Editorial: Lessons from Alabama

The pressures of academia are immense, and, in looking to Princeton’s campus, we can see that stress and anxiety are not unique to UAH. At universities across the country, junior faculty members face the reality of a difficult job market with too few openings for too many applicants. Moreover, the shift toward non-tenured appointments has only increased the competitive pressure to secure tenure. While these factors alone cannot even begin to explain such a tragedy, we hope that universities will reflect on whether they provide an adequate support network for junior faculty both within departments and in their counseling services. Such efforts could prevent professional anxiety from escalating to the degree that it did in Huntsville.

Though much of Princeton’s discussion of how to prevent and react to an armed campus shooter revolves around the debate of whether to arm Public Safety, police — even when armed — are almost always unable to stop an active shooter before lives are lost. Considering this reality, it makes sense to focus more on prevention than on planning what is often an unsuccessful response.

In recent years, the University has redoubled its efforts to reduce the stigma associated with mental health issues and to encourage students to seek counseling when necessary. To the extent that the University does not do so already, we urge it to offer to its faculty members the same widespread advising and support that it provides to its students. This focus on support should also be developed within individual departments. Fostering a sense of partnership and collaboration might help limit the stress associated with the competition with one’s peers in the race to achieve tenure.

In the wake of disasters like the one at UAH, we often feel helpless to prevent such events from happening in the future. The pressure-cooker environment of academia is here to stay, and no amount of advising and support will change the fact that tenured positions are scarce and the competition to secure them is fierce. Even so, we hope that by improving access to counseling services and providing a greater support network for junior faculty members, universities across the country can at least reduce the frequency of campus shootings such as the one at UAH. While Princeton may well do an adequate job addressing these issues, the incident in Alabama is cause for our community to reflect on what more we can do to prevent such a tragedy here.