Only five percent said that they would probably not want to be in the academy, and another seven percent were not sure. Men, faculty members at two-year institutions and minority faculty members were more likely than their respective counterparts to indicate they would choose this career path again. Faculty are attracted to and stay in teaching for noble reasons. The attraction of teaching, the love of learning, professional autonomy, and intellectual freedom were the most important factors in the decision to pursue an academic career. This is an important lesson for higher education activists.
Professors have more autonomy, flexibility, and independence than just about any other occupation.
College professors have greater control over their work lives than just about any other profession. The study found that 41 percent of the respondents had seriously considered changing to careers outside of higher education. Low salaries, the poor state of the academic job market, a simple need for new challenges, and dissatisfaction with bureaucracy and politics in higher education were important factors when faculty members considered a career change. We request that children who were born and breastfed while their mothers were employed in Chafee be included in this testing. A copy of the entire petition is available for review and signing in the AAUP office along with documents about the specific pollutants in Chafee.