I’m a professor at a conservative Catholic university in the US. I am single and not out to anyone at work. I was awarded tenure last year, which I was very happy about given that it is so hard to get these days. I love the students and what I teach. However….the chair of the department I’m in, the only other tenured faculty member in my department, was asked to step down as chair. He then mentioned me as the next person to do it, but they said they wanted to go with someone else who is not even in the department. I can’t help but feel they are not considering me because I don’t fit their bill of the ideal Catholic, since I am not married to a woman with children. It feels like a slap in the face to all of the hard work I have put into my job and into that place. I have seen them give chances to people not doing good work simply because they fit their mold of a good Catholic. It is honestly sickening to me, and it makes me feel devalued. I could look for a job elsewhere I guess, but most of my immediate colleagues I love, and I love where I live, too. I suppose I am not looking for advice as much as venting. Here I am feeling punished for not dragging some clueless woman into a for-show marriage, which I bet some others have done there who are hiding their sexuality. It feels good to get this off my chest, but it still doesn’t change what feels like a less than ideal work situation. Then again I guess any job is going to have some less than ideal aspects. Thanks for reading.
I suppose I should look on the bright side….I must have really earned tenure if they awarded it to me despite not being the ideal Catholic in their eyes! Always a silver lining
Never apologise for venting! Glad you took the time to write out what's on your mind and that it helped. If ever you feel you would like to have some feedback feel free to let us know.
Eh I wouldn't concern yourself. Office politics is a lot of baloney anyways. It's never good enough. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't. If anyone inquires about your business or who you're seeing just tell them your relationships are between you, your partner, and God. It's your private business.
I agree with you 100%, and that is how I have conducted myself so far. What I am not happy with is being passed up, or at least not even asked, for positions for which I am clearly well suited and I have earned more than someone outside of the department. But as you say, there’s always going to be ridiculous office politics. I’ll count this as one more glaring example. On the plus side, at least I won’t be saddled with more work for no additional pay, so I’ll take that and run with it!
What I've learned is that it doesn't matter so much as to what you know, but who you know. Or simply it matters more if people like you or not. So I'm sure everyone is aware of your experience. It may just be simpler than you think. He probably picked a guy outside of the department as a non-confrontational choice so it wouldn't create drama. If he chose within the department, then you know everyone would come and bitch to him about who should get what. Choosing department heads is always messy.
True, but in academic departments the chair position is almost always given to the tenured faculty. As the only other tenured faculty in the department, there would be no reason on the face of it that it wouldn’t go to me, nor would anyone in the department have found it odd or have had reason to complain if it went to me. The slightly comforting thought is that mine is not the only department where this has happened at my university, so although it is unusual in academia in general, there is at least precedent for it where I teach.
It of course never feels good to be overlooked or not being asked, even though the qualifications, things they would usually look for are there. Department politics can certainly feel the same as office politics, but it can also be worse at times as of course in academics the impact can be felt farther. It seems the university has practices in place that differ from the usual practices in academics. I wonder if you could take advantage of that yourself. Is there another department that would interest you to learn more about? From the sounds of it, it looks like that you would like to get some experience away from the classroom as well. If so, it might be worthwhile to have a couple of conversations over a coffee with others to get more information on that department, expectations, on how things are usually approached, done.
