The Plight of the Ph.D.
Published: September 22, 1999
To the Editor:
The employment situation for Ph.D. graduates (''Ph.D.'s Fault Universities' Roles in Helping Them to Find Work,'' Education page, Sept. 15) is hardly news to many of us who entered the job market in the early and middle 1970's, when the market for humanities Ph.D's faded to virtual nonexistence. Things appear not to have changed.
And if the survey is accurate, what has also not changed is the arrogance and ignorance of graduate faculties and university administrations that refuse to recognize the problem not as a temporary ''course correction,'' but as a permanent change in employment patterns and the nature of intellectual work in this society. It is very sad, but to quote Shakespeare, ''There is a world elsewhere.'' The universities should heed that thought by not behaving like a self-perpetuating industry but instead helping to find future employment alternatives for their Ph.D.'s.
KENNETH WOLMAN
Lyndhurst, N.J., Sept. 15, 1999
