My department has a huge complex over the quality of JM candidates we get. They're never good enough. We really want rising stars with HRM offers to come here, and are annoyed and disappointed that they don't. We're a LAC, but we have a huge chip on our shoulders, because we have a few seniors from the sacred zip code.
So the senior faculty keep telling undergrads that our applicants are not very good, and the JM favors supply side nowadays. Undergrads obviously believe all this. They've made comments to me to the effect of "you must have had no other options if you took this job". When I was explaining career paths to a student interested in a PhD, she said, "I'm not worried. I heard it's really easy for good students to find faculty jobs."
How can I hint to the department that their attitude isn't right, is misleading students, and is condescending to the recent APs?
