On Hiring icon

August 11, 2011, 04:26 PM ET

First, Know Thyself

The other day, our director of admissions handed me a copy of Jean M. Twenge's Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable than Ever Before (Free Press, 2006). She suggested I read it to help understand the challenges of marketing to, and recruiting, potential undergraduate students who in her experience have a very particular way of looking at themselves and their aspirations. On that same day, coincidentally, I read for the first time Jill Silos-Rooney's now highly controversial First Person essay in The Chronicle, "When It'll Never be a Good Fit." While I am wary of leaning too hard on pop social science like Twenge's book, I found the connections between it and Silos-Rooney's column to be instructive and helpful as I think about recruiting faculty. I am not interested in piling on Ms. Silos-Rooney, who is having a bad time... Read More
  • Print
  • Comment

August 10, 2011, 02:18 PM ET

When Someone Else Gets the Job You Deserve

You established an impressive track record to prepare for the next step within your existing organization, let others know that you were ready for something bigger, and eventually took a risk and expressed your interest in an expanded role. Today you learned that the new job that had your name all over it is going to someone you consider far less qualified. What now? When someone else gets "your" job it is only normal to be disappointed, crushed, or even outraged. You might question the motivations of the hiring authority, suspect the successful candidate of using unethical tactics to secure the new position, or blame the decision on organizational politics. If you truly believe the wrong decision has been made, what are your options? Here are a few smart and perhaps not-so-smart approaches to consider: Option One: Publicly express outrage and challenge the integrity of the hiring...

Read More

August 8, 2011, 06:28 PM ET

Scientists Want More Children

Scientists at the nation's top research universities say the pressure-filled road to tenure— publishing, grant-writing, and long hours in the lab—keeps them from having as many children as they would like. And according to a new study, "Scientists Want More Children," women aren't the only ones lamenting how their science career short-circuited their family plans. Men aren't happy about it either. One-quarter of male scientists reported that they had fewer children than they wanted, and that had a more negative effect on their life satisfaction than it did for women, said Elaine H. Ecklund, an assistant professor of sociology at Rice University, who co-authored the study with Anne E. Lincoln, an assistant professor of sociology at Southern Methodist University. "Men seemed to be harder hit than we thought by this reality" that science careers and family life often don't mix, Ms.... Read More

August 8, 2011, 02:02 PM ET

Poaching Lessons

The prevailing sentiment among academic leaders is that we are currently in a "buyer's market" for faculty searches. Institutions with open positions are in the enviable position of being much more selective than might have been possible in years past. This has opened up the opportunity for some universities to steal faculty away from others, particularly those that are undergoing financial setbacks or collegiality problems. Sometimes, however, it's a strategy for attracting under-represented faculty by gender or ethnicity. We hear about prominent raids in The Chronicle, of course, but this sort of recruitment goes on at all institutional levels. The trickiest part of a raid is the opening contact. Some institutions simply send a "dear colleague" e-mail, with a general query and link to the position. Others will arrange for an elaborate, quiet dinner in a neutral (i.e., less visible)... Read More

August 4, 2011, 11:26 AM ET

The New Face of the Institution

As I write, my institution has a tentative schedule for 14 faculty and dean searches for next year. Only one of those positions is to replace someone who left prematurely. Most of the hires are for new positions, retirement replacements (some of which will redirect positions at least slightly), and decanal posts vacated by internal moves. Our faculty, including deans, totals about 85 (it depends on precisely how one counts people who do not have 100 percent teaching duties). So bringing in 14 new colleagues constitutes a change of about 16 percent in the faculty as a whole. If we succeed in every one of those searches -- which is certainly not assured -- next year we will have a substantially changed institution, with between three and four times as many new faculty colleagues as we've had in any of the past three years. That prospect is both exciting and daunting. Earlier in my... Read More

August 3, 2011, 09:15 AM ET

Am I Obligated to Save You From Yourself?

Imagine you're at a reception and encounter a colleague with something green in his teeth. Do you say something, or keep quiet? I've polled several people about that and there seem to be three schools of thought. Some folks argue that pointing out the spinach or stray parsley is the right thing to do. Period. End of story. The second group worry about causing embarrassment and weigh the strength of the relationship in evaluating the best way to proceed. Still others tend to assess the situation based on their feelings about the person in question. Said one person in the third cohort, "If I like them, I'll say something. If I don't, I'll keep quiet and let them go on like that for the rest of the night." I'm sure we all agree that having food in your teeth is not the kind of thing that can permanently destroy your career or credibility, but we often have opportunities to help people... Read More

August 2, 2011, 02:02 PM ET

The Only Game in Town?

I have spent the past two weeks in Cambridge, Mass., home to incredible number of institutions of higher learning. As walked around town, I felt like I bumped into another university every time I turned a corner. It was easier to find a college here than a gas station. Toss in the rest of Boston's metropolitan area and the total is staggering: Almost 375,000 students and 15 nationally ranked universities. I've lived in several college towns with multiple institutions. The fine-arts opportunities alone have made the towns attractive places to live, and I am certain that life in a place like Cambridge brings many opportunities for intellectual stimulation and camaraderie. As I've pondered life in such a mecca, I've wondered if applicants ever consider whether or not an institution is the only game in town in their job searches. For academic couples, in particular, hubs of learning bring ... Read More

August 2, 2011, 01:57 PM ET

Adjunct Emergency Fund

A strange thing is happening in this country. Highly educated, highly motivated, intelligent people are struggling. We know the economy is in turmoil. While many in academe feel the blows, some are feeling it worse than others. Chris LaBree and Debra Leigh Scott have been interviewing adjuncts across the nation for an upcoming book and documentary project, called 'Junct. They have come across many adjuncts living in poverty, some of them homeless or on the verge of homelessness. Which is why they have set up the "adjunct emergency fund." The 'Junct blog lists three disturbing cases, in particular:
... one adjunct is about to move into a sister's basement. Another, a Ph.D. in African-American Studies, is living in a homeless shelter in Philadelphia that is supposed to be for recovering drug addicts. She is subject to a curfew and to disciplinary action, as if she, too, was a drug...
Read More

July 28, 2011, 02:25 PM ET

How Much Should Time on Campus Matter?

The long-running debate about how faculty members should be spending their time has been fueled by recent events in Texas, where the work habits of professors at research universities there are being scrutinized, lambasted, and even nicknamed. (More about dodgers, coasters, and sherpas later.) So it's not surprising that a recent article I wrote in The Chronicle on the various ways popular measures of faculty productivity can fall short has provided fodder for those pushing controversial reforms of higher education in the Lone Star State and elsewhere. Just this week, Pamela S. Gossin — a professor of arts and humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas who gave me a detailed (but not exhaustive) account of what she did over a seven-day period in mid-April — felt the brunt of that. A blog post on mindingthecampus.com, which was largely a roundup of the latest happenings in... Read More

July 26, 2011, 01:15 PM ET

Fear of the Unusual

I've traveled an alternative route to the tenure track at a two-year college. I have an M.A. I've been outspoken about higher education's overreliance on adjunct instructors. I've shared my experiences with many on this blog. And for the past few weeks, I've tried to give some hints to others that may lead them to find a tenure-track job, too. My advice seems to be controversial to some in academe. I've dared to encourage people to constructively speak out. I've shared the cover letters I wrote. As I've done that, I've received comments and e-mails about how people who follow my advice may be doomed forever. The Chronicle's discussion forum, which is often an unkind place, is full of people who tell me and others that I'm dispensing unhelpful, maybe even harmful advice. But if my alternative route to the tenure track worked for me, it could work for someone else; it might even work... Read More