Race and police shootings

[Glenn E. Meyer]

I'm glad I retired when I did. The Covid crisis will destroy the fantasy of safe tenure track job. Practically, the valued research programs are going to be wiped out by being off campus and virtual curricula. It won't be too long until most grad students in anything but the most pragmatically oriented fields of some of the basic sciences (they have troubles too) realize their degree wasn't worth the time. Recruiting new grad students, esp. in the soft fields, will disappear.

Of course, the top elite schools will survive as they exist mostly as training camps for the Ivanka/Chelsea world. This is not to disparage the great science work, that will survive in some fashion. But the Ivanka/Chelseas don't go into the hard sciences.

In Psychology (thread drift), the hard folks became neuroscience and the rest soft stuff. I was visual neuroscience, I played with the gun research as in the last 10 years, it interested me and tenure let me. I also found kids were interested.

I don't regret the job choice (could have used more money, haha). I met students and faculty from all over the world. I helped kids get a start. Nothing like a getting a note from someone who said you put them on the track to a good career. It was very rewarding but with frustrations, mainly from the top.

College education will have to undergo a major change, big insight from me.

[Totem Polar]

Glenn, my father was a prof; multiple advanced degrees, Fulbright scholar, chair of 3 different depts; almost all of my closest friends growing up had tenured profs for parents. It was a killer gig. But then again, so were telephone operators, textile mill supervisors, and rust belt factory shifts in their own time.

[DDTSGM]

On a more constructive note: what we need in this country is more Black fathers, acting like fathers, and being there for their kids. And a few generations to make an impact.

Quoted for truth. Everyone wants a quick fix. Ain't going to happen.

[John Hearne]

My original plan had been to get my PhD and work part time for my agency into perpetuity. I changed duty stations in hopes that the local university would be starting their own PhD program in Criminal Justice. Because of the usual academic foot dragging, they program is still in the "strongly considering" phase. Through job fairs I've kept in touch with the faculty through the years. I've noticed a distinct change in the last 3-4 years whenever I ask about the program. I'm pretty sure they don't want anyone with real world experience to ruin their beautiful theories and models of realities with actual reality and objective truth.

[JAD]

If you haven’t, I strongly recommend John Henry Newman’s The Idea of a University.