The pressures and joys of academic life: Minority statuses and other considerations∗

This paper represents a revision of a compilation of papers presented at a round table discussion at the 1993 American Society of Criminology Meetings, Phoenix, Arizona.

University faculty are faced with various forms of pressure. For example, one type of strain is generated by personal characteristics of the faculty, notably the ethnic and racial status of faculty, as well as other minority statuses such as gender, age, physical disability, and sexual orientation. Another demand is more organizational and less personal: This is the pressure to engage in “artificial” teaching and research. The prime motivators for poor teaching and inappropriate research is the desire for survival in academia and the need to achieve individualistic rewards allotted or ordained by university administration. In order to survive (be promoted, tenured, reappointed), faculty adopt mainstream teaching topics, seek external funding for research and do whatever it takes to increase and retain student enrollments at the cost of academic excellence. Probably all university settings impose obligations upon faculty. We argue that the degree and type of pressures experienced by faculty varies across universities and depends upon personal characteristics such as gender. The relative freedom and other joys of academic life are discussed, along with coping strategies to relieve pressures.

Keywords:

• Faculty characteristics
• academic life
• tenure/untenured
• minority status
• organizational characteristics

Notes

This paper represents a revision of a compilation of papers presented at a round table discussion at the 1993 American Society of Criminology Meetings, Phoenix, Arizona.