Perception of Academia

I know that all of you must have encountered this in some form or other from someone in your life (I remember Kathleen blogging about it at some point): the perception that you have an easy life. A few days ago, I was trying to find something to listen to on the car radio and came across a sports talk channel. The host was talking about jobs which you would not want to retire from because they are easy. To his credit, being a radio sports talk host was on that list but so was “being a college professor.” This is how he summed up our profession: it pays $100,000 a year, you get summers off, you teach 2-3 hours a day and the rest of the time is yours. Oh, and according to this guy, you can also hit on co-eds!!! Why would you want to retire if you have a cushy job like that? No need to summarize what is left off the list: committee meetings, advising, grading, answering emails, prepping, publishing etc. To say nothing of the fact that I certainly do not make anywhere close to $100,000 a year and summers are usually spent trying to do the research I could not cram in all year. (I am not even going to demean myself by addressing the sleazy comment about co-eds).

I have to say that I love the flexibility of my work schedule and I do love the job. But I hate this perception that as academics, we can fit anyone and anything into our schedules. Family and friends (not in academia) always tell me: “Come one, you can do this. Why not? You have the time.” Academics do not have unlimited amounts of time. The time that they do not spend in their offices or in the classrooms or in meetings are allocated to one big thing: research and publication. It is like having a perpetual job which you can never finish. It is true that we can probably be more flexible than most people but that does not mean that we have nothing to do. It means that for every non-academic task I add to my list, I have to find time for the academic task later.

I found this wonderful article on The Chronicle today. I am planning to send it to all my non-academic friends and my entire family. It explains that academics need to do research and writing – this is the least visible part of their job. But it also explains why people do not understand that part. It is because research is unlike all other jobs. When you are reading in a coffee shop curled up in a comfy chair, people see you as spending a nice lazy day reading in a coffee shop. And on a workday, no less!!!!! Yet, academics consider that working hard. And that disjunction of perception remains very difficult to bridge. Read the article – I am sure you will empathize.