There are 131 blog users here on UThink identified as "faculty/PA" as of this date. This is ahead of the 90 staff, but behind the 241 undergrads and the 253 grad student bloggers. (Come on fellow graduate students! Those undergraduates are catching up to us!!!)
Some of the faculty blogs are very active course-related blogs. Others are more personal in nature. I'm not sure about politically-oriented faculty blogs: For example, there is a "Faculty Against the War" blog begun, apparently, in September--but from what I can see, that has never been posted to...
Jim, in a posted comment to my entry Thursday on Barack Obama, asked "Why is it, do you suppose, that more academic folks don't enter politics?" This is an excellent question. I've been thinking about possible answers, and have come up with some ideas of my own. But then I read the Christmas offering of these blogging professors of Left2Right.
Being a professor is a test for the ego. One image of profs is one of powerful folks handing out grades and evaluations, but the fact is that they are just as often on the receiving end of detailed critique. Ask one of your profs if they've ever gotten a teaching evaluation that ridiculed their (lack of) fashion sense, for example. Or ask one to tell you about their first journal article rejection. After you have calmed your prof and given him or her one last tissue to wipe up the tears, then ask if they've ever considered going into politics.
I suspect that might lighten the mood, getting you a good-natured, hearty laugh or two. "Go into politics"? Most professors must play politics as part of their every day jobs. Or at least that is how things appear to me as an advanced graduate student.
This doesn't fully answer they question of "why,"' though. I'll have to keep thinking about that.
In the meantime, for me it's the day after Christmas today: We celebrated yesterday because the mister was off then but had to work today. (Nice to live with two four year olds who haven't quite yet grasped the intricacies of the calendar and thus who are easily fooled by such maneuvers.) My plan is to begin tomorrow to document our daily Kwanzaa observances in this blog. So, to all the family members who logged on today hoping for lighter fare, just come back to the same address tomorrow, about 1 in the afternoon when the girls are napping, and you should see what we talked about on the phone today.
Oh, and anyone else is welcome, too (-:
Harambee!
Posted by perry032 at December 25, 2004 02:31 PM | TrackBackI have this idea that political success depends on being able to boil down complicated concepts into a catchy 3-word slogan. How else to explain the success of George W. Bush? College professors, almost by definition, enjoy teasing out nuance and details that seem boring and irrelevant to the "average voter". Even more, they like to explain these nuances and details to other people, which in a political arena may come off as condescending or eccentric. I think voters, in general, like to feel that they have a grasp on the issues, even when, in reality, they have no real hope of ever developing a useful proficiency in any of the big issues of the day. I can't imagine Alan Greespan running for anything successfully. His explanations of various economic phenomena are probably brilliant, but nobody, including me, understands them. But when W says, "we're gonna cut taxes cuz it's yer money", the crowd goes wild.
But then there are the Wellstones and the Obamas. Wellstone won by showing he had fire in his belly, and Obama won because he comes off as incredibly smart, yet humble and personable.
Posted by: Jim at December 28, 2004 11:19 PMI agree. I remember hearing a story about a meeting with a bunch of politicians and a bunch of academics where the academics were offering advice and opinions. In the process, the profs were giving voice to the various sides of the issue, e.g., "On the one hand...But on the other hand..." The story goes, at some point one of the political guys said with frustration, "The problem with you college types is that you have too many hands."
Don't know how true that story is, but it's an example, I think, of the point you make.
Posted by: Yvette at December 29, 2004 09:43 AM