7bec3b03_s_to_fear___Academic_Jobs_Wiki___Department
[School] Morehead State University, KY [Issue and Date] "High school with ashtrays" is the general nickname for Morehead, according to alum Chris Offutt (from his book "No Heroes: A Memoir of Coming Home"). Then there's the story of the academic job applicants, who, driving into Morehead and seeing the falling-apart small town (blocks of empty, shuttered and decaying buildings along Main Street), just hang a u-turn and head back to Lexington. The town itself seems stuck in about 1932, and the helpless, self-pitying, and sometimes nasty attitude of the natives is reflected in that of the administration and many of the faculty at MSU, who try with mounting desperation to make the classes as easy as possible for students who enter not only with weak academic skills, but who quite often are here only for the financial aid (MSU has very generous support programs). Because of the wretched state of employment for professors in the U.S., MSU has attracted many well-educated instructors who find themselves marooned miles from anything like civilization and surrounded by a population that not so secretly finds them too uppity because they like books. The school seemingly has reason to be afraid, very afraid: about ten years ago the school was almost closed due to poor enrollment, and the threat is still alive. Oh, and if this all is not enough, here's the comment I got from the first Morehead native I encountered: "You better be nice to everyone 'cause just about everybody here walks around armed." I interviewed at Morehead State University in 2006. The first sign of real trouble was when faculty members began reading magazines during my job talk. The chair left my teaching demonstration and research demonstration without explanation and some members of the faculty were very confrontational, even hostile, during my interview. There are some good people there, but the entire campus seems to be covered with a pall. After the interview, I received very confusing correspondence from the search committee ("We are undecided...we wish you all the best..."). Maybe they are still trying to make their decision? To make matters worse, it took three or four months to receive my reimbursement check for travel expenses. Fortunately, I received another job offer that spring. I dodged a bullet! I interviewed at MSU in 2007, was told they would give me an answer one way or another in two weeks. After a month I called them back to be told they had interviewed a last minute candidate, and it would be two more weeks. A month later, I called to let them know I had other offers and wanted to know what the status of the Morehead job was. I was told they still didn't know and would get back to me. I took another job, and six months into that job I got a rejection letter forwarded from my old address saying the job was filled. All in all, it took them 8 months to turn me down! And I really wasn't that impressed to begin with.... [Department] 
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