WINTER 2012 - National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and ...

David Schultz
Graduate School and Work: Round Two
I left that job to return to complete my PhD at the University of Minnesota,
again on a full scholarship. I wanted the PhD to teach and to prove to myself
I could do it. Having worked in real politics and government, I felt they had
corrupted me. Yes, I cared about theory; but real issues of governance were of
interest to me. I switched from political theory to public law in search of faculty
who shared my interests and perspective, but never succeeded in finding them.
I was an older graduate student with real government experience who really
did not fit in. Most students in the program came from parents with college
or professional degrees. When we discussed class struggle in our courses, they
referred to the books we read; I drew on the life I had lived, including stories of
my family and friends, and of being a community organizer.
Job hunting was difficult. I did not have the support of an advisor or mentor
who worked hard to help me find a job. Because of my perspective on politics
and refusal to toe the party line at my school, I was deemed as someone who
would never amount to much of a scholar (I know that from sneaking a peek
at a file of mine at the school). I found that without support from a mentor or
patron, job hunting was difficult. I also learned that because all my degrees were
from public universities and not Ivy League schools, some schools would never
hire me (in fact, I was told that several times by search committees who said
their deans want to see Ivy League credentials next to candidate names). I rarely
made it past the first round of applications because I did not fit the “profile” (I
was older and had real work experience). When I did, I always lost out to those
with private school degrees and to individuals who I later learned had their
mentors call friends of theirs at the school where they were hired. In interviews,
I was always told I did an amazing job in teaching or presenting, well beyond
what they expected. But to little avail; they told me their administrators really
wanted someone with Ivy League credentials or a different “profile.” Maybe what
I encountered was the exception to the rule, and perhaps many other colleges
would have looked at me differently. Yet the stories from the other contributors
to this symposium cast doubt on how unusual my experience was.
Being underrated was always something that people did with me, and I
suspect with others from a blue-collar background. In part it was because I was
not as polished as others or did not believe in playing games, networking, or
sucking up. My parents told me I would have to do it on my own, and I did. At
conferences, I served on panels with individuals holding degrees from Ivy League
schools who found jobs at other Ivy League schools. Many were at least secondgeneration
faculty or college, and often it appeared to me they were getting their
jobs via connections. I wondered how they got where they did, especially when I
remembered someone had to graduate last from one of these prestigious schools.
I could go on, but the short version is that I eventually secured teaching jobs
in a series of small private colleges. In between, I got a law degree and fulfilled a
72 Journal of Public Affairs Education