT: UConn assistant professor won $2.5 million on DraftKings

[upstater]

I find this bubble think amusing. In many industries, once you reach the relative top rungs, you have to worry about getting clipped because you are now, too old, too expensive, or too out of touch with current technologies. Obtaining lifetime job security and not being subjected to the profit requirements of a capitalist system, while holding a lot of control over your day to day is the grass is greener sentiment being offered by Mr. Silver.

If you are lower on the academic food chain, that is what you are working towards, while earning a top 5% salary as this guy is. Whatever the rigors of academic career advancement are, they are a one-way ratchet compared to the private sector. "Publish or perish" is no less worse than meeting quarterly quotas and research is much more in your hands than macroeconomic conditions.

There are no free lunches.

But you're talking about a very old university model. It's not the way it was before. 75%+ of the faculty were tenure-track 20 years ago. Now it's under 20% and most faculty are contingent. 3 year contracts. And even tenured faculty are getting fired.

In the future, professors will be the type of people who were warned not to go into the profession but did it anyway because they were stubborn and head strong and could handle the anxiety of not earning until they were 30+ while racking up debt, or for the most of them, earning contingent non-tenure contracts. Good for them.

 

[BlueDogs]

180k is his actual salary. Publically available info.

Isn't associate =/= tenured usually a European thing? I don't know of any other than MIT maybe in the US. I'm also not an expert though by any means

Plus, plus, plus on the benefits side. Heathcare, free tuition for kids, retirement, 401(b) with matches, patent royalty sharing, ability to work outside the university and consult ... its a pretty nice gig.

 

[upstater]

Plus, plus, plus on the benefits side. Heathcare, free tuition for kids, retirement, 401(b) with matches, patent royalty sharing, ability to work outside the university and consult ... its a pretty nice gig.

UConn professors get free tuition for kids? That's very good. And unusual at most universities.

 

[BlueDogs]

UConn professors get free tuition for kids? That's very good. And unusual at most universities.

Yes. They actually have a network with other schools for reciprocity so if a professor’s kid wants to go somewhere else, they can go for free. It’s not every school by any means.

 

[upstater]

Yes. They actually have a network with other schools for reciprocity so if a professor’s kid wants to go somewhere else, they can go for free. It’s not every school by any means.

I see. I thought you meant free tuition at UConn. The alliances are not as useful as many suppose because of limited spots. I have a professor friend with a stellar student who was admitted to top colleges inside the alliance, but she didn't get the tuition break. She ended up a substantial scholarship at a top university outside the alliance. By few spots, I mean a handful per school--like 10.

 

[GoDAWGS]

I find this bubble think amusing. In many industries, once you reach the relative top rungs, you have to worry about getting clipped because you are now, too old, too expensive, or too out of touch with current technologies. Obtaining lifetime job security and not being subjected to the profit requirements of a capitalist system, while holding a lot of control over your day to day is the grass is greener sentiment being offered by Mr. Silver.

If you are lower on the academic food chain, that is what you are working towards, while earning a top 5% salary as this guy is. Whatever the rigors of academic career advancement are, they are a one-way ratchet compared to the private sector. "Publish or perish" is no less worse than meeting quarterly quotas and research is much more in your hands than macroeconomic conditions.

There are no free lunches.

Agreed agreed agreed, I just think the stress in working in industry comes from higher up demands not finding a money source, I find it personally easier to say, well I need to pull a 70 hour work week the next two weeks to meet my demands vs I need to win this grant in order to make sure I still have money to do my research and then the research needs to work to get more money. There are pressures in both positions but they're different and the path to move into that top 5% is quicker and smoother in industry, theyres also a much larger pool

 

[husky429]

UConn professors get free tuition for kids? That's very good. And unusual at most universities.

I believe it's all full-time employees--not just professors. At least... at my old school I had a bunch of kids whose parents worked at UConn and that's what they said.

 

[JohnFSilver]

Its an okay job, im at our lovely UConn as we speak doing a doctorate, most of the professors will tell you its lonely, youre interacting with a bunch of 20-30 year olds all day whose purpose is to get out and start their lives, youre constantly writing grants, having pointless meetings, writing papers, you are now part of the university political system and your constant politicking for resources. Its publish or perish until you get tenure which might never come, and by the point you get tenure you've been a PhD for 6 years, a post doc for 3-9 years, a low level prpfessor for 7-10 years. Now on to the teaching, you have to teach but you don't actually want to teach, that's not why you're here, youre here to churn out your research and and produce PhD students, teaching is just a requirement so the university gives you lab space. If you just want to be a teaching professor you might as well just teach high school because at least you might get a shot at a pension. Basically academia is pretty screwy, the ones that are professors are just over worked beat down people who are constantly fighting for everything with everyone

You just ruined a dream of mine. Lol.

 

[GoDAWGS]

You just ruined a dream of mine. Lol.

Im sorry im not trying to be diminutive towards being a professor, its not for me, I like the industry, I like working in that setting. To some people exactly what I described is exactly what they want and thats great, we need professors and people who want to do it, its difficult but not impossible, if you want to be a professor, don't let me discourage you. Also being realistic im older and not some super star in the field, my bag is going to industry not competing for something im at lower rung of competing for

 

[HuskyHawk]

But you're talking about a very old university model. It's not the way it was before. 75%+ of the faculty were tenure-track 20 years ago. Now it's under 20% and most faculty are contingent. 3 year contracts. And even tenured faculty are getting fired.

In the future, professors will be the type of people who were warned not to go into the profession but did it anyway because they were stubborn and head strong and could handle the anxiety of not earning until they were 30+ while racking up debt, or for the most of them, earning contingent non-tenure contracts. Good for them.

My sister is a professor at a large public, but teaching isn't her main role. She runs a lab that is managed by the school for the DOE. Ecological research. It's the kind of work that if you want to do it, there aren't really any other options. So yeah, those people dedicated to a certain kind of research will still pursue the profession. She does spend a lot of time writing grant applications, which I don't think anybody enjoys. Before that she was at Colby, and the job was much more teaching focused, with research a small part of it.

I suspect it's a bit different in the humanities, but I don't really know. I often imagined that my quasi-retired job could be teaching business law to business undergrads. Nobody would expect you to publish anything. My UConn business law professor was exactly that, a retired lawyer from New York City. I'm not sure such jobs actually still exist.

 

[upstater]

My sister is a professor at a large public, but teaching isn't her main role. She runs a lab that is managed by the school for the DOE. Ecological research. It's the kind of work that if you want to do it, there aren't really any other options. So yeah, those people dedicated to a certain kind of research will still pursue the profession. She does spend a lot of time writing grant applications, which I don't think anybody enjoys. Before that she was at Colby, and the job was much more teaching focused, with research a small part of it.

I suspect it's a bit different in the humanities, but I don't really know. I often imagined that my quasi-retired job could be teaching business law to business undergrads. Nobody would expect you to publish anything. My UConn business law professor was exactly that, a retired lawyer from New York City. I'm not sure such jobs actually still exist.

I'm sure they do exist because they are contingent! Short contracts.

I was largely responding to Subbabub's posts about what it's like in the private sector outside academia and how academics don't take that into account when they bemoan what has happened to universities.

The old university doesn't exist anymore, talk of tenure is quaint, and it's almost as if I had said a few years ago that it's much better in the private sector where you can get a job in middle management at GM sneakily pushing paper that does nothing as you bide your time. But that world doesn't exist any more either.

I will say though that I have friends and family that describe some jobs by superiors as being full of nothing but hot air--so somewhere there are still plenty of bullspit jobs out there. The late David Graeber wrote a book about them.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

and then there is the very real reality for this, and many other careers, called
'zoomworld.' many perfesser type friends,
last spring - 'i luv teaching in my undershorts!'
now - 'i despise teaching in my undershorts!'

 

[HuskyHawk]

I'm sure they do exist because they are contingent! Short contracts.

I was largely responding to Subbabub's posts about what it's like in the private sector outside academia and how academics don't take that into account when they bemoan what has happened to universities.

The old university doesn't exist anymore, talk of tenure is quaint, and it's almost as if I had said a few years ago that it's much better in the private sector where you can get a job in middle management at GM sneakily pushing paper that does nothing as you bide your time. But that world doesn't exist any more either.

I will say though that I have friends and family that describe some jobs by superiors as being full of nothing but hot air--so somewhere there are still plenty of bullspit jobs out there. The late David Graeber wrote a book about them.

I don't see much of it in the private sector. I would suggest that those rank and file folks who see management doing nothing don't know what management does. They don't know what those people's bosses are asking of them. Sometimes it isn't obvious.

There are very few free rides out there anymore in any sector, would be my guess.