In the past few days, comments on this blog by John Rapko and others together with the news I have had of the experiences and career problems of former students have reminded me once again of how fortunate I was to pursue a career in the Academy during what will certainly be looked back on in the future as the golden years of the American academic profession. I have on several occasions observed that when I went to college in 1950 only five percent of American adults had college degrees whereas now a third do. The enormous expansion of higher education in America after the Second World War created for a time an insatiable demand for professors. Graduate students in elite philosophy departments were getting tenure track job offers before they were ABD! The expansion of the Academy also created a market for academic books which made it almost impossible for publishers to lose money on them. Virtually any academic book would sell enough copies to college libraries and the extended family of the author to enable the publishers to break even. Editors would visit campuses and ask professors whether they had ideas for books, for which they would then write contracts on the basis of a one-page prospectus. At the better colleges and universities, the teaching load was “two and two” which meant two courses a semester. Thus a full-time job consisted of teaching six hours a week, 32 weeks a year.
Before the second world war, during the depression, there
were very few academic jobs with the result that in a high school like the one to
which I went in New York City, a number of the teachers had doctorates and
would in better times have pursued careers at the college level. Now, if what I
have read is correct, as many as two thirds of the courses offered in colleges
and universities in America are taught by adjunct or part-time instructors who
are paid a pittance and have no healthcare or pension benefits.
Naturally we all thought we were brilliant but in the words
of the old saying, we had been born on third and thought we had hit a triple.
The Cold War was important too, wasn't it?
ReplyDeleteI recall that when I entered graduate school in 1969, I had a National Defense fellowship which not only paid my tuition, but also something like 200 dollars a month for me to live on, more or less 2000 dollars in today's money, enough to rent a room, buy books and eat.
Those fellowships were widely available to anyone with decent grades and decent test scores.
I suppose that the purpose of such fellowships was to promote and finance studies in the sciences and technology to "beat the Russians", but I studied English and Comparative Literature and there was no problem getting one in that field.
Very important. And enough money slopped over into the libraries that they could afford to buy virtually any academic book that was published.
ReplyDeleteI have on several occasions observed that when I went to college in 1950 only five percent of American adults had college degrees whereas now a third do.
ReplyDeleteThat probably explains this:
Is the college wealth premium *zero*?
Now this one is a stunner:
The college income premium—the extra income earned by a family headed by a college gra duate over an otherwise similar family without a bachelor’s degree—remains positive but has declined for recent graduates. The college wealth premium (extra wealth) has declined more noticeably among all cohorts born after 1940. Among non-Hispanic white family heads born in the 1980s, the college wealth premium is at a historic low; among all other races and ethnicities, it is statistically indistinguishable from zero [emphasis added]. Using variables available for the first time in the 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances, we find that controlling for the education of one’s parents reduces our estimates of college and postgraduate income and wealth premiums by 8 to 18 percent. Controlling also for measures of a respondent’s financial acumen—which may be partly innate—, our estimates of the value added bycollege and a postgraduate degree fall by 30 to 60 percent. Taken together, our results suggest that college and post-graduate education may be failing some recent graduates as a financial investment. We explore a variety of explanations and conclude that falling college wealth premiums may be due to the luck of when you were born, financial liberalization and the rising cost of higher education.
Tyler Cowen's article has a link to the study:
Is the college wealth premium *zero*?
Professor Wolff --
ReplyDeleteGreat post. When I think back to the 50s and 60s, yes, it was the heyday of academic jobs. It is a vastly different world now. Many colleges and universities are in the process of phasing out the tenure system -- or at least severely limiting who qualifies for it. Outside of academia, mid-level jobs are not simply phasing out pensions but eliminating them altogether. There are several reasons for this trend. From what I gather, the chief cause is the ascendence and integration of neoliberal economic policies throughout the greater economy. These policies, once perceived of as radical or unthinkable during the Eisenhower years, have now become "normalized." It is important to note that this normalization began at the end of the Carter Administration (initiated by Fed Chair Paul Volcker who stayed on under Reagan) and aggressively ramped up during the Reagan years. This trend also accelerated under the two Bush's, but was nurtured and maintained under Clinton, Obama, Trump, and now Biden. Add this to the refusal of most world governments to seriously make an effort to deal with encroaching climate change and our future looks quite bleak. Oh well. I would like to try and do something about it but have to go to work now. You know -- the sink or swim thing and all that.
-- Jim