With almost 725 responses to our earlier poll, here are the ten most pressing issues in the profession identified by readers:
| 1. Bad job market, decline of tenure-track faculty positions, increasing reliance on adjuncts (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices) |
| 2. Declining state support for higher education loses to Bad job market, decline of tenure-track faculty positions, increasing reliance on adjuncts by 460–158 |
| 3. Hyper-specialization and/or increasing irrelevance of philosophy to public/culture at large loses to Bad job market, decline of tenure-track faculty positions, increasing reliance on adjuncts by 552–104, loses to Declining state support for higher education by 451–176 |
| 4. Erosion of tenure loses to Bad job market, decline of tenure-track faculty positions, increasing reliance on adjuncts by 597–35, loses to Hyper-specialization and/or increasing irrelevance of philosophy to public/culture at large by 301–294 |
| 5. Prestige bias in hiring and/or publication decisions loses to Bad job market, decline of tenure-track faculty positions, increasing reliance on adjuncts by 569–66, loses to Erosion of tenure by 307–264 |
| 6. Sexual harassment and discrimination against women loses to Bad job market, decline of tenure-track faculty positions, increasing reliance on adjuncts by 584–60, loses to Prestige bias in hiring and/or publication decisions by 300–233 |
| 7. Lack of appreciation for academic freedom outside and sometimes inside the academy loses to Bad job market, decline of tenure-track faculty positions, increasing reliance on adjuncts by 581–54, loses to Sexual harassment and discrimination against women by 274–262 |
| 8. Underrepresentation of ethnic and racial minorities in the profession loses to Bad job market, decline of tenure-track faculty positions, increasing reliance on adjuncts by 582–60, loses to Lack of appreciation for academic freedom outside and sometimes inside the academy by 272–262 |
| 9. Vindictive, intolerant "groupthink" mentality in parts of the profession loses to Bad job market, decline of tenure-track faculty positions, increasing reliance on adjuncts by 556–83, loses to Underrepresentation of ethnic and racial minorities in the profession by 276–272 |
| 10. Underrepresentation of women in the profession loses to Bad job market, decline of tenure-track faculty positions, increasing reliance on adjuncts by 587–55, loses to Vindictive, intolerant "groupthink" mentality in parts of the profession by 280–269 |
Just outside the top ten were "erosion of intellectual standards in the field for political reasons," which lost to "underrepresentation of women in the profession" 281 to 245; and "implicit bias," which lost to "erosion of intellectual standards" by 261 to 239.
Overall, not an unreasonable list. I was struck that quite general issues that affect everyone--e.g., the state of the job market, and erosion of tenure and of support for public universities--were rated more highly than the diversity issues we hear a lot about on the blogs, though those were recognized as well. The strong showing of worries about "prestige bias" surprised me since whether it is a "bias" or a sensible proxy is debatable, but it's clear many readers are in the former camp.
What do readers think?
