Professor Damocles

My university administration is planning to cut faculty next year. We don't know who or even how many, but I know my name is on that list somewhere. I'm probably not at the top, but I'm also not at the bottom. I've been here 5 years and (because of maternity leave) I'm coming up for tenure the year after next. I teach in a department of five with some service courses and never enough majors. The courses I teach are all for majors, though one doubles as a service course for a handful of other, larger majors. If the administration chose to cut our program, three of us would become somewhat redundant and might be cut down to two. The main thing going for me in that scenario is that I'm likely the cheapest of the three to keep.

My university is, for the moment at least, in decent financial shape. We just don't expect to have enough enrollment this fall to support the size of our faculty and staff. Staff have already been furloughed and let go. Our outgoing president wants to abide by the existing faculty contracts signed just before the pandemic storm hit us, so no faculty cuts this year. But this knowledge looms over all of our discussions now: faculty cuts are coming.

These cuts are impersonal, and because they will be done to save the university money, we will probably not get an additional year to stay on. We could be cut in March, right before contracts are sent out. Academic hiring is seasonal: ads are posted in the fall and winter, interviews happen through winter and spring, decisions are made before spring semester ends. To find yourself in March expecting to be jobless in May is to anticipate an entire year out of academic work.

But it's worse than that right now because we are not the only university going through this anxious process. Anyone cut from the faculty will find themselves with plenty of company; plenty of competition. For many faculty, with myself very possibly included, these cuts will be the end of their academic careers.

I could be sad about this prospect, but instead I feel free. I am anxious now, and if I am cut from the faculty, I will grieve, to be sure. But if I will be fired in March and dropped into a dismal job market, what other professional harm can anyone do me?

I am resolved to enjoy what may be my last year of teaching. I am planning to pull out whatever stops are left and just have fun. The awesomest seven-year postdoc comes to mind now. Even one year of job security is more than most people get these days, and I will have had six. I am grateful for it, and I won't let it go to waste.