Despite the large body of research showing that students in STEM classes at all levels learn better via student-centered learning (aka active) than they do via teacher-centered (aka lecture), post-secondary physics and astronomy faculty members continue to primarily use teacher-focused, lecture pedagogy in their classes. Methods include interviews conducted with eight higher ed faculty members of different institutions primarily in the USA. During analysis coding, an unanticipated theme not sufficiently represented in the pre-existing literature rose to the forefront: that many of these faculty members feel the decision of pedagogy is out of their control. A grounded theory was developed and is described herein that these faculty feel a sense of powerlessness over their teaching method. Reasons offered by the participants include that administrators often make decisions based on the financial needs of the school, which then force the faculty into using lecture as their primary pedagogy. Ongoing analysis also has shown three additional themes which, unlike powerlessness, were part of the pre-existing literature, including a sense of authoritarianism, student and learning considerations in the classroom, and a professor’s need for entertainment to keep students engaged. These results present an interesting look at motivations behind maintaining more traditional pedagogy in a physics classroom.