It's almost a cliche for aspiring stand-up comedians and rock stars to hear, "Don't quit your day job." But some Brown professors have also taken this advice to heart.
Despite their fully-booked days, these faculty members find satisfaction in both teaching and pursuing professional careers.
Teaching "doesn't leave me with a lot of the spare time that I used to have," said Tracy Breton, a visiting professor of English who has worked as an investigative reporter at the Providence Journal since 1973. She added that time spent in the classroom makes up only a fraction of the time she spends on her teaching job.
Breton, who won a Pulitzer prize in 1994 for her investigation of corruption in the Rhode Island courts, began teaching at Brown in 1997. She currently teaches two sections of ENGL0160: "Journalistic Writing" in the fall, ENGL1160A: "Advanced Feature Writing" in the spring and a three-week course in Brown's pre-college summer program. This year, she is also one senior's thesis adviser.
Despite their busy schedules, professors said they do not feel as if one job suffers because of the other. "Just the opposite, and I can't quite explain why," said Visiting Lecturer in English Tom Mooney. Mooney, who has been a reporter for the ProJo since 1986, said he has been teaching the spring section of "Journalistic Writing" for five years.
"I don't think I'd have the energy to do it" year-round, Mooney said. But he said his productivity increases when working both jobs. "If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it," he said. "When graduation rolls around, I become a slug in comparison."
The professors said their outside careers improved their teaching, and vice versa.
"I'm often using the real-life experiences that I'm living at that moment to teach," Mooney said. He said he believes he was hired partly because "I'm really down in the trenches" instead of "sitting up in an ivory tower."
Mooney said teaching has allowed him to look differently at the practice of journalism. Earlier this semester, he was writing a piece about a veterans' advocate who had gone to jail 30 years ago for killing a man. Mooney said he felt "frustration and confusion about how I was going to tell this story."
When Mooney told his class about the story, he raised the question, "Can a man ever be forgiven for taking a life?" Mooney eventually began his article with that exact question.
Breton said she appreciates the job security of teaching during the ongoing economic downturn. Daily newspapers have been hit especially hard, she said, and the ProJo has been forced to lay off reporters in recent months.
Though some established reporters are losing their jobs, Breton's students still have been able to find jobs in journalism, she said. Newspapers may be cutting costs by hiring recent graduates with shorter contracts, she said, instead of continuing to pay a premium for their more experienced counterparts.
Sarah Fox '89 said she is "energized" by teaching GNSS0090C: "Reproductive Health: Science and Politics." Fox is an obstetrician-gynecologist at Women & Infants Hospital and teaches at the Alpert Medical School. This year is her first teaching undergraduates, she said.
"My life is much more busy right now," said Fox, who added that her work has begun to spill over into nights and weekends. But she attributed much of the added stress to a learning curve. "I have a sense that ... the next year that I teach, it will be pretty reasonable," she said.
Her students bring a "diversity of views," Fox said, that makes the extra work fulfilling.
The professors said they struggle to pick favorites between teaching and their outside careers. "I think I like the doing more" than the teaching, Mooney said. "That's a tough question because they both have their own rewards." He said teaching allows him to appreciate just how much he learns by practicing journalism. "Both jobs get you outside your comfort zone a little bit," he said.
"I love the fact that I'm training a new generation of journalists," Breton said. "The Providence Journal is a pretty stressful place to work" right now, she said, but "I still get a news high from doing a good story."
The professors said they plan to maintain a mix of teaching and practicing. "I sort of like the mix," Fox said. "I don't know if I'd want to change the proportions."
"Right now, I'm really enjoying the undergraduate course, I have to admit," she said.
"I don't ever see myself giving up the teaching," Breton said. "I have no idea how much longer I'll stay in daily journalism," given the newspaper industry's uncertainty. Still, Breton said she plans to continue practicing some form of journalism for the foreseeable future.
And as for Mooney - "I hope to keep doing both until I drop."
