High Turnover at CMU

Central Michigan University’s English department has hired a slew of new faculty members — 10 temporary and 3 tenure-track — after 7 faculty members departed over the summer, according to a recent article in Central Michigan Life, the institution’s daily student newspaper.

“There was no single reason for the unusual turnover,” Marcia Taylor, chairwoman of the department, told Central Michigan Life, though the institution’s rural location and low salaries were probably partly to blame. “Two faculty members retired, several moved because a spouse had a job elsewhere, some took jobs in locations that were geographically appealing for various reasons and some definitely chose to move to a different institution because the salary offer was higher,” she told the student newspaper in an e-mail.

Money probably was a major factor, given this report in the Saginaw News about CMU professors demonstrating over their low salaries. Jeffrey Weinstock, an associate professor of English, told a Saginaw News reporter that attrition is so bad that “We don’t even have the manpower to run searches for replacements.”

Of course, the growing gap in faculty pay between private and public colleges and universities is making it tougher for many public institutions to court and keep faculty members, while hiring and retention have long been problems at many rural instititions.

So, tell us, hirers: what strategies do you use to attract and hang on to talented people?