Whatever your opinion about the state of higher education, Tyler Austin Harper’s recent Atlantic cover story, “Why I Quit The Tenure Track,” will likely make you feel something—exhaustion, aggrievement, frustration, fascination, disbelief, or admiration. I certainly felt a mix of feelings, but I more so felt incredibly curious about what the article, and the reactions to it, tell us about how Americans view institutions of higher learning.
Harper’s story documents his experience as a Black professor at Bates College—specifically the school’s clumsy and often heavy-handed efforts aimed at addressing racial inequality. Harper details how these practices held white and non-white students and faculty to different standards and how the university’s goal of achieving a “culture of repair” led to mandates and practices that infantilized Black students. The experience was bewildering, frustrating, and eventually alienating—it precipitated Harper’s departure from his once dream job. For many cr…
