After nearly seven years in Baylor University's chemistry department, Billy Mark Britt was denied tenure last spring. A letter from the provost said the assistant professor was "generally considered effective in teaching and scholarship," but there were "serious questions" about his "commitment to the Christian mission of the university."
"That's Baylor-speak for church attendance," says Mr. Britt, who will be out of a job in May. "I'm convinced that if I'd gone to church more, I would've been retained."
Donald D. Schmeltekopf, the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Baylor, a Southern Baptist-affiliated institution, has refused to comment on Mr. Britt's case. But Mr. Schmeltekopf says that religious participation is a key factor in the university's tenure-and-promotion decisions. "It's critical that we have evidence that the faculty member genuinely supports the mission of the university if they're going to be promoted and gain tenure," he says, "and one way they would demonstrate that is simply by going to a church and participating in the life of that church."
Interviews with dozens of faculty members and administrators at religious colleges suggest that the institutions are places where many academics find a comfortable fit. But job candidates who are considering taking a position at a religious institution need to be clear about what may be expected of them and determine whether that meshes with their own expectations about faculty work. While it would be shortsighted to rule out denominational institutions solely because of their religious affiliation, job candidates would be wise to get answers to the following questions before accepting an offer.
Who's in charge?
Mr. Britt, a Methodist from Mississippi who grew up around Baptists, says he thought he knew what he was getting into when he came to Baylor in 1995. He says the administration assured him when he was hired that active membership in a church wasn't a prerequisite for tenure -- and at the time, that was true. But "the rules changed in the middle of the game," he says, when a conservative shift occurred within the Baptist General Convention of Texas and Robert B. Sloan Jr., a theologically conservative preacher, was appointed Baylor's president later that year. It wasn't long before religion took on a more prominent role on the campus and in hiring. Mr. Britt says it wasn't until shortly before he came up for tenure that someone suggested he join a church. He did, but, apparently, not soon enough.
It's important to follow the political trends within the denomination and to find out how much of the personality of the institution is defined by the person in charge, says Mark Pantle, a former Baylor faculty member in the psychology department who now works as a psychologist in a local public school. In 1996, he was denied tenure by Mr. Sloan, despite the endorsement of his departmental colleagues. (Mr. Pantle says he and his wife, Susan, were dismissed because there was an "appearance of impropriety" when they fell in love with one another while still married to other people. Baylor officials said they could not comment on any individual tenure case.) "It can be wonderful one minute," Mr. Pantle says, "and then a retirement, a heart attack, or whatever, and it can be something completely different the next."
Do you need to be a member of the denomination to work there?
If you're applying for a faculty job at Georgetown University, your religious persuasion will be of little or no interest to hiring committees, despite its Jesuit identity. However, there are institutions that restrict hiring to members of their own denomination. Full-time professors at Abilene Christian University, for example, must be active Church of Christ members. Brigham Young University has no such requirement, but it might as well, since 96 percent of its faculty members are Mormons. If you're thinking of taking a job at a denominational institution, inquire about the makeup of the faculty. What proportion is affiliated with the denomination?
Tomi-Ann Roberts is not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but she took a job at BYU in 1990 as an assistant professor of psychology, despite some reservations. She and her husband (who is Mormon) were searching for academic jobs together, so when BYU offered to hire them both, "it was just too good to be true," she says. Despite her efforts to fit, as a feminist and a non-Mormon, she says she stood out from the start. "I felt like I was carrying a scarlet A all the time" -- for atheist and alien, she says. She left BYU voluntarily in 1993 and today heads the psychology department at Colorado College, in Colorado Springs. Her husband also eventually left BYU and took an adjunct position at the same college.
Are there any special expectations for or restrictions on teaching?
"It never dawned on me to ask how my teaching would be evaluated," says Ms. Roberts, "but I certainly wish I had." When she read her first course evaluations from students at BYU, she was shocked to learn that they had been asked to rate her on the extent to which she incorporated "gospel insights" into the course (on a seven-point scale, she scored an average of three). "I had no idea," she says.
It's critical to ask whether the college imposes any restrictions in the classroom, particularly if you're in a field such as the biological or social sciences, where you're likely to cover hot-button topics like evolution or human sexuality.
Andrea M. Karkowski, an associate professor of psychology at Capital University, a Lutheran institution in Columbus, Ohio, says she was concerned initially about whether she'd be allowed to cover controversial topics in the classroom, but she needn't have worried. Ms. Karkowski, who is not a member of any organized religious group, says she found she was free to discuss topics ranging from evolutionary psychology to homosexuality.
If there are restrictions, be sure to find out if they extend beyond the classroom to your scholarship or personal life.
Ms. Roberts learned about one of BYU's restrictions the hard way. She says she committed "a huge faux pas" when she wrote a pro-choice letter to the editor that was published in the local newspaper. Her department chairman came to her office, shut the door, and told her she'd better not do it again. After that episode, she says, she stopped covering abortion in her psychology-of-women class. "After I was reprimanded by my department chair for writing a very mild pro-choice letter, I decided not to touch this with a 10-foot pole."
Many denominational institutions won't expect you to adhere to a religious code of conduct, but, generally, the stronger the institution's ties to the religious denomination, the more likely it is that there will be strings attached. Conservative denominational institutions often have strict regulations prohibiting such activities as alcohol consumption, homosexual behavior, smoking, premarital sex, and the use of profanity.
Teaching or research?
Denominational colleges are often ideal for those who love teaching more than research, says James Barrier, chairman of the biology department at Charleston Southern University, a Baptist institution in South Carolina. "That's one of the pros of working in a small to mid-sized denominational institution," he says. "You can do what you love to do best -- teach -- and not have to worry about churning out a book every year." (It also leaves people more time to spend with their families, some say.)
Too much devotion to your scholarship can work against you at some denominational institutions, says David Aiken, a former English professor at Charleston Southern who now teaches at First Baptist High School in Charleston, S.C. (Mr. Aiken's contract with CSU was terminated in 1999 because of repeated clashes with administrators and faculty colleagues over departmental matters and his selection of course content and materials. However, he believes that his emphasis on his scholarship was a factor in his dismissal.) It's a Catch-22, he says, because "if you focus on your scholarship, you won't advance, but if you spend all your time and energy doing committee work and campus activities, being a good colleague -- the kind of person the administration feels very comfortable with -- then you won't have much time and energy left to be a productive scholar." And if you ever want to leave the denominational institution, you'll have trouble doing so if you haven't kept up with your scholarship.
One way to determine if the institution values scholarship is to look at how productive your predecessor was, says Brian Dirck, an assistant professor of history at Anderson University. Checking should be easy because the CV's of faculty members are often on the department's Web site. Any doubts Mr. Dirck had about taking the job at Anderson, a Christian university founded and supported by the Church of God, disappeared when he discovered that his predecessor was George C. Rable, a top Civil War scholar who now has an endowed chair at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. "Dr. Rable has an excellent reputation and is highly regarded as a scholar. I figured, if he's made a good career here, why can't I?"
Think about your future.
By opting to work at a denominational college, you may be deciding the kind of career you will have. For example, once you've worked at a religious institution, you may find it more difficult to land a position at a secular campus.
While she was at BYU, Ms. Roberts says, she sometimes felt marginalized by her feminist colleagues in psychology on other campuses. She says people at conferences sometimes viewed her with suspicion: "It was like, wait a minute, how can you possibly be doing feminist research at a place that we know is funded by a very conservative religion?"
Even when she left BYU, she still felt like a marked woman. People thinking of taking a job at a denominational institution should know that, if they do, from that day forward they may be tagged as denominational, Ms. Roberts says. "Secular members of the academy will always try to figure out if you're a holy roller or if you were imprisoned there against your will," she says.
She recalls an unusually stressful phone interview with someone from Colorado College -- where she's now employed -- who told her that people were concerned over an issue in her file. "So my heart is pounding," she says, "I'm freaking out, and he says, 'You know you got very low ratings on gospel insights,' and then he starts laughing. It was very weird for me. I thought: 'Oh, I see. Now I'm in with them because I got low ratings on gospel insights.'"
Coming from a denominational college or university isn't always a disadvanta ge. It could open doors for you, says Gene C. Fant Jr., chairman of the English department at Mississippi College, a Baptist college in Clinton, Miss. Because denominational institutions often have a more limited pool of applicants from which to choose, Ph.D.'s with a strong commitment to their faith may have an easier time landing a job, says Mr. Fant, who writes a first-person column for The Chronicle's Career Network.
"As a department chair, I get calls all the time from sister religious institutions asking for names of alumni who may be available," he says. "I always tell my students that if they maintain their sense of place in a faith community, they will have religious colleges that value their identities begging after them, even in this tight job market."
Are your religious convictions comparable to those of the institution's faculty and administration?
For James M. Lang, an assistant professor of English at Assumption College, the answer is Yes. For a Catholic who attended Catholic schools from first grade through his master's degree, Assumption was a natural fit. After obtaining a Ph.D. in English from Northwestern University, Mr. Lang, who also writes a first-person column for The Chronicle, about his experiences on the tenure track, says he wanted to return to a Catholic setting because he missed being at a place where he could raise "the big questions about the existence of God or about moral and ethical issues in general."
At a lot of denominational institutions, what religion you are is less important than how religious you are. Look carefully at the institution's level of commitment to religion. Does it parallel your own?
If it doesn't, don't exaggerate your religious convictions because you desperately need a job, says Henry Walbesser, a computer-science professor at Baylor. "The problem is you have to back up what you say," he says. "You know, you really do have to go to church, you really do have to participate." If you're asked to describe your beliefs in person or in writing, be honest, he says. And if you have any reservations, steer clear.
