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Re: Article in Chronicle of Higher Ed



It slightly amused me to read the Chronicle piece.  I went from grad school
to museum library archives to corporate records management now to university
records management.  I hear the frustration in the article that I hear from
many folks who stayed in grad school and finished with the Ph.D.  There is
an expectation of entitlement to a life that their predecessors champion -
tenure faculty status.  However, the realities of the job market and the
profession itself have not cooperated.  I would be frustrated, as well, if I
had spent 6 years in one of the most oppressive, cliquey, economically
unfair, and unrewarding work environments (grad student) and "made it out"
only to find the promised land still further away.  I can sympathize, but it
does not give the author the right to blame their current professional
environment.

It took me a while to understand  our profession.  However soon I saw the
attention to detail, the nose to the grindstone, the sanctity of the process
and the love of the minutiae in all of its beauty.  Of course, coming out of
grad school, none of this made sense to me at first.  However, with awesome
colleagues and time to comprehend the system and its merits, archives became
more mentally challenging and rewarding than grad school.  The real
confirmation occurred when professors or grad student came to use items from
the collection and you could help them with "undiscovered" items. Also it
was nice to get a paycheck, a very humble one at that, and have health care!


I have a colleague here on campus who was a professor, but opted for the
better pay in an administrative position.  This person is totally academic
in that they went from grad school directly into a faculty post.  Now this
person having a devil of a time "working 40 hours, on a schedule." They want
to know how I can do it without going nuts!

To the author of the article I say don't blame others, the job, or the
profession for the job you choose.  Life is what we make it. There are
scores of archivists who'd probably do a better job, love it and probably be
more fun. When I get my Ph.D. it looks like I be significantly more
employable than most of my competitors!

________________________________________

Chuck Piotrowski
Campus Records Manager
Chancellor's Office Administrative Records Supervisor
Office of the Chancellor
296 McHenry Library
UC Santa Cruz
1156 High St.
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
831.459.2666
chuck.piot@adm.ucsc.edu
________________________________________

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