Inbred Professors

21 Aug, 2008 by Melissa Clouthier

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Glenn Reynolds links to these alarming statistics brought to us by the Tax Prof:

A key finding of the report is the partner status of full-time faculty:
Academic Partner: 36%
Employed, Non-academic Partner: 36%
Single: 14%
Stay-at-Home Partner: 13%

Well, if the professors weren’t screwing students, they were screwing each other and then screwing the students. Because of the inbreeding, a student who pisses off one prof hooked up with another prof risks a double-whammy.

What this little analysis doesn’t say is what percent of the Employed, Non-academic partners work for the school. I’ll bet it’s a big percentage. So don’t tangle with someone in the administration, either, because he or she is likely married to a professor who teaches a required class. They talk.

And yes, to be clear, I am suggesting that professors are human and a part of the grading comes down to how much they don’t hate you–if there is any subjective grading. (There’s a couple profs who actually seem to like students, but for the tenured folk, the liking the students schtick was a pretense that was left behind twenty years ago.)

Back to inbreeding: I’ll just put it this way, the creative learning environment seems to be the same well that other, um, creative energy comes from and professors have a lot of creative energy. As long as it’s well-channeled, the students are usually safe. Usually.

Cross-posted at MelissaClouthier.com