Weekly Briefing

When your dream job isn’t enough

• In 2019 he got a tenure-track position in his field. Three years later, he resigned. Michael Chen (above) accepted the job as an assistant professor of public health at what was then Nazareth College (the institution became a university last year), thinking he could spend the next three decades there. Instead, he burnt out. Our Beckie Supiano tells Chen’s story, one that’s emblematic of the lack of support for the faculty work force.
• There are few conservative professors. Why? That’s the central question Steven M. Teles, professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University and senior fellow at the Niskanen Center, asks in his essay in The Chronicle Review. The answer is complex. Read more.
• Many small colleges are on the brink. But they’re more important now than ever. Small colleges across the country, even those that have carved out niches for themselves, are shuttering. For some, it seems Darwinian: Institutions must adapt or go extinct. But this also means that higher education is losing biodiversity — or even becoming a monoculture, where an environment prefers a few dominant, genetically similar organisms. Our Scott Carlson reports.
• Update: The professor who lost his job after complaining about parking fees has been reinstated. Last week, this newsletter highlighted our Nell Gluckman’s story about Ted Roberts, an instructor at Tarleton State University, who lost his job after complaining to the university’s president about increased parking fees. This week, a university spokesperson wrote in an email that Roberts had been reinstated. In an interview, Roberts said he was apprehensive about taking the new position, given the controversy after his recent firing. Nell has the details.

Lagniappe

• Read. High inflation, a leadership crisis, the fallout after a war — sound familiar? I’m not describing the United States in 2024, but Germany in 1923. The book Germany 1923 by Volker Ullrich reports on the political, cultural, and economic shifts that led to Adolf Hitler’s attempted coup and eventual appointment as Germany’s chancellor. (The New York Times)
• Listen. Salsa stars Celia Cruz and Johnny Pacheco’s album Celia & Johnny sounds as great today as it did in 1974. (Spotify)

—Fernanda