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COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy
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| Claremont Graduate University Professors David Drew, left, and Paul Gray have co-authored a book aimed at graduate students and young professors entitled, What They Didn’t Teach You in Graduate School: 199 Helpful Hints for Success in Your Academic Career. |
New book gives unique perspective on academia
When Claremont Graduate University professors David Drew and Paul Gray began their journeys that saw them transition from college students to full-tenured professors, the two had no idea of what challenges and obstacles awaited them along the way. Yet the two professors hope they can shed light on the process for future educators in the world of academia.
Practical advice dealing with practical issues of graduate students and young professors is the focus in Mr. Drew and Mr. Gray’s new book, What They Didn’t Teach You in Graduate School: 199 Helpful Hints for Success in Your Academic Career, a serious yet lighthearted effort by the two professors that will be released in April.
“Our goal was to make it real candid and informative but light enough that anyone can pick it up,” Mr. Drew said. “It’s a light touch on academia with some dead serious content.”
The bulk of the 128-page text centers in on the 199 hints that make up the chapters of the book. Within the 15 chapters, that are each introduced through humorous cartoons relating to the subject matter, the two professors cover areas such as earning a PhD, getting a job at a college or university, how to go about teaching and service as a professor, conducting research, attaining tenure and more.
Beyond the main chapters, the book also includes appendixes on topics such as dissertations, outside income, writing hints and health.
“I remember as an undergrad that I’d be interested in a particular subject but I never knew what to do when I completed my education,” Mr. Drew explains. “In our book, we address what it is really like.”
What They Didn’t Teach You in Graduate School is almost two decades in the making as the CGU professors began first collaborating back in 1989. Starting with just a few hints, the professors then continued coming up with more bits of advice over the years before stopping at 199.
“The number ‘199’ stands out more than 200 and it’s something different,” Mr. Gray said explaining why the 3-digit number was chosen.
Personal experience plays a significant role in the content of the text. Mr. Drew currently is Joseph B. Platt chair and professor of education at CGU as well as a chairman of the board of the Western Science Education Consortium. Mr. Gray is Professor Emeritus and founding chair of information science at CGU while teaching, researching, consulting and curating the Paul Gray PC Museum on the graduate university campus. (story continues below)
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COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy
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| Claremont Graduate School Professors Paul Gray, left, and David Drew. |
Between the two professors is participation in 6 graduate programs, full-time tenures at 7 universities and more than 50 PhD students mentored. Combined with other experience as part-time faculty, consultants, lecturers, case study participants and staff members, Mr. Drew and Mr. Gray’s careers have intertwined with approximately 66 colleges and universities.
“A student’s lifestyle will change with a degree,” Mr. Gray said. “You go from living as a student chasing a degree to living as somebody who teaches others. At that time, everything is new and part of what we’re doing is helping people encode what’s new.”
The two CGU professors are quick to point out that while they are many things to be alert about when becoming a college or university professor, the profession is one that offers multiple perks.
“There are wonderful luxuries afforded to professors,” Mr. Drew said. “You have tenure, you can take sabbaticals and you can work on what interests you. To be able to do that is wonderful.”
While Mr. Gray believes that being a full-tenured professor provides a person the “ultimate form of freedom” by having the ability to decide the focus of the work, he also believes that freedom comes with a significant amount of responsibility.
“It’s the best job in the world but the name of the game is to teach students and live a life that contributes something to the world,” the CGU professor said. “For instance, a sabbatical isn’t a vacation. It’s a chance to go meet new people and to see new ideas. It’s a time to do something you haven’t done before and write about things you haven’t written about before.”
When the book is available in bookstores next month, the paperback will retail for $15.95. Both Mr. Drew and Mr. Gray believe it will be a good investment for students and professors alike and hopes that the easygoing style of the text will appeal to a broader audience.
“I wish somebody told me all of this when I entered grad school,” Mr. Drew said.
—Landus Rigsby
