When people discover that I 'only work for a college' I can see their esteem of me drop. I remind myself that they have a misapprehension of how higher education actually works, and that's the rubric on which they rank me. I'm 'only' part of a state/community college, which means I'm 'not as prestigious or successful' as my university counterparts. These people don't really understand what education is all about. Keep in mind these details are not universal to every person at every institution or every institution as a whole. These observations are drawn from personal experience and conversations with individuals in education.
State colleges exist to advance students. Universities exist to advance their faculty. University success has become a corporation, such that their sports teams, their research, and their faculty are put together in order to drive in donations and business partnerships meant to enlarge their stature and justify ever increasingly exorbitant expense to students. Notice, for example, that we do not have a football team or a stadium or any of the exorbitant costs in manpower or materials necessary to shoulder that type of endeavor. We lack research facilities and grants and famous faculty. Our emphasis is like that of all state colleges and community colleges to prepare students for jobs.
This semester, the university here cut sections. We raised ours to accomodate the students. Although there was no net change in total cost (we're part of the state higher education system, and so when you come here the taxpayers subsidize more of the cost), the students can take our classes for about half of what it costs them at the 'university'. This will save the students money and still allow them avail themselves of access to education since we have the facilities and materials to accomodate the influx. That's not always the case and not something for which I was actually prepared, but I am glad to be of service to more students even if I'm not on the front line of instruction.
There are great differences in the instruction and instructional quality between the two tiers of higher education. I attended a small state university where the departmental faculty were still personally invested in us personally. When the Biochemistry department discovered I was not bound for medical school, I immediately became their favorite. My advisor, who was also the dean ironically, bent over backwards to accomodate me, as I was one of their brightest and best prepared students ever, and he still is willing to go to bat and 'bust heads' if I need his help, even if I notify him just a day before I need his help. They were 'big enough to challenge and small enough to care'. Ask my students that I've had as a graduate teaching assistant and as an adjunct professor. One of them told me last fall "I could tell at the end of class that you were there for your students". My major professor was an exception to some of the rules. He actually got out and did research on the bench and in the field with us instead of just writing grants and papers in his office, but he hated teaching, and I taught large swaths of his class when he would leave town for conferences and meetings. Contrast that with larger and more prestigious schools where large bodies of undergraduates are taught by graduate students who themselves passed the class a year prior when the students expect to benefit from tutelage from leaders in the field on staff who are too busy in research to bother with teaching.
Why did I choose the State College? It offers me the lifestyle and work style that gives me the most satisfaction and happiness in life. One reason I originally opted out of a PhD is that in order to become faculty at a University, I would have to do research. I liked the research, but most of the professors I knew spent most of their time doing paperwork and took credit for the cheap labor performed by their graduate students. I discovered when I was forced to teach in order to graduate that I enjoyed that part of graduate school the most. So, I will go get a PhD now and compete for a regular faculty position at the state college tier instead where teaching is our prime directive. Additionally, we have a different type of student here. We take the second chancers, people who are retooling their lives or missed the chance when they were younger. Although some of them have different distractions, many of them are motivated to succeed and make a better life for themselves, and we even have high school students trying to graduate faster by taking our classes for dual credit. Many of our faculty love teaching and care about their students. Many faculty I knew in grad school loved the subject but not necessarily those to whom they subjected the subject.
I love my job. It gives me a sense of purpose and fulfillment, and I look forward to Mondays so I can return to work and maybe make a difference. I will never be famous or cure cancer or file a patent or get a multi-million dollar grant, but my job provides satisfaction of soul, sufficient compensation, latitude to expand myself, and happiness that comes from peace. Plus, I am able to go home after work and leave work there so that I can pursue my happiness outside of work doing other things I enjoy. I work to live, and I love to live, and what's more, I enjoy my work, so it's a win-win however you look at it. When your daughter considers whom to marry, it's more important to find someone who loves their job for the work than the pay.
My college has class, and I like it. Thank God I applied for this job!
State colleges exist to advance students. Universities exist to advance their faculty. University success has become a corporation, such that their sports teams, their research, and their faculty are put together in order to drive in donations and business partnerships meant to enlarge their stature and justify ever increasingly exorbitant expense to students. Notice, for example, that we do not have a football team or a stadium or any of the exorbitant costs in manpower or materials necessary to shoulder that type of endeavor. We lack research facilities and grants and famous faculty. Our emphasis is like that of all state colleges and community colleges to prepare students for jobs.
This semester, the university here cut sections. We raised ours to accomodate the students. Although there was no net change in total cost (we're part of the state higher education system, and so when you come here the taxpayers subsidize more of the cost), the students can take our classes for about half of what it costs them at the 'university'. This will save the students money and still allow them avail themselves of access to education since we have the facilities and materials to accomodate the influx. That's not always the case and not something for which I was actually prepared, but I am glad to be of service to more students even if I'm not on the front line of instruction.
There are great differences in the instruction and instructional quality between the two tiers of higher education. I attended a small state university where the departmental faculty were still personally invested in us personally. When the Biochemistry department discovered I was not bound for medical school, I immediately became their favorite. My advisor, who was also the dean ironically, bent over backwards to accomodate me, as I was one of their brightest and best prepared students ever, and he still is willing to go to bat and 'bust heads' if I need his help, even if I notify him just a day before I need his help. They were 'big enough to challenge and small enough to care'. Ask my students that I've had as a graduate teaching assistant and as an adjunct professor. One of them told me last fall "I could tell at the end of class that you were there for your students". My major professor was an exception to some of the rules. He actually got out and did research on the bench and in the field with us instead of just writing grants and papers in his office, but he hated teaching, and I taught large swaths of his class when he would leave town for conferences and meetings. Contrast that with larger and more prestigious schools where large bodies of undergraduates are taught by graduate students who themselves passed the class a year prior when the students expect to benefit from tutelage from leaders in the field on staff who are too busy in research to bother with teaching.
Why did I choose the State College? It offers me the lifestyle and work style that gives me the most satisfaction and happiness in life. One reason I originally opted out of a PhD is that in order to become faculty at a University, I would have to do research. I liked the research, but most of the professors I knew spent most of their time doing paperwork and took credit for the cheap labor performed by their graduate students. I discovered when I was forced to teach in order to graduate that I enjoyed that part of graduate school the most. So, I will go get a PhD now and compete for a regular faculty position at the state college tier instead where teaching is our prime directive. Additionally, we have a different type of student here. We take the second chancers, people who are retooling their lives or missed the chance when they were younger. Although some of them have different distractions, many of them are motivated to succeed and make a better life for themselves, and we even have high school students trying to graduate faster by taking our classes for dual credit. Many of our faculty love teaching and care about their students. Many faculty I knew in grad school loved the subject but not necessarily those to whom they subjected the subject.
I love my job. It gives me a sense of purpose and fulfillment, and I look forward to Mondays so I can return to work and maybe make a difference. I will never be famous or cure cancer or file a patent or get a multi-million dollar grant, but my job provides satisfaction of soul, sufficient compensation, latitude to expand myself, and happiness that comes from peace. Plus, I am able to go home after work and leave work there so that I can pursue my happiness outside of work doing other things I enjoy. I work to live, and I love to live, and what's more, I enjoy my work, so it's a win-win however you look at it. When your daughter considers whom to marry, it's more important to find someone who loves their job for the work than the pay.
My college has class, and I like it. Thank God I applied for this job!
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