It’s happened. Our department has lost a young faculty member to a better offer in a safer state.
Texas’s extremist government will end up wrecking the universities here. Given a choice, people don’t want to subject themselves to fascism.
@alexwild
this is, of course, a good thing to them.
... until only the fascists and their victims remain
@alexwild it’s intentional.
@alexwild Destroying education is kind of the whole point, like Trump hired DeVos because she's said she wants to dismantle the education system; and she's not the only one.
@alexwild they'll need a wall to keep people from fleeing to Mexico
@DoomsdaysCW @davbram @alexwild I once started writing a story with that premise... it was meant to be *fiction*
@alexwild Republicans in Texas as elsewhere, are deathly afraid of education, common sense and tolerance….I am sorry to hear that this has, and will, lead to brain drain…..to the detriment of the Texan public….
@alexwild I am expecting all the faculty of color to leave TX..including some I know!
@alexwild That is and has been the GOP long game.
@alexwild I’m afraid that’s going to happen more in Florida too. We’ve already seen fewer applicants for tenure-track faculty positions this year. We’re a private uni, so a little shielded from the worst for now, but if I was on the market today, I would not move here.
@alexwild
My advice is that if you are involved in education (as opposed to indoctrination), don't come to Texas. If you are here already, leave this place if possible. To the majority of Texans, education is a nothing more than a support structure for football.
@Enema_Cowboy @alexwild extend that to high schools. Around where I live in the greater Houston area there's some very well maintained football stadiums that the school districts built. These stadiums are very much scale model versions of large pro football arenas. I'm sure you see similar.
@0xF21D
Yes, we have some of those professional grade facilities in our public high schools in the DFW area. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Stadium,_Southlake
@alexwild
@Enema_Cowboy @alexwild Friday night lights indeed!
@alexwild Sad. And, we will see the same trend among students who won’t pick colleges/universities in these states either.
@alexwild We also just lost a stellar faculty member from our university in Nebraska for similar reasons. We already faced a challenge getting people to consider moving here. Now it will be so much worse.
Texas is an oligarchy run by oil oligarchs.
Petrostates always share the same fate.
Rampant kleptocracy. Public corruption. Theocracy. Despotism.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/apocalypse-fiction-texas/
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/10/18/greg-abbott-texas-fundraising-governor-donors/
https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/24/politics/texas-far-right-politics-invs/index.html
https://qz.com/1970294/economies-reliant-on-oil-will-lose-trillions-to-climate-action
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/11/07/venezuela-proves-petro-states-can-go-broke-too/
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/venezuela-crisis
https://www.salon.com/2016/05/30/there_will_be_mayhem_pity_the_poor_petro_partner/
Texas Oil has sided with Russia
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2022/03/14/indictment-details-scheme-by-russian-oligarch-behind-illegal-donors-to-pete-sessions-and-trump-pac/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/12/russian-oligarchs-and-companies-under-sanctions-are-among-lobbyists-at-cop27
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/How-can-the-U-S-help-Venezuelans-Prosecute-12945314.php
@alexwild at some point it won’t be just the educators but the students and then the workers and then it will be just like every other drain on the government state with poor education and nothing positive coming out of the state besides a few cows and a beauty pageant winner or two. #TexasRefugee #AbottMustGo #TexasBlues
A German saying, 'Voting with the feet!', "Abstimmung mit den Fuessen!"
This was so in the late 50ies when many skilled people went from East- to West-Germany.
In the end East-Germany build the wall to stop this.
@alexwild My provost 'jokes' about including language in our job ads that encourages faculty from oppressed states like Florida, Texas, etc. to apply and come live and work in a state that celebrates human freedoms and rights.
@alexwild Wrecking the universities is and has been the goal.
@alexwild
Austin needs to secede.
@alexwild It's a no-win for legitimate faculty, as their goal is a right wing echo chamber with a name that people find credible.
@alexwild the list of places we have crossed off for job opportunities just keeps growing. I don't know that this will help housing in some areas but we won't subject ourselves to an fascist (even more so) state.
@alexwild the other side to this... we need more blue votes in red states. We moved from FL to AZ and look what we were able to accomplish in AZ politics. Democrat governor, SoS, Senators, locals. Are we done? Hell no and it can all be changed but we're here for now. More Dems here from California, too. I'm willing to hold out longer.
@alexwild i kind of feel like brain drain is the goal of these state governments.
I fear that's the point.
My sibling, who holds a Master's degree from UT, is never coming back here.
Ruin by intentional brain-drain is such a weird thing to have on one's scorecard. It's as though the wealthy folks here don't realize that the industries Texas relies on need lots and lots of highly-skilled people, of the sort who CANNOT be educated in a task-oriented fashion. There's a bizarre stereotype of engineers as right-wingers with no intellectual curiosity, which is absolutely the opposite of my experience.
@alexwild it'll get to "an equivalent offer in a safer state", which feels like it's about to happen...
@Sh41 That's basically what happened in this case.
@alexwild I'm sorry you lost a candidate, but I'm happy people are valuing the right things
@Sh41 It's worse than losing a candidate. It's a faculty member who has been here for 5 years, has a full lab of postdocs and grad students, and whose partner (who is elsewhere) was extended a tenure-track offer in the same department. They decided to leave.
@alexwild Which, of course, is likely part of their plan. They don't want good, effective universities anyway.
@alexwild My home state has trans-hostile laws. My friend is moving his family to *Chicago* (notably, not a safe city) just so his trans son can live.
I keep thinking, as a native Texan Democrat, that our state will sooner rather than later attract many more Dems and turn the state Blue. Then, we should be able to rid ourselves of the ilk that has held power over us in the State Lege, Governor's mansion, AG, Lt. Gov. offices. Who's with me????
@alexwild That is so heartbreaking, I'm sorry. North Carolina is doing the exact thing to UNC as well. They're going to end up burning the whole thing down with their bullshit like trying to make tenure illegal.
@alexwild it's going to fuck up tech support industry, universities, medical, essential government workers, teachers. There's beginning to be no real safety in working in a red state.
@alexwild I live in a safe space city. We will welcome them with open arms. No one needs to live under fascism and fear.
@alexwild Yep, sitting here at Univ. of South Carolina waiting for the next shoe to drop. Our old-fashioned state assembly is usually too busy stuffing cash in their pockets to be all that ideological, but they pay attention to what the other red states are up to and some def have higher ed in their sights.
@alexwild
I recently saw a former colleague now in Texas. She is struggling because she does not look like the monoculture in Lubbock. "But are they nice to you?" I asked, and she just looked kinda flat and said, "No."
@alexwild Y'all had a really good Geography Department at Austin, alway well repped at the AAG
@alexwild Greg Abbott is a domestic terrorist. He belongs in prison, not living in a free mansion
That sucks. But I'm also happy for them. :/
I have some friends down south in education, tech, biotech-- no less than 5 families looking to move out. 2 seriously considering it "if things keep going like this" We're doing our best to help.
One has a trans kid. They are already packing.
@alexwild More and more I'm convinced that the conscious goal of these policies is to collapse the education system.
@alexwild commiserating from Missouri.
@alexwild my little cousin just took a teaching job in a small Texas town and I'm not going to lie I'm a little worried for her and the havoc the state government will wreak
@alexwild My impression of reality is that Republicans don't like educated people unless they come from an already wealthy family.
@alexwild Jeez brain drains from states.... whod a thunk it?
@alexwild Happy for them. Happy trails.
@alexwild Very hard to blame them.
@alexwild I have so many academic friends who are trying to get out of Texas and other politically unfriendly states :(
@alexwild yeah guns on university campus is sus.
@alexwild I suspect many people avoid events, jobs or anything involving travel to the Loon Star State, TX. I do.
@alexwild Mega brain drains happening in both Florida & Texas.
@alexwild I'm hoping this happens in all the states that have banned abortion. In the undergrad, graduate students, and faculty, there's just no reason to study where you aren't safe.
I've heard that all the white dudebros are clapping with glee at it possibly becoming easier to get into such schools. Maybe various "like minded" sororities will recruit suitable Karens for them to date.
And various hotel and convention centers are having conferences like the Black Engineer's Alliance cancel their conventions. I hope it HURTS on all sectors of these state's economies.