KU LIFE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, July 3, 1996
3B
Ph.D.s don't guarantee jobs
Department of English spending comparison
Continued from page 1B
In the past 10 years, the department of English has increased its reliance on graduate teaching assistants. Many KU departments and other universities have chosen to employ GTAs rather than replace retiring faculty members. This trend has led to a decrease in the number of tenure-track positions available for Ph.D. recipients.
*Total expenditures only include salaries of professors, associate professors, assistant professors and graduate teaching assistants.
Note: All percentages are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
She said she did it because she was a teacher, and because she couldn't survive teaching solely at Kansas.
"I love to teach. It's what I truly love to do," she said. "I don't even know what else I could do."
McClendon's office mate, Betty Campbell, also lectures at Kansas and elsewhere, too. In fact, McClendon said she knows a number of lecturers at Kansas that do it. They're not a rare breed.
Some work other jobs outside of academia to make ends meet, such as washing dishes, she said.
All have to have some other means of income, be it working at another school or scrubbing greasy skilllets at a restaurant.
But McClendon, like the other 23 lecturers in the English department, keeps doing it, for now at least.
Source: University of Kansas Fiscal Year 1996 Working Budget
"I don't know how much longer I can keep it up," she said.
McClendon said that she could get a job outside academia, perhaps as an editor, but she wouldn't be happy.
The life of a traveling educator isn't for everyone though.
Dena Pisciotte/KANSAN
For Hellekson, being a "freeway" faculty member is not on the agenda. She's keeping her options open, not limiting herself to what she went to graduate school for in the first place.
Departments say they are working on the problem, working so people like McClendon can find, as she calls it, "a real job."
--their Ph.D.s.
In a response to market demand, departments are cutting back on the number of applicants accepted into programs.
English cut its numbers from 190 to 120 graduate students this year. History started a downsizing effort three years ago.
But other programs in the humanities are not cutting back on admissions.
"If we were to drop the number, it would affect a number of things," she said.
Ann Cudd, director of graduate studies in philosophy, said the department had a good placement record and was not downsizing, although some have speculated they should.
Things such as the quality of education for the University's students.
Harrington agrees.
"In my mind, the humanities are crucial areas to a good University," he said.
One of the reasons the philosophy department is not cutting back admissions is that it places 85 percent of the graduates in academic positions.
Departments such as English are not so lucky.
"Certainly the market has been a whole hell of a lot better than it is now," Johnson said. "Some who get their doctorate from KU hold onto the old-fashioned belief they will get hired right out of post-doctorate. But less than 10 percent initially get hired."
Although cutting back on the number accepted into the program may eventually help future Ph.D.s, it doesn't do much good for people like McClendon who already have
"Certainly the market has been a whole hell of a lot better than it is now."
Michael Johnson chairman and professor, KU department of English
They entered Ph.D. programs in the humanities with high hopes of becoming professors with tenure. In retrospect, they entered a little naive, she said.
"I won't get a tenure-track job here," McClendon said. "And I don't see getting one elsewhere in the future."
Unlike Hellekson though, she would get her Ph.D. again.
"No matter what I do, I've still got that," she says. "No matter what happens, that's mine."
But it's hard to pay rent with a piece of paper.
That's why people like Hellekson are broadening their job market expectations.
She no longer is willing to continue teaching freshman and sophomores in beginning courses at the University. She isn't willing to be a gypsy faculty member either.
Hellekson has lowered her standards to community colleges and private high schools. Seven years and 70 rejection letters later, the job market is leading her to different dream.
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