In the Interest of Full Disclosure

I should have mentioned this earlier: I am a graduate of Duquesne University. I earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1976 (ok, I can here you all doing the math in your heads). Back in those dark ages when we chiseled our research papers on stone tablets, guess what? All my professors were full-time, tenure-track or tenured teacher/scholars. Graduate students led discussion groups for the large introductory lecture courses, but that was the only experience I had with contingent faculty.

The system seemed so secure that my professors encouraged me to go to graduate school and become a college teacher. Perhaps if I had taken their advice at the time, I would have entered the profession before the glut of English post-graduates hit the market. Perhaps I would have avoided the seven years of insecurity. Perhaps I would be able to anticipate retirement.

But my field - English composition - was in its infancy. I would have been directed into some subfield within literature. And it turns out I really don't like teaching literature. I love helping students - especially underprepared students - discover that they can write.

So instead of going directly to graduate school, I worked in journalism, public relations, fund development, and retail. I got an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Pittsburgh 20 years after my graduation from Duquesne. I had not intended to teach - I was going to write the best-selling, critically-acclaimed Great American Novel.

Back to retail.

I started teaching through a series of fortuitous connections. It was love at first sight. I was a part-time make-up artist in a downtown department store and taught two classes a semester.

It took a while before I felt used, abused, and exploited.

Back to school - I began doctoral studies almost 10 years after my master's program.

And everyone warned me: you still might not get a job. It took two years on the market and well over 100 applications before I landed my current tenure-track job.

Many of my friends and classmates have not been as fortunate. While Professor Vojtko's story makes the rounds of social media, some very good friends and very good teachers have posted their intent to leave teaching because they need health care, or steady income, or some sense of job security.

We will continue to lose good teachers. We will lose good teachers who never became teachers.

And, eventually, we will lose higher education.