I sometimes get asked what it is that professors in universities actually do.   The question is usually raised when someone realizes that at a major research university, most professors teach two classes a semester.  Classes tend to involve three hours of class time per week.   But that means a professor is in the classroom only six hours a week.  Is this a full time job?  Are you serious??  And on top of that you have tenure so that you can, for all practical purposes, never get fired?  Hey how can *I* get a job like that??? It’s a really good question.   First let me say something about what it is professors do, maybe in a couple of posts, and then say something about tenure. As it turns out, being a full-time professor is a boatload of work.  I won’t say that it’s more than a lot of other busy and highly demanding occupations – a lot of you, I’m sure, work just as hard and long as I do.   But it *is* a busy and [...]