Where does the problem of contingency show itself most clearly? How have we arrived at this strange moment?

For me, this veil started to lift between 2007-2009 when  open positions in a department  normally filled within two or three academic years were neglected. Programs identifying five full time faculty to best teach, advise, and curriculum design were still viewed on the ground as the best practice. Then, we get to the state level or in a private college Provost level attempts to shore up the college investments and protect the administrators **before** the market crashes of 2006-2008. You and I were indeed correct to pursue the publish or perish model; we were also people who taught our students while looking the other way as we noticed increasing demands (from the students, their needs — not the needs of the admins or their ever present desire to push three job descriptions…