Oct 06 2016
Five Myths about Professors
I have often questioned whether the general public or even university students really know what it is like to be a professor. I think that our profession is viewed as a collection of “egg heads” that work in (if I may use the platitude) an “Ivory Tower”, completely oblivious to the world outside the brick and mortar of our university campuses. The fact is that popular media, movies, and other outlets misrepresent the role of the university professor, often relying on a number of stereotypes that have been propagated for several years. So, then, you may ask, “What is a professor?” I will attempt to shed some light on this question in an effort to give you an opportunity to perhaps gain some level of empathy, if not sympathy, over the plight of the academic by addressing a number of myths.
Myth 1: Professors are just teachers
First of all, I want to begin by saying that teaching is a noble profession and that to say someone is “just a teacher” minimizes the importance and impact that teachers can have. If you haven’t ever read or seen the poem by Slam poet Taylor Mali entitled “What Teachers Make”, click on this link. That being said, it perhaps would surprise you to know that professors receive very little training on how to teach before they are hired “to teach”. The reality is that in graduate school, these “professors-in-training” were educated to become experts in a scholarly discipline via research that attempts to solve some interesting problem. While we may have gained experience in as a teaching assistant, or in the best case, as an instructor in some course, we do not typically receive instruction on how to teach or on how to apply (or even the existence of) different pedagogical methods.
I think that it is more accurate to say that a professor is a disciplinary expert that is called to be a teacher-scholar. Specifically, we engage in activities to both create new knowledge (i.e., we do research) AND communicate disciplinary knowledge through educating students. If you look at the set of people that professors might speak to in a given week, you’ll find that we’re meeting with students, companies, alumni, librarians, staff, etc., on a broad range of topics as a service to the university and community. So, you can say that we teach, but that would only be half of the story.
Myth 2: Professors only work two (2) to three (3) days a week
I once had someone from outside the profession say that their own job was really stressful and that they wanted to just go to a university and teach because it is one of the easiest jobs. “Professors only work two or three days a week!” Certainly, this is uninformed at best because it ignores a lot of factors such as preparation time (at least 1-2 hours per credit hour), office hours (at least .5 hours per credit hour), and the ever dreaded grading (at least 1-2 hours per credit hour). For a 6 credit hour workload, I expect that professors are working at least 20 hours per week, unless they are doing more prep work or more importantly spending time learning more about the courses they are teaching. As for stress, a professor teaching courses works must meet a series of micro-deadlines for 60 to 120 or more different “bosses” (e.g., students) that expect that their individual needs are being met. Finally, if I sufficiently convinced you that professors are not “just teachers” (like that is a bad thing), then you also understand that much of the rest of the week is occupied with research and service. I claim that being a professor is actually a very stressful job. I’ve met many a professor whose marriage has been put to the test because of the amount of time that colleague has had to put into research, publishing, teaching and service all so they can get tenure.
Myth 3: Professors “teach” because they can’t “do”
In many ways, the professorate and academy has lost its place in society – we struggle to be relevant and we’ve lost the position of “honor” that we once held. There was a time when being a professor meant something to the general public. The academy was where the nation turned when grand challenge problems needed to be solved. For instance, during the time of the JFK and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations, professors served prominent roles in the cabinet. In addition, going back to the turn of the 20th century, Woodrow Wilson was himself professor and former president of Princeton University. During World War II, the British and US governments turned to university professors and researchers to solve the pressing scientific and engineering problems needed to defeat the regimes of Nazy Germany and Imperial Japan. More recently, Condalezza Rice (former Provost of Stanford University) served as Senior Director of Soviet and East European Affairs in George H.W. Bush’s administration and then later as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State under George W. Bush. Finally, it is probably a little known fact that President Barack Obama was once lecturer and then senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.
My last institution has been experiencing a severe “brain drain” as faculty have defected from the academy to high-tech stalwarts such as Google which really belies the notion that professors can’t “do”. For me, a more accurate representation of the why professors work in the academy is found in this XKCD comic: https://xkcd.com/664/. Specifically, we become professors because we seek a freedom to explore and create while also nurturing young adults to become the next generation of leaders.
Myth 4: All professors are the “same”
Did you know that there are a bunch of different titles for professors? Within academic circles, the following titles exist: Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, and Instructor. These roles can be on tenured, tenure-track, or non-tenure track. Furthermore, other titles are provided to administrators such as Dean, Associate Dean, Provost, Associate Provost, and Chair.
So, what are these roles? The following table summarizes each:
| Role | Description |
| Assistant Professor | Entry-level tenure-track position. A “fresh” PhD graduate will typically begin their career as an assistant professor. The assistant professor role is a tenure-track position, meaning that the person is eligible to attain tenure (as described below). |
| Associate Professor | This is the second rank that a professor can attain. In most institutions, promotion to associate professor will also come with tenure, whereby the faculty member can retain their position indefinitely, thus providing job security. One of my favorite comics on tenure is here: http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2009/08/16. Unfortunately, a great number of professors never move beyond this ranking. |
| Professor | Also known as “full professor”, is generally the highest rank that a professor can attain when they are on an academic track. In some countries, the notion of professor is meant to identify the most senior, most accomplished person in a department. Similarly, the rank of “Reader” would identify the second most accomplished faculty member. Many institutions have a “Distinguished Professor” ranking that is generally awarded to faculty that have a lifetime record of distinction and is meant for the true superstars of a university. |
| Lecturer | A lecturer is a faculty member whose role is primarily that of a teacher, with little or no research responsibilities. The lecturer usually teaches a full-load of courses (4-5 courses per semester). Lecturer is typically a non-tenure track position but may carry a multi-year, fixed-term contract. Depending on the country, lecturer can mean different things. In some European countries, for instance, Lecturer is the equivalent to assistant professor. |
| Senior Lecturer | In the US, the role of a senior lecturer indicates that the person has consistently performed well as a lecturer and is thus deserved of promotion. In some European countries, senior lecturer is equivalent to the associate professor or professor role. |
| Instructor | An instructor role is typically a lecturer with a single year appointment. |
Some other roles not mentioned above include visiting assistant professor and adjunct professor, both of which are temporary or “contingent” hires. Much has been made of the role of adjunct professor, which is usually reserved for people that teach a single course in any given semester. Their contracts are usually provided semester to semester.
So, how does this play out in practice? Students actually will usually call their professors that have PhDs “doctor” while at the same time they will call non-PhDs “professor”. I somehow have a problem with that. I think that perhaps those non-PhD instructors should be addressed as “mister”, “miss”, “missus” or whatever appropriate respectful title is afforded to that instructor. Definitely someone with a PhD should be addressed as “doctor” and never “hey, you”, “Jerry”, “Jill” or whatever familiar name peers might use.
Myth 5: Computer Science professors are IT experts
Finally, I leave you with this myth. I often receive questions from friends about how to fix their computers. In my case, I have worked as IT support and so I can generally answer their questions. In general, however, many computer scientists do not keep up with latest trends in technologies. Instead, they will apply the approach found in the following XKCD comic: http://xkcd.com/627/.
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