Employment growth in universities is not good news

The Statesman Journal reports that hiring in the public universities is a bright spot amidst “all the dark news about employment in Oregon.” As an old Chinese parable asks, is this really good news or bad news?

To a large extent, all the new hiring in universities is a reflection of the bad economic times. As even the same report points out, the lack of employment opportunities while we struggle to claw our way out of the Great Recession has been a significant factor here. The September 2012 Oregon Economic Forecast notes that “college enrollment typically goes up during the time of high unemployment and scarcity of well‐paying jobs when even the older people flock back to college to better position themselves in a tough job market.”

Over the past few years, I have had many “non‐traditional” students in my classes who were there only because their careers had derailed as a result of the economic crisis. It is not any exaggeration, therefore, to suggest that if the economic climate were better, fewer students—traditional and nontraditional alike—would have enrolled in our public colleges and universities. Slower enrollment growth rates would have then resulted in public universities hiring fewer staff.

The other part of the bad news, which is found in that same report, is that the employment surge in higher education has been financed through increases in tuition and fees. “The universities raised tuition 30 percent in that time, bringing in more revenue to pay for more staff.”

There is one other bad news that usually does not blip in our radars until much later. If economic slumps trigger enrollment increases, then similarly economic and employment growth will also cause decreases in enrollment. We hope that sooner, than later, employment growth will pick up, and that the unemployment rate, which is currently at about 8.7 percent, will begin to decrease. Higher education will then return to “normal” enrollment patterns. In the current model, where public institutions are financing the employment growth through increases in tuition and fees, such a return to normal will necessitate massive layoffs in order to balance the books.

However, unlike other industries, higher education is not typically characterized by employment restructuring and we will, therefore, look at sharp increases in tuition and fees. This was our experience after the recession in 2001 when the combination of improved economic conditions and job growth, along with decreased allocation from Salem, triggered rapid tuition increases in community colleges and universities alike. We certainly do not want a déjà vu all over again!

It appears then that during the bad economic times, enrollment increases and so does tuition, and in good economic times enrollment doesn’t rise as fast but tuition and fees do increase. In a context where education is not purely for the sake of understanding and interpreting the world, but primarily for economic betterment, students, and the public, need to clearly understand whether such an investment will generate the returns they expect.

The GOP Convention sounded so much like 1984!

Doesn't the following sound like a pretty good summary of the recently concluded Republican convention?

The fundamentalism that the Republicans had embraced went beyond religion. It simplified the world in general; it rolled together many different kinds of anxieties—schools, drugs, race, buggery, Russia, to give just a few; and it offered the simplest, the vaguest solution: Americanism, the assertion of the American self. Practical matters were in the party’s printed platform and remained locked up there. Apart from "Condoleezza Rice’s" speech about foreign affairs, there had been very little of purely political discussion. Americanism had been the theme of the convention, now defiant, now sentimental, as in "Mr. Romney's" acceptance speech. Fundamentalism, in its Republican political interpretation, was not just a grim business; it was as stylish as Mr. Romney himself. The Republicans were “pro-life.” That meant anti-abortion; but during the week another, metaphorical, meaning began to be attached to the word. To be pro-life was to be vigorous, joyful, and optimistic; it was to turn away from the gloom and misery of the other side, who talked of problems and taxes.

But, you know what?  This was how VS Naipaul described the convention that was held in Dallas way back in 1984! 

In the paragraph that I had excerpted, the original had "Reagan" where I substituted "Romney" and "Jeane Kirkpatrick" in place of Condoleezza Rice.

In other words, not much has changed in the Republican convention and its message!

Next up: the political theatre at Charlotte, courtesy of the Democrats.

Labor Day wishes: may you love your work!

"P," who was a lifer like many of us back at the school in Neyveli, remarked that I come across as one who loves his work, as opposed to many who can't seem to wait to get away from what they do for a living.

I am so delighted that I come across that way because, well, it is true.

My lines on this topic are variations of "my work is my hobby, and my hobby is my work" or "I would do exactly this even if they didn't pay me."  I know I am one lucky guy, at least when it comes to this aspect of life, which, is perhaps, an important facet of our lives.

We have had to figure out what exactly we want to do with our lives, ever since humans got away from their hunting/gathering existence and invented agriculture, which Jared Diamond thinks is an awful idea that led to all the problems humans and, thereby, all the rest of the species face.  Seeking an answer to this fundamental, existential question more often than not begins with trying to figure out what we would like to do, the proceeds from which we can then barter for anything else we would like to own or do, or even to find a mate.

The "work" we do kind of serves as an identity mark, as much as the moles on my lower forearms are.  (Oddly, I have nearly identical placements of a mole each in my right and left arms!)  To most people, unfortunately, this critically important part of their identity is also one of the most unpleasant parts of their lives and, thus, day dreaming about winning the lottery so that they can shove that job aside is, I suppose, nothing American but an universal story. 

I did live that unpleasant life, more than once.

Even before getting into the engineering program, I worried that it was not my calling and that I wouldn't enjoy it.  Four years in the program certainly confirmed that.

Working in India upon graduation erased even the tiniest doubts I might have had.  I hated waking up in the morning and heading to work.  I barely survived ten weeks in my first job, and then it was a quite a few months before I took up my second one, in which I didn't even last a month.  After a couple more months of "unproductive" existence, which perhaps triggered quite a few heartburn episodes in my parents' lives, I took up another job in which I served the longest--six months!

And then it was off to the US for graduate schooling.

The "work" after graduate school was not one that I had planned on, and I certainly felt ill at ease there, while it certainly paid immensely more than what I currently earn.  But, I was no longer in my early twenties, and being older meant that I had to be more "responsbile."  So, I faked my way through those nearly six years.

Lucky breaks I got, thanks to which, "I yam what I yam."

I do not even pretend to my students, however, that they can always get to do whatever they want to do.  To those who engage me on this topic, I remind them that very rarely in life are we able to do whatever we truly enjoy doing, and that they ought to be mentally prepared to simply suck it up and get going.

But, to always keep that dream alive though.

After all, if those humans way back then hadn't dreamt of a life and a world outside the African Savannah, I wouldn't even be blogging this!

So, to those of you enjoying your work, consider yourselves extremely lucky. To those who don't care for whatever you do that gets you your daily bread, hang in there and keep smiling.

A job will never satisfy you all by itself, but it will afford you security and the chance to pursue an exciting and fulfilling life outside of your work. A calling is an activity you find so compelling that you wind up organizing your entire self around it -- often to the detriment of your life outside of it.     There’s no shame in either. Each has costs and benefits. There is no reason to make a fetish of your career. There are activities other than work in which to find meaning and pleasure and even a sense of self-importance -- you just need to learn how to look.     ...

So which is it: job or calling? You can answer the question directly, or allow time to answer it for you. Either way, I think you’d be happier if you stopped thinking of what the world had to offer you, and started thinking a bit more about what you had to offer the world. Real excitement isn’t just in whatever you happen to be doing, but in what you bring to it.