Great Resignation in Math Departments
By Rebecca Swanson with Melissa Erdmann
This is Melissa Erdmann on the left and Rebecca Swanson on the right.
Over the past couple of years, we have heard much about the “Great Resignation.” It refers to the increased rate at which workers are leaving their jobs, and academia is not immune. The Chronicle of Higher Education and Fidelity Investments completed a study of the effects of the pandemic on faculty at universities. The beginning of the report summarizes the following findings:
The majority of faculty are experiencing elevated levels of frustration, anxiety, and stress.
More than two-thirds of survey respondents are struggling with increased workloads and a deterioration of work-life balance—particularly female faculty members.
More than half of all faculty are considering retiring or changing careers and leaving higher education, with tenured faculty members even more likely to retire than others.
Math Values is interested in hearing the stories of faculty and math professionals who decided to uproot or make a significant change in their careers recently. What caused the change? Are you happy with your decision? Write to rswanson@mines.edu if you have a story to share.
MAA member Melissa Erdmann is one such faculty member, and she shares a bit of her story below:
After 20 rewarding years and rising to the rank of Professor at Nebraska Wesleyan University (NWU) in Lincoln, I became an Adjunct Professor of Mathematics at the Colorado School of Mines (Mines) in Golden in August 2021. Now I often walk on the Golden streets. Both universities offer excellent students, great staff and colleagues, and appealing opportunities.
I was a Visiting Professor at Mines in Fall 2018 and was drawn back here in 2021 by the supportive department, proximity to my parents, and comparable compensation and benefits. As a Colorado native, this was also a homecoming of sorts. For years at NWU I dreamt of having a hike as part of the activities for faculty during the week before classes start; I was pleasantly surprised when early in the fall semester the department chair at Mines invited faculty on a hike followed by a barbeque. The world is small: although this has been a major change and I miss Nebraska people, NWU, and Lincoln, via technology and in-person visits, connections with Nebraska friends remain strong.
In the midst of this change, the MAA has been a comfort and a source of constancy. I have been able to seamlessly continue serving on MAA Congress and on MAA committees. Through it all, my MAA friends are right there (at least virtually) to share life, lift my spirits, and visit about math and teaching. On Tuesday, October 19th, 2021, there was an MAA Zoom social hour on Mathematics, Technology, and Computation in the Classroom. This was a highlight of my fall. It was great to chat with people about numerous ideas. In Calculus 2 we were studying sequences at the time. One idea from the social hour that I gleaned and implemented that very week was to plot sequence terms in Excel. Students could then visually see what a sequence is converging to.
So, although unconventional, I am happy to have made the switch from Lincoln to Golden. No doubt about it, my life is no less full.
If you have any questions or comments about such a career move, please feel free to contact me at merdmann@mines.edu.
Rebecca Swanson is a Teaching Professor at the Colorado School of Mines where she teaches a variety of courses, implements flipped learning, and serves her department and institution in multiple ways, one of her favorites being as co-advisor to the Society for Women in Mathematics. Additionally, she is involved in a variety of roles in the MAA, the newest of which is as a member of the editorial board for Math Values.