RANK HAS NO PRIVILEGE

It appears that in our department academic rank has no privilege, not now, and, to be frank, not in the last three decades. Some of us old-timers vividly recall the time when a rising “star,” a junior instructor working on the doctorate in a non-qualifying field, was given authority over seasoned full professors with real doctorates in one of the Romance languages.

Nowadays, anybody, literally, can walk into the classroom in the role of instructor: from advanced undergraduates to novice graduate students.