Falling in Love

In today’s Heads Up column, Philip Drew, a vice provost at a university in the Midwest who writes under a pseudonym, describes the potential perils of hiring someone who’s A.B.D. into a tenure-track position.

Drew recounts how his department fell in love with an A.B.D. candidate — whom he reluctantly agreed to hire onto the tenure track with the tenure clock starting immediately — and what transpired when the A.B.D. hire failed to complete the Ph.D. by the agreed-upon deadline:

Well . . . the deadline approaches, and the department head wants to talk about our fabulous new faculty member.

You see, the final work on her dissertation hit a snag. Nothing to worry about, of course, but the degree won’t be completed by January 1 as promised. July 1 is a sure thing, though.

The new faculty member is just as wonderful as everyone predicted — a great teacher, a great scholar, a great colleague. Just this one little snag to deal with, you know? Would you mind reissuing a new contract that extends the date of her degree completion to July 1? And would it be OK to continue the tenure clock, too?

Never mind that everyone in the department agreed that if she still had no degree in hand by the deadline, a new search would commence immediately; never mind that it’s unfair to extend the deadline and count the A.B.D. time toward tenure because the time she devotes to finishing her degree is time she’s not devoting to her job and to building a strong foundation for getting tenure, he writes. The department “is in love, and nothing will derail its attempts to find a solution that keeps its favored faculty member there,” Drew writes.

“What is a dean or a provost to do?,” he asks.

If you insist on starting a new search, the department favorite will surely apply, and “how fair will the second search be? You already know who the department wants to hire!,” Drew writes.

The wisest solution is never to hire an A.B.D. into a tenure-track position in the first place, he argues.

But if you decide to consider A.B.D. hires, just “be clear that such appointments will be made into a non-tenure-track position until the terminal degree is conferred,” Drew concludes.

Also see a related discussion on The Chronicle’s forums.