A gripe about academia

I have rarely used this blog to gripe about academia even though I define myself, at least in part, as an academic mother.  I don't gripe because I don't see it as productive.  I also don't gripe because I more or less knew what I was getting into when I entered a Ph.D. program.  I knew jobs in academia, particularly the humanities were hard to come by.  Contrary to popular belief, this is not a result of the downturn in the economy; jobs have been hard to come by in academia for 2 generations or more.  My primary mode of survival is to get the job done to the best of my ability and to redirect the energy I could spend griping doing other things.  Not griping does not mean that I don't think academia has problems; in fact, I think it has serious ones.  One that is bothering me the most right now is the lack of mentorship.

Now as I've written about before I am situated between two departments.  What I haven't discussed is that one department is very research focused; it was, in fact, considered one of the flagship departments of the university until about 10 years ago.  It is still highly respected, and almost every faculty member has held a major research grant at some point.  It has a lot to brag about, and brag it does.  The other department would be seen as a service department at many comparable institutions in the States.  It is staffed almost exclusively by part-time faculty members.  It has an excellent reputation on campus for knowing what kinds of classes students want to take and for offering the right class at the right time.  It is also the only department in the faculty that is growing, and it is growing a lot.  Its enrollment has increased by 40% in 3 years.  While it lacks a research profile (primarily because there are only 3 1/2 full-time faculty members in the program, and yes, I'm the 1/2), it is a department that is respected across campus. 

Now my home department, as it were, is the Research department because there is a support structure in place to help me develop a research profile.  Also my own research aligns more closely with Research department, although my teaching overlaps neatly between the two.  From Service department, so-to-speak, I am not supposed to receive much in the way of support, other than teaching.  While I have received a lot of support from Service department in terms of teaching and structural support, I have received nothing in the way of mentorship from Research department.  There is supposed to be a mentorship program in place, and I was supposed to receive a mentor at the beginning of the academic year.  I did not, though. 

Part of this is my fault.  I have not actively sought anyone out, nor have I pressed the department head to assign me a mentor.  Much of this is the culture of the department, and much of it is due to the liminal space I occupy between departments.  The people with whom my research area overlaps don't really know me; this is due, at least in part, because I'm not required to do any service in Research department.  I perform all my service for Service department because it has so few full-time faculty members.  I show up for all department meetings, but I don't serve on any committees for Research department.  I don't say much at department meetings because I'm still trying to understand how things work.  I recognize and accept responsibility for all of this.  I've done a few things in the past 6 weeks or so to build relationships in the department.  I working on making it better for myself.

The problem I'm experiencing seems to me to be problem inherent to academia.  Mentorship is not a priority in many academic institutions.  While this is a topic that is often discussed in the Chronicle of Higher Ed, I'm not sure it is something academics take seriously.  We often seem to take the attitude, "Well, I didn't have a mentor, and I managed okay.  Why should I take on the responsibility of mentoring someone else?"  This is the "I suffered through, so should everyone else" mentality, and I think it only serves to create more problems.  I'm not sure what the solution is, but I do know I'm going to start being more assertive and seeking out help when I need it.  That isn't a solution for the entire academy, but it may be a solution for me.