Notes From The Workfront: Jason Ratcliffe, PhD candidate

2020 was a strange year. Unexpected circumstances, both personal and professional, led me to the job market that spring. I was ABD, but still far from completing my dissertation. I had long been considering the upsides of a community college job, including the focus on teaching, the lack of pressure to publish, the greater availability of jobs, and the opportunity to work outside the city, in a smaller, more family-focused, suburban or rural area. I had financial concerns that were mounting, as I had a family to provide for, and I had spent the better part of a decade in school. These factors led me to alter my plan. Rather than finishing the dissertation first, I would look for a career and then finish the dissertation from afar.

I applied for over 25 jobs. Most were with community colleges, though some were with smaller universities, museums, and archives. Then, the COVID-19 crisis ramped up, and many of the schools and other institutions cancelled their job searches. Either uncertainty about the future, or new financial concerns, or a combination of the two led many to reconsider hiring new faculty. I received one disappointing email after another. Still, I kept applying as new job opportunities were posted online. Ultimately, I received interviews with three schools. All interviews occurred through Zoom. Two of the schools liked me enough to advance me to the next round, and each had me give a short sample lecture. Due to the pandemic, these were also given over Zoom. I received a job offer shortly thereafter from Pratt Community College, which is located about an hour outside of Wichita, Kansas.

I have now taught for one-and-a-half years at PCC. I accepted the job offer in late May, 2020. In June, in the middle of the pandemic, I flew out to Pratt and looked for a house. We had one week to find a house and make an offer. We were very fortunate, and we found the perfect place. However, that meant that we had less than two months to pack up and move from Florida to Kansas. In that same period, I would need to start preparing the three new preps, and five total classes, that I would be responsible for in the fall semester. I barely stayed ahead of my students, and then I had another three new preps in the spring semester. I had hoped that I would be able to use the holiday break to prepare for the spring, but personal tragedy struck: my father passed away in December, 2020. We traveled out to Utah for a funeral, and to help my mother with the various tasks involved in that process. Needless to say, the spring semester was even more hectic than the fall. In fact, I took on extra duties in the spring, before I realized that my preparation time would be tragically cut short by my father’s unforeseen passing. I volunteered to teach one overload course, for a total of six classes, and I was appointed to be the new advisor for our chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, an honor society for community college students. On top of all of this, I was hoping to continue to get some work done on my dissertation.

I do not want to give the impression that my time so far at PCC has been bad. It has been busy! It has been rough, at times. But it has been rewarding, and lots of fun. I am in a tenure-track position. As long as I teach well and fulfill my committee responsibilities, I will likely achieve PCC’s version of tenure in my fourth year of teaching. I have great job security, as the one and only history/political science instructor at the school. I have summers off, and I can choose whether or not I teach any summer courses. I have wonderful, curious, and intelligent students. I have interesting and amiable coworkers. I get to teach a wide variety of survey-level history and political science courses. Working in a small community college, my average class size is only about twenty students. The benefits of working at PCC extend into my home life. We live in a very affordable, rural community, one where we could immediately afford to buy our first home—even on just one income, with my wife staying at home to raise our son. Pratt is family-friendly, clean, safe, full of all the amenities and services we might want on a day-to-day basis, and close to the big city. My wife and our small son have loved Pratt, the many parks and the well-funded school system have made it a great fit for us. As something of a big fish in a small pond—Pratt’s population is less than 7,000, and the county has maybe 10,000—I have the opportunity to offer my services and my expertise not just to the school, but to the community. Various museums, societies, and local institutions offer opportunities for me. For example, Pratt Army Airfield, a few miles outside of town, operates a B-29 museum, as it was an original staging and training ground for B-29s during World War II. I am hoping to work with them on some field trips or community-centered talks/classes.

When I started at FSU, I was sure that I would end up teaching at a university somewhere. But, there is great opportunity at the community college level, and I am glad my career path has led me in this direction. I plan to finish my dissertation, and to continue to do occasional research after that. I am not expected to do any research, so it will be at my pace, and according to my interest. PCC offers a small amount of funding for that purpose. I am also expected to do some professional development, and research, classes, seminars, or just general reading within my field would fulfill that requirement. I am excited to create new classes and to teach and mentor new students. If you are inclined toward teaching more than research, toward rural or suburban life more than city-living, or if you are just looking for a career in a job market that is always rough, I highly suggest the route I have taken. I like where I work, those I work with, and the opportunity I get to teach students in small classes.