During the author's thirty-seven-year career as a professor of English literature, she has learned as much from professional service outside her home institution as she has from her work as a teacher and scholar. Engagement with the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the Association of Departments of English (ADE) has both enabled her service at her home institution and awakened her to threats that neither the MLA nor the ADE can counter. Fundamentally, however, she is a teacher. She does research so that she has something to teach. She worked to reform a curriculum, and she chaired a department, in order to improve conditions for teachers. Now she is trying to organize a union in order to create a power base that can protect educators. Given the threats education faces, university professors have no choice but to serve their profession in order to ensure its survival. In this article, the author tells the story of how she came to this realization.