The (academic) job system and the economy, stupid; or, Should a friend let a friend get a Ph.D.?

Academe

Volumn 82, Issue 5, 1996, Pages 12-15

  Gilbert, Sandra M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0030242117     PISSN: 01902946     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/40250983     Document Type: Article

References (9)

1. To be equally anecdotal, I must confess that I don't know any such person and am inclined to challenge Nelson to document his extraordinary claim. In any case, besides the fact that it seems to me to be (at the least) misleading, I don't think Nelson's assertion will do workers in higher education much good on the floors of state legislatures, where similarly hyperbolic statements (of the sort made by, e.g., Charles J. Sykes in Profscam: Professors and the Demise of Higher Education [Washington, D.C.: 1988]) are often taken all too seriously.
2. For serious studies of the job market, see, for instance, Bettina J. Huber, "The MLA's 1993-94 Survey of Ph.D. Placement: The Latest English Findings and Trends Through Time," ADE Bulletin 112 (Winter 1995): 40-51; Huber, "The MLA's 1993-94 Survey of Ph.D. Placement: The Latest Foreign Language Findings and Trends Through Time," ADFL Bulletin 27.3: 58-75; Huber, "Recent trends in the Modern Language Job Market," Profession 94 (1994): 87-105; Linda Ingram, Prudence Brown, and Susan Mitchell, Humanities Doctorates in the United States: 1993 Profile (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1995); Robert O. Simmons and Delores H. Thurgood, Summary Report 1994: Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1995); and Lewis C. Solomon, Underemployed Ph.D.'s (Lexington, Mass.: Heath, 1981).
3. For serious studies of the job market, see, for instance, Bettina J. Huber, "The MLA's 1993-94 Survey of Ph.D. Placement: The Latest English Findings and Trends Through Time," ADE Bulletin 112 (Winter 1995): 40-51; Huber, "The MLA's 1993-94 Survey of Ph.D. Placement: The Latest Foreign Language Findings and Trends Through Time," ADFL Bulletin 27.3: 58-75; Huber, "Recent trends in the Modern Language Job Market," Profession 94 (1994): 87-105; Linda Ingram, Prudence Brown, and Susan Mitchell, Humanities Doctorates in the United States: 1993 Profile (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1995); Robert O. Simmons and Delores H. Thurgood, Summary Report 1994: Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1995); and Lewis C. Solomon, Underemployed Ph.D.'s (Lexington, Mass.: Heath, 1981).
4. For serious studies of the job market, see, for instance, Bettina J. Huber, "The MLA's 1993-94 Survey of Ph.D. Placement: The Latest English Findings and Trends Through Time," ADE Bulletin 112 (Winter 1995): 40-51; Huber, "The MLA's 1993-94 Survey of Ph.D. Placement: The Latest Foreign Language Findings and Trends Through Time," ADFL Bulletin 27.3: 58-75; Huber, "Recent trends in the Modern Language Job Market," Profession 94 (1994): 87-105; Linda Ingram, Prudence Brown, and Susan Mitchell, Humanities Doctorates in the United States: 1993 Profile (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1995); Robert O. Simmons and Delores H. Thurgood, Summary Report 1994: Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1995); and Lewis C. Solomon, Underemployed Ph.D.'s (Lexington, Mass.: Heath, 1981).
5. For serious studies of the job market, see, for instance, Bettina J. Huber, "The MLA's 1993-94 Survey of Ph.D. Placement: The Latest English Findings and Trends Through Time," ADE Bulletin 112 (Winter 1995): 40-51; Huber, "The MLA's 1993-94 Survey of Ph.D. Placement: The Latest Foreign Language Findings and Trends Through Time," ADFL Bulletin 27.3: 58-75; Huber, "Recent trends in the Modern Language Job Market," Profession 94 (1994): 87-105; Linda Ingram, Prudence Brown, and Susan Mitchell, Humanities Doctorates in the United States: 1993 Profile (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1995); Robert O. Simmons and Delores H. Thurgood, Summary Report 1994: Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1995); and Lewis C. Solomon, Underemployed Ph.D.'s (Lexington, Mass.: Heath, 1981).
6. For serious studies of the job market, see, for instance, Bettina J. Huber, "The MLA's 1993-94 Survey of Ph.D. Placement: The Latest English Findings and Trends Through Time," ADE Bulletin 112 (Winter 1995): 40-51; Huber, "The MLA's 1993-94 Survey of Ph.D. Placement: The Latest Foreign Language Findings and Trends Through Time," ADFL Bulletin 27.3: 58-75; Huber, "Recent trends in the Modern Language Job Market," Profession 94 (1994): 87-105; Linda Ingram, Prudence Brown, and Susan Mitchell, Humanities Doctorates in the United States: 1993 Profile (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1995); Robert O. Simmons and Delores H. Thurgood, Summary Report 1994: Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1995); and Lewis C. Solomon, Underemployed Ph.D.'s (Lexington, Mass.: Heath, 1981).
7. For serious studies of the job market, see, for instance, Bettina J. Huber, "The MLA's 1993-94 Survey of Ph.D. Placement: The Latest English Findings and Trends Through Time," ADE Bulletin 112 (Winter 1995): 40-51; Huber, "The MLA's 1993-94 Survey of Ph.D. Placement: The Latest Foreign Language Findings and Trends Through Time," ADFL Bulletin 27.3: 58-75; Huber, "Recent trends in the Modern Language Job Market," Profession 94 (1994): 87-105; Linda Ingram, Prudence Brown, and Susan Mitchell, Humanities Doctorates in the United States: 1993 Profile (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1995); Robert O. Simmons and Delores H. Thurgood, Summary Report 1994: Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1995); and Lewis C. Solomon, Underemployed Ph.D.'s (Lexington, Mass.: Heath, 1981).
8. To emphasize the context that fosters such academic downsizing, Wall Street Journal reporter Tony Horwitz quotes in this article the president of a small Southern college, who explains the "financial crunch" she faces "with the business-world language that has become common among college administrators. 'It's the same here as at IBM or AT&T,' she says. 'I've got to have a slimmer staff. I've got to produce more with what I have, and I've got to market aggressively.'"
9. During the job crisis of the Seventies, the MLA prepared a career guide for Ph.D.'s in language and literature, which currently contains a chapter on nonacademic employment. Now underway, a new revision will offer an expanded chapter on the subject, written by Howard Figler, the consultant who conducts a nonacademic job clinic at the Annual Convention. For an account of similar projects that have been undertaken in the sciences and mathematics, see Sheila Tobias, Daryl E. Chubin, and Kevin Aylesworth, "Chutes and Ladders," The Sciences (July/August 1996): 17-21.