As feared, bad news about the academic job market is trickling in from various sources. In addition to some state universities cancelling advertised searches (I've heard of several confirmed cases on the law school teaching market, but I assume this also affects philosophy searches at the same universities), I know of one private university that had advertised multiple positions, including open rank, which may now only be able to make one junior appointment. There is not a heck of a lot one can do under these circumstances, but, to the extent viable, do consider some of the advice here. (I was at a conference this weekend talking to someone from a top private university who told me that it's very hard for their PhD students to delay defending because of strict funding limits.) The apparent severity of the financial crisis now upon us makes it, I am sorry to say, unlikely that we are going to see a significant rebound in the academic job market in 09-10. I find particularly ominous the remarks of my former Texas colleague Mark Yudof, now President of the University of California system and a savvy observer of public higher education, in the Times article linked above:
On Thursday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California proposed a midyear budget cut of $65.5 million for the University of California system — on top of the $48 million reduction already in the budget.
“Budget cuts mean that campuses won’t be able to fill faculty vacancies, that the student-faculty ratio rises, that students have lecturers instead of tenured professors,” said Mark G. Yudof, president of the California system. “Higher education is very labor intensive. We may be getting to the point where there will have to be some basic change in the model.”
But what might those changes be? Much, much larger classes? Fewer tenure-stream faculty, more adjuncts and lecturers on temporary contracts? The full privatization of the elite state universities, so that they can charge tuition to sustain their faculties? All of the above, one suspects.
UPDATE: Even wealthy Harvard feels the strain. (Thanks to A.P. Taylor for the link.)
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