I'M ON TOO MANY COMMITTEES
(By Mom)
JUANITA (fictional name, real person) complains that she is on too many law school and university committees. Not only that, women and minority faculty at her law school find themselves besieged by requests from community and student groups to serve as advisors, to give keynote speeches, and to help draft amicus briefs and other legal documents. Their e-mail inbox fills up with prisoners, mental inmates, criminal defendants, conspiracy nuts, and other lost souls asking for their attention and pro bono services. Last year, the dean asked her to serve on the appointments committee, which took up hundreds of hours of her time; this year, the associate dean has asked her to serve on the admissions committee, which reads vast numbers of student files and discusses them at interminable meetings. Both deans said that the school desperately needed her viewpoint as a woman of color.
Juanita concedes that all this is vital and important work (with the exception of catering to the conspiracy loonies). But the combined weight of all these obligations is causing her to neglect her teaching and scholarship, and she fears she is headed for a crisis when she comes up for tenure in less than two years. She says that other women and minority law professors at her school face the same situation.
MOM SAYS that Juanita should attack her predicament frontally by deploying an old tactic—feminist solidarity. First the women faculty members, then the faculty of color, should make an appointment with the dean and request a clear understanding on the amount of required committee service the school expects. At the same meeting, they should seek clarification on how much credit they will receive for serving on university committees and doing pro bono work for community organizations such as the NAACP or MALDEF. They should make known that the law school can solve its problem of injecting the minority viewpoint into its committee structure in two ways—by hiring more women and minority professors, or exploiting the current ones even more, and that the latter alternative is unacceptable for career and mental health reasons. If they get nowhere with the dean, they should ask the appropriate faculty senate committee to look into the matter and conduct an investigation of committee assignments and equity in workloads.
Some folks of color, and women, too, feel guilty about saying no. They shouldn’t. Mom says she has had to work at it, but now she feels strong and empowered every time she says no to a request that is unreasonable or merely comes at a bad time.
Comments
thanks so much for this post. as a young Black prof, it's so easy to say yes to everybody (especially needy students) at the expense of your own scholarship. the worst part is that the same people who pull you 17 different ways will be the ones to deny your tenure case for insufficient productivity....
Posted by: Marc Lamont Hill | August 1, 2006 08:55 PM
this is an unfortunate consequence of obsession with diversity.
Young black students need caring mentors, regardless of race.
Posted by: Frank | August 2, 2006 03:50 PM
There is money and there is fun. Neither is everything. Some balance is best. Let's assume someone's work of your caliber is worth $300/hour.
You can:
1) Do work that pays $300/hour.
2) You can have fun that is worth $300/hour. Would you pay $300/hour to teach a law school class? Possibly that much fun. That is what this job is costing you compared to your doing a real job. But fun is good enough.
3) You can do loss leader activities that will eventually result in an average pay of $300/hour or of $300's worth of fun. So appear on TV for free. The appearance may lead to a job or to greater opportunity at the next singles' function. That free appearance will be worth $300 eventually.
Does the work on a committee amount to that kind of value in money or fun? Is it a loss leader for making money or having great fun in the future?
No? Then it is exploitation. It is disrespect for the true value of your time. The Dean is saying, not $300/hour, $0/hour, an insult.
Hon, Walmart is saying they want more of their legal work (10,000 lawsuits everyday) going to female and minority lawyers. Everyone is saying, they are learning diversity, they are more humanitarian, just like some of the benighted remarks above. Everybody wants a black female to fulfill 2 diversity goals, preferably in a wheel chair and Moslem for a 4 for 1.
No. It's because those 2 groups hate money, and have Lower Prices Every damn Day.
Hon, Dean is playing you sweet.
SC has never faced the quandary in this Mom's Advice Column. SC has always dutifully attended a meeting of every committee he was asked to. After every single one of these initial meetings, the Chairman would privately tell SC, "We really appreciated your service today. We'll let you know the next time we need you again."
Posted by: Supremacy Claus | August 2, 2006 05:30 PM
Here, Hon. Article from cult world headquarters makes the point, too.
http://www.abanet.org/journal/redesign/08fwoc.html
Posted by: Supremacy Claus | August 3, 2006 11:28 PM
Frank: this is not a consequence of obsession with diversity. This is a consequence of tokenism and the lack of real diversity.
The hard-working faculty who are the victims of this need to stand up and say "no more." The schools need to learn that in order to meet the admirable goal of getting representation of, e.g., black women on their admissions committee, they're going to have to damn well hire more than one black woman.
Posted by: Paul Gowder | August 4, 2006 09:49 AM
ionolsen17 I just don not have anything to say right now.www_4_2
www_4_3
www_4_4
www_4_5
www_4_6
www_4_7
www_4_8
www_4_9
www_4_10
www_4_11
Posted by: thomson | October 14, 2006 12:17 AM
ionolsen17 I am really impressed!www_4_2
www_4_3
www_4_4
www_4_5
www_4_6
www_4_7
www_4_8
www_4_9
www_4_10
www_4_11
Posted by: tester | October 14, 2006 12:18 AM
ionolsen17 Great website! Bookmarked! I am impressed at your work!www_4_2
www_4_3
www_4_4
www_4_5
www_4_6
www_4_7
www_4_8
www_4_9
www_4_10
www_4_11
Posted by: tester | October 14, 2006 12:19 AM
ionolsen17 Great website! Bookmarked! I am impressed at your work!www_4_2
www_4_3
www_4_4
www_4_5
www_4_6
www_4_7
www_4_8
www_4_9
www_4_10
www_4_11
Posted by: tester | October 14, 2006 12:19 AM