I have been reading the exchange about advising students who have ambitions to
enter the profession. I have two students who recently approached me for such
advice. One I gave lukewarm encouragement; I did so because I did not think
she truly wanted to "profess history" at the university-level. (She was facing
graduation without job prospects and obviously considered this an alternative
to searching for employment). The other I urged to pursue gradaute education
beacuse this was her life ambition; she intended to pursue this course of
action regardless of my encouragement--or discouragement--or the likelihood of
unemployment at the end of the course. I take my cue in advising such
students from them, not from my "prediction" of what the market would be in
five or six years. (In my first meeting with my graduate adviser he told me
there were no jobs. That was in 1979).
In my own job search, I have to say that I was not prepared for what the
market really looks like. That is, professors at graduate institutions tend
to prepare their students for the kind of jobs they hold, i.e. those at
research-oriented schools. But such jobs are few when compared to those
available at hundreds of other colleges and universities. While I have
published a monograph during my time here, such publication was not an
expectation for tenure or promotion. The decision on tenure here is based
primarily on teaching (70% for teaching and 10% for "service to community").
"Scholarly activity" is the remaining 20% and is broadly defined; it usually
is considered to mean attendance at conferences, giving a paper or two, and
"keeping current in the field." (With a 12-hour load and 120 students per
semester, even the latter can prove extremely difficult).
A final point concerns the other expectations that colleges may have. My
school purports to be a "premier teaching institution that combines the best
of the liberal arts with professional education" and seeks to maintain a
"consistently caring Christian environment (_sic_)." Leaving that problematic
vision statement aside, I have to say that Belmont does not seek to impose any
creed or attempt to limit academic freedom in any way. But a certain
"lifestyle" (most faculty follow Mrs. Patrick Campbell's advice on this point)
is expected and some religous commitment (now rather ambiguous, though it
seems to imply membership in a church). None of these issues was ever raised
by any of my graduate advisors, which is why I mention them to prospective
graduate students/ABD's/recent Ph.D.'s now.
Doug Bisson
Belmont University
bissond@belmont.edu