Time Pays Off: What it Takes to be a Professor at Marist College

 Professors Michael O’Sullivan and Kevin Lerner have recently published new books to present their research. This will further their careers within the world of higher education — and this is a concept that not all students may understand. 

        Many students usually recognize that their teachers are professors, yet there are ranks and different tracks these educators might follow during their time at Marist. There are assistant, associate, and full professors on one track. Then another with lecturers, senior lecturers, and even distinguished lecturers. These titles oftentimes make a sizable difference.

          Each rank on the tenure professor track, is responsible for three aspects of their career: teaching, service, and research. Teaching is of course the courses professors have. Service involves advising for clubs or sitting on boards for grants or other tenure decisions. Finally, research entails the independent creation of new knowledge in the form of books or published articles. 

        Outside of the tenure track are lecturers, people with field knowledge of certain careers that bring their expertise to the classrooms for students. They have opportunities to publish and be promoted to senior and distinguished lecturer in the college along with normal teaching duties. 

         O’Sullivan is a full professor of history, meaning that he had contributed to the college for over six years with teaching classes, conducting academic research, and publishing academic writing. “I published about five or six articles and then the book facilitated my promotion to full professor,” he said.

        He recently published a book titled, Disruptive Power.“My book is my most recent publication, and is about how in 20th century Germany there were a series of Catholic miracles of women seeing the Virgin Mary or having the Stigmata,”O’Sullivan said,“It wound up having some political ramifications with the Catholic political party and the connections between religious figures and these political parties.”

           Kevin Lerner, assistant professor of journalism, also recently published some of his research in his book Provoking the Press. “It’s a book about press criticism and how a group of people who loved the mainstream press wanted to make it better and keep it going into its worst excesses without tearing it down.” This is a topic all too relevant in today’s political climate. 

      “It mainly takes place in the 1970’s,” Lerner said.  “They were working at a time like now when the presidential administration was attacking the press and saying ‘You can’t believe what you read now.’”

        What does this all mean for students? O’Sullivan said, “I think certainly knowing about how a lot of this works, is important for students. I think it’s in the best interest of the student to have as many full time or tenure track and full professors here at Marist. You want to have people as invested in the college as possible.”

        Lerner echoed the same thoughts, “I think the thing that’s most important is that colleges are not just about teaching undergrads. Someone who has ‘Professor’ in their title line are expected to be creating new knowledge through their research.”