In my decade of working at SLACs, I reached a conclusion about faculty that saddens me. It stings a little more because I am guilty of it myself. However, I am at least aware that I have a problem. I am tired of dealing with whales who live in mud puddles.

What exactly do I mean by that term? I am referring to those individuals who believe themselves to be intellectual giants but serve at a SLAC or Community College. Honestly, I am aware of several individuals who are exceedingly smart and work at smaller teaching institutions. Some of them chose this as their profession, and I find honor in their decision. They are the salt of the earth. My problem is that I’m just salty. I would love to believe that I am in that group. I know my ego is downright scary when it goes unchecked for too long.

My problem is with those faculty members who think that they are the greatest thing since sliced bread (better things have happened since 1928). At Remus and Romulus, I witnessed numerous faculty who think that they are too good for their station. It is one thing to feel grumpy about the apparent lack of basic skills in the classroom, but when faculty think that students are a waste of their time, at a community college, there is a massive problem.

My first question is, why are you here? If you are at a teaching institution, your gig is to teach. There is no debate about it. I don’t condone it, but I can understand this sentiment at an R1 institution. Even then, it’s too pompous for me. The name of the game is to share knowledge, not hoard it. I am of the opinion that the most intelligent people can break things down in a way that even the layperson will comprehend their abstruse abstract topic.

However, there are so many professors who don’t even want to be bothered by their students. I knew a radio professor who refused to teach anyone to run the station because they believed students needed prior training before they could take control of the studio board. How else are they supposed to learn, osmosis? Not like anybody could learn anything from that professor. One of my former students confessed to submitting the same final paper for each of this professor’s classes. The sad thing was that they kept getting an A because the professor didn’t bother to check anything. So, not only were they ignoring the students, but they also didn’t even bother with academic integrity. That was several years ago, and I can only imagine what is happening in those classes now that AI is at everyone’s fingertips.

I would like to think that the research I do is somewhat important to someone. However, I am not so foolhardy that I refuse to dirty my hands by trying to teach someone who has never read Zizek. If anything, I need to make the lesson interesting enough to get them to read it, even though I would never want to read his work. Bottom line: Whales need to remember what their primary objective is instead of trying to be gatekeepers of knowledge.