How to Survive in Academia
July 21, 1995
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SOCGRAD MINI-LECTURES
by
T. R. Young
The Red Feather Institute
INTRODUCTION: In response to an invitation from John Leggett, Rutgers, I set forth the rules for radical, activist scholarship which have developed out of some 30 years of teaching and organizing at the various universities with which I have been associated. Leggett's particular charge was to discuss the difficulties and stresses of being/doing activist work. I am pleased to do so. These are set forth in no particular order nor carry no special weight; each person should reflect and consider which and when to use each 'rule' in each situated occasion. These worked well for me.
I had put the paper away years ago but some months ago, a grad student wrote and asked me to give her and another friend some advice about how to survive in traditional/conservative sociology departments. I am pleased to do so.
TRY...28 Sept., 2000
Sources of Hostile and Discriminatory Activity:
1. The Profession: The profession is comprized of several sets of conflicting and overlapping points of view/paradigms which filter the articles, papers and books as they are generated. The Profession is , however, dominated by a sociology which fits into the social views of those who govern universities and who provide federal and private financial support...i.e., those who do well in the established class, gender, racial and ethnic stratifications. One must expect considerable hostility to radical scholarship since it challenges the very sources of support of the profession.
I found that it was easier to publish in International journals than in domestic journals. But I entered academia during the 60's when conferences and caucuses were much more open to critical, marxist, feminist theory than earlier decades. Since then, new journals have appeared and old journals have changed both editors and editorial policy...it is easier to survive in terms of both teaching and publishing in YK2000 than in YK1950.
Then too, I founded the Red Feather Institute in 1971 to do the things in academia I could not do at university or at scholarly conferences. 'Twas easy to do...and most satisfying...founders of the Insurgent Sociologist at U/Oregon and Telos Magazine at U/Washington, St. Louis did the same in the same year...serendity, No; social forces, Yes.
2. The Administration: The administration is charged with both facilitating the knowledge process and with keeping it safely within the boundaries congenial to those who govern and fund the university. One can expect hostility from the administration if and only if one challenges specific interests close to home.
As long as I confined my critique to class, race, gender and national structures of domination, I found mostly benign neglect. When I sent my stratification students out to check on patterns of local racism and class privilege; when I asked students to check out the racism and sexism in the classes and courses at Colorado State University, I was beneficiary to considerable attention. I found myself no longer scheduled to teach Stratification Theory...instead, a nice, safe faculty member was assigned to teach it. I presume that the Head of the Department talked to him; he certainly didn't talk to me.
3. The Department: the department depends upon the good will of Deans and Presidents for resources; radical professors are a continuing liability to those resources.
I was never elected to any office and often the subject of animus within the department per se. As long as the department was comprized of Social Work, Sociology and Anthropology, I found myself on Committees and could count on winning votes in departmental meetings...when only sociologists were in our department, I found myself isolated in every meeting.
To deal with this, I made contacts with a lot of faculty in a lot of other departments and worked with them outside of the administrative structure in teach-ins, demonstrations, ad hoc meetings, college programs we organized ourselves and, in a number of direct confrontations of racism, sexism and anti-war movements.
I found too, that the Faculty Grievance Procedure was a powerful in-house tool; I was faculty counsel in a dozen significant cases involving racism, sexism and authoritarian administrators...and enjoyed every minute.
4. The Faculty: in every department there are those who are jealous, careerist, competitive and/or opponents in scholarly terms. The sociology department of Colorado State University was no exception. I was surprized to find, many years after I left, that some faculty were intimidated by me and were very anxious about my role in the department...I brought some of that on myself but, most of the time got along well enough with most of the faculty. I did, however, decline the idea that the department give a reception when I left. We held one at the Lincoln Center in Ft. Collins, the invitation list of which did not include many sociologists; Jack Brouilette, Stan Eitzen and one or two others plus a few grad students.
5. The Community: There were several groups in Ft. Collins which viewed radical professors as a liability; some rightly so. Some of us used foul language, seduced the students sexually, were abusive and abrasive at home and work.
However, most of us were quiet enough and clean enough to escape most community hostility.
But, in order to function in the community, I made alliance with the local clergy; priests, nuns, ministers and lay persons to good advantage; indeed, I found myself marching more with clerics than with marxists.
Then too, my family and I moved up to Red Feather and were integrated nicely within that small mountain town. Most of our social life centered around the village school, a one-room school house and the local tavern where we played pinochle every Friday night with our neighbors.
6. The Governing Board. This bunch of minor party hacks and retired state functionaries were a real problem. They tried to fire me twice and reduced the salary recommendations which came from faculty and administration.
I soon found that it was necessary to campaign each time a Board position came open. I wrote dozens of letters to every liberal, feminist, and minority organization informing them of the opening and suggesting they decide on someone to support. The Governor appointed these people. After ten years, we had younger, more liberal and fewer middle class white males on the Board. I ceased having trouble with the Board.
7. Vested Interests: Racists and sexists were not a great problem in the colleges towns and universities cities in which I worked; those who owned the town and controlled the state were.
One can't do much to change the ownership and political hegemony of banks, companies, and old boy networks but there are ways to minimize one's vulnerability and neutralize that animosity with support from within the university and community. To do that, one must consider the following rules:
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Survival in the Jungles of Academia:
A. Tend to the scholarly part of your life; one cannot be a scholar-activist unless one is first a scholar. Besides the great joy in learning and teaching which is the heart of scholarly endeavor, there is the added protection of a decent Resumé with which to defend oneself against reactionaries and administrative functionaries who must bear the brunt of anger and outrage from local elites who object to challenge of their class, racist and/or gender privileges.
B. Tend to the teaching and counseling parts of your academic life. Students are the source, strength and raison d'etre of radical activist scholarship. Infuse each class and each lecture with carefully prepared, grounded, understandable arguments for social justice, gender equalities and democratic forms of social organization; against the pretensions of racism; against the claims for stratification and hierarchy and for the rights of people to critique and to change the societies into which they are born. The counselling part of radical activism is equally important. Students will bring to you both private and public grievances. Sometimes they will turn to you for academic help; sometimes for political aid in the face of unfair practices in other classes; sometimes with financial problems; sometimes with family/relationship problems. Each such case merits attention and constructive/supportive help.
In my experience however, I found that as many faculty and sometimes staff came seeking aid and advice as did students. I have called other professors on behalf of students; I have lent them money; I have confronted abusive house-mates; on two occasions, I 'loaned' students a grade for a semester which was to be paid back immediately in another course the next semester. This is an unpaid and unsung part of the role of the radical activist and should not be set aside as low priority. People come before anything else.
C. Build a social base in the University and in the Community as soon and as extensive as possible. These groups and individuals come to know you as a full human being rather than a name or a cause; in doing so, they will stand up and stand by you in times of trouble from the small, powerful and vocal elites. Faculty Committee work is a good place to establish your credentials as a responsible and dependable voice for affirmative politics. Local voluntary organizations as well as church groups offer a base for progressive politics. In addition to these groups, for years, I wrote an occasional column in the university newspaper which grounded my credentials as an asset to the life of the university.
D. Bringing it Home. It is easy to be a radical scholar when one focusses upon distant nations or upon other regions in the country. Criticism of the Soviet Union, however well deserved, resonates with short term American elitist interests. One will find praise or benign disinterest in the criticism of racism in South Africa. Even opposition to American intervention in Nicaragua or Cuba is safe enough since it does not offer immediate and direct challenge to power and privilege at home. The radical, progressive scholar will have to find the time and justifications for activism on campus and in the local community. Through the years, I have been active in the campus feminist movement, the student power movement and the civil rights movements, the anti-war movement and draft counselling on campus. In the community, I have been part of the effort to extend city services to minority areas within city limits as well as action to stop police harassment of minority youth.
E. Life Style. Ralph Nader used to tell young people who chided him about his conservative suits and ties, that if they wanted people to listen to them, they would have to avoid unnecessary antagonisms. Early on, I observed that the radical faculty who earned most of the obloquy and animus of the administration were those who dressed oddly, smoked funny stuff and said the f-word whenever possible. My advice to young activists is: pay your bills, mow your lawn, cut your hair, minimize profanity and write thank-you notes. Some sacrifices have to be made.
F. Keep a Sense of Humor. Humor, drollery and a sense of the comedic will serve one well; too often radicals are strident and mean-spirited. Once, when asked to address a student gathering in protest of C.I.A. recruiting, in my turn, I praised the C.I.A. as a good place to work; lots of opportunity to commit crime without fear of punishment, opportunity to travel to far away places and subvert student groups abroad; good pay and a good pension plan. I urged every student present [over 200] to go immediately to the room where the C.I.A. was interviewing people and get in front of the line. Another time, when the university announced it would sub-contract students services to private business as a way to save money, I applauded the idea and suggested that the dorms be converted into fornicatoria, the football stadium flooded and made into a gigantic hot tub for nudists [separate beaches for students and faculty, of course], and an a faculty auction for places in classes with large demand...such as mine.
G. Be prepared to be fired. I was fired six times. After the first three firings, I went back to university for 'higher' degrees thinking they would protect me. They didn't.
I kept in mind the possibility that I would have to work outside of academia. I told my good wife, Dorothy, that if worse came to worse, we would go to Baltimore and sell watermelons. It didn't come to that but I was prepared.
H. There is some physical danger one must keep in the back of one's mind.
During anti-war/anti-racism activities, one becomes target to hate groups. I had several pieces of hate mail, a bomb threat or two and one effort to do me physical harm...lucked out on that one.
In Uganda, the physical danger was much more real. Those of us involved in an underground circle to discredit Idi Amin and get support for displaced 'asians' were especially vulnerable. Lots of stories from that year. Someday, I will publish my Journal and tell all these stories from Academia and Uganda.
All in all, being a radical is most rewarding;
As Chaucer put it in the Clerk's Tale:
And gladly wold he lerne; and gladly teche.