One of the more irritating things about working in the academy is that especially in the humanities, we seem so slow to react to what's actually going on in the culture. If we're not too slow to react, then we are prone to paying far too much attention to stupid crap rather than meaningful knowledge.
The worst part is, I'm busting my ass to give my students the best, while many of my colleagues give the profession a bad name...and the culture is taking notice. I don't think it's any coincidence that state appropriations for higher education keep going downward; we continually ask for more money, yet you should hear the way we tend to talk about our fellow citizens and the elected leadership of the state. Seems to me that if you go to a group with hat in hand, best to play nice.
And yes, I recognize that it's a far more complicated problem than what I've mentioned above. But the fact remains: this is a conversation that needs to be happening in every department on every campus.
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