I received my doctorate in English Language and Literature in 2002 and landed a tenure-track job. The university was an R2 (according to the Carnegie-Mellon Re

I received my doctorate in English Language and Literature in 2002 and landed a tenure-track job. The university was an R2 (according to the Carnegie-Mellon Research classification) [0]; I graduated from an R1. Most my colleagues graduated from R1s. I was very unhappy in my Midwestern University town and left my academic post (having declined to pursue tenure) to return to my native state. Faculty at such highly-ranked research institutions use graduate students because such high-achieving graduate students 1. Are a pleasure to teach, able to understand the highly complex and intricate theories about literature and culture we faculty research. 2. Are able (and thrilled to teach the low-level classes (e.g. Composition) which we would rather not teach. The lie many faculty tell themselves is that such students are apprentices to the profession. That lie has been called out for the last 20 years and is, slowly, being accepted by younger faculty at such institutions. The problem is that tenure, as the article mentions, is dying with the faculty when they retire and these tenure lines are being replaced with graduate students and adjunct faculty. Tenure will not completely go away. It will simply be restricted to the R1s and R2s. Every other institution can expect their ranks of faculty to be poorly compensated and to have no job security. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_research_universities_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_research_universities_...