Today’s Chronicle of Higher Education (here) has a piece by Ben Gose, that starts with this:
The notion that college professors lead easy lives isn’t quite dead, but it may soon be history.
A decade or two ago, it wasn’t hard to find state legislators, pushing for university budget cuts, who complained about the leisurely lives of academics. Try a Google search for such criticism today, and not much turns up.
Here’s hoping that he’s right! The article is worth reading, along with the comments.
Just one little note: Gose talks about intense discussion in the University of California system over whether the faculty should walk out on a furlough day. The serious discussions I heard here were repeatedly about whether we would actually be forbidden to work on official furlough days.
PS: For those who don’t know the Simpsons, the image is Professor Frink.