Aaron Seitz Week 10 Blog

Aaron Seitz

Section A03

Week 10-Monday June 5

Response to “Going Rogue: ‘The Time to Fight is Now’ and ‘I Am One with the Force and the Fore is One with Me: Our Movement for Change in Academia.’” By Kieu Linh Valverde and Wei Ming Dariotis

            The reading for this week connected the theme of “The Future of Higher Education” by exploring how the university has been structured in a way that disadvantages several people and Asian American women in particular. The reading discusses the position Asian Americans are in and the role they and everyone else can play in changing higher education for the better. The first idea that stood out to me was that nearly all Asian American professors face countless struggles even after they have been granted a promotion or tenure. The idea of tenure as I understand it is to give someone a permeant position and if this is the case, then these struggles faculty face should not be happening. They already must endure a very long and arduous process to acquire tenure and deserve the right to feel that their job is secure once they have received their well-deserved position. Another idea put forth that took me by surprise was that Asian American women have the lowest rate of tenure and promotion in all of higher education. Two of the five professors I currently have are Asian American and this fact gets me thinking about just how hard they must have worked to get to where they are today. They are both so effective in their teaching and it is obvious that they should have just as much opportunity of promotions and tenure as any other professor. Lastly I really appreciated the connection made in the reading to “leaving an abusive relationship.” This got me thinking about how poorly the university often treats some of their professors and the fact that many feel they need to leave the “abusive relationship” is horrible. Professors should feel welcome and shown that they are important in facilitating constructive thought rather than being put under so much scrutiny and discrimination that they feel compelled to leave the university all together. This needs to change and the university needs to find ways to better respect their professors as the professors are the most important part of the university.

Question: How are universities justifying the disparity among minority professors as compared to white male professors and how can we change this pattern?

 

This image displays the stereotype that Asian parents expect their children to receive a PHD but as the article explains, this is much easier said than done.

Resources:

Lee, L. (n.d.). Second memory -- Are you a doctor with PHD yet? [Digital image]. Retrieved June 3, 2017, from https://www.angrylittlegirls.com/original-art/original-second-memory-are-you-a-doctor-with-phd-yet

Valverde, C., & Dariotis, W. (2017). "The Time to Fight is Now": When Asian American Women in Academia Go Rogue. Retrieved June 3, 2017