In this article, the author discusses the disparate reality of full-time academic labor in public institutions of higher education in the United States. As more and more reports on US higher education point to deteriorating conditions for faculty members and threats to their professional status, those who teach in colleges and universities need to undertake a detailed examination of faculty work and identity. An accurate understanding of academic labor is critical, as the claims about them can shape both policy and practice. Notwithstanding efforts to encapsulate US academic labor--college and university faculty--in one aggregated understanding, the academic community is in fact a number of communities. These communities are best conceptualized by looking at the missions and purposes of their institutional types. The author examined the identities and practices of faculty in biology, psychology, chemistry, and sociology. He found high levels of consonance, not across institutions within the categories of discipline or program, but within institutions. This consonance suggests that faculty community is tied to faculty labor--and labor and the discourse about this labor are aligned with the institution.